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An Army Black Hawk helicopter decided to take the “scenic route” near the Pentagon—and came way too close to two passenger planes trying to land in D.C. Both jets were forced to pull up at the last second—one was just 450 feet from the ground. This is the same Army brigade involved in a January crash that killed 67 people, the worst U.S. aviation disaster in over 20 years. Officials are fuming, again. And Reagan Airport? Still dealing with controller shortages, near-misses, and—oh yeah—a literal fistfight in the control tower last year. Flying into D.C. is starting to feel like...

A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter flying through restricted Washington, D.C. airspace on Thursday triggered urgent evasive maneuvers by two commercial jets inbound to Reagan National Airport. An American Airlines jet collided with a military Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport on Jan. 29, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft. Just four months after the deadly incident, it was reported that an Army chopper deviated from its approved flight path, veering around the Pentagon instead of heading directly to the helipad, according to a Friday email from Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Assistant Administrator Chris Senn ... The unexpected...

As they flew south along the Potomac River on the gusty night of Jan. 29, the crew aboard an Army Black Hawk helicopter attempted to execute a common aviation practice. It would play a role in ending their lives. Shortly after the Black Hawk passed over Washington’s most famous array of cherry trees, an air traffic controller at nearby Ronald Reagan National Airport alerted the crew to a regional passenger jet in its vicinity. The crew acknowledged seeing traffic nearby. One of the pilots then asked for permission to employ a practice called “visual separation.” That allows a pilot to...

On Tuesday, in a meeting of the Senate Commerce Committee, the chair of that committee, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), had some sharp words for the U.S. Army regarding the January 29th collision of a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter with an American Airlines passenger jet near Reagan National Airport. The crash killed 67 people. ... Senator Cruz warned the Army: I want to be explicit to the Army. Every one of us here supports a strong national defense, but the Army does not have at its option ignoring the United States Senate. And if there is another accident, it another...

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating why multiple commercial flights about to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport, near Washington DC, repeatedly received midair collision alerts over the weekend when there were no other aircraft nearby.The alerts occurred only miles from the site of the deadly January 29 midair collision of American Eagle 5342 and a US Army Blackhawk helicopter.Several flight crews reported the mystery alerts on their Traffic Collision Avoidance System, known as TCAS, on Saturday “indicating another aircraft was nearby when no other aircraft were in the area,” the FAA said in a statement on Monday.“We were about...

 BREAKING: The NTSB just dropped the Blackhawk helicopter’s black box recordings from the deadly Washington, DC crash with a commercial jet—and it’s a jaw-dropper. Here’s what it tells us:  Altitude Chaos: The chopper’s altimeter was off—way off. Pilot read 300 feet, instructor saw 400, but the real number? 278 feet—well above the 200-foot ceiling. They were flying blind on bad data.  Missed Calls: Air traffic control screamed “pass behind the jet”—but the pilots didn’t hear it. The mic was keyed at the worst moment, drowning out the warning. Seconds later? Boom.  Last-Second Panic: The jet’s pilots...

NTSB Media Briefing 5 - PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 & Sikorsky H-60 military helicopter collision

Vital tracking technology inside an Army Black Hawk helicopter was turned off for 'no compelling reason' when it collided with a passenger plane over Washington DC last week. The Black Hawk was performing a routine training mission in an effort to renew 28-year-old Captain Rebecca M. Lobach's annual certification when it crashed into American Airlines Flight 5342 as it was making its final descent at Reagan National Airport just before 9pm on January 29. When the chopper went down, the Black Hawk's Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast was disabled - a system which shares an aircraft's position, altitude and speed, Sen. Ted...

A key safety system was turned off in a US army helicopter when it crashed into an American Airlines flight last week, killing 67 people. Ted Cruz, the chairman of the Senate commerce committee, told reporters that the Black Hawk helicopter had switched off an advanced surveillance technology known as automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B). “This was a training mission, so there was no compelling national security reason for ADS-B to be turned off,” Mr Cruz said on Thursday, following a briefing from federal transport bodies.

The military helicopter that collided with a regional jet near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in a crash that killed all 67 people aboard both aircraft was a UH-60 Black Hawk, considered the “workhorse” of Army aviation. The helicopter is a “utility tactical transport” aircraft — used for everything from air assault to relief operations — that the Army says it has relied on for every major operation around the world for more than four decades. First introduced in the Army in 1979, the aircraft is generally considered safe and has a strong track record for reliability and survivability in...

