NYT report says Black Hawk pilot ignored instructions before DC plane crash
The pilot of the military Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger airplane over Washington, D.C., in January ignored instructions to change course seconds before the crash, according to a new report.
The report, published by the New York Times on Sunday, detailed the Black Hawk’s exchanges with air traffic controllers in the lead-up to the disaster, which left 67 people dead.
According to the report, the Black Hawk pilot, Capt. Rebecca Lobach, was conducting her annual flight evaluation and her co-pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, was serving as her flight instructor.
When air traffic controllers informed the Black Hawk that there was an airliner nearby, Lobach and Eaves acknowledged the message and requested to fly by “visual separation,” a common practice that allows aircraft to avoid collisions based on their own observations rather than following instructions from air traffic control.
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Emergency workers recover debris from the Potomac River in the aftermath of the collision of American Eagle flight 5342 and a Black Hawk helicopter, as seen from Virginia on Jan. 30, 2025. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
“The Black Hawk was 15 seconds away from crossing paths with the jet. Warrant Officer Eaves then turned his attention to Captain Lobach. He told her he believed that air traffic control wanted them to turn left, toward the east river bank,” the Times wrote.
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“Turning left would have opened up more space between the helicopter and Flight 5342, which was heading for Runway 33 at an altitude of roughly 300 feet. She did not turn left,” the report said.
Bodies lie on the ground next to emergency vehicles, near the site of the crash after American Eagle flight 5342 collided with a Black Hawk helicopter while approaching Reagan Washington National Airport and crashed into the Potomac River, outside Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30, 2025. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)
The crash instantly caused national scrutiny on air traffic control policies, with Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy opening an investigation.
Duffy announced plans in March to bolster airport air traffic control systems with the latest technology over the next four years, while also using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify “hot spots” where close encounters between aircraft occur frequently.
There have been 85 near-misses or close calls at Reagan National, according to a report from the National Travel Safety Board (NTSB). Close calls were identified as incidents when there are less than 200 feet of vertical separation and 1,500 feet of lateral separation between aircraft.
President Donald Trump listens as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)
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“We’re having near-misses, and if we don’t change our way, we’re going to lose lives,” Duffy told reporters at the time. “That wasn’t done. Maybe there was a focus on something other than safety, but in this administration, we are focusing on safety.”