According to Reuters, the US military Black Hawk helicopter that crashed after colliding with a passenger plane in Washington, DC on January 29 was actually on a special training flight.
At the time of the crash, it was flying a critical route on a little-known military mission: rehearsing the evacuation of senior US officials in the event of an apocalypse or attack, according to Reuters.
The mission is called “maintenance of government” and “sustainment of operations,” and is intended to ensure the U.S. government can continue to function in emergency situations. Typically, helicopters are used to transport VIPs around the Washington, D.C., area, where helicopter traffic is heavy.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed the Black Hawk's connection to the mission during a White House press briefing, saying the crew was participating in a routine annual nighttime training exercise on a standard flight path for government sustainment missions.
The three soldiers killed in the crash were from the 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, which is responsible for evacuating Pentagon officials in crisis situations. The crash also killed 64 people on the passenger plane.
The Black Hawk crew used night vision goggles to conduct a training run along the Potomac River, on a route known as Route 4. Amid concerns about the military operating aircraft at night near a busy airport, officials stressed that the battalion's operation was special in nature.
“Part of their mission is to support the Department of Defense in the event of a major incident in the area and the need to move senior leaders,” said Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for the Army Aviation Department.
The last time the US government is known to have activated the mission was on September 11, 2001, when al-Qaeda members attacked the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people.
Reuters news agency confirmed that on that day, the 12th Aviation Battalion participated in transporting a number of senior leaders out of Washington to secret shelters.
Bradley Bowman, a former Army aviation officer who served in the battalion at the time, recalled that he flew a Black Hawk that evening to pick up then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz from one of the shelters and take him back to the Pentagon. But there was a big problem: the Pentagon’s helipad had been destroyed in the attack.
