A second soldier on board the doomed Black Hawk helicopter has been identified following a deadly mid-air collision with an American Airlines plane.
Grieving widow Carrie Eaves revealed her husband, Chief Warrant Officer 2, Andrew Eaves was one of three soldiers taking part in the fateful training exercise over Washington DC on Wednesday night.
The helicopter collided with the passenger jet, carrying 60 passengers and four crew, and crashed into the Potomac River, with everyone involved now presumed dead.
Authorities have pulled around 40 bodies from the wreckage but there are at least 14 more they’re yet to find.
Eaves’ devastated wife, Carrie, said: ‘I am sure by now all of you have heard the news of the tragedy that has occurred in DC.
‘My husband was one of the pilots in the Blackhawk. We ask that you pray for our family and friends and for all the other families that are suffering today. We ask for peace while we grieve.’
She has shared several photos of Eaves, one of which he was in uniform, and asked her friends to share any pictures they may have of him in his memory.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves confirmed his death on Thursday night, taking to X to write: ‘Mississippi is mourning the loss of Brooksville native Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, who was killed in last night’s accident at Reagan National Airport.’
Hours earlier, Eaves’ fellow soldier Ryan O’Hara was named as the crew chief on the flight.
O’Hara, a father-of-one from Georgia, was on board the doomed UH-60 helicopter on an annual proficiency training flight and is among the 67 lives lost in the deadliest U.S. plane crash since 2009.
The 28-year-old left behind a wife and a one-year-old son, and was remembered fondly by his his school as a beloved member of the rifle team.
His father, Gary, was watching television on the couch at his Midway, Georgia, home on Wednesday night when he saw the breaking news that a commercial plane had collided with a military helicopter.
He told the Washington Post: ‘I just had a gut feeling when I saw the story breaking.’
About 10am Thursday, two Army officials knocked on his door to deliver the horrific news, his 28-year-old son was among the casualties.
‘As a parent, how do you take the news like this and not be totally broken?’ he asked.
‘His mother and I and his sister are just absolutely devastated to think we were talking to him just yesterday and we’ll never have the opportunity to talk with him again.’
Retired Army chief warrant officer Jonathan Koziol told ABC News the trio were ‘very experienced.’
O’Hara individually had hundreds of hours of flight time logged, while Eaves, the instructor pilot running the training drill, had ‘more than 1,000 hours of flight time.’
The female pilot commanding the flight, who has not yet been identified, at the time had also logged more than 500 hours, Koziol said.
‘Both pilots had flown this specific route before at night — this wasn’t something new to either one of them,’ he said.
‘These are our top pilots doing this National Capital Region.’
While the pilot being evaluated was at the wheel, if something were to have gone wrong, the instructor likely would have taken control, the publication stated.
The cause of one of the worst airline incidents in U.S. history has still not been determined as first responders pull dozens of bodies out of the river.
But President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested the helicopter pilots should have seen where they were going in an extraordinary briefing on what he called ‘an excrutiating night in our nation’s history’.
Trump said the airliner was ‘doing everything right’ while the Black Hawk was ‘going at an angle that was unbelievably bad’.
Defense Secertary Pete Hegseth added that there was an ‘elevation issue’ the Army is already looking into.
In the aftermath, first responders in the nation’s capital confirmed there were no survivors and the rescue operation had turned to recovery.
Multiple federal agencies have now launched an investigation into how the aircraft came into contact so close to one of the busiest transport hubs in the country.
The Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corp at Parkview High in Gwinnett County confirmed O’Hara was a student and one of those on board.
‘It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of one of our own. Class of 2014, former cadet Ryan O’Hara was the Crew Chief on the Black Hawk involved in last nights crash in DC.,’ Parkview MCJROTC posted on Facebook.
‘Our deepest condolences go out to Gary O’Hara and his entire family.’
The post, that has since been removed, added that O’Hara is ‘fondly remembered as a guy who would fix things around the ROTC gym as well as a vital member of the rifle team.’
The Black Hawk was assigned to Bravo Company of the 12th Aviation Battalion out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Hegseth said the crew had night vision goggles and were experienced.
Doomed Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas – carrying 60 passengers and four crew – collided in a massive fireball with the Army Black Hawk helicopter 400ft above the Potomac River as it was approaching Reagan National Airport just before 9pm Wednesday.
Pilots Captain Jonathan Campos, 34, and First Officer Samuel Lilley and flight attendants Ian Epstein and Danasia Elder were all among the victims.
In a further terrible twist to the tragedy, Lilley Sr revealed he himself is a former Army Black Hawk pilot and had flown in the exact same area where the disaster happened.
‘Samuel was in the prime of his life. He was engaged to a beautiful, wonderful girl and we were all excited about her joining the family,’ he said.
Timothy, a former Army warrant officer who is now a private jet pilot, was at Teterboro Airport, New Jersey, when the crash happened – and is now in Washington.
But he initially had no idea his beloved son was one of the pilots who perished in the tragedy.
‘I saw the crash on the news. I didn’t think there was any way it was my son,’ he said. ‘But then I watched long enough to figure out it was my son’s airline and then I kind of know his schedule.