The U.S. Army identified two of the three service members who were killed when their Blackhawk helicopter and an American Airlines flight crashed on Wednesday night over the Potomac.
Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, were killed. The service did not identify the third service member to respect the wishes of the family. Eaves’ body has not yet been recovered.
The three of them took off in a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter for a routine training exercise when it collided in midair with an American Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet Flight 5342 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The 64 people aboard the commercial plane were all killed.
“Our deepest condolences go out to all the families and friends impacted during this tragedy, and we will support them through this difficult time. Our top priority is to assist in the recovery efforts, while fully cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and other investigative agencies to determine the cause of this tragic incident,” said Maj. Gen. Trevor J. Bredenkamp, commander Joint Task Force – National Capital Region/ U.S. Army Military District of Washington.
The training plan was for a continuity of government mission in which U.S. leaders need an emergency evacuation to safety in the event of a major attack on Washington, D.C.
Investigators will try to figure out what went wrong, allowing the tragedy to occur, though President Donald Trump has already begun sharing ideas. He argued from the White House briefing room on Thursday that the crash was the result of the Federal Aviation Administration’s previous attempts at promoting diversity and inclusion.
“The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot,” he said on TruthSocial on Friday morning. “It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???”
Bradley Bowman, a former Blackhawk pilot who flew on the same pathway along the Potomac River during his time in the Army, also referenced the altitude as a key factor that he’ll be looking at when it’s revealed.
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“If they were well above 200 feet, if they were 300 or 350 feet, or even 400 feet, then they were above where they were supposed to be at, and that would have been a decisive factor in contributing to the horrific tragedy that happened,” he told the Washington Examiner, but affirmed that he did not know whether that’s actually what occurred.
The flight plan the helicopter was going on has different altitude maximums and is lower near Reagan National Airport, he said, comparing it to drive speed limits. In that area during his own flights, Bowman, now a senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said, “When I would be flying there, if me or my co-pilot let us drift up to 215-220 feet, I would either immediately correct it or I would say something.”