The pilot of the Blackhawk that collided with a passenger aircraft over the Potomac has been identified: Captain Rebecca Lobach.

She graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 2019. She began her Army career in July of that year. She was assigned to the White House to be a party planner, officially called a “White House Military Social Aide,” whose job was supporting high-profile events such as the Medal of Honor and Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremonies. She was a sexual harassment/assault response and prevention victim advocate.

As far as her skills as a pilot, she had 450 hours of logged flight time in the Blackhawk. According to a friend of mine who flies that same helicopter, a pilot is required to fly 96 hours per year MINIMUM in order to remain certified to fly it. That works out to 8 hours per month. 450 hours would mean that she has been a UH60 pilot for about 56 months. The Captain has been in the Army for 5 and a half years, or about 65 months. So this means that accounting for flight school, she was only doing the bare minimum to maintain certification in the aircraft.

Appears like she was a DEI hire.

Categories: Military

28 Comments

ColdSoldier · February 1, 2025 at 10:03 pm

Appreciate the info. Supports my belief.

Big Country Expat · February 1, 2025 at 10:34 pm

OK: She joined in June 2019.
To move from 2LT Butterbar to a First Lieutenant (1LT) in the Army, you have to have 18-24 months of time in grade (normally) It becomes automatic at 24 months provided the LT in question can see lightening, and hear thunder, and hasn’t gotten caught fucking the Gen’ruls daughter. To move from 1st LT to Captain: around two to four years.

With at current staffing averages is running slightly in the 3 year range.
Not enough carcii to fill in the blanks.

Given she worked as some ‘sexual harassment guru’ or some such shit while assigned to the White House, she made the right connections to get her A) into flight school and B) moved up in the top echelon of ‘promote ahead of peers’ to make rank that quick. Especially in light that I haven’t heard of any units/platoons ETC that she may or may not commanded.

DEI: Her career REEKS of DEI ‘special privilege’

    Big Country Expat · February 1, 2025 at 10:36 pm

    …and I forgot… she HAD to have a ‘rabbi’ (a senior ranking occifer) who was hand holding her as she was NOT a ringknocker… that means usually kids like her go to the ‘rear of the promotion line’ as ROTC kids are faaaar behind the West Point Protective Association.

Dirty Dingus McGee · February 2, 2025 at 12:08 am

” She was assigned to the White House to be a party planner…..sexual harassment/assault response and prevention victim advocate.”

Certainly the main qualifications I would look for in a pilot for VIP”s.

    TRX · February 2, 2025 at 8:58 am

    Clearly you don’t understand the required qualifications. A VIP chauffeur needs “people skills.” Flying a helicopter, that’s just labor, like a cook or a cockroach exterminator. The little people are all interchangeable, you know.

    Old Farmer · February 2, 2025 at 10:06 am

    One way to reduce the number of generals and admirals.

John in Indy · February 2, 2025 at 4:25 am

Thanks. I wondered about that, with MSM / news touting her as an “experienced pilot”.
An early posting to the White House as a party planner? Posted to a DC base? Flying is unlikely to have been her focus.
My uncle was a career Air Force transport pilot, and I think he had 11,000+ hours.

Old Farmer · February 2, 2025 at 6:15 am

There are a lot of strange things on that mishap. She was one of Biden’s planners, so it would not be surprising if she were politically appointed to that squadron somehow. She had been a guard pilot, and they don’t get much flight time. But that was a check ride, and the check pilot had 1,000 hours and as a check pilot should be very competent. I was a Navy check pilot and it can’t be too different. He could have, at any time either verbally corrected her or just grabbed the controls.I would think at that altitude and in that proximity to Reagan he would have. Then there is this link; the audio has ATC telling them to return to base twice and to land at Dulles once. The guy’s analysis is off, but the audio between the helo and ATC is interesting. There are a lot of other issues, like the airliner being lit up like a Christmas tree and them not seeing it.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/01/urgent-call-return-base-choppers-strange-movements-make/

    Divemedic · February 2, 2025 at 1:26 pm

    1,000 hours isn’t much. Most civilian airline pilots get around that much every year.

      Old Farmer · February 2, 2025 at 3:21 pm

      1,000 hours of civilian airline time is mostly spent on cruise control at altitude. Not so in. a helo. It is enough time to know what you are doing, and he was an evaluator, which means his command thought he was experienced.

        Divemedic · February 2, 2025 at 4:11 pm

        LOL. The military doesn’t know shit about experienced. There are 64 dead airline passengers who can attest to the poor performance of this “experienced” Army flight crew.

