Black Hawk pilot failed to heed flight instructor before DCA plane crash: report

The pilot of the Army Black Hawk helicopter that crashed into a passenger airplane near Reagan Airport in January ignored instructions to change course before the crash, according to a new report. In a report published by the New York Times on Sunday, Black Hawk pilot Capt. Rebecca Lobach was conducting her annual flight evaluation with Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves serving as her flight instructor.Air traffic controllers informed Lobach and Eaves that there was a passenger airplane nearby; the pair acknowledged the message and requested to fly by "visual separation" which allows aircraft to avoid collisions by navigating themselves around other aircraft and not relying on air traffic control for guidance. "The Black Hawk was 15 seconds away from crossing paths with the jet. Warrant Officer Eaves then turned his attention to Captain Lobach. He told her he believed that air traffic control wanted them to turn left, toward the east river bank," the Times wrote."Turning left would have opened up more space between the helicopter and Flight 5342, which was heading for Runway 33 at an altitude of roughly 300 feet. She did not turn left," the report said."Multiple layers of safety precautions failed that night," said Katie Thomson, the Federal Aviation Administration’s deputy administrator under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.According to the Times, one of the other issues was that the pilots "stepped on" some of the air traffic controller's instructions – cutting him off when turning their microphones on to talk, and likely missing important info. Seconds before the crash occurred, the controller asked the helicopter if it spotted Flight 5342. "PAT two-five, do you have the CRJ in sight?" he asked. The controller did not receive a response. The controller told the helicopter crew to pass behind the airplane. The Times reports that cockpit voice recordings indicate that the message to pass behind may not have been heard by the Black Hawk crew due to a beeping conflict alert. The Times also said that FAA policy to "advise the pilots if the targets appear likely to merge" did not happen. Plus, technology on the helicopter that would have allowed air traffic control to better track the helicopter was also turned off, common protocol if the training mission had been for real.Lobach, of Durham, North Carolina, served as an aviation officer in the Army beginning in July 2019, and had around 500 hours of flying time in the Black Hawk, the Army said in a release.Lobach was assigned to the 12th Aviation Battalion in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Her awards included the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Army Service Ribbon, according to the Army. The third member of the flight crew, along with Lobach and Eaves, was Staff Sgt. Ryan O'Hara.There have been 85 near-misses or close calls at Reagan National, according to a report from the National Travel Safety Board (NTSB). Close calls were identified as incidents when there are less than 200 feet of vertical separation and 1,500 feet of lateral separation between aircraft.