Army pilot reportedly failed to follow instructions before mid-air crash killed 67 over DC

The pilot of a United States Army UH-60 Black Hawk failed to execute a course change shortly before a deadly January mid-air collision with an airliner, the New York Times reported Sunday.

The Jan. 29 mid-air collision between a commuter flight from Wichita, Kansas, and the UH-60 Blackhawk near Reagan National Airport killed all 67 people on both aircraft. Army Capt. Rebecca A. Lobach, who was piloting the Blackhawk on an evaluation flight, was told by her instructor, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, to make a course change, but failed to do so, according to the NYT.

Lobach also reportedly failed to execute instructions to keep to a lower altitude, with the helicopter flying as high as 400 feet before the collision. Investigators also believe that some of the instructions from the tower at Reagan National may not have been heard because the Army helicopter crew had been trying to speak at the same time, the NYT reported.

One such instruction would have directed the Blackhawk crew, which was simulating a mission to extract senior government officials from the District of Columbia, to pass behind the commuter airline flight, which had been redirected to use a different runway at Reagan National Airport that was rarely utilized, according to the publication.

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said during a February interview with CBS that he had reached out to White House Senior Advisor Elon Musk for advice on modernizing the air-traffic control system in the aftermath of the deadly collision.

“Why wouldn’t I ask Elon Musk? Why wouldn’t I ask some of the best minds in the world to come in and offer us advice on how they think we can improve the system?” Duffy said when pressed by CBS reporter Kris Van Cleave.

Reagan National “has suffered countless near misses between aircraft over the last few decades, many reported by pilots themselves, an issue the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] has done little to solve,” The Daily Caller reported in February after conducting a review of public documents.

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