
WASHINGTON - The Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger jet in Washington on Wednesday was on a training flight along a route core to a seldom-discussed military mission to evacuate senior officials to safety in the event of an attack on the US, officials say.
The military mission, known as “continuity of government” and “continuity of operations”, is meant to preserve the ability of the US government to operate.
Most days, crews like the one killed on Wednesday transport VIPs around Washington, which is buzzing with helicopter traffic.
But US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disclosed the Black Hawk crew’s ties to the mission during a White House press conference on Thursday, saying they “were on a routine, annual re-training of night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity of government mission”.
Still, little of such missions is publicly discussed.
The three soldiers killed in the collision were part of the 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, whose responsibilities in a national crisis include evacuating Pentagon officials. Another 64 people were killed in the passenger plane.
The Black Hawk crew, using night vision goggles, flew the training mission along the Potomac River on a path known as Route 4. As the Army comes under scrutiny for operating at night near a busy airport, officials have pointed to the battalion’s sensitive operations.
“Some of their mission is to support the Department of Defense if something really bad happens in this area, and we need to move our senior leaders,” said Jonathan Koziol, the chief of staff of the Army’s Aviation Directorate.
9/11 emergency flights
The most recent time the US government is known to have activated a continuity of operations mission in an emergency was on Sept. 11, 2001, when al Qaeda hijackers slammed airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, killing almost 3,000 people.
Reuters was able to establish some of the activities of the 12th Aviation Battalion that day.
“The battalion helped transport some senior leaders out of Washington DC to ‘hide sites’,” said Bradley Bowman, a former Army aviation officer who flew on Sept 11 as part of the 12th Aviation Battalion.
That evening, Bowman flew a Black Hawk to pick up then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz at one of those sites and fly him back to the Pentagon.
There was just one problem — the Pentagon’s helicopter landing pad used to pick up and drop off VIPs was destroyed.
“We just repositioned and landed in the traffic circle of 395, which had been closed by that point,” Bowman said, referring to I-395 highway that loops around the US military’s headquarters.
Wolfowitz was quoted in a 2017 book describing going to a “bizarre location that was prepared to survive nuclear war”.
The book’s author, Garrett Graff, said the site was called Raven Rock Mountain Complex, or “Site R”, located just miles from Camp David. It remains one of three main backup facilities for the US government, and the main one for the Pentagon leadership.
“It’s 100 percent operational today. There’s a team of maybe 100 personnel inside Raven Rock right now, ready to pick up the pieces of the US government,” Graff said. (Story continues below)

Katherine Gratas, a United Airlines flight attendant, leaves a note at a memorial in memory of the victims of the midair collision in Washington DC, at Wichita Dwight D Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita, Kansas, where American Eagle flight 5342 originated. (Photo: Reuters)
Pilot’s identity withheld
The US Army on Friday released the names of the two male aviators who were killed on Wednesday night. But in an extraordinary step, it did not identify the third crew member, a female pilot, citing her family’s request for privacy, the New York Times reported.
The two male aviators were identified as Chief Warrant Officer Andrew Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland; the helicopter’s co-pilot; and Staff Sgt Ryan O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia, the crew chief.
It is unclear what specifically motivated the pilot’s family to make its request. But it comes as President Donald Trump, before the completion of the investigation, has blamed the Black Hawk crew for the midair disaster that took 67 lives.
In a social media post Friday morning, Trump wrote: “The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???”
Four people briefed on the matter told The New York Times on Thursday that the helicopter appeared to have been flying too high and outside its approved path when it collided with the passenger jet.
The air traffic control tower had given the helicopter pilot permission to fly no higher than 200 feet, said the people, who were not authorised to speak about the matter publicly.
Responding to Trump’s comment, an Army official on Friday urged caution and patience until the investigation was sorted out.
The issue of the female aviator’s identity is particularly sensitive as Trump has also blamed diversity, without evidence, for the crash.
In addition, Pete Hegseth, the newly confirmed defense secretary, has said that the military has diminished its standards by welcoming women and racial minorities into its ranks. He has echoed Trump’s comments on rooting out diversity programmes in the government.