Not long after the SGT employee. Ryan O’Hara was killed last week in a fiery crash over the South -Avac River, his parents said they had received an offer from American Airlines to fly them over the accident site.
But their pain was too raw to accept it, said Gary O’Hara, his father. In addition, he and his wife Mary wanted to remember the route along the river, with the Lincoln monument and the Washington memorial shining in the dark, as described by their son.
Again and again, Sergeant O’Hara, the head of the black hawk crew, told them that he loves flying around Washington, his father remembered, “Dad, you can see everything because we fly so low. You can see every detail. It’s just spectacular. ”
It was at night, on the night, in the sky without a moon above the sparkling city of January 29, that Sergeant O’Hara and two helicopter pilots were killed, now forever connected by the worst air accident of the nation in nearly 25 years.
Because of which they are still investigating, the helicopter collided with a personal plane with 64 people. They all died, including Sergeant O’hara, 28 years, from Lilburn, Ga., New Father and, according to his parents, a mechanical genius; Main Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, 39, from Great Mills, MD. and Captain Rebecca M. Lobach, 28, from Durham, NC, hoping to become a doctor.
President Trump asked how it was possible that the crew did not see the American Airlines, and his supporters speculated whether the pressure on more women and minorities in the military could play a role without suggesting it. The father of Sergeant O’hary called the collision “a terribly tragic accident” and wondered why the tower for control of the air traffic ordered a helicopter to stop shortly before the plane and just floated.
But he became critics of Captain Lobach.
“The woman had all Ryan’s respect,” Mr. O’Hara said. “He loved flying with her.”
Two pilots and one crew boss on board Black Hawk were part of the 12th air battalion, a specialized group of about 24 helicopters with a classified mission: in an emergency to evacuate key government officials from Washington.
The unit also routinely ferry VIP, including legislators. At night after the crash, the trio practiced a route that would take high -ranking officials in the national crisis, a way that the crew often followed.
The crew was “starry when it comes to aviation,” said Ryan Falcone, retirement officer, who served as the head of an advisory pilot for the battalion of the crew.
Their mission was, “Basically, it is to keep the country running, even on their worst day,” he said, adding, “They have a dangerous job and unforgivable work and understand it. But it is an important job and has to fulfill the mission. ”
The sky navigated by the crew is extremely busy, with a limited air space over government buildings, aircraft flying in and out of four busy airports and helicopters that cross the sky.
And flying helicopters, said Mr. Falcone, is inherently dangerous. He said the battalion had a “big security record” but in 2017 suffered a fatal crash when the tail disorder of the rotor caused black hawk crash on a golf course in Maryland.
Last week, Mr. Eaves, the most experienced crew, was carried out by the annual evaluation of the professional competence of Captain Lobach. Captain Lobach, the upcoming officer, won more than 450 flight hours, her family said.
Mr. Eaves knew the plane and airy space well – “Exactly the kind of pilot you wanted to fly with,” said Mr. Falcone, who flew with Mr. Eaves.
Sergeant O’Hara, added, “One of the smartest crew bosses I have ever flew, who knew every part of the plane.”
Sergeant O’Hary’s father said his son had more than 1,000 flight hours. As the head of the crew, the sergeant would sit behind the pilots, usually on the right side, watching the side door as a third set of eyes. A trained mechanic, a leading role by Sergeant O’hara, was to master everything except flying on the plane, including passenger management.
The official finding of the accident investigation will not be published months. Not that it was Gary O’Hara. No answers, he said on Tuesday through tears, bringing his son back.
SGT employees. Ryan o’hara
Sergeant O’Hara, the father of a 1 -year -old son, always wanted to fly with black hawks, said his parents, but the eye obstacle prevented him from pilot. When he registered into the army as a senior in high school, after he did a training choir for reserve officers, he chose the mechanic of Black Hawk as his military profession – because “it was cool, man,” his father said.
His son could analyze anything and put it together, said O’Hara, including the computers that his father worked in him left his playroom. The boy remembered Star Wars schemes on Millennium Falcon and Death Star.
In the army he turned this love on Black Hawks, down to the right amount of torque needed to tighten each screw.
“There could be anything in life,” said Mr. O’Hara, but his son was set in the army after a group of Marines Rotc appeared on his eighth year.
