Posted on 02/01/2025 2:53:58 PM PST by Morgana
The U.S. Army has identified the third pilot of the H-60 Black Hawk Helicopter that collided with an American Airline CRJ-700 passenger jet on Wednesday as it was on approach to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, killing 67 people.
Captain Rebecca M. Lobach, 28, from Durham, North Carolina was one of three soldiers aboard the chopper that crashed into the jet just as it was coming into land.
The Army had initially refused to identify Lobach at the request of her family but the decision to release her name came 'at the request of and in coordination with the family,' according to a statement released by the Army.
'We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Rebecca. She was a bright star in all our lives,' her family said. 'Rebecca was a warrior and would not hesitate to defend her country in battle.'
Lobach had worked as a White House aide during the Biden administration and had served as an aviation officer in the Army from July 2019 until January 2025.
Her family went on to describe her as 'kind, generous, brilliant, funny, ambitious and strong.'
Lobach had been awarded the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Army Service Ribbon.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Check out her LinkedIn Bio
So air traffic control has that authority, good to know.
200’ max altitude. Whoever was in control of the chopper was not paying attention.
“”2,000 ft max altitude.””
Wrong - facts matter...so do typos!
“ Were the 450 hours totally piloting a Black Hawk??”
A very important question, unanswered yet as far as I know.
You mean the one they’ve had time to erase
Sorry……but something is very wrong
2000’ is not right - and never reported as such....
3 pilots and none saw the airplane?
See 51 -
It’s still there. This morning, the name was shown as Rebecca L. Someone trimmed the name to R L.
if SecDef finds out it was a typical Dem CF DEI fabulous adventure plan gone sideways he will have to address it and POTUS.
I don’t know why the family would think that working for Bidon would be considered an asset.
Jon Scott on Fox is a pilot, and he said this helicopter does have a black box. They’re rare.
The female. According to this article: Black Hawk crew involved in DC crash made up of 'top pilots' with thousands of hours of experience:
"The helicopter flight along the Potomac was a routine nighttime qualification flight in which an instructor pilot tests a pilot's skills at navigating the various routes through the Washington area that are key parts of his or her mission."
......
"Koziol confirmed to reporters on a conference call that the male instructor pilot had more than 1,000 hours of flight time, the female pilot who was commanding the flight at the time had more than 500 hours of flight time, and the crew chief was also said to have hundreds of hours of flight time."
"Koziol said that given the short duration of most helicopter flights, the number of hours they had flown showed how experienced they were."
"As part of their annual qualifications, all Army aviators are tested on their skills during daylight and nighttime, as well as instrument flying."
She’s only been serving for six years. She had somewhere between 450-500 flying hours (reports vary and I do not know if those all are “piloting” hours). Even if they are, that is an average of 1.7 hours per week of piloting experience for six years.
If a black hawk pilot could respond or someone with knowledge of hours, is that not an incredibly low number for six years of service?
“You mean the one they’ve had time to erase”
“Sorry……but something is very wrong”
Maybe they shouldn’t have released her obit that says she was a “daughter, sister, PARTNER, and friend.
Not sure what “partner” means any more, but I know what it used to mean.
That means she probably worked as a military aide to some officer in the White House. People are trying to read something into this that isn’t there.
You have a failure on the air, traffic controller side, and at the end of the day, they will probably put this down as pilot error of some description.
It was a tragic accident and there’s nothing else to it
Thank you for the update ;)
An accident that could have been prevented if they focused on hiring the best people for the job.
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