The identity of the helicopter pilot who was killed in a mid-air collision with an American Airline passenger plane has been released amidst accusations by president Donald Trump that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) was a factor in the fatal crash.
Captain Rebecca M. Lobach served as an aviation officer in the Army since July 2019, logging in over 500 hours of flying time, reported Fox News.
She was in the top 20% of cadets nationwide when she graduated in ROTC at the University of North Carolina, reported the Army.
The Army released an official statement on behalf of the Lobach family.
“We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Rebecca. She was a bright star in all our lives,” read the statement. “She was kind, generous, brilliant, funny, ambitious and strong. No one dreamed bigger or worked harder to achieve her goals.”
Lobach’s family initially requested for her identity to remain anonymous because of Trump’s accusations that DEI was a factor in the crash.
The identities of the two additional passengers on the flight, Staff Sergeant Ryan O’Hara and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, were released previously.
The Black Hawk helicopter, which was on a training mission, collided with an American Airlines jet that was preparing to land at Runway 33 at Ronald Reagan National Airport Wednesday night, reported the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The American Airlines jet had 64 people aboard including passengers and crew.
After the aircrafts collided, the wreckage fell into the Potomac River, where a search and rescue operation of 300 people was launched.
After hours of searching in freezing temperatures, the rescue mission was called off with no survivors from the crash.
The cause of the crash is currently under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
President Trump, during a nationwide sweep of dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, blamed Democrats for causing the plane crash.
Trump said Democrats caused the crash by implementing DEI initiatives in the FAA he himself launched in his first presidency.
Launched in 2019, the FAA program aimed to help controllers with disabilities enter “into a more diverse and inclusive workforce.”
“I put safety first, (former Presidents Barack) Obama, (Joe) Biden and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I had to say that it’s terrible.”
Trump said a group within the FAA “determined that the [FAA] workforce was too white, that they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change it and change it immediately. This was in the Obama administration, just prior to my getting there, and we took care of African Americans, Hispanic Americans.
“We don’t know,” Trump continued when asked why he believed the crash was a result of DEI policies within recruitment. “It just could have been. We have a high standard. We’ve had a higher, much higher standard than anybody else.”
Many Republicans, like Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, rushed to defend Trump’s claims.
Trump’s attack on DEI programs through his executive order has caused many companies like Target, Amazon, Walmart, Ford, Microsoft, John Deere, McDonald’s and Meta to roll back DEI initiatives out of fear of legal retribution.
Republican Attorneys General recently sent a letter pressuring Costco to drop its DEI efforts.
Originally published on Latin Times
