BREAKING: Helicopter pilot Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach failed to heed ATC commands and instructor advice, causing fatal helicopter crash at Reagan National Airport, crash investigation concludes -- NY Times

-The helicopter crew appeared to have made more than one mistake. Not only was the Black Hawk flying too high, but in the final seconds before the crash, its pilot failed to heed a directive from her co-pilot, an Army flight instructor, to change course.

-The crew’s mission was to conduct an annual evaluation of Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, who joined the Army in 2019, to ensure that her helicopter piloting skills were up to par.

-Captain Lobach was the highest-ranking soldier on the helicopter, but Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, who was acting as her instructor, had flown more than twice as many hours over time.

-As the helicopter approached the Key Bridge, from which it would fly south along the river, Warrant Officer Eaves stated that it was at 300 feet and descending to 200 feet — necessary because the maximum height for its route closer to the airport had dropped to 200 feet.

-But even as it reached that juncture, Warrant Officer Eaves evidently felt obligated to repeat his instruction: The Black Hawk was at 300 feet, he said, and needed to descend.

-Captain Lobach said she would. But two and a half minutes later, the Black Hawk still was above 200 feet — a dangerously high level.

-Direct, immediate intervention was needed that night. Instead of seeing and avoiding Flight 5342, Captain Lobach continued flying straight at it.

-Investigators might never know why. There is no indication that she was suffering from health issues at the time or that a medical event affected her during those final moments aboard the Black Hawk, according to friends and people familiar with the crash investigation, which included autopsies and performance log reviews.

-The Black Hawk was 15 seconds away from crossing paths with the jet. Warrant Officer Eaves then turned his attention to Captain Lobach.

-He told her he believed that air traffic control wanted them to turn left, toward the east river bank.

-Turning left would have opened up more space between the helicopter and Flight 5342, which was heading for Runway 33 at an altitude of roughly 300 feet.

-She did not turn left.

Lack of Air Traffic Control staffing also contributing to the crash:

-The F.A.A. has struggled for years with low staffing among controllers, and the National Airport tower has been no exception. At the time of the crash, for reasons that remain murky, a single controller was working both helicopter traffic and commercial runway traffic — jobs that would typically be done by two controllers.

-The controller, whom The Times is not identifying because his name has not been publicly revealed as part of the investigation, did not respond to requests for comment.

-Like his colleagues in the tower, he typically worked one control duty at a time, such as directing just helicopters, or only handling airplanes on taxiways. He worked about seven hours that day, according to a government document reviewed by The Times. The F.A.A. says all controllers get required breaks.

-But after a co-worker left the control hub at 3:40 p.m., some controllers began to assume combined duties. The controller who ended up directing the Black Hawk took over combined duties at roughly 7 p.m., according to the government document. An N.T.S.B. spokesman declined to confirm how long the controller operated in both roles.

-Such a combination was not unusual, and was approved that evening by a tower supervisor, according to a person briefed on the staffing. But the roles were not typically combined until traffic slowed many hours later, around 9:30 p.m.

-Though the reasons why the supervisor combined the duties so early are still not clear, the F.A.A. would later say in an internal report that staffing was “not normal” that evening.

-By the time both the Army Black Hawk and Flight 5342 were in radio contact with the controller — starting about 8:43 p.m. — five controllers were working different duties in the control hub of the tower.

-Near the end of his shift, the controller handling both helicopters and commercial jets tried to pull off a complicated, and potentially risky, maneuver called a squeeze play.

-This is an attempt to keep operations moving efficiently, according to veteran National Airport controllers, by tightly sequencing runway traffic with minimal time between takeoffs or landings.

-[S]ome regulators and controllers said that the controller in this case could have done more.

-He could have told the Black Hawk crew where Flight 5342 was positioned and which way it was bound. (The F.A.A. manual instructions direct controllers to use the hours of a clock in describing locations.) He could have provided the jet’s distance from the helicopter in nautical miles or feet.

-But one thing is critical. When two aircraft are on a collision course, the controller’s top priority must be to warn both sets of pilots.

