On January 29, 2025, we saw the tragic collision of an American Eagle CRJ-700 and Black Hawk helicopter near Washington National Airport (DCA), claiming 67 lives. This was the first fatal commercial aircraft crash in the United States since 2009, so suffice it to say that this made a lot of people uneasy.
In the few months since the accident, we’ve gotten more and more details about what happened. While we’re still awaiting the final report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), The New York Times has just published the most comprehensive summary of events up until this point. This is based on public records, interviews with more than 50 aviation experts and officials, and more.
There are some really unfortunate errors that were made, though more than anything, this is a reminder of how many factors contribute to your typical aviation accident. Let’s look at this in two parts — the problematic performance of the Black Hawk helicopter pilot, and then all the other factors that contributed to this.
In this post:
The Black Hawk helicopter pilot made major mistakes
There were three people onboard the Black Hawk helicopter, and the night of the accident, they were conducting a practice flight scenario where government officials needed to be carried out of the nation’s capital during an attack.
Captain Rebecca Lobach, who joined the Army in 2019, was the highest ranking soldier on the helicopter, and she was the one being examined. Next to her was Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, who was acting as her instructor, and had flown more than twice as many hours as her, over time. The third person onboard was there to help with equipment and other technical issues, and he sat in the back.
The airspace around Washington National Airport is extremely congested, and when it came to the Black Hawk piloting, two things directly contributed to the accident:
- At the time of the accident, the helicopter was supposed to be flying at under 200 feet, but wasn’t
- The helicopter was supposed to maintain visual separation with the jet (which obviously didn’t happen)
So, how did that not happen? This is where the details are really concerning. For one, the helicopter was too high, despite the Warrant Officer repeatedly bringing this to the attention of the Captain:
As the helicopter approached the Key Bridge, from which it would fly south along the river, Warrant Officer Eaves stated that it was at 300 feet and descending to 200 feet — necessary because the maximum height for its route closer to the airport had dropped to 200 feet.
But even as it reached that juncture, Warrant Officer Eaves evidently felt obligated to repeat his instruction: The Black Hawk was at 300 feet, he said, and needed to descend.
Captain Lobach said she would. But two and a half minutes later, the Black Hawk still was above 200 feet — a dangerously high level.
Even if the helicopter wasn’t at the right altitude, how exactly did they fly straight into an aircraft, when they were supposed to maintain visual separation?
Instead of seeing and avoiding Flight 5342, Captain Lobach continued flying straight at it.
Investigators might never know why. There is no indication that she was suffering from health issues at the time or that a medical event affected her during those final moments aboard the Black Hawk, according to friends and people familiar with the crash investigation, which included autopsies and performance log reviews.
Two seconds after the controller’s cut out instruction about passing behind the jet, Warrant Officer Eaves replied, affirming for the second time that the Black Hawk saw the traffic.
“PAT two-five has the aircraft in sight. Request visual separation,” he said.
“Vis sep approved,” the controller replied.
It was their last communication.
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.
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.
Of course hindsight is 20/20, but it’s mind-boggling how there was such a communication breakdown, and I imagine the NTSB is investing that in great detail.
That was far from the only cause of the accident, though
The Swiss cheese model of accident causation is a model used in risk analysis and risk management. The industry learns from every accident, and that’s why a lot of things have to go wrong for an accident to happen. There’s a reason that close calls outnumber actual accidents by a wide margin.
In this case, there were even more factors at play than usual. Among other things:
- The helicopter wasn’t transmitting ADS-B data, due to the confidential nature of these flights, and as a result, air traffic controllers couldn’t watch the helicopter’s position on radar in real time (instead they had to rely on the transponder, which only refreshes every 5-12 seconds)
- Due to the amount of congestion at the airport, the American Eagle jet was given instructions to land on runway 33 at the very last minute, in what’s known as a squeeze play; that runway is only very rarely used by commercial jets, and also has a particularly narrow vertical space between the landing slope for a jet and the maximum altitude at which helicopters can operate
- Since the runway is only rarely used for commercial jets, it’s possible that the helicopter pilots had made visual with the wrong aircraft, since they might not have understood the plane was in this corridor
- The air traffic control tower was short staffed, with the controller overseeing this flight assuming combined duties at the time of the accident
- Due to the number of transmissions on frequency, some of the instructions may not have been heard correctly by the Black Hawk pilots, as transmissions were blocking one another out
- Arguably helicopter operations shouldn’t be happening in such close proximity to an airport; it shouldn’t be that 100 feet potentially separates a helicopter flying around the area from a jet on final approach to an airport
Bottom line
While it’ll likely be some time before the NTSB publishes its report, we’re getting a clearer picture of what transpired near DCA on the night of January 29, 2025, in a tragedy that claimed the lives of 67 people.
