WASHINGTON — 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.