Laura Loomer @LauraLoomer Rebecca Lobach, the Biden aid who was flying the helicopter that flew into the American Airlines passenger jet in DC this week, attended PRIDE events. The statement her family released about her said she was a “partner”.

Preliminary data from the deadliest U.S. aviation accident in nearly 25 years showed conflicting readings about the altitudes of an airliner and Army helicopter when they collided near Reagan National Airport in Washington, killing everyone aboard both aircraft, investigators said Saturday. Data from the jet’s flight recorder showed its altitude as 325 feet (99 meters), plus or minus 25 feet (7.6 meters), when the crash happened Wednesday night, National Transportation Safety Board officials told reporters. Data in the control tower, though, showed the Black Hawk helicopter at 200 feet (61 meters) at the time. Investigators hope to reconcile the altitude...

The Black Hawk military helicopter involved in Wednesday’s midair collision in Washingon, DC, was training to evacuate government officials in the case of a catastrophic event when it crashed into an American Airlines regional passenger plane – and was involved with a catastrophe of its own. Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for the Army’s aviation directorate, told reporters on Thursday the pilots were training for a scenario when “something really bad happens in this area, and we need to move our senior leaders.” That evacuation would be part of what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as “a continuity of government...

The U.S. Army has identified the female soldier in the doomed Black Hawk helicopter which crashed into an American Airlines flight this week, killing more than 60 people. Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, of Durham, North Carolina, was assigned to the 12th Aviation Battalion in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, who served since July 2019, the Army said in a statement. The Army had initially refused to identify Lobach at the request of her family. The decision to release her name came “at the request of and in coordination with the family,” according to the statement. “We are devastated by the loss of...

CNN obtained two new videos that show the collision from much closer than previously available clips. Both show that the Army helicopter did not attempt to swerve before colliding with the American Airlines flight out of Wichita.

The US Army helicopter involved in Wednesday's midair collision with American Airlines flight 5342 had been practicing for the event of an attack on the capital. Officials have confirmed that the three soldiers, who all perished, had been rehearsing a plan that involves the evacuation of the White House when their Black Hawk collided with the passenger jet just before 9pm on Wednesday night. Defense sources confirmed the nature of the training exercise to CBS News, after internet sleuths had floated a theory online that it was doing exactly what sources say. Theorists had flooded social media with claims that...

The military Black Hawk helicopter that crashed into a passenger plane near Reagan National Airport Wednesday appears to have been flying above the permitted altitude, publicly available flight data analyzed by CBS News shows.This data point is one of several key mysteries investigators are exploring as they seek to explain what caused the nation's worst air disaster in more than a decade, aviation experts said."That's the $64 million question that needs to be answered," said Greg Feith, a former senior air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, in an interview with CBS News. The permitted flight ceiling on...

The co-pilot of the Black Hawk that crashed into a passenger plane in DC , killing everyone on board in both aircraft, was a woman who was being evaluated. The female pilot has not been named but Fox News reported it was a woman with 500 hours of flying of experience, which is considered a 'normal' amount...Army chopper may have been flying higher than approved The Black Hawk involved in the crash appears to have been flying too high and outside its approved flight path during the tragedy on Wednesday, The New York Times reported. The chopper was reportedly supposed...

transgender soldier has spoken out after being incorrectly named as one of the Black Hawk helicopter pilots involved in the collision with an American Airlines plane in Washington D.C on Wednesday. "Some craziness has happened on the internet and I'm being named as one of the pilots of the DC crash," Ellis wrote on Facebook on Friday. "Please report any accounts or posts you see. It's insulting to the victims and families of those lost and they deserve better than this BS from the bots and trolls of the internet." Newsweek has contacted Ellis for further comment on Facebook...

snip We now have an answer to that question. What happened at the principal airport of the national capital was an accident that, as the new president put it in his initial reaction, should not have happened. He's entirely correct on that. A commuter jet and an army helicopter colliding above the airport is a disaster from the last century, rendered all but obsolete by the technological advances of the new millennium. But, as we learned, not quite obsolete. There is still a critical human element - and the control tower at Reagan National is not altogether reassuring on that...