        The military are good people, and they produce some good training. The issue isn’t character or training- it’s experience. There are 24 year old officers with experience registered in months that are commanding ships. That isn’t enough. Officers are promoted because of reliability, not necessarily skill. These are the results of that.
        USS Fitzgerald
        USS McCain
        The officers conning both ships were officers whose command thought they were experienced.

      Old Farmer · February 2, 2025 at 3:54 pm

      A Navy fighter pilot would likely be on cruise with about 500 hours, doing night cats and traps, combat missions etc. I don’t know about helos, but I expect they could be deploying by then. An airline pilot at 500 hours is likely a copilot, not getting much ‘stick’ time at all but getting familiar with the environment, mostly straight and level or watching the pilot takeoff and land, finding out which restaurants are the best at each airport, etc. Comparing helo pilots with airline pilots is comparing apples with oranges, so to speak.

      Another thing about flight hours; some people do a tour out of the cockpit, so it is not like you are flying constantly. Some people get ‘stashed’ at a ground job after they get their wings, so they might not fly for a while. You can’t taker the hours and divide by the years; it doesn’t work that way.

        Divemedic · February 2, 2025 at 4:13 pm

        Doesn’t matter why she wasn’t experienced- she had no business flying in crowded airspace- as evidenced by her flying too high, too fast, hitting an airliner and killing 66 people. Disparage airline pilots all you want- they aren’t the ones who just crashed their helicopter into another plane.

Checkers · February 2, 2025 at 8:35 am

I would be interested to see her medication list. Zoloft perhaps?

    Old Farmer · February 2, 2025 at 9:56 am

    Pilots are not allowed to be on any meds.

      Checkers · February 2, 2025 at 3:27 pm

      Ah. Good to know.

Steve S6 · February 2, 2025 at 8:44 am

How many hours of the 450 were with NVDs at night over a city?

    Steve S6 · February 2, 2025 at 10:18 am

    NVGs. Started to put NODs and didn’t change enough letters. 🙁

Wilson · February 2, 2025 at 9:54 am

I want to see her/his manifesto.

    Divemedic · February 2, 2025 at 1:26 pm

    I don’t think this was deliberate as much as pure incompetence.

Danny · February 2, 2025 at 11:26 am

The whole “accident” stinks like a mess of offal with the buzzards perched on top. Beginning Thursday evening (about 24 hours after) the “news media” began introducing the many “problems” in the control tower. They are pinning the entire thing on the air controllers.

Of course, there is much speculation – but the U.S. Army owes We The People a very big, detailed explanation for this. That is about as likely as a cold drink in hell.

BTW – “unified command” is the new buzzword. Think about that one.

    Divemedic · February 2, 2025 at 12:01 pm

    Unified command has been in use for decades. It isn’t new. It is a term that is used as a part of the incident command system, and has been for quite some time.

Banzaibob · February 2, 2025 at 12:52 pm

At first I thought they would pin this on the chopper pilot. Now that I know this is a possible DEI hire they will try to pin it on someone else or just blame the “system” or Trump.

Grumpy51 · February 2, 2025 at 2:18 pm

Hours in a helo can be somewhat misleading (no, the actual flights hours are actual). A fixed wing flight tends to be longer (think flight from Miami to Nashville), so the hours accrue faster. A rotor-wing (helo) tend to be MUCH shorter (think 15-60 minutes as routine, in general), so a 450-hr helo pilot is going to have longer years (just basic math). I have over 10 yrs air medical in rotor-wing and the VAST majority of my total flight times (out-n-back) was less than 60 minutes/flight. Occasionally (once a quarter??) I might make a long-distance flight to TX (75-minutes one-way).

Yes, this is all on the helo
1. Flying VFR, its THEIR responsibility to maintain visual separation (ESPECIALLY since they requested it, ackowledged having the jet in sight – even if it was the wrong one)
2. The jet was on correct altitude for IFR (from what I’ve heard/seen) and on short final (from what I’ve seen/heard)

And yes, flying nights with urban lights, low altitude (500′) it is EASY to lose sight of other aircraft – which is why one of us (crew) maintains focused attention on other aircraft until no longer a factor….. even blinking requires a re-acquisition…. crew communication is PARAMOUNT. IF we lose sight of another aircraft, which IS a factor, our SOP is to immediately state such, so extra eyes can be used (if needed, the pilot will notify ATC of same, for assistance in locating)

    Divemedic · February 2, 2025 at 3:04 pm

    My figures for required flight hours were obtained from an Army helicopter pilot. I stand behind 500 hours with her length of service being the minimum for her to remain qualified.

      Grumpy51 · February 2, 2025 at 4:05 pm

      NOT disagreeing.

      Looking at from another angle – might be like someone (pick your position) with 3 years in a busy Level 1 Trauma Center versus someone with 9 years experience in a small rural ED.

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