The American army published the name of the third soldier who died on a Black Hawk helicopter on Saturday who collided with an aircraft of American Airlines near Ronald Reagan Washington’s national airport this week, killing 67 people in all .
CAPT. Rebecca M. Lobach
With kind permission: US military
The soldier was identified as Captain Rebecca Lobach, from Durham, in North Carolina. She had been an aviation officer in the regular army since 2019 and assigned to the 12th aviation battalion, very Belvoir, Virginie.
The army had initially refused to identify Lobach, an unusual decision which, according to the agency, had been taken at the request of the family.
But on Saturday, the army said in a statement that the Lobach family had agreed to release its name to the public.
“She was a brilliant star in all our lives,” said her family in a statement, noting that she worked as a defender of victims of sexual assault and planned to become a doctor after his military service. “No one dreamed or worked harder to achieve their goals.”
Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board investigators determined that the CRJ700 plane was 325 feet (91 meters), more or less 25 feet, at the time of the impact, officials announced during a briefing of Saturday evening press.
The information was based on data recovered from the Jet flight data recorder – the “black box” which follows the movements, the speed and the other parameters of the aircraft.
The new detail suggests that the army helicopter was flying over 200 feet (61 meters), the maximum altitude for the route it used.
Preliminary data indicates that the radar of the control tower showed the helicopter at 200 feet at the time of the accident, although the officials said that the information had not been confirmed.
“This is what our work consists of, to understand this,” said Todd Inman, a member of the Board of Directors of the NTSB, to journalists when asked what could explain the gap.
Inman also said during the Saturday briefing that helicopter training will generally include the use of night vision glasses.
“We do not know at the moment if the night vision glasses were really worn, or what the framework can be,” he said. “A more in -depth investigation should be able to let us know if it has happened and which factor it can play in the overall accident.”
The data confirm that the air traffic controller alerted the helicopter for the presence of the CRJ700 about two minutes before the accident.
A second before the impact, the crew on board the American flight had a “verbal reaction”, according to the vocal recorder of the plane cockpit, and the flight data show that the nose of the plane started Increased, officials said.
The official said that an automated radio transmission had alerted “traffic, traffic, traffic,” was heard on the voice recorder, then sounds of the collision were heard before the recording.
The army previously identified the two other soldiers killed in the accident on Wednesday as a staff sergeant Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, and the chief adjutant 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, although many were identified via the family and social media.
The crews are preparing to remove the wreckage from the Potomac river plane from Sunday. Forty-two bodies have been found so far, the Washington fire service announced on Saturday.