It’s clear that something wasn’t right in the flight deck of that helicopter, between the Captain and Warrant Officer seemingly having different altitude readings without addressing that (despite the importance of exact altitude in this airspace), and the Warrant Officer suggesting a left turn, but the Captain just proceeding on course.
As usual, the factors that contributed to this accident go way beyond that, and they really reflect the stress our aviation system is under, particularly at DCA, where airspace is more congested than it should be. So many things had to go wrong for this to become such a tragedy. We can at least hope that some material changes come from this, and that this makes aviation safer in the long run.
What do you make of this report on the DCA accident?
Problem is, we have created a culture where we can not say ANYTHING to certain "protected" classes of people without fear of retribution or being accused of something. Also, the Captain, outranked the instructor, so that is two major strikes. We see where DEI and political correctness brought us...
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OK, whether this pilot was a "DEI" hire or not is beyond me. The fact that she came from Biden's cabinet and was now getting back into the flight deck makes you go "hmmm" as to whether she was properly prepared for such a flight. But the information released is pretty damning. It does appear that she didn't listen to instructions and flew right into a passenger jet. Her aircraft was not where it was...
OK, whether this pilot was a "DEI" hire or not is beyond me. The fact that she came from Biden's cabinet and was now getting back into the flight deck makes you go "hmmm" as to whether she was properly prepared for such a flight. But the information released is pretty damning. It does appear that she didn't listen to instructions and flew right into a passenger jet. Her aircraft was not where it was supposed to be.
Add this to the Delta Connection rollover in Toronto and it was a rough winter for girl pilots - and those around them.
The Human Factors (HF) perspective will certainly play a part in this accident investigation, in particular the combination of a lower ranking Warrant Officer acting as examiner of a higher ranking Captain.
It is possible that the Warrant Officer as checker was aware of the altitude error but was not forceful enough to order the Captain to descent because she outranked him. Possibly such an intervention by the Warrant Officer examiner would have resulted in...
The Human Factors (HF) perspective will certainly play a part in this accident investigation, in particular the combination of a lower ranking Warrant Officer acting as examiner of a higher ranking Captain.
It is possible that the Warrant Officer as checker was aware of the altitude error but was not forceful enough to order the Captain to descent because she outranked him. Possibly such an intervention by the Warrant Officer examiner would have resulted in a failed check for the higher ranking crew member. It takes guts to fail someone of superior rank.
In civil aviation lower ranking crew members’ (e.g. low-time first officers) reluctance to point out errors by much senior crew members (e.g. senior captains) has been implicated in quite a few aircraft accidents.
In HF terms it is known as a “steep cockpit gradient”.
Maybe both the female captain and instructor were crap pilots and both screwed up?
Thats not what the investigation is indicating. the FEMALE Captain was controlling the plane, and was above her assigned altitude, did NOT maintain visual separation, and did NOT listen to the instructor on multiple occasions...
I'm afraid that the instructor was afraid of standing up to a woman. In my company which is a male-dominated engineering company, we don't give criticism to female colleagues even if it's necessary and healthy because we're afraid of any aftermath. I'm curious if the instructor had issues with female colleagues or if the pilot had expressed discomfort with male instructors (or whether has ignored orders before).
I think you may have hit on what happened here. The male flight instructor likely knew the score--his job was to get the flight checkout box ticked for the Biden White house politically connected female pilot. Just imagine if he had taken abrupt control of the copter, no crash occurred, but the female pilot was totally pissed at him for causing her to fail her checkout test. That poor guy would be on his way to a post in some backwater area by now.
@jcll Except that the flight happened after Trump's inauguration. So even if everything else you posit without evidence is true and accurate, it was no longer the Biden White House and thus in your scenario it wouldn't matter if the female pilot was pissed at him. It could be that the instructor was wary about giving an order to an officer, but rank shouldn't matter when it's an official instructor-student interaction.
Reminds me of the Korean air incident, when pilot is gently reminded ... But pilot does not listen to subordinate and plane crashes into mountain.
I guess military culture has not changed.
Absolutely insane that in the comments, even mentioning her gender as a factor in this tragedy is possible nowadays. This would have been unthinkable not so long ago, but it's wild that people now feel completely empowered to say that kind of stuff.
@Ben - I really wish you scrubbed and deleted the comments from these sexist, misogynistic and delusional idiots. It's just not OK.
Your calling them names is no more acceptable
Nah. Calling out sexist, misogynistic, and delusional idiots is always acceptable.
Both the people that say this is and isn’t DEI are equally dumb af. There’s no way of knowing unless we have full access to her flight school records, including admissions process. Also of course all tests, certifications, and what not. There could also be no smoking gun if an unrecorded decision was made. The upside down plane with Endeavor’s tiktok “unMANned flights” nonsense appears to be much more intentional.
With the exception of emergency situations, there is no reason for helicopters to be flying along the Potomac. A police escort could shuttle VIPs around DC more safely and at a much lower cost.
Apparently a lot of high-ranking army personnel use the choppers instead of driving around DC.
Where's DOGE when you need it?
Off on another useless adventure, no doubt.
Is any similar concentration of helicopters and aircraft allowed in any other countries?
My expectation is that in other "free" countries the VIPs would be told that helicopters wer unnecessary and dangerous, while in "unfree" countries the government would insist on the aircraft being routed further away?
If the pilot was a straight white male, they would say it was pilot error. If the pilot was a gay white male, they would say it was because the pilot was gay. If the pilot was a straight black male, they would say it was because the pilot was black. If the pilot was a straight white female, they would say it was because the pilot was female. That's the way bigotry works.
100%
As a former CW4 Blackhawk instructor pilot, lots of wrong assumptions from Ben and the clowns posting. Bottom line, the PIC, which was the Warrant Officer instructor pilot, is responsible for the safe conduct of the flight. If he couldn’t say, ‘I have the controls’, and execute a descent or a turn to safety it’s on him. I feel bad for her parents because there’s plenty of blame to go around.
Thank you.
Same as with the Asiana 214 incident where the instructor pilot was PIC but didn't take the controls -- lessons that should've been learned but clearly hadn't been if this is any example
Thank you for explaining. I was wondering. Also, how come the instructor was lower ranking?? Isn't an instructor by nature of a higher rank than the person hes instructing?
For all those blaming this on "DEI hire", isn't the traditional sexist position that females are "subservient" and "compliant"? The cause of this accident seems to hinge largely on the Captain not being compliant to any of the critical instructions made by the Warrant Officer.
If y'all are going to be sexist, at least be consistent.
TRUMP was right. From day 1 everyone knew it was a human error due to the DEI policies. Liberal policies kills
@ sodaisei -- To clarify, are you suggesting that because she's female, it must automatically be DEI? So females can't make mistakes? And are you saying that she was hired due to DEI policies, or what exactly happened due to DEI policies?
1. Lesbian
2. Biden aide
Yes, DEI
@ CHRIS -- Without even addressing the DEI comment, could you please fill me in on what I'm missing regarding her being a Biden aide? What I see suggests that's *not* true: https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/white-house-staffer-incorrectly-identified-black-hawk-crewmember-2025-02-07/
I'm sure we agree the truth is important, right? So I'd love to be able to correct my belief if I'm wrong.
Here's a good place to start:
https://www.unc.edu/posts/2025/02/04/capt-rebecca-lobach-19-remembered-by-fellow-tar-heels/
@CHRIS
>assisting with Medal of Honor and Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremonies.
I beg you to read, but I don't think you'd comprehend even if you could. It's freaking nothing, it's not DEI, it's not favoritism, it's a ceremonial BS job that any soldier could end up tapped for. You'd be saying NOTHING if it was a male pilot in the same position. Go outside and touch grass.
Ben, seriously, why are you feeding the trolls on your own website?
Unfortunately some level of trolls = more traffic = more clicks = more adverts = $$$ that supports generating content.
How does that work since the male CW2 was the senior pilot in the aircraft?
100%. Trump called it correctly from the VERY BEGINNING!!!! And everyone got pissed and said he didn't know what he was talking about. Well guess what?! He was right. AGAIN!
The sooner we remove women from all posts the better, they are nothing but a danger to society.
I don't even see the reason why women as a gender were given the right to vote, women and any form of say and control just doesn't mix.
I have no doubt that in this incident, the woman was some hire that was there to hit some gender targets.
Your mother must be proud of you.
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc -- after something therefore because of something. It's an error in logic that attributes causality due to something, when in fact there is no causality due to that something. Someone in the control tower cut a fart and then a plane crashed -- plane crashes are caused by farts in the control tower. Bigots look for reasons to support their views. Any reason.
