The US Army helicopter involved in Wednesday’s midair collision with American Airlines flight 5342 had been practicing for the event of an attack on the capital.
Officials have confirmed that the three soldiers, who all perished, had been rehearsing a plan that involves the evacuation of the White House when their Black Hawk collided with the passenger jet just before 9pm on Wednesday night.
Defense sources confirmed the nature of the training exercise to CBS News, after internet sleuths had floated a theory online that it was doing exactly what sources say.
Theorists had flooded social media with claims that the chopper was carrying out an emergency evacuation route for the president as part of a Continuity of Government contingency plan.
A Continuity of Government mission (COG) in the US refers to a set of policies and procedures designed to ensure that essential government functions continue during and after a catastrophic event, such as a nuclear attack, natural disaster, cyberattack, or terrorist incident.
One of the five key aspects of a COG mission is protecting key personnel and infrastructure.
Pilot in charge Chief Warrant Office 2 Andrew Eaves and crew chief Staff Sergeant Ryan O’Hara were named on Friday as those on board the helicopter.
The third person onboard, a female co-pilot, has remained anonymous as the Army has refused to identify them at the request of the family.
Military personnel killed in accidents or combat are usually made public 24 hours after their families are notified, making withholding her name very unusual.
‘At the request of the family, the name of the third soldier will not be released at this time,’ the US Army said.
O’Hara and the co-pilot’s bodies have been recovered but Eaves is still in the water along with several of the airline passengers.
Relatives are entitled to do this, it is extremely unusual, with the New York Times branding the decision to withhold the name an ‘extraordinary step’.
Why the co-pilot’s family requested her name be withheld, and why the US Army acquiesced, is unclear.
She had about 500 hours of flying of experience, which is considered a ‘normal’ amount, and her ‘very experienced’ colleagues had about 1,000 hours.
Earlier on Friday, a transgender woman called Jo Ellis was falsely-named as the woman on board the doomed Black Hawk.
She debunked the claim during an exclusive chat with DailyMail.com.
An investigation into what caused Wednesday night’s collision with an American Eagle plane carrying 64 people is ongoing.
The two aircraft had collided in a huge fireball that was visible on dashcams of cars driving on highways near the airport before it plunged into the river
The black box recorder from the helicopter, which contains both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data receiver, was found amidst the wreckage on Friday.
On Thursday night, salvage teams had managed to retrieve both of the black boxes from the American Airlines flight.
Both aircraft plunged into the Potomac River below, with all 64 people on the plane and three on the chopper dying as a result.
Ronald Reagan National Airport, where the American Eagle jet was coming into land, also faces questions over air traffic controller shortages despite serving a notoriously-crowded airspace.
On Thursday night it emerged that one controller at the airport had been allowed to go home on the night of the crash, leaving their colleague with a much larger workload.
President Trump has also suggested diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) measures may be to blame for the tragedy, but he has not elaborated on his claim.
