Friday, January 31, 2025

Investigators Seek To Salvage Aircraft


  • A midair collision occurred between an American Airlines jet with 64 people onboard and a U.S. Army chopper carrying three soldiers on Jan. 29 in Washington, D.C.
  • Among the fatalities in the crash include 14 U.S. figure skaters, according to Doug Zeghibe, CEO of The Skating Club of Boston
  • The black box recording devices have not yet been recovered from the accident scene, said the NTSB, which did offer specifics on what caused the crash
Investigators plan to push forward on Friday with efforts to retrieve the two aircraft involved in a crash in Washington that killed 67 people and raised questions about air safety in the U.S. capital.

Fresh from recovering the so-called black boxes from the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Potomac River after colliding with an Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday, divers aim to "salvage the aircraft" and find additional components on Friday, Washington's fire department said.

"Overnight, boats will remain on scene for security and surface searches from local, state, and federal regional partners," it said.

Reuters reports the National Transportation Safety Board is studying the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the CRJ700 airplane, which carried 60 passengers and four crew members, all of whom perished in the crash. The three members of the helicopter crew also died.

Authorities have not pinpointed a reason for the collision, which happened as the regional jet was trying to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The military said the maximum altitude for the route the helicopter was taking is 200 feet (61 meters) but it may have been flying higher. The collision occurred at an altitude of around 300 feet, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.

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