Father of D.C. crash victim says Black Hawk crew chief “trusted pilots with his life”

According to Ryan O’Hara, the father of U.S. Army Black Hawk pilot Ryan, his son loved flying above Washington, D.C., never complained about the congested skies, and called the team “probably the most respected pilots that Ryan had ever flown with.” “He trusted them with his life,” Gary O’Hara said in a tearful interview with CBS News on Friday from his Georgia home, just two days after his son’s military helicopter crashed into an American Airlines passenger plane. It was the country’s worst air accident in over ten years. Parents of Ryan O’Hara watched on TV as their son’s body was taken from debris in the icy Potomac River and placed in a hearse.

“It’s very touching to see the other soldiers saluting as they take him out with a draped flag over it,” remarked Gary O’Hara. “But to sit there and think that that’s my little boy — it’s crushing.” During a presidential press conference, he talked about the weight of going through a heartbreaking personal tragedy in front of a national audience and then seeing it turned into fodder for a political discussion about diversity hiring. He noted that blaming “DEI” for the disaster just made the family’s pain worse and that no one in the Army gets a position on a Black Hawk unless they are qualified. “To be placed in that helicopter, you must earn your place on the ladder.

You don’t just get it from them. “You deserve it,” he remarked. “And you know, all of those soldiers that protect us, they earn their stripes every single day.” Despite not coming from a military background, 28-year-old Ryan O’Hara, who was raised in the Atlanta region, enrolled as a cadet in his high school’s ROTC. At the age of 18, he decided to join the Army particularly because it would allow him to work on Black Hawk helicopters. O’Hara said Ryan’s assignment to Fort Belvoir in Virginia, just outside the country’s capital, was a relief to his family following a tour of duty in Afghanistan. He, his wife, and their one-year-old son resided in the Washington area.

“I was worried when he was in Afghanistan,” he stated. “You let your guard down … when he’s on American soil.” According to Gary O’Hara, his son, who enjoyed flying over Washington, D.C. at night, occasionally sent dad pictures of the monuments and stated, “D.C. is the most beautiful city in the world.” He claimed that his son never voiced any worries about the perils of flying through congested airspace. He claimed that as soon as he saw the news of the disaster on Wednesday night, he started to panic. He claimed that despite the fact that many military fly Black Hawks in the nation’s capital, he knew right away that his son was involved in the incident. “My wife was like, ‘No, it’s not him,'” he explained. “But my heart just broke.”

As soon as he saw the news, he attempted to text his son, but it was unsuccessful. Fearing the worst, his daughter-in-law called late that evening. Two Army men knocked on the door the following morning, confirming those suspicions. “It’s really like your worst nightmare,” he replied. He considers what happened over the Potomac River to be a freak incident as he struggles with the trauma of the previous 48 hours. “Sixty seconds earlier or later, there’s no accident,” said O’Hara.