
The 3 soldiers of the Military UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that rammed a jetliner on Wednesday evening simply off of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Terminal were all extremely seasoned and not just had countless hours of trip time in between them however were extremely accustomed to the trip patterns over the Potomac River.
The Military has actually validated that all 3 soldiers were from Bravo Firm, 12th Fight Air travel Squadron, based at Ft Belvoir, Virginia, regarding 20 miles southern of Washington, D.C. The device mostly moves elderly united state armed forces authorities around the Washington location and past.
Healing initiatives for 2 of the soldiers in the Black Hawk in the icy waters of the Potomac River proceeded Thursday, as did the look for the missing out on amongst the 64 aboard American Airlines Trip 5342. Likewise being looked for are the airplane’s information and cabin voice recorder and the helicopter’s incorporated information and voice recorder.
The helicopter trip along the Potomac was a regular nighttime certification trip in which a teacher pilot checks a pilot’s abilities at browsing the numerous courses with the Washington location that are vital components of his/her objective.

Emergency situation reaction devices operate at the collision website of the American Airlines airplane on the Potomac River after the airplane collapsed last evening on method to Reagan National Airport Terminal, Jan. 30, 2025, in Arlington, Va.
Al Drago/Getty Photos
” It was an extremely seasoned team,” stated Jonathan Koziol, a retired Military principal warrant policeman with greater than three decades experience in flying Military helicopters. Koziol has actually been connected to the Unified Command Blog post developed at Reagan National Airport terminal to collaborate initiatives complying with the lethal crash.
Koziol validated to press reporters on a teleconference that the male teacher pilot had greater than 1,000 hours of trip time, the women pilot that was regulating the trip at the time had greater than 500 hours of trip time, and the team principal was additionally stated to have thousands of hours of trip time.
Koziol stated that offered the brief period of many helicopter trips, the variety of hours they had actually flown demonstrated how seasoned they were.

Emergency situation reaction devices browse the collision website of the American Airlines airplane on the Potomac River after the airplane collapsed on method to Reagan National Airport Terminal on January 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Photos
As component of their yearly certifications, all Military pilots are checked on their abilities throughout daytime and nighttime, along with tool flying.
A Military trip safety and security investigatory group from the Military’s Fight Preparedness Facility at Ft Novosel in Alabama has actually shown up in Washington to sustain the National Transport Safety and security Board’s examination.
The reviewed pilot was in command of the trip, however if an emergency situation was to take place, the teacher would certainly have taken control of the helicopter.
” Both pilots had actually flown this details course prior to in the evening– this had not been something brand-new to either among them,” he stated. “These are our leading pilots doing this National Funding Area.”
The airspace around the country’s funding is just one of the busiest in the country, however Koziol explained the helicopter trip passage over the Potomac as “a reasonably simple passage to fly since you’re flying down the facility of the river, and it’s extremely quickly recognizable, particularly in the evening” since there aren’t a great deal of lights.
Evening vision safety glasses are offered for Military pilots throughout nighttime objectives, however they are not constantly required, stated Koziol, that kept in mind that he did not understand if the pilots were putting on the safety glasses throughout Wednesday evening’s trip.
” They are handy in the evening, certainly, and in a city atmosphere, they’re still valuable,” however he marked down the idea that the Washington’s brilliant lights might have impacted the pilots, stating they were flying over the Potomac River, where “there are no lights, to ensure that would not influence them.”
” They would certainly have the field of vision of the lights on both sides of the coast, which in fact assists them straighten and understand which instructions they’re going,” he included. “And it would certainly aid them see various other airplane.”
In addition, Military pilots are needed to evaluate their capacity to fly “evening alone” without evening vision safety glasses.
Koziol stated the pilots’ situational recognition would certainly have been assisted by a relocating monitoring display in the cabin determining their specific place, together with aesthetic help within their views.
” You have the lights on either side of you and, certainly, the revolving sign on Reagan National to mention the landing strip and all the web traffic on it for them to understand specifically where they go to,” he stated.
Military stats reveal that in 2014 saw the most significant spike in air travel accidents in greater than a years complying with years of a down pattern.
There were 15 Course A problems in the Military in 2024, the greatest number given that 2014, when there were 16 accidents. In 2014’s boost followed a time period when the variety of accidents had actually trended downward. For instance, there were 7 accidents in 2021, 4 in 2022, 9 in 2023 and after that the 15 in 2024.
Last April, the Military held what’s called a “stand-up” where it enhanced safety and security training however proceeded trip procedures– this adhered to a collection of Apache helicopter occurrences the previous month.
There had actually formerly been a stand-down of Military air travel that adhered to the March 2023 crash of 2 Black Hawk helicopters at Ft Campbell that eliminated 9 soldiers.