Did DEI kill 67 people? This is just one of a whole raft of questions that need to be answered about the Blackhawk Down that occurred last week. I have has an opportunity to speak with family members who flew helos as well as experts on the airport and flying in general.All questions must be looked into. We cannot allow political correctness to interfere with the investigation.
The Facts And Some Questions:
Capt. Rebecca Lobach was the pilot-in-charge (PIC). This was her night time qualification exercise. Lobach was part of ROTC at Chapel Hill and was 28 at the time of her demise. She had approximately two years of flight school.
She made captain in four years during which time Lobach was a platoon leader twice and an XO once. Lobach had some 450 hours of flight time. But the experts indicate that flight school itself is approximately 200 hours. So only 250 hours after flight school. Seems low over a four year period.
Lobach was on an annual nighttime check ride down the Potomac. Was this her first nighttime ”annual” check ride?
Despite the family’s attempts to wipe their presence from social media, there are indications that she was gay. So the question is was she being advanced quickly because she was gay and female? Did this have anything to do with where she stood in the military? Did this require a check ride to check a box for advancement?
Was the air traffic controller (ATC) having to handle too much data at the same time? There have been indications for some time that ATC’s are in short supply across the country due to the OBiden administration’s emphasis on DEI hires. Over 1000 applicants were denied the opportunity to become ATCs because their skin was the wrong color. A lawsuit is underway in the court system. This is not a political statement. It is a fact.
Why did the helo violate the hard ceiling in place of 200 feet? Why didn’t the instructor pilot issue instructions to correct the altitude problem? Why wasn’t there a second crew chief on board? Who authorized the training flight with only one crew chief on board?
There are indications that the Helo was at 200 feet until just before the crash. Maybe the black boxes will reveal some piece of pertinent info for why this happened.
Just how competent was the pilot? The helo exhibited an erratic flight path, executing two near 90 degree turns, turning west off course, crossing Haines Point and heading directly to the north end of DCA airport before turning back south along the river. Given the airspace, this is indicative of inexperience, unfamiliarity and possibly even incompetence.
Was the Warrant Officer instructor pilot hesitant to correct a (new?) female Captain of unknown qualifications and experience and higher rank?
There will be investigations by both the NTSB and the Army. If the past is any indication, they will be as objective and apolitical as you will find in any industry assuming they were noy politicized by the OBiden administration.
They will almost certainly determine that there was a “mishap chain” comprising perhaps dozens of small links, any of which would have prevented the mishap had they been “broken.”
Any one of them alone would have made no difference whatsoever. All of them aligned and unbroken in the chain resulted in a terrible tragedy.
That being said, it seems to me that if we’re ever in such a national security crisis that military aircraft need to fly over civilian airports or through commercial flight paths, civilian aircraft will NOT be flying, anyway. See: 9/11.
So, there’s NO NEED for military aircraft to train near civilian airports, let alone extremely busy civilian airports like DCA, and let alone at night (!), and put civilians at risk.