Much has been written about the mid-air collision of an airliner and an Army Blackhawk helicopter over the Potomac off Reagan Washington National Airport. This is among the most congested airspaces in America, yet the Army has, for decades, routed helicopter traffic through it.
Because of the subordination of our armed forces and every other organ or government, including the FAA, to DEI priorities questions of training, experience and competence are inevitable. Inevitable too are attempts to blame this crash and others on Donald Trump, a man only in office a few weeks at the time of the DC crash.
Now we’ve discovered there is likely another factor involved, one directly related to DEI and our military’s difficulty in recruiting and retaining qualified pilots:
A recent deadly collision over Washington, D.C. involving an Army helicopter has brought sudden national scrutiny to the service and its missions over the nation’s capital, but a master Army aviator told Breitbart News that they had been at risk for years.
In fact, the aviator said, the Army was so strapped for experienced pilots that up through 2023 it was sending its most junior pilots fresh out of flight school to fly these specialized missions. At one point, an estimated 40 percent of the pilots assigned to these missions, which can include evacuating leaders in the event of an attack, were on their first assignment, the aviator said.
Flying helicopters, particularly complex machines like the Blackhawk, is a daunting task made worse by flying in unusually difficult conditions:
“D.C. is some of the most challenging and restricted airspace in the country if not the world, so you can’t just send the most junior pilots there, which they don’t anymore. We said, ‘Enough is enough. We cannot take any more new pilots, because the people that we fly are the nation’s most senior leaders, and you need experienced pilots to deal with that and to deal in this airspace,'” the aviator, who wished to speak on background.
“I want to say 40 percent of the formation was first assignment. That’s — that’s huge. The problem with that is because of who we fly and the airspace. When you have these very junior groups, we got to get these people trained, get them out there so they can start flying missions,” the aviator said, adding that instructor pilots are flying their “butts off, trying to get these people just qualified and trained.”
Learning multiple helicopter routes, landings zones, the airspace, frequencies, multiple different assignments and landing zones, on top of gaining the flight hours necessary for true competence is no small matter. It wasn’t until 2023 that Lt. Gen. Allan Pepin, then in command of that area, and an aviator, put a stop to sending pilots fresh from pilot training to his command.
The aviator, who personally knew the Black Hawk crew members involved in the deadly January 29 collision, did not directly attribute it to the experience gap, but disagreed with news reports describing the crew was “highly experienced.” The instructor pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, had just under 1,000 flying hours, but the co-pilot, who was doing her annual flight evaluation at the time, Captain Rebecca Lobach, had just under 500 flying hours.
“Five hundred hours is not bad for somebody at her years out of flight school. Honestly she’s probably slightly above average. We’re very junior right now,” the aviator said. “We don’t lack talent. We lack experience.”
“Andrew, with 1,000 hours, that’s above average as well. I would, again, I would definitely not call that crew a highly experienced crew in the big scheme of things. But for that unit, that’s an above average crew,” the aviator added. “That’s the horrible thing. We are just very junior. We have a major experience gap.”
Some media reports have suggested Captain Lobach was flying the Blackhawk when it crashed, but that has not been definitively confirmed. Obviously, pilots must get experience somewhere, and every one of our military members deserves to fly with pilots who have experience sufficient not to unnecessarily expose them to danger. Since recruitment suddenly jumped the minute Donald Trump was reelected, it’s equally obvious woke general’s claims that DEI strengthened the military and had no effect on flagging recruitment was a lie.
Graphic: Chris Muir, Day By Day Cartoon, used with permission
The same dynamics are at play at the FAA, where in this accident it has already been reported only one air traffic controller was handling traffic that normally requires two. Was that a consequence of DEI? We don’t know, but with the Trump Administration in power, it’s likely there will be no attempt to cover DEI failings.
Greater transparency is providing a clearer picture of the potential failings that contributed to this crash, and it seems more and more likely DEI played a significant role on multiple levels.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.