Black Hawk helicopter ‘was on doomsday dry run’ before Washington DC crash

The army Black Hawk helicopter involved in the Washington DC air disaster was on a training mission rehearsing what to do in the event of a doomsday attack on the US, officials say.

Defence Secretary Pete Hesgeth told a White House press conference the crew ‘were on a routine, annual re-training of night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity of government mission’.

Continuity of government plans are designed preserve the ability of the US government to function in the event of a national emergency by keeping the president and his top officials alive.

While little detail of such missions are publicly discussed, but they typically involve evacuating top government officials should disaster strike.

That could involve the breakout of nuclear war, terror attacks or natural disasters.

The three soldiers killed in the collision were part of the 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, whose responsibilities in a national crisis include evacuating Pentagon officials.

Another 64 people were killed on the passenger plane.

The Black Hawk crew, using night vision goggles, flew the training mission along the Potomac River on a path known as Route 4.

As the Army comes under scrutiny for operating at night near a busy airport, officials have pointed to the battalion’s sensitive operations.

‘Some of their mission is to support the Department of Defense if something really bad happens in this area, and we need to move our senior leaders,’ said Jonathan Koziol, the chief of staff of the Army’s Aviation Directorate.

The most recent time the US government is known to have activated a continuity of operations mission in an emergency was on 9/11 when al Qaeda hijackers slammed airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.