What We Know So Far About the Plane-Helicopter Crash Victims | TIME
Sixty-seven people are presumed dead after the Jan. 29 collision between a passenger plane and an Army helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)—the deadliest air disaster in the U.S. since 2001.
Sixty passengers and four crew members were aboard the commercial jet, an American Airlines flight operated by PSA Airlines under the American Eagle brand that departed from Wichita, Kans., while the helicopter, a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, had three personnel on board.
President Donald Trump said on Jan. 30 that no one survived the crash. As of Feb. 2, officials have recovered 55 bodies, some of which have been identified by friends and family in public tributes. “It is my belief that we’re going to recover everyone,” D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services chief John Donnelly said in a briefing.
Here’s what we know so far about the victims.
The three military personnel on the fateful helicopter were from the Army’s B Company, 12th Combat Aviation Battalion, based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a press conference on Jan. 30 said the victims were a captain, a staff sergeant, and a chief warrant officer conducting “a routine annual retraining of night flights.”
Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff of the Army's aviation directorate, told reporters that the crew members were “a very experienced group.” The instructor pilot, in command of the aircraft, had 1,000 flying hours, Koziol said, and the other pilot had 500 hours. The third soldier was a crew chief, who typically rides the back of the helicopter.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves in a post on X named the chief warrant officer as Brooksville native Andrew Eaves. News outlets, including the Macon Beacon, reported Eaves’ death following the collision, which the Army has since confirmed. Per the Macon Beacon, Eaves “was a Central Academy graduate who grew up in the Brooksville area.” According to the Army, Eaves was a decorated soldier hailing from Great Mills, Md., and who had served in the U.S. Navy from August 2007 to September 2017, before becoming a UH-60 pilot for the Army.
The Army also identified the helicopter crew chief as 28-year-old Staff Sgt. Ryan O’Hara. He