ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Following the announcement by officials that they had recovered and identified 55 of the 67 people killed, families of victims of the deadliest U.S. air accident since 2001 visited the crash site on Sunday, while divers searched the submerged wreckage for further remains.
Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly of Washington, D.C., stated that authorities are certain that everything will be located. As rescuers get ready to remove wreckage from the frigid Potomac River as early as Monday morning, divers are methodically searching for remains, Donnelly said during a press briefing.
According to Army Corps of Engineers Col. Francis B. Pera, salvage personnel and divers are following stringent procedures and will cease moving debris if a body is discovered. According to him, the respectful recovery of remains comes first.
According to Pera, “what really keeps us all going is reuniting those lost in this tragic incident.” Teams have been working on this endeavor since the start, and we are dedicated to seeing it through to completion.
According to Pera, the divers have high-definition cameras with feeds that are watched from support boats, providing four or five pairs of eyes inside the debris. One diver had treatment for hypothermia at a hospital due to the extremely cold temperatures, according to Donnelly.
Parts of the two planes—an Army Black Hawk helicopter carrying three people and an American Airlines jet carrying sixty-four—that collided over the river Wednesday night at Reagan Washington National Airport will be placed onto flatbed trucks and transported to a hangar for examination.
After the two planes collided, family members were transported in buses under police protection to the Potomac River bank. The plane was on its way to land from Wichita, Kansas. The Black Hawk was on a mission of training. No one survived.
The events leading up to the incident were being pieced together by federal investigators.
The National Transportation Safety Board released a photo of investigators in a small boat inspecting wreckage and another of them looking at a flight data recorder on Sunday, but they did not hold a press briefing.
Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, stated that he wished to provide investigators time to carry out their investigation. On Sunday morning TV news shows, however, he asked a variety of questions.
What was going on within the towers? Did they have too few employees? Did the Black Hawk’s pilots wear night vision goggles? What was the Black Hawk’s position and elevation? On CNN, Duffy inquired.
Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach of Durham, North Carolina; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland; and Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O. Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia, were on the helicopter.
A party of hunters returning after a guided trip and figure skaters returning from the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita were among the passengers aboard the plane.
Preliminary data revealed inconsistent readings regarding the airplane and helicopter’s altitudes, the NTSB said on Saturday.
Additionally, investigators reported that the jet’s flight recorder indicated a pitch shift approximately one second prior to crash. However, they made no mention of whether the angle shift indicated that pilots were attempting an evasive maneuver in an attempt to escape the collision.
When the incident occurred, the jet’s altitude was 325 feet (99 meters), plus or minus 25 feet (7.6 meters), according to data from its flight recorder, NTSB officials told reporters. However, the Black Hawk was at 200 feet (61 meters), the highest altitude permitted for helicopters in the region, according to data from the control tower.
The reason for the disparity is still unknown.
Investigators stated that they intended to refine the tower data, which can be less dependable, and hoped to reconcile the discrepancy with data from the helicopter black box.
According to investigator in charge Brice Banning, this is a complicated case. This place has a lot of components.
Banning said that just before the disaster, sound was captured by the jet’s cockpit voice recorder.
According to Banning, there was a vocal response from the crew, and the flight data recorder indicated that the aircraft was starting to tip up. About a second later, there were sounds of impact, and then the recording stopped.
Usually, thorough investigations take a year or longer. Within 30 days, investigators hope to have a preliminary report.
Todd Inman, a member of the NTSB, stated that he has spoken with victims’ families for hours.
A few wanted to embrace us. According to Inman, some people are just furious and outraged. All of them are simply injured. We want to provide them with answers, yet they still want answers.
At one point, officials said that over 300 personnel were involved in the recovery effort. Heavy wreckage was also lifted by two Navy barges.
Duffy stated on Fox News Sunday that the Federal Aviation Administration was investigating the number of employees in the control tower at Reagan Airport.
Five controllers were on duty at the time of the incident, according to investigators: a supervisor, a supervisor-in-training, a local controller, a ground controller, and an assistant controller.
One controller was in charge of plane and helicopter traffic, according to an FAA report that The Associated Press was able to receive. These tasks are frequently split between two persons, but when traffic slows down about 9:30 p.m., the airport usually merges them. The supervisor had already mixed them on Wednesday, which the report described as abnormal.
Duffy stated that the administration of President Donald Trump would solve the long-standing issue of air traffic control staffing shortages by placing bright, intelligent, and talented individuals in towers that regulate airspace.
All six persons on board, including a toddler going home to Mexico from treatment, and at least one person on the ground were killed when an air ambulance crashed in Philadelphia on Friday, leaving the country already in mourning.
Hours after Trump claimed on social media that the helicopter had been flying higher than permitted, the FAA also severely limited helicopter activity at Reagan Airport on Friday.
Since Nov. 12, 2001, when a flight crashed into a neighborhood in New York City shortly after takeoff, killing all 260 passengers on board and five on the ground, Wednesday’s tragedy was the worst in the United States.
Although experts emphasize that flying is generally safe, even seasoned pilots may find it difficult to navigate the congested area surrounding Reagan Airport.