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The Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger jet in Washington on Wednesday was on a training flight along a route core to a seldom-discussed military mission to evacuate senior officials to safety in the event of an attack on the U.S., officials say.

The military mission, known as “continuity of government” and “continuity of operations,” is meant to preserve the ability of the U.S. government to operate.

Most days, crews like the one killed on Wednesday transport VIPs around Washington, which is buzzing with helicopter traffic.

But U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disclosed the Black Hawk crew’s ties to the mission during a White House press conference on Thursday, saying they “were on a routine, annual re-training of night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity of government mission.”

Still, little of such missions is publicly discussed.

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 in the passenger plane.

Recovery efforts are ongoing for dozens of bodies in the Potomac River, where the remnants of the American Airlines flight and the US army Black Hawk helicopter lie after the January 29 disaster.

Officials in the US have sought to reassure citizens that flying is safe. Transport secretary Sean Duffy insisted that passengers should be “assured” that flying is a safe mode of transport in a press conference on Thursday morning.

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Jo Ellis’s record of service in the Virginia National Guard appears to be nothing but honorable.

She served in Iraq as a helicopter door gunner, then in Kuwait as part of the multi-national fight against the Islamic State. And in 2023, with the support of her commanders, she began medically transitioning to female.

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The crash has shone a spotlight on concerns about air safety and a shortage of tower controllers at the heavily congested airport that serves the U.S. capital.

The FAA is about 3,000 controllers behind staffing targets. The agency said in 2023 that it had 10,700 certified controllers, about the same as a year earlier.

One controller rather than two was handling local plane and helicopter traffic on Wednesday at the airport, a situation deemed “not normal” but considered adequate for lower volumes of traffic, according to a person briefed on the matter. Duffy on Thursday vowed to reform the FAA.

Airspace is crowded around the Washington area, home to three commercial airports, multiple military bases and some senior government officials who are ferried around by helicopter.

Over a three-year period ending in 2019, there was an average of 80 helicopter flights per day within 30 miles (48 km) of Reagan National Airport, with the majority either military or law enforcement flights, according to a 2021 Government Accountability Office report.

The aircraft came down just after 6 p.m. local time near the Roosevelt Mall, damaging several homes and vehicles. Shocking footage showed a large mushroom-shaped fireball shooting into the sky.

City law enforcement quickly declared the crash a “major incident” and urged residents to stay away from the area.

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Elizabeth Anne Keys, an attorney, had traveled to Wichita on a business trip and was worried she might not be able to celebrate her 33rd birthday back in Washington with her longtime partner, David Seidman.

But her work meeting wrapped up with time to spare, allowing her to catch the flight on her birthday and make plans for the couple to get drinks late that night, Seidman said.

Keys, a native of Cincinnati, and Seidman, from New York, met as law students at Washington’s Georgetown University. The capital became their city, and Keys was endlessly energetic as they explored it together.

She played the saxophone, oboe and bassoon in high school and was on the sailing team in college. She loved taking ski trips out West, hiking in Hawaii and entertaining friends around the fire pit at her home, her family said.

Seidman said he had never skied until she encouraged him to give it a shot. She wanted to try golf next, and they were planning to take lessons.”It was like that for everything,” he said. “She was nonstop all the time.”

The fatal midair collision on Wednesday evening between an Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet moments away from landing at Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport was a shocking and extremely rare occurrence, according to experts who believe human error is the likeliest explanation behind the tragedy that claimed dozens of lives.

Justin Rohrlich has more: