Daily Briefing

On Wednesday (January 29th), a U.S. Army Blackhawk and a A CRJ-700 American Airlines regional passenger jet collided while the plane was on final approach for runway 33 at Ronald Regan airport in Washington DC. The helicopter went into the glide path of the plane as it descended and they collided. The crash sent both aircraft into the Potomac River where rescue workers have worked since to pull the victims out of the water. 67 people have died.

The 3 crew of the Blackhawk who’s names were withheld at first to give the military time to inform the families, all have been identified and are as follows.

• Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia
• Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills
• Captain Rebecca M. Lobach from Durham, North Carolina.

The crew of the Blackhawk were all with 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. At the time of the crash the crew were doing some recertification training and flying with night vision goggles down a route down the Potomac River known as “Route 4”.

This route in Washington is apart of a very rarely discussed but important mission held by this crew. “Continuity of government” and “Continuity of operations” is the mission of making sure that in a doomsday scenario, the goverment has a chance at surviving to continue operations and in the case of a nuclear attack….to send a strike back. Essentially multiple crews would be sent out on the detection of a nuclear launch targeting the U.S. These crews would collect VIPs and take them to shelter. The president and vice president as well as other top political and military members would all be picked up. It’s a concept put in place make sure the U.S. government is still standing after the worst. Hopefully it will never be needed. The crew of the Blackhawk weren’t going to pick anybody up or anything they were just flying around and training their people. Keeping your flying skills sharp are important for a job like this.

As far as why the crash happened my running theory based on all the info I have is that the helicopter was at least 100 ft higher than the 200ft ceiling for the route they were flying. The ASD-B altitude number is always rounded so the best I can say is that while the helicopter was supposed to be at 200ft he was instead at least above 300ft. Another issue is that while the ATC (Air traffic Controller) had made the Blackhawk aware of other traffic in the area. The Blackhawk in response asked to “maintain visual separation” that means they had eyes on the airplane they thought was being pointed out to them. I think right there is the biggest issue. With the Night-vision goggles they likely seen they lights from the other plane that was in the video at the time and thought that was the plane that the ATC had told them to watch out for.

For more info check back. I’m sure I’ll be writing about this again.

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