I knew the first female USAF test pilot. When she was selected, some guys said she was selected because she was a woman. No one makes it into Flight Test if they can't cut it. Sad individuals who simply weren't good enough need a reason why they weren't selected.
It seems surprising to me that the instructor on a real exercise would be less senior than the pilot flying.
Precisely because there should be no ambiguity about the pilot flying obeying the instructor.
(Basic learning to fly is a different scenario - experts may be more junior)
Does this happen in commercial aviation?
Does this happen in non-USA militaries?
Every single general officer in the USAF who is "rated" would have the same check rides or be under the same instructor pilot supervision as any other pilot. There was an incident in Hawaii in the early 1980s in which a three-star was under the supervision of a captain IP that resulted in the total loss of a helicopter (no fatalities).
Lower rank, yes, but it says he had twice as many hours...
He was not "less senior".
He was a "lesser rank" because of the vagaries of the service.
Warrant officers are basically in a spot between normal NCOs (sergeants) and commissioned officers. WOs are normally specialists in a specific field. The largest group is helicopter pilots, but other fields like criminal investigations also get Warrant Officers.
He was the instructor on this check flight. He should have taken over and busted her (which he was...
He was not "less senior".
He was a "lesser rank" because of the vagaries of the service.
Warrant officers are basically in a spot between normal NCOs (sergeants) and commissioned officers. WOs are normally specialists in a specific field. The largest group is helicopter pilots, but other fields like criminal investigations also get Warrant Officers.
He was the instructor on this check flight. He should have taken over and busted her (which he was well within his rights to do) when she continued to screw up.
@Michael
Yes, that's my question: he was lesser rank and did that play a part in his not enforcing (E.g. by taking control)
In commercial aviation, I don't think a First Officer is ever PIC above a Captain in the same cockpit even if the FO is vastly experienced on the Type and the Captain is new to the Type?
I would expect WO instructors to supervise higher ranked officers for tuition,...
@Michael
Yes, that's my question: he was lesser rank and did that play a part in his not enforcing (E.g. by taking control)
In commercial aviation, I don't think a First Officer is ever PIC above a Captain in the same cockpit even if the FO is vastly experienced on the Type and the Captain is new to the Type?
I would expect WO instructors to supervise higher ranked officers for tuition, but this was an exercise rather than tuition - is it standard to have this arrangement on exercises in other militaries?
Would that ever happen in the US Navy, or the British Army?
That's how it works for most western militaries. And while "Captain" sounds like a high rank, remember that for the US Army that's just the 3rd rank an officer would reach. Any warrant officer is going to be a specialist in whatever their job is, with a lot of hands on experience in that job, and generally would have no issue putting an O-3 in their place. If the O-3 tried to pull rank on...
That's how it works for most western militaries. And while "Captain" sounds like a high rank, remember that for the US Army that's just the 3rd rank an officer would reach. Any warrant officer is going to be a specialist in whatever their job is, with a lot of hands on experience in that job, and generally would have no issue putting an O-3 in their place. If the O-3 tried to pull rank on them, that O-3's career is almost definitely going into the toilet.
My suspicion is that both the captain and the CWO were looking at the wrong lights/wrong aircraft since the American Eagle flight was coming in on a rarely used runway approach, and due to that the CWO didn't react with the necessary urgency to avoid a collision. At the end of the day, even competent people get complacent, settle into routines, and make mistakes.
the pilot, no matter what sex, was at fault, period.
The media is trying best to pin it down on "practices" and "standards" whatever that means, when in reality it is brutally simple: the altitude of the Black Hawk was not the correct one by a lot.
More to the point; the altitude was wrong AND she was aware of it and did not act upon that!
Earlier reports were ambiguous regarding whether her equipment showed incorrect data.
So it was not DEI policies on ATC.
When you are told to get down to 200 feet...TWICE
"But even as it reached that juncture, Warrant Officer Eaves evidently felt obligated to repeat his instruction: The Black Hawk was at 300 feet, he said, and needed to descend."
and she doesn't do it, maybe her mind was elsewhere, or she was just plain stupid? It is a shame people died because of this woman.
Except the training officer was the one who was supposed to make sure that the student pilot was doing what she was supposed to, and he didn't.
It's a shame people died because of this man.
Captain Rebecca Lobach was the highest ranking member of the crew? How was she higher ranking with less experience?
Am I reading the article correctly?
Do not confuse rank with position. In an aircraft, the pilot in command is in charge. In this case, the Warrant Officer is a highly specialized officer that does nothing but fly rotary winged aircraft. The best helicopter pilots in the world are senior Army Warrant Officers. The Captain in this case, had far less experience in the air as officers progressing through the ranks from 2LT to General, fly - but mostly lead organizations...
