The army helicopter involved in a DC plane accident was on a “government continuity” exercise | Washington DC plane crash

On Wednesday, senior American officials said that the military helicopter who collided with a jet of passengers on the Potomac river was on a training mission to evacuate government members in the event of a disaster or attack.

The American Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, told Fox News that the helicopter was carrying out an “government continuity” exercise designed to help pilots “repeat in a way that would reflect a real world scenario”. Hegseth refused to go further, saying that he did not want “in everything that is classified”.

The unit of the Black Hawk UH-60 helicopter, the 12th aviation battalion, is assigned a mission to evacuate the senior US officials of Washington DC to secure the locations in an emergency.

These locations include Raven Rock Mountain, an installation in Pennsylvania built in the 1950s for use as a command center in the event of a nuclear war.

Hegseth’s comments are correlated with the comments of Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff of the army aviation management, who told journalists on Thursday that “part of their mission is to support the ministry Defense if something really happens in this area, and we have to move our senior leaders.

“They must be able to understand the environment, air traffic, the routes, to ensure the safe journey of our senior leaders throughout our government,” added Koziol.

A preliminary report of the FAA on the open -air collision revealed that the responsibility for the management of air traffic control for helicopters and incoming planes at Reagan National Airport had been combined earlier than usual on Wednesday evening When the American flight Airlines crashed into the army Black Hawk helicopter.

The 67 aboard the involved plane were killed, marking the deadliest American aviation accident in 16 years.

As a rule, the responsibility for manipulating helicopters and planes is separated in the very busy airspace from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., reported the New York Times. After 9:30 p.m., when traffic slows down, the tasks can be combined. The collision occurred shortly before 9 p.m.

The FAA preliminary security report revealed that airport staff were “not normal for the time being and the volume of traffic,” reported the Associated Press. The endowment objectives set by the FAA and the controllers’ union call 30 airport controllers at the airport, but in September 2023, he had 19.

President Trump signed a presidential memorandum on air security on Thursday, which he said said that the “damage” caused to federal agencies by the Biden administration. Trump said that “incompetence” may have played a role in the accident.

Less than 30 seconds before the helicopter and the plane collided, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if he had the plane in sight: “Pat-25, have you Crj in sight? ” The controller makes another radio call to PAT25 a few moments later: “Pat-25 passes behind the CRJ”, referring to the Canadian manufacturing bomber CRJ-700.

But there are growing speculations that helicopter pilots may have examined an airplane according to the flight of American Airlines in the landing queue. Questions are also asked about the altitude of the helicopter. He was allowed to fly at 200 feet but seems to be climbed at 400 feet and on the way to the Airline.

Friday afternoon, the rescue teams recovered 41 bodies and 28 had been identified positively, said DC firefighters, John Donllly SR, at a press conference. He said 18 families had been informed that their loved ones died.

Among the passengers of the plane, there were members of the Boston skating club returning from a development camp that followed the 2025 American figure skating championship in Wichita, in Kansas.

The victims also included a group of hunters returning from a guided trip to Kansas, nine students and parents of the County of Fairfax, Virginia, schools, four members of a Steamfitters room in the suburbs of Maryland and two Chinese nationals

The army identified two of the three helicopter soldiers – the SGT of staff Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, from Lilburn, Georgia, and chief adjutant 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, from Great Mills , Maryland. The name of the third soldier was not released at the request of the family, said the army.