Durham native id’d as one of the soldiers killed in DC mid-air collision

As crews work to pull the remaining wreckage of the American Airlines plane and Army Black Hawk helicopter on Monday after the tragic collision over the Potomac River in Washington, DC, Wednesday night, 55 victims have been positively identified, including a Durham native who was one of the pilots and three soldiers in the helicopter.

According to a press release issued by the US Army, twenty-eight-year-old Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, a UNC-Chapel Hill graduate, served as an aviation officer (15A) in the regular Army from July 2019 to January 2025. She was assigned to the 12th Aviation Battalion, Ft Belvoir, Va.

During her time at UNC, Lobach was a member of ROTC and was in the top 20% of cadets nationwide and in the North Carolina Army National Guard. 

She also served as a White House military social aide during the Biden administration.

Lobach’s family released a statement via the Army.

“We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Rebecca,” the family said. “She was a bright star in all our lives. She was kind, generous, brilliant, funny, ambitious and strong. No one dreamed bigger or worked harder to achieve her goals.”

She earned certification as a pilot-in-command after extensive testing by the most senior and experienced pilots in her battalion after more than 450 hours of flight time, her family said.

Lobach’s awards include the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and Army Service Ribbon.

“Rebecca cared about people, and she extended to individuals the same fearless defense she gave to this nation,” her family’s statement continued. “She was proud of the difference she made as a certified Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) Victim Advocate and hoped to continue her education so she could serve this country as a physician when her time with the Army ended. She once said, “My experiences with SHARP have reinforced my resolve to serve others with compassion, understanding, and the resources necessary for healing.”

The other two soldiers aboard the Black Hawk helicopter have been identified as thirty-nine-year-old Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, Maryland, and twenty-eight-year-old Staff. Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, Georgia.

The ill-fated American Eagle Flight 5342, operated by American Airlines regional carrier PSA Airlines, was coming from Wichita, Kansas, and was getting ready to land at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport when the helicopter collided with the plane.  The impact caused the plane to break into three pieces and caused it and the helicopter to crash into the Potomac River, which had a water temperature in the upper 30s at the time of the crash.

Twenty-nine-year-old First Officer Samuel Lilley was one of the plane’s pilots who was based at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

His father, Timothy, told The Daily Mail that he loved working at PSA and was about to make captain. He was also newly engaged.

He graduated from Georgia Southern University in 2018 and graduated as an airline pilot in 2022.

Fifty-three-year-old senior flight attendant Ian Epstein and thirty-four-year-old flight attendant Danasia Elder were also based at Charlotte Douglas.

Epstein was with American Airlines subsidiary PSA for five years from February 2020 and ‘ranked in the top 5% nationwide in American Airlines’ credit card sales program’. He coached and mentored new flight attendants.

Before his airline job, he was the founder and sales director of Oak Barrel Travel in Charlotte and a senior sales consultant at Camping World.

His daughter is scheduled to be married in eight weeks.

Elder leaves behind a husband and two children.

Also killed in the crash was Wendy Shaffer, a mother of two young children from Charlotte.

According to WSOC-TV, Shaffer’s passing was confirmed through a GoFundMe page set up by friends, which noted she leaves behind a husband and two children, ages 3 and 1.

The other pilot of the plane that was killed was thirty-four-year-old Jonathan Campos of Florida.

Other victims that have been identified are a figure skating group, including two US figure skating champions.

As the investigation continues, Fox News reported that staffing at the airport’s air control tower was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” according to an internal preliminary Federal Aviation Administration report reviewed by The New York Times.

According to the NYT report, the controller who was handling helicopters Wednesday night was also instructing planes that were landing and departing from the airport runways. Two controllers typically handle those assignments.

The early report also says that the air control tower at Reagan Airport may have been understaffed for years. As of September 2023, there were 19 fully certified controllers. Staffing targets set by the FAA and the controllers’ union call for 30.