Explained | The reason army helicopters train in Washington's busy skies

Washington: The Army Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger jet near Washington on Wednesday was training near a busy airport, and in a complicated airway, because Army helicopters frequently ferry Cabinet officials, lawmakers and other VIPs across the area, Army officials said Thursday.

The Black Hawk crew was among the Army's most experienced, consisting of command pilots belonging to the 12th Aviation Battalion out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Those pilots routinely conduct daytime and nighttime training runs in an air corridor next to Reagan National Airport.

The reason is simple, Army officials said Thursday. The pilots have to train where they will be called on to fly.

In many ways, they said, the 12th Aviation Brigade is considered the VIP taxi service of the federal government in Washington.

The brigade is particularly responsible for "continuity of government" missions, which include whisking Cabinet officials to secure, undisclosed locations in national emergencies, like the 9/11 attacks.

The passenger jet that the Black Hawk collided with was on its final approach to land at Reagan National Airport, officials said. Washington has some of the most restrictive air space in the country, and helicopters are supposed to stay below 200 feet as a way to separate them from fixed-wing planes.

The issue of where the Army trains is bound to come under scrutiny in the days ahead. Daniel Driscoll, President Donald Trump's nominee for Army secretary, said Thursday that the service may need to end flight training in congested areas.

Driscoll, speaking at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Army would need to examine "where is an appropriate time to take training risk, and it may not be near an airport like Reagan."

Two Army officials confirmed that the helicopter's pilots -- one man, one woman -- and a crew member, a male staff sergeant, had been killed in the collision. Only the sergeant's body has been recovered, the officials said. The Army said it would release their identities after next of kin had been notified.

The 60 passengers and four crew members on the regional jetliner, an American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, were also killed.

"It's a tragedy, a horrible loss of life for those 64 souls on that civilian airliner, and of course, the three soldiers in that Black Hawk," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a video statement from his office at the Pentagon.

The cause of the crash is under investigation. The helicopter's black box, which contains important flight data, was still in the fuselage Thursday afternoon, the officials said.

But "these are our top pilots," Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff of the Army's aviation directorate, told reporters. He said one pilot had 1,000 flying hours and the other had 500.

"12th Aviation has a special mission in the national capitol region," he said. Part of it is "VIP service" and part of it is to support the Pentagon "if something really bad happens in our area and they need to move our senior leaders."

The Army pushed back against Trump's efforts to assign blame while investigators were still trying to figure out what happened. In a briefing at the White House, Trump and Hegseth appeared to suggest that diversity programs had somehow caused the crash.

Hegseth, in his first press appearance as defense secretary, said that "when you don't have the best standards in who you're hiring, it means, on the one hand, you're not getting the best people in government."

"The military does dangerous things, it does routine things, on a regular basis," Hegseth said. "Tragically, last night, a mistake was made."

Hegseth identified the crew by rank -- a captain, a staff sergeant and a chief warrant officer.

Several Army officials privately expressed anger that the Trump administration was assigning blame so quickly and without citing any evidence.

"We can speculate, but I would hate to do that because that wouldn't be fair to the family of the aircrew," said Koziol, a former Army aviator.

The UH-60 Black Hawk was flying a solo mission from Fort Belvoir. Earlier in the day, Hegseth said the crew had night vision goggles. However, it was unclear whether the crew was wearing the goggles at the time of the crash, Army officials said.

Hegseth said the 12th Aviation Battalion would undergo "a 48-hour operational pause on contingency mission" to review the collision.

The secretary said a senior-level Army aviation investigative team had arrived in Washington to help determine how the crash happened.