The father of U.S. Army Black Hawk pilot Ryan O'Hara said his son loved flying over Washington, D.C., never expressed concerns about the crowded skies and described the crew as "probably the most respected pilots that Ryan had ever flown with."
"He trusted them with his life," Gary O'Hara told CBS News in an emotional interview from his home in Georgia Friday, less than two days after his son's military helicopter struck an American Airlines passenger jet. It was the worst air disaster in the nation in more than a decade.
Ryan O'Hara's parents watched on television as their son's body was recovered from wreckage submerged in the frigid Potomac River and transferred to a hearse.
"It's very touching to see the other soldiers saluting as they take him out with a draped flag over it," Gary O'Hara said. "But to sit there and think that that's my little boy — it's crushing."
He described the burden of experiencing a wrenching personal tragedy that unfolded before a national audience – and then watching it become grist for a political debate about diverse hiring during a presidential news conference.
He said any attempt to blame the crash on "DEI" only added to the family's grief and said no one in the Army lands a spot on a Black Hawk without being qualified.
"You have to earn your spot to be moved into the ladder to be put into that helicopter. They don't just give it to you. You earn it," he said. "And you know, all of those soldiers that protect us, they earn their stripes every single day."
Ryan O'Hara, 29, grew up in the Atlanta area and joined his high school's ROTC as a cadet, even though he wasn't from a military family. He enlisted when he was 18, specifically choosing the Army because it offered him the opportunity to work on Black Hawk helicopters.
After a tour of duty in Afghanistan, O'Hara said his family was relieved when Ryan was assigned to Fort Belvoir in Virginia, just outside the nation's capital. He lived in the Washington region with his wife and 1-year-old son.
"I was worried when he was in Afghanistan," he said. "You let your guard down …when he's on American soil."
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Gary O'Hara said his son loved flying over Washington, D.C., at night, and sometimes would send him photos of the monuments and text that "D.C. is the most beautiful city in the world." He said his son never raised concerns about the dangers of navigating the crowded skies.
He said he began to worry immediately after seeing news of the crash Wednesday night. Even though numerous soldiers crew Black Hawks in the nation's capital, he said he felt instantly that the crash involved his son.
"My wife was like, 'No, it's not him,'" he said. "But my heart just broke."
He tried immediately to text his son after seeing the news, but it wouldn't go through. His daughter-in-law called late that night, fearing the worst. The next morning, those fears were confirmed with a knock on the door from two Army soldiers.
"It's really like your worst nightmare," he said.
As he grapples with the trauma of the past 48 hours, he views what occurred over the Potomac River as a freak event.
"Sixty seconds earlier or later, there's no accident," O'Hara said.
