A U.S. Army captain who died in Wednesday’s midair collision of a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet was “brilliant and fearless” and “meticulous in everything she did,” friends and fellow soldiers said.
Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach was identified by the Army Saturday as one of three soldiers killed in the crash near Reagan National Airport just outside Washington, D.C. In all, 67 people died, including the jet’s 60 passengers and 4 crew members.
Lobach, of Durham, North Carolina, had served as an Army aviation officer since July 2019, earning an Army commendation medal and an achievement medal after graduating from the University of North Carolina as a distinguished military graduate in the top 20% of ROTC cadets nationwide, her family said.
Last month, she escorted fashion designer Ralph Lauren at the White House when he was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
USA Today White House correspondent Davis Winkie trained with Lobach in the University of North Carolina ROTC program. They were in the same training platoon at Fort Knox, Kentucky, in 2018, and were friends ever since.
“Rebecca was brilliant and fearless, a talented pilot and a PT stud,” Winkie wrote in a social media post, using an abbreviation for physical training.
In a statement released by the Army, Lobach’s family said she had more than 450 hours of flight time and earned “certification as a pilot-in-command after extensive testing by the most senior and experienced pilots in her battalion.”
The Army released the names of the two other Black Hawk soldiers on Friday, but withheld Lobach’s name until Saturday at the request of her family. Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia, was the crew chief. Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland, was a pilot.
Lobach “was a patriot, she loved her country,” her close friend, Sam Brown, told WNCN-TV.
Lexi Freas credited Lobach’s mentorship for inspiring her to become an aviation officer in the District of Columbia National Guard.
“Not only did she care about being a leader and being the best officer she could, but also about being the best pilot she could,” Freas told the Raleigh, North Carolina, station.
Another friend, Sabrina Bell, said Lobach “was meticulous in everything she did, she never did anything half-heartedly, she never did anything impulsively.”
Lobach’s family noted that she served as a certified sexual harassment/assault response and prevention victim advocate and hoped to become a physician when she got out of the Army.
“We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Rebecca. She was a bright star in all our lives. She was kind, generous, brilliant, funny, ambitious and strong. No one dreamed bigger or worked harder to achieve her goals,” the statement said.
“We request that you please respect our privacy as we grieve this devastating loss,” Lobach’s family added.
After the crash, President Donald Trump blamed the helicopter for flying at too high an altitude, saying: “You had a pilot problem from the standpoint of the helicopter. I mean, because it was visual, it was very clear night.”
The remarks, combined with Trump’s rant about diversity initiatives in the air traffic controller ranks, only added to social media speculation, misinformation and vitriol about the makeup of the Black Hawk crew. No evidence has emerged that diversity rules factored into the collision.
Former military recruiter Bilal Kordab told WRAL-TV that Lobach was kind, intelligent and “put so much pressure on herself to be the best of the best and go the extra mile.”
Before transferring to the University of North Carolina, Lobach played Division III college basketball at the University of The South.
Winkie said he and Lobach were both latecomers to the ROTC program “and quickly bonded over being the new kids on the block.”
One day, while at Fort Knox learning about different Army officer career paths, Winkie said he and Lobach happened upon a small helicopter called a MH-6 Little Bird.
Winkie, who is 6-foot-6 (2 meters) tall, said Lobach — listed at 5-foot-7 (1.7 meters) in her college basketball days — smiled mischievously at him and asked: “Think we can both fit?”
“I’ll be damned if we didn’t somehow stuff ourselves into that cockpit,” Winkie wrote in a tribute to Lobach on X, formerly known as Twitter. “My neck hurt, and I don’t think we would’ve been able to fly it very well, but we were both beaming in the selfie she took.”
Winkie wrote that soon after Wednesday’s crash he texted Lobach, asking: “you good?” He said he didn’t realize until the next day that the message hadn’t gone through.