“He saw the soldiers, came home and said to me,” That’s what I want to do. “”
His parents were excited when he was assigned to Fort Belvoir in Virginia, his father said twice. During a Sergeant tour in Afghanistan, his parents feared the sick. In Washington, his father thought their son would be safe.
Captain Lobach, who played basketball at the University of South in Sewanee, Tenn., Before transfer to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, also saw military service as a profession, her friends said. In 2021 she graduated from a flight school to realize her dream and fly the Black Hawk army.
“She was an aviator, not a female aviator,” said Officer of command 1 Jasmine Johnson, Apache helicopter pilot in North Carolina, who was in ROTC with Captain Lobach. “We are all qualified and in the seat for a reason.”
Captain Lobach was also a social assistant of the White House, a highly selective ceremony that required assistance in granting honor medals to members of the service and presidential freedom medal for civilians, Including Ralph Lauren designer.
In October, she told her friend Celeste Walton that she was studying for a medical school test and helped with a research project at Walter Reed National Medical Center – all in the completion of the last two assumptions for the Faculty of Medicine.
Captain Lobach also planned his first trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, with a friend, the first Lieutenant Samantha Brown. 29. January Lieutenant Brown sent a message that she had bought tickets.
That evening, Captain Lobach’s roommate sent Lieutenant Brown to say, “Something terrible happened.” Lieutenant Brown furiously sent Captain Lobach. The messages would not go through.
“I had this terrible feeling that it would be the worst,” Lieutenant Brown said. “And it was.”
Main Officer 2 Andrew Eaves
Mr. Eaves grew up in a small Brooksville, Miss, and had a wife and two children. Before he became an army pilot, he served in the navy for 10 years, the army said. He was a few years older than some of his classmates at the Alabama Army School and ended in coaching younger soldiers.
“He became the guy who was looking and learned from – a big brother,” said Aaron Aguirre, who attended a flight school with Mr. Eaves. “He always carries the wisdom and experience.”
In recent years Its personal page on FacebookThe pilot published photos of flying via Washington. He also published about Black Hawk crews that died in accidents – once in 2024, twice in 2023 – marked the crew badge with a black bar.
To get away from stress, Mr. Eaves bought a hobby farm in Virginia about five hours from Fort Belvoir and met real estate agent Keith Gore as he bought a real estate.
Mr. Gore said he would visit the pilot with his friends and family to hunt deer and Turkey, worked on the cabin and relax. The day before the accident, Mr. Gore sent Mr. Eaves and asked him if he was working at night. Here and back, Mr. Eaves replied. Night tomorrow.
When Mr. Gore heard of the crash, he checked: Are you fine? Just let me know you’re okay.
Mr. Gore said that men had sent text messages about Mr. Eaves almost every day for a bachelor’s degree at Liberty University or hot dogs that men would bet on football games. He said Mr. Eaves would always respond.
Until this time.
Soon after, the wife of Mr. Eaves, Carrie, published a memorial badge of the battalion called “Wings of Freedom” as her profile picture on Facebook.
This time the unit was her husband.
Memorial
On Tuesday, Gary and Mary O’Hara left a house that they bought outside Savannah, Ga., On five acres, so that their son and his younger sister Taryn could build on it. They headed for Washington to participate in the Fort Belvoir memorial service for Sergeant O’Har and his crew. Their families were also invited to go to the White House on Thursday, his father said.
At the International Airport on the Dulles Airport in the suburban Washington, Mr. O’Hara said he sees the passenger in a row and watched Harry Potter. He cried.
Mr. O’Hara had a tradition when he took his children to see Harry Potter’s films for Thanksgiving. Watching movies together was their thing. When his son was small, they would always hold hands in the theater.
“Will I tear myself every time I see something that reminds me of him?” Mr. O’Hara was thinking. “Will every memory be sad?”
The last photo of Sergeant O’Hara sent to his father was a trip that he and his son Wyatt took to Udvar-Hhazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum near Dulles. They went to the shuttle – and helicopters.
Last week, so many moments reminded Mr. O’Har about what he said to his son when he joined the army.
“I said,” You know, I just promise that I will never be one of those parents who knock on the door and have to see a few soldiers who deliver a note about you, “said O’Hara O’Hara.” And he just laughed, Like: “Oh, Dad! No, no, no, no, no.”
When his voice cracked, his father added, “This is the only promise for me that never held.”
Eric Schmitt Messages from Washington contributed.
