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The call sign for the doomed Black Hawk helicopter that crashed into an American Airlines plane and killed more than 60 passengers has sparked mystery as the public struggles to make sense of the tragic incident.
The Black Hawk was marked as a PAT 25, which stands for priority air transport and is usually reserved for when the Army is conducting VIP missions, such as having officials onboard.
The Army has confirmed no officials were onboard the aircraft, which was carrying three soldiers, a standard sized crew, according to Fox News Journalist Jennifer Griffin.
The military aircraft was conducting a training flight, according to Joint Task Force-National Capitol Region Media Chief Heather Chairez. It belonged to B Company, 12th Aviation Battalion out of Fort Belvoir in Virginia.
However, some aren't buying those claims, and question what the crew was carrying onboard for it be designated as a PAT 25.
Jacq Cerra, who is in the Army, is one of the people questioning it, saying on TikTok: 'I'm telling you right now - and they can kill me for saying it - under no circumstances is a military helicopter, especially a f**king Black Hawk, accidentally crashing into a commercial plane.
'There's no way,' she continued before bringing up the call sign. 'What's on that helicopter, you know?'
A TikTok commenter named Uche, who claimed to be a Marine veteran, also thought the crash was weird, writing under Cerra's video: 'You’re 100 percent correct, those Black Hawks move damn near omni-directionally and the pilots are top-tier, a lot of questions.'
The Black Hawk was marked as a PAT 25, which stands for priority air transport and is usually reserved when the Army is conducting VIP missions, such as having officials onboard. The Army confirmed it was not carrying officials onboard
The military aircraft was conducting a training flight, but some aren't buying it due to the priority call sign and the experience that is required of Black Hawk pilots
A few minutes before the jet was to land, air traffic controllers asked American Airlines Flight 5342 if it could do so on a shorter runway, and the pilots agreed.
Controllers cleared the jet to land and flight tracking sites showed the plane adjust its approach to the new runway.
Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked a helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight.
The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later, saying 'PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ' - apparently telling the chopper to wait for the Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine jet to pass.
There was no reply. Seconds after that, the aircraft collided.
The plane’s radio transponder stopped transmitting about 2,400 feet short of the runway, roughly over the middle of the Potomac.
Eerie radar footage showed the Black Hawk helicopter cut through the airspace from the opposite direction under cover of darkness, with both aircrafts seemingly unaware of the other's presence.
They slammed into one another just 400ft above ground, erupting in a violent explosion before plunging into the freezing Potomac River below.
'There's no way,' Jacq Cerra, who is in the Army, said, before bringing up the call sign. 'What's on that helicopter, you know?'
The body of the plane was found upside-down in three sections in waist-deep water, officials said. The helicopter’s wreckage was also found.
New Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced on X that an investigation by the Army and Department of Defense has begun.
Hegseth also said the helicopter crew was 'fairly experienced' and was performing an 'annual proficiency training flight.'
'They did have night vision goggles,' Hegseth said in a video posted to X.
More than 60 people were killed on the American Airlines flight, including figure skaters Spencer Lane and Jinna Han, who both skate in Boston.
Spencer Lane uploaded the photo around 7pm ET Wednesday, which appeared to show the jet taxiing on the runway at Wichita Airport in Kansas before it took off for its final flight.
He captioned it ICT -> DCA - the codes for Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
His mother, Christine Lane, was confirmed dead. Evgenia Shishkova, 53, and Vadim Naumov, 56, Jinna Han's mother Jin are also dead.
The three soldiers are also presumed dead. Hegseth did not announce their identities, as their families are still being notified.
President Donald Trump has blamed diversity and inclusion for one of the deadliest plane crashes in US history.
Speaking at the White House, Trump said the tragedy was entirely preventable as he slammed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) recruiting practices in federal agencies.
He added that he had some 'pretty good ideas' of how the disaster occurred and vowed to make sure it would never happen again.
Trump then said he put 'safety' first while Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden prioritized politics and called former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg a 'disaster' in an extraordinary attack on previous administrations.
'He was a disaster as a mayor. He ran his city into the ground and he's a disaster now. He's just got a good line of bulls**t,' Trump said of Buttigieg.
Then he insisted that federal agencies need to be hiring based on intelligence rather than on diversity. He added that Air Traffic Controllers need to be 'geniuses.'
He was also asked about Hegseth's statement that the Black Hawk was doing an 'annual retraining, night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity of government mission.'
Trump did not appear to immediately know about continuity of government – which refers to how the government functions during a disaster – when asked about it.
'I don't know what that refers to, but they were practicing. They were – they do that. They call it practicing, and that's something that should be done. It's only continuity in the sense that we want to have very good people, and that has to be in continuity, and that's what they referred to,' Trump said.
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