-“Advise the pilots if the targets appear likely to merge,” F.A.A. regulations state.

-That did not happen. archive.vn/BnBGN

Nurses are organizing a protest against accountability for a fellow nurse who strangled all three of her children to death.

In this case, the neutered husband is actually joining in the chorus, as is The New Yorker—the husband even raked in a cool $1 million via GoFundMe.

These are the same people who think it's "inhumane" to deport migrants or refuse the vax. This was a sickening crime.

Mark Zaid FA

Now he’s FO.

A thread 🧵

https://twitter.com/markszaidesq/status/1910142522065666521

Must suck to be “professionally ostracized,” eh?

BREAKING: Biden US Attorney who persecuted @EithanHaim lands cushy job at Bracewell and immediately gets congratulated by J6 chief inquisitor Matthew Graves

It's all one big deep state circle jerk @EithanHaim

BREAKING: Respected conservative attorney Paul Clement concludes that the judiciary does NOT have the power to force the executive to carry out a prosecution.

Confirms that US District Judge Emmet Sullivan’s judicial harassment of Gen. Flynn was not only improper and unethical, but illegal.

Libtarded legal novelties thoroughly discarded here.

BRIEF: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco… Clement: Courts should not intrude into the prosecutorial function

THREAD: NEW HARVARD HARRIS POLL

1. Voters are more optimistic about the direction of the country since Trump came to power 2. "But eggs! Tariffs!" Voters are more optimistic about the economy.

RUMOR: DOJ about to clear the deck at Public Integrity.

This just keeps getting better and better.

Valentine's Day massacre?

https://x.com/DougMackeyCase/status/1890469672656523353

BREAKING: Heads are rolling tonight at the SDNY

Two US Attorneys have been placed on administrative leave over their refusal to drop the charges against Eric Adams.

The Trump DOJ is not playing around. Pam Bondi is not playing around in making her authority known.

BREAKING: Six top DOJ officials resign over order to drop Eric Adams case — AP

Those resigning include Acting US Attorney Danielle Sassoon, Acting Head of the Public Integrity Section John Keller, Rob Heberle, Jenn Clarke, and Marco Palmieri of Public Integrity, and Kevin Driscoll of the DOJ’s criminal division.

Bye bye!

No news yet on whether Bill Gullotta of DOJ Public Integrity has resigned in shame yet. reuters.com/world/us/manha…

It’s not 2016 anymore. The problem is not just the FBI brass, it’s the rank and file agents.

40 percent are Christopher Wray DEI hires. The priority since 2017 was hiring women, fat people, the low IQ and immoral, and ethnic and sexual minorities.

BREAKING: Rupert Murdoch's WSJ reporter who got DOGE staffer fired got her start at USAID -- LinkedIn

WSJ troll also worked at Vox Media, State Department, NYT, Business Insider

https://x.com/musicalpurist/status/1887659078303834207

Our nation is suffering from an epidemic of violent transgenders, including a transvestite murder cult.

(Btw, you still can't say tr**n*y on X or you'll get banned @elonmusk)

Here's two examples:

1. Ziz cult murders

2. Scott Bessent would-be assassin @elonmusk According to the rationalist prostitute Aella, the rationalist death cult "Ziz" is composed entirely of transgenders. They are responsible for multiple murders and suicides, including the recent murder of a Border Patrol agent in Vermont.

https://x.com/aella_girl/status/1884481375690223684

It’s bad out there, folks

🙏🏻 😢 James Waters watched Helene's torrential rains and fierce winds decimate his farm set among the hilly slopes of Appalachian North Carolina, snapping trees, ripping out fences, and causing a landslide.

"The whole side of the mountain came down," he said. "Then it filled up the valley with mud."

It took him a full day to dig to the main road with a farm excavator. He found windy roads strewn with downed power lines, fallen limbs, thick mud, and debris. In some areas, cars were washed into ditches. One neighbor found a dead body near a riverbank, he said.

Source: citizen-times.com/story/news/loc…