“Let me ask this: The instructor pilot was a warrant officer; the student pilot was a captain, so the instructor pilot would have to have at least 3 promotions to be the same rank as the student pilot (WO->2nd Lt.->1st Lt.->Captain).
What’s wrong with this picture? Smells like DEI to me.”
That’s not how it works. Warrant Officer’s are a different career track they are not in the commissioned officer track at all. You do not get promoted from warrant to Lt.
It’s warrant one, two,three,four and chief warrant officer five.
Army helo pilots can be either a dedicated Warrant officer pilot or a leadership track commissioned officer who is flight qualified.
The flight instructor was a dedicated Army Helo point in the Warrant pilot career track he has been promoted and also had the flight hours and extra training to be the flight instructor AND point in command. That was HIS bird even though she out ranked him on paper HE was in command as PIC and the instructor.
She was a leadership track commissioned officer who was flight qualified and was the student pilot regardless of rank she was the junior person in the seat that night. She came from a spot in the White House so it’s obvious she was a leadership track commissioned officer not a full time pilot.
She might have been a DEI at the WH but on that bird it was the responsibility of the PIC and instructor to maintain his aircraft at all times. He should have said “I have the aircraft” as soon as the ATC called for traffic that is his responsibility. Once he called that she would have let go of the controls as is the protocol.
Thanks for that clarification.