Servet Gunerigok
31 January 2025•Update: 31 January 2025
WASHINGTON
Investigators have yet to recover the flight data recorders from the plane and military helicopter involved in a deadly mid-air collision near the US capital, Washington, D.C., officials said Thursday.
"We know they're there. They are underwater. This is not unusual for the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board). We have many times recovered flight data recorders in water," NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a briefing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The NTSB is an independent government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation.
On Wednesday evening, an American Airlines passenger plane and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter collided in mid-air near the airport.
The aircraft, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, was en route from Kansas. The helicopter, which was on a training flight, had three military personnel on board.
Both aircraft crashed into the Potomac River.
US President Donald Trump confirmed Thursday that no one survived the crash as authorities continue to investigate the cause.
Homendy said the agency will allow first responders to do a recovery mission before starting an investigation into the mid-air collision.
She said Thursday is the first day for the board to have a full crew on the scene, adding that "we allow the responders to do their important safety mission, which in this case was search and rescue and recovery. We stand back to allow them to do their important safety mission.”
Homendy also requested some time for the agency to verify the facts as it works to probe the cause of the collision.
"It’s not that we don’t have information. We do have information, we have data. We have substantial amounts of information. We need to verify information. We need to take our time to make sure it is accurate," she added.
Stating that the agency will look at the "human, machine and the environment" to determine the cause of the collision, Homendy said: "We will look at all the humans that were involved in this accident."
Preliminary report within 30 days
Board member Todd Inman said the agency’s goal is to issue a preliminary report on the cause of the collision within 30 days.
"Our investigative team will be on scene as long as it takes in order to obtain all of the perishable evidence and all of the fact-finding that is needed to bring us to a conclusion of probable cause," he said.
He noted that the plane had a "very quick" and "rapid impact" in the aftermath of the crash.
"Right now, we’re going through the debris fields. Nothing we’ve seen would indicate that maybe slides or shoots were deployed," he added.
Inman also said the authorities have not yet recovered any of the boxes from the aircraft.
"We will probably have more than one black box, so to speak. It's our understanding that the Sikorsky helicopter is equipped with some form of recording devices," he said.
