Summary
Army Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, a highly accomplished pilot and top 20% ROTC cadet, was among 67 killed when her Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet near Washington, D.C.
Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth blamed “DEI” for the crash despite no official cause being determined.
Lobach had 450+ flight hours and numerous military honors.
It just so happens I’ve been reading the book The Invisible Gorilla, and shortly before this accident, I read the part about flight simulators and how they would insert planes turning onto a runway that the simulated plane is trying to land on. Some of the people in the simulator never even saw it.
This is a rather common event IRL - called a “runway incursion”. The book says in 2007, the FAA recorded 370 at American airports. Most of these don’t end up in collisions.
But I couldn’t help but wonder if something like this was in play here…humans are not as attentive as we would like to think we are - in other words, “looking is not really seeing”. I wonder what will come of a longer, less politically-charged investigation into all factors here. I doubt it’s going to be “DEI”, but I also don’t know if donvict and fElon’s actions played a role either - although they probably are not meant to help the situation.
(And I recommend the book, even though I’ve not finished it. It’s quite good)