in World News Army Releases Statement from Family of Capt. Rebecca Lobach, Third Pilot Killed in Helicopter-Plane Collision Near Reagan Airport
After withholding at the request of the family the name of the female pilot killed in the mid-air collision Wednesday night between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a PSA/American Airlines passenger plane on final approach to Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C., the Army issued a statement Saturday afternoon from her family identifying the pilot as 28-year-old Capt. Rebecca Lobach from Durham, N.C.
The other two soldiers killed in the crash previously identified by the Army are Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland.
Lobach was part of a three-man crew flying a training mission for “continuity of government” down the Potomac River when the collision occurred, killing all three crew members on the Black Hawk based at nearby Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and all 60 passengers and four crew members on the flight out of Wichita, Kansas.
Lobach, who had over 450 hours of flying experience, recently served as a military social aide at the Biden White House.