One of 3 soldiers aboard Black Hawk chopper involved in midair collision identified as former White House aide

One of three soldiers aboard an Army Black Hawk helicopter that was involved in the deadly midair collision with an American Airlines flight Wednesday near Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C., was identified Saturday by the Army as 28-year-old Capt. Rebecca Lobach, who had worked as a White House aide in the Biden administration.

The Army said Lobach had served as an aviation officer in the Army from July 2019 until January 2025. She had been awarded the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Army Service Ribbon.

Her family in a statement released through the Army described her as a “bright star in all our lives. She was kind, generous, brilliant, funny, ambitious and strong.”

Lobach was a native of Durham, North Carolina, and enlisted in the North Carolina Army National Guard while in college in December 2018, a friend, 1st Lt. Samantha Brown, told CBS News.

She attended Sewanee: The University of the South, where she played basketball, and then later the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she completed a degree in biology in 2019 as a distinguished military graduate, according to Brown.

When she enlisted in the National Guard, she did so as a Simultaneous Membership Program cadet, a program which allows cadets to take part in both the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and the National Guard at the same time.

Lobach also served as a White House social aide during the Biden administration, Brown said. Just last month, she escorted Ralph Lauren through the White House when he was among those awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by former President Joe Biden.

The other two soldiers aboard the Black Hawk helicopter have been identified as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland, and  Staff. Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia, who was the chopper’s crew chief.

The bodies of two of the three soldiers have so far been recovered from the wreckage of the Blackhawk helicopter, a law enforcement source familiar with the recovery efforts confirmed to CBS News Saturday.

The source said the bodies – a man and a woman – were recovered sometime Friday.

The Black Hawk had taken off from nearby Fort Belvoir in Virginia, and was conducting a routine training mission at the time of the collision that killed 67 people, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disclosed.

“A routine annual retraining of night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity of government mission. The military does dangerous things. It does routine things on a regular basis,” Hegseth said Thursday.  “Tragically, last night a mistake was made.”

The cause is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.  

Kris Van Cleave

contributed to this report.