Black Hawk helicopter was on emergency evacuation trial run before Washington DC crash, officials say
A senior army chief defended the helicopter's flight near a busy airport, pointing to the sensitive nature of its mission.
Saturday 1 February 2025 15:56, UK
The Black Hawk helicopter which collided with a passenger plane above Washington DC was training for a hypothetical evacuation of US leaders at the time, according to US officials.
Three soldiers inside the military aircraft were killed as well as 64 people aboard the American Airlines jet.
A total of 42 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage in the Potomac River so far.
The US military named the third soldier killed in the crash on Saturday evening as Captain Rebecca M Lobach, of Durham, North Carolina. The army had previously identified two of the soldiers killed as Staff Sergeant Ryan Austin O'Hara and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves.
The scenario the helicopter crew was practising involved the evacuation of high-ranking US officials, Reuters reported.
An investigation into the cause of the catastrophe is ongoing.
It has emerged that the helicopter had been on a training flight along a route core to a seldom-discussed military mission - to evacuate senior officials to safety in the event of an attack on the US, officials say.
The mission is known as "continuity of government" and "continuity of operations" and is meant to preserve the ability of the government to operate in a disaster scenario.
New US defence secretary Pete Hegseth revealed the Black Hawk crew's training mission on Thursday, saying they "were on a routine, annual re-training of night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity of government mission".
The army has come under scrutiny for flying at night near a busy airport, but officials pointed to the sensitive nature of the operation.
Read more:
What we know about the passengers
What air traffic audio tells us
Follow our channel and never miss an update
"Some of their mission is to support the department of defence if something really bad happens in this area, and we need to move our senior leaders," said Jonathan Koziol, the chief of staff of the army's aviation directorate.
The most recent time the mission is known to have been carried out - for real - was on September 11, 2001, when a Black Hawk was sent to collect then deputy secretary of defence Paul Wolfowitz following the terror attacks on New York and Washington.