'Earned her place': Friends grieve Rebecca Lobach, US Army pilot killed in DC crash

[aviator]

she is only 50% guilty in my views as a pilot, the controller carries the other 50%.

[55chevy]

I read where the tower always should have two air traffic control. One of them was sent home. Also I read they assigned one for commercial air craft and one for the helo traffic. It appears to me there is so much traffic there that two should always be in person. Was the one that got to go home a DEI hire? More questions than answers coming in.

[aviator]

Real busy airports have more than that, they may have one controller for 0-180 degrees and one for 181 to 360 degrees then one for ground control minimum, in this airport because of helicopter traffic they may have one person for that. Controllers see you on their radar screen, they know your flight or tail number, altitude, speed and projected path. They screwed up. I’ve been to the tower a few times to bring them doughnuts and make them remember me.

[Retvet]

https://www.foxnews.com/us/black-hawk-pilot-failed-heed-flight-instructor-moments-before-plane-collision-over-dc-report

Pilot ignored instructor's instructions before crash

[GimpyPaw]

She was a dumb bitch who got a lot of people killed. Didn’t listen to the MAN who was instructing her, didn’t listen to ATC. Her girl boss powers stole everything from innocent people.

[Johnny]

She was a dumb bitch who got a lot of people killed. Didn’t listen to the MAN who was instructing her, didn’t listen to ATC. Her girl boss powers stole everything from innocent people.

I don't think she was "dumb". Just to complete qualification standards to become an aviation branched Army officer requires a lot of smarts. I would argue that she and the controllers made huge errors in judgment that caused this terrible crash. However; I haven't seen any facts that support your assertion that she was unintelligent. If you have them, please post.

[GimpyPaw]

Everybody is smart in some fields and dumb in others. You've never met a doctor that could get lost in the woods after you put them in a ground blind 500 yards from camp? That was a fun hunting trip.

[aviator]

She was a dumb bitch who got a lot of people killed. Didn’t listen to the MAN who was instructing her, didn’t listen to ATC. Her girl boss powers stole everything from innocent people.

There was No "Man instructing" her. Dumb news don't know what they say as usual. She did not adhere to the "Flight Director instructions"....it's an onboard computer coupled to navigation equipment, in other words, she took over the bird manually.

[GimpyPaw]

So you’re saying that the on board computer or auto pilot was audibly directing her (to a path that would have avoided the collision) but she ignored it?

[aviator]

So you’re saying that the on board computer or auto pilot was audibly directing her (to a path that would have avoided the collision) but she ignored it?

My bad, I failed to read the whole thing. She was conducting a flight review and had someone acting as a flight instructor. Still there should have been a ADS-B equipment in the chopper that alerts you and gives you visual indication of other planes nearby, I don't understand but accidents happen. Had a very good friend, he flew in Vietnam, he was an agency pilot when he came back, I flew with him and he was good, he fucked up once.

[GimpyPaw]

I was just listening to Monday’s podcast of the Jesse Kelly show, and he interviewed an ex-Army pilot. Her take, based on the info that’s available, is that it was not a DEI related issue. She called it “task saturation”.

Flying at night, performing an evaluation flight, in a very high traffic area, while monitoring 5 different com lines, and trying to visually track other craft. It still boils down to pilot error, but it also points to command decisions. Why are you doing cert flights in one of the highest traffic civilian pathways?

In short, I may owe the young lady an apology. She may have been placed in a high risk situation and her dice just rolled out.

[aviator]

I also blame the controller. If you fly long enough once in a while you’ll get a controller yelling at you “ flighXXX turn 90 degrees now to avoid collision, or flight XXX abort landing fly runway heading and I’ll call your turn” things happen and we humans make mistakes but an alert pilot and an alert controller avoid having that sort of problem. One thing about today’s technology, both tower snd pilots can see other aircraft, position, speed and altitude on their display, if it’s on. I’m not a helicopter pilot but they fly differently from an sitt airplane. I know we have a chopper pilot here maybe he can chime in.

[Sanders]

I grew up in the old AFSOC Air Component. The one where you needed a minimum of 500 hrs in a regular “Slick” C-130 before you could apply. I have watched Instructor Pilots rip the controls from the left seater. I have seen Flight Engineers push throttles up without asking and cuss out the Pilot cause we were not making the climb gradient and were gunna hit the mountain. I’ve seen Aircrew young, old, black, white, brown, male, or female get absolutely berated during Hot Wash or Debrief because they failed in training. Ive seen grown women cry after their mission execution got torn to pieces on an after action report. So why didn’t the experienced Pilot take control of the Helo and avoid the crash? BECAUSE HE WAS AFRAID TO OFFEND THE PILOT! That’s the climate we live in! We don’t train that way anymore. There is no more 500 hr requirement for AFSOC. People are scared to offend. People are scared to enforce. People are scared to give feedback. WE HAVE FAILED at our duty to grow the next generation. We have to get back to a place where we can fail in training. Take your licks from your superiors and become a better Airmen because of it. Don’t get offended by failure. Learn from it. Because we have to be able to train the way we fight. There is still time to fix it. But it’s going to take EFFORT and for the people that have seen the old way to stick around and make it right. We need leadership to support rigorous training and empower folks to get tough on their subordinates. There are lives at stake.

https://x.com/BowTiedDaddy/status/1916865442162860531

[aviator]

Sanders, just because the second pilot was acting as an instructor doesn't mean he had more hours and experience than the pilot in command. I'm sure she was also a Certified Flying Instructor( CFI) but the law says you must do your flight reviews with a CFI on board. I've had reviews with kids with a lot less hours than I had, they are accumulating hours to look good in the logs but they need to sign that log book for you to be legal.