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https://www.foxnews.com/us/black-hawk-pilot-failed-heed-flight-instructor-moments-before-plane-collision-over-dc-report

 > The pilot of the military Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a
 > passenger airplane over Washington, D.C., in January ignored instructions
 > to change course seconds before the crash, according to a new report.
 >
 > The report, published by the New York Times on Sunday, detailed the Black
 > Hawk's exchanges with air traffic controllers in the lead-up to the
 > disaster, which left 67 people dead.
 >
 > According to the report, the Black Hawk pilot, Capt. Rebecca Lobach, was
 > conducting her annual flight evaluation and her co-pilot, Chief Warrant
 > Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, was serving as her flight instructor.
 >
 > When air traffic controllers informed the Black Hawk that there was an
 > airliner nearby, Lobach and Eaves acknowledged the message and requested
 > to fly by "visual separation," a common practice that allows aircraft to
 > avoid collisions based on their own observations rather than following
 > instructions from air traffic control.
 >
 > "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," the Times wrote.
 >
 > "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," the report said.
 >
 > Lobach, of Durham, North Carolina, served as an aviation officer in the
 > Army beginning in July 2019, and had around 500 hours of flying time in
 > the Black Hawk, the Army said in a release.
 >
 > Lobach was assigned to the 12th Aviation Battalion in Fort Belvoir,
 > Virginia. Her awards included the Army Commendation Medal, Army
 > Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Army Service Ribbon,
 > according to the Army.
 >
 > She was also a White House military social aide in the Biden
 > administration.
 >
 > The third member of the flight crew, along with Lobach and Eaves, was
 > Staff Sgt. Ryan O'Hara.
 >
 > The crash instantly caused national scrutiny on air traffic control
 > policies, with Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy opening an investigation.
 >
 > Duffy announced plans in March to bolster airport air traffic control
 > systems with the latest technology over the next four years, while also
 > using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify "hot spots" where close
 > encounters between aircraft occur frequently.
 >
 > There have been 85 near-misses or close calls at Reagan National,
 > according to a report from the National Travel Safety Board (NTSB). Close
 > calls were identified as incidents when there are less than 200 feet of
 > vertical separation and 1,500 feet of lateral separation between aircraft.
 >
 > "We're having near-misses, and if we don't change our way, we're going to
 > lose lives," Duffy told reporters at the time. "That wasn't done. Maybe
 > there was a focus on something other than safety, but in this
 > administration, we are focusing on safety."