Seven die in second US air crash, soldier in Washington plane collision identified

The US Army on Saturday released the name of the third soldier who died on a Black Hawk helicopter that collided with an American Airlines passenger jet near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport last week, killing 67 people.

The information was released as a second plane crashed in Philadelphia on Friday. 

The soldier was identified as Capt Rebecca Lobach, of Durham, North Carolina. She was an aviation officer in the regular army since 2019 and assigned to the 12th Aviation Battalion, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

The army had initially declined to identify Lobach, an unusual decision that the agency said was made at the request of the family. But on Saturday the army said Lobach’s family had agreed to release her name to the public.

Meanwhile, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board have determined the CRJ700 aeroplane was at 91m, plus or minus 8m, at the time of impact, officials said at a news briefing.

The information was based on data recovered from the jet’s flight data recorder — the “black box” that tracks the aircraft’s movements, speed and other parameters.

The new detail suggests the army helicopter was flying above 61m, the maximum altitude for the route it was using.

Preliminary data indicates the control tower’s radar showed the helicopter at 61m at the time of the accident, though officials said the information has not been confirmed.

“That’s what our job is, to figure that out,” NTSB board member Todd Inman told reporters when asked what could explain the discrepancy.

Inman also said at Saturday’s briefing that the helicopter’s training flight would typically include the use of night-vision goggles.

“We do not know at this time if the night-vision goggles were actually being worn, nor what the setting may be,” he said.

Data confirms that the air traffic controller alerted the helicopter to the presence of the CRJ700 about two minutes before the crash.

One second before impact, the crew aboard the American flight had a “verbal reaction”, according to the plane’s cockpit voice recorder, and flight data shows the plane’s nose began to rise, officials said.

The official said an automated radio transmission alerted “traffic, traffic, traffic”, was heard on the voice recorder and then sounds of the collision were heard before the recording ends.

The army previously identified the other two soldiers killed in Wednesday’s crash as Staff Sgt Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, and Chief WO 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39.

The names of the 60 passengers and four crew members who died on the jet have not been officially released, though many have been identified through family and social media.

Forty-two bodies have been recovered thus far, the Washington, DC, fire department said on Saturday.

• At least seven people died when a medevac aircraft crashed in Philadelphia on Friday, including six Mexicans aboard the plane and one person on the ground, Mexico’s president and Philadelphia’s mayor said on Saturday.

Philadelphia mayor Cherelle Parker told a press conference that the person who died on the ground had been in a car at the site of the crash.

“Thus far, our count is that there are 19 injured victims,” Parker said.

Separately, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a post on X that she had asked consular officials to support the families of the six Mexican citizens who were on the plane and died when it crashed.

Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, based in Mexico and licensed to operate in the US, on Friday said its aircraft crashed with four crew members, one paediatric medical patient, a girl, and the patient’s mother on board.

Reuters