Captain Rebecca Lobach, 28, has been identified as the third Black Hawk crew member involved in the fatal American Airlines D.C. plane crash, this after her family requested that the U.S. Army withhold her name.
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While the names of two crew members aboard the Black Hawk helicopter — which crashed after colliding with an American Airlines plane over the icy Potomac River, outside of Washington, D.C. — were promptly identified, the U.S. Army refused to release the name of the third crew member, reportedly at the family’s request.
According to the New York Times, on Friday (January 31), the Army confirmed the names of the two male aviators who were killed on Wednesday night (January 29) and listed a third victim as a female co-pilot. The two men were identified as the Black Hawk’s instructor pilot Chief Warrant Officer Andrew Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland, and Staff Sergeant Ryan O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia, the Black Hawk crew chief.
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However, the U.S. Army refused to identify the third crew member, a female pilot, citing her family requested that the agency withhold her name out of privacy. The Army released a statement that read, “At the request of the family, the name of the third soldier will not be released at this time.” The Army added, “That pilot is also DUSTWUN,” in reference to “Duty Status-Whereabouts Unknown,” a temporary designation until her remains are recovered from the river where the aircraft crashed.
At the time of the Army’s statement, it was not immediately known why the woman’s family requested to withhold her name, however, it arrived as President Donald Trump, before the investigation completed, blamed the Black Hawk helicopter crew for the midair tragedy that killed 67 people, 60 passengers and 4 crew members on the American Airlines plane, plus the threw military crew members on the helicopter. In a social media post on Friday morning, President Trump wrote, “The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200-foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???”
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On Saturday (February 1), despite the female co-pilot’s family requesting that the U.S. Army withhold her name, the agency identified the woman as Captain Rebecca Lobach, a Durham, North Carolina woman. Lobach’s family also released a statement with the Army, which read, “We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Rebecca. She was a bright star in all our lives. She was kind, generous, brilliant, funny, ambitious and strong. No one dreamed bigger or worked harder to achieve her goals.”
Lobach’s father briefly spoke with CBS 17 at the family’s home in Rougement, N.C. Her family and friends remember her as a distinguished military graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who was commissioned in 2019 as an active-duty aviation officer. According to CNN, Lobach, who piloted the Black Hawk with instruction from Chief Warrant Officer Andrew Eaves, had 500 hours of flight time, which is considered normal, while Eaves had 1,000 hours, deemed experienced.
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