The Army has identified two of the three soldiers killed in Wednesday’s crash outside a busy Washington, D.C. airport. The three-person crew was on board a Black Hawk helicopter that collided with an American Airlines passenger jet carrying 64 people.
The soldiers identified are Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Ga. and Chief Warrant Officer Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Md.
The third crew member on the helicopter was a female pilot with 500 hours of flying experience, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation. The Army is withholding the pilot’s name at the request of her family.
The withholding of a name in instances like this is a highly unusual move. The identity of the third crew member has already drawn intense scrutiny online.
Misinformation on social media falsely claims she was a transgender pilot from the Virginia National Guard named Jo Ellis. Ellis has posted a “proof of life” video on Facebook, denouncing the rumors and offering condolences to those killed in the crash.
Illinois Democrat Sen. Tammy Duckworth, herself a decorated former Black Hawk pilot, told NPR she understood why the family declined to make their loved-one’s name public.
“ We should be respecting the family’s wishes at a time when they have suffered an unbelievable loss,” Duckworth said. “I think it is a perfectly legitimate request the family would make. And I’m glad that the Army is honoring that request.”
Duckworth condemned the online speculation about the third member of the crew and especially President Trump’s musings that the Army crew was to blame or was affected by diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring.
“Every one of those troops that was in that aircraft earned their place there, and they are the most highly trained military aviators in the world,” Duckworth said. “And I am just sick to my stomach that we would have a president who would say such things about the heroic men and women who serve every single day.”
Despite President Trump saying the pilots of the Army helicopter bore responsibility for the crash, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the crew was “fairly experienced” and carrying out a “required annual night evaluation, they did have night vision goggles.”
There remain, however, many unanswered questions about the flight pattern of the Black Hawk helicopter and the exact nature of the training exercise it was on at the time of the crash.
“Initial indications suggest this may have been a checkride, or periodic evaluation by an experienced instructor pilot of a less experienced pilot,” said Brad Bowman, a military analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former Black Hawk pilot.
“A checkride, as opposed to a normal training flight, creates some unique dynamics in the cockpit. In a checkride, the less experienced pilot can be nervous and eager to not make mistakes, while the instructor pilot is watching to see how the other pilot responds to different developments,” Bowman explained. “Sometimes an instructor pilot will test the less experienced aviator to see how they respond, but such a technique would have been unusual and inadvisable in that location given the reduced margin for error.”
Defense officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly, told NPR that the instructor pilot, now believed to be Chief Warrant Officer Eaves, had 1,000 hours of flight time, which is considered experienced. The co-pilot, whose name is being withheld, had 500 hours, which is considered normal.
Officials also tell NPR that the Black Hawk was supposed to be flying at a maximum of 200 feet, though sources say it was flying at least 100 feet higher. All requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the investigation.
On Thursday the National Transportation Safety Board says it recovered what are commonly called “black boxes” from the plane — the cockpit voice and flight data recorders. Federal safety investigators believe the Black Hawk helicopter also had its own recording devices, which they hope will help provide more clues on the cause of the crash.