Do not confuse rank with position. In an aircraft, the pilot in command is in charge. In this case, the Warrant Officer is a highly specialized officer that does nothing but fly rotary winged aircraft. The best helicopter pilots in the world are senior Army Warrant Officers. The Captain in this case, had far less experience in the air as officers progressing through the ranks from 2LT to General, fly - but mostly lead organizations and plan missions.
The Instructor Pilot should have taken control of the aircraft, terminate the check ride, then file a report on her performance in the air once on the ground.
The nutcases were right was not the outcome I saw coming
It's not the outcome, period.
Seemingly complacency happening here. BH-pilots both knew max height was 200FT. many hours in advance during pre-flight, and then never took action to correct height after being told 2x. ATC at DCA is so use to BH's doing the right thing for thousands and beyond of flights over decades. It's a shame, innocent people died.
Im not going to make any rash judgement until the ACI episode is released.
I'm calling this a mass-murder/suicide until proven otherwise.
While “I’m calling this” post of yours Pete, nonsensical old bean!
All shall be revealed, old boy.
Hense why ALL digital evidence (social media) of her existence was obliterated before her name was released..... oh that's right, it was to "give the family time to grieve".
Certainly don't want to find any unflattering posts on Twitter of Facebook about depression, suicide, TRUMP etc.
We both knew what happened within a day of this happening. Trump even threw that teaser out there which everyone went crazy about except......he was right.
@CHRIS
They probably scrubbed it because cretins like you would use the pilot's sex as "proof" that she wasn't qualified anyways and try to dox her and her family. Because the only thing you righty nutjobs care about is the culture war, you don't give a damn about the innocent people you hurt, and if the crash investigation came back as not being due to pilot error (for example mechanical failure) you wouldn't have...
@CHRIS
They probably scrubbed it because cretins like you would use the pilot's sex as "proof" that she wasn't qualified anyways and try to dox her and her family. Because the only thing you righty nutjobs care about is the culture war, you don't give a damn about the innocent people you hurt, and if the crash investigation came back as not being due to pilot error (for example mechanical failure) you wouldn't have believed it anyways and would have continued to spew your drivel.
No so cool now that the shoe's on the other foot is it?
Pssst... no one cares what you call it. No one listens to you.
What’s that ? Red team go. Red team go. Very sad. Netflix has a new documentary about a 2007 crash in Sau Paulo. They should pay the victims with the proceeds.
Yea, I smelled terorrism from the beginning. No way you fly straight into the plane for such a distance
What a shock.
It was the woman's fault. Just like Toronto and the similar la guardia.
As stated in the article there were multiple factors at play and the womanhood of the helicopter pilot was not mentioned once because it was not found to be, nor is there any theoretical reason to believe, it was a contributing factor.
Your abject misogyny is probably a contributing factor to you being a complete loser, though.
what would it take for her womanhood to be found to be a factor? would she need to say "I'm defiant or cant do it as well bc I'm a woman? Sorry!" Would it need to be that obvious? Could it be just that a woman might not be able to do certain things as well as a man and vv?
So the training pilot, who is in charge of the aircraft and of making sure the student pilot does things right, was a woman?
Oopsie...
@AndyS By your reasoning if an accident happens only because the pilot is female, then why are there any crashes with male pilots?
Sadly, the female pilot was at fault. So much for all the woke POS here stating it had nothing to do with her and it was solely Trump’s fault.
Name one individual on here who said this crash was solely Trump's fault.
I'll wait.
In any case, to be woke is a good thing.
Ultra, I’m not with you on your “Woke” quote, however, I would accept ‘awake is a good thing’ …. :-)
The pathetic comments of the woke mob defending the actions of an alphabet DEI hire (who worked as a "social aide" in the Biden White House), is proof positive that Democrats have learned NOTHING from the 2024 election. Even the NY Times admitted that the Democrat party brand is toxic. Lowest polling numbers in modern history.
Most plane crashes were caused by male pilots. Clearly we should only employ women as pilots, according to your logic.
And the male IP failed to act assertively enough to keep them safe. He didn't fulfill his responsibilities either. There's a reason there are 2 pilots required in that aircraft. In the end, gender was not an issue for either pilot's failure to act accordingly.
And the male IP failed to act assertively enough to keep them safe. He didn't fulfill his responsibilities either. There's a reason there are 2 pilots required in that aircraft. In the end, gender was not an issue for either pilot's failure to act accordingly.