The Biggest Unanswered Questions About the Reagan Airport Crash

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/us/politics/reagan-airport-crash-questions.html

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On Wednesday, the National Transportation Safety Board will convene for three days of hearings into the Jan. 29 midair collision near Ronald Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people.

The N.T.S.B., an independent government agency that investigates transportation accidents, has already issued its initial findings on the facts and timeline of the episode, in which an Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed into an American Airlines commercial flight above the Potomac River.

The board’s final report, which will identify the cause of the accident, is not expected until next year. But this week’s hearings, which will include sworn testimony from witnesses to the accident and parties to the crash, including the Army, will provide the clearest picture yet of what went wrong.

Here are some of the key questions that have yet to be answered:

According to the N.T.S.B.’s preliminary report, the pilot flying the Black Hawk, Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, was told to descend to 200 feet, which was the mandated altitude for helicopters on the route. Yet she evidently had difficulty maintaining that level, putting the Black Hawk in a position where it crashed into the plane at roughly 300 feet.

Was Captain Lobach having trouble controlling the helicopter? Or were her altimeters — instruments that measure altitude — not working properly?

The N.T.S.B. has provided a concise and paraphrased version of what it deems to be key moments from the cockpit voice recordings aboard the Army helicopter, which was carrying a crew of three: Captain Lobach; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, her instructor on the training flight; and Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, the crew chief, or technical expert.