OK, up until now, I had questions about the pilot who was flying that blackhawk (actually, I had questions about both), but now I have some real concerns!
Before I start: NO! I am not a pilot. That said, I know a great deal more about aviation than the average layman. If you know me, you know how true this statement is. So I am speaking with more than a surface knowledge here.
Here are the latest stories that caught my attention:
The female pilot had apparently served as a White House Social Aide for the Biden Administration:
These are the job requirements for White House military social aides
My immediate question then would be:
How long had it been since she had been in the cockpit?
If this female Captain was flying (assumed because audio shows the male instructor pilot talking to the tower, which is usually the job of the pilot not flying the aircraft), then this may not have been a ‘routine’ training mission after all. Until just a few days before the accident, it appears as though she was a social aide at the Biden White House. So, here is the concern:
WAS SHE EVEN CURRENT?
What do I mean by this? Well, I want to know how long it had been since she had last flown? Had she been keeping up her flight hours with regular training flights. This is a serious concern because, if she trained as a pilot early in her career (as most pilots do), she should have had significantly more than 500 hours by the time she made Captain (and the ‘instructor’ pilot should have had a lot more than 1,000 hours as that rank takes years to achieve). This would then call into question whether this was just a regular certification flight, or a re-certification flight. The difference is a regular certification is a formality, whereas a re-certification flight means the pilot needed to re-qualify from the start because they had been away from regular flying for too long.
Given the political agenda of the Biden Administration, and what I suspect is a culturally created hazard to civilian aviation in general (i.e. spoiled generals forcing hazardous flight paths on the FAA), I suspect this Captain may not have been current in her status as a flight officer. If that is the case, the military may blood on its hands here.
BASED SOLELY ON WHAT WE ARE BEING TOLD:
Neither of these pilots had the experience to be flying VIP flights, let alone night training missions in such a crowded and highly restricted air space.
Now, I know I will be accused of speaking out of ignorance, but I have enough knowledge of aviation and the military culture to know that my concerns are justified. What we need to know now is this:
Was the female pilot flying (as I suspect)? And if so, how long had it been since she had been flying regularly?
Even then, we need to look at the possibility that she had been given a position in this blackhawk unit for reasons other than merit. This could have been a form of ‘reward.’ The truth is, we do not know, but we need to have these questions answered because they are directly relevant to the investigation.
So, to conclude: More than ever, I suspect a military culture/political agenda bias may have played a major part in this accident. If I’m correct, the pilot flying the blackhawk should never have been in that aircraft in the first place.
But I could be (and hope I am) wrong!
–B3A