Updated January 31, 2025 at 15:24 PM ET
Recovery teams returned to the frigid Potomac River on Friday in search of several victims and more clues behind the deadliest U.S. air crash in over 20 years.
The midair collision between an American Airlines plane and an Army Black Hawk helicopter killed all 67 people aboard both aircraft on Wednesday night near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
In a press conference Friday afternoon, D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly said 41 bodies had been recovered from the Potomac River as of Thursday night.
When asked when all the victims would be identified, Donnelly replied, "We're working as fast as we can, I'm not going to be able to give a timeline on that as there are a lot of unknowns."
He added that additional Coast Guard personnel and salvage equipment will arrive on Saturday to bolster ongoing search and recovery efforts.
Investigators have so far also recovered the cockpit voice and flight data from the passenger jet, as well as the recording device from the helicopter — all of which will be key in piecing together the moments leading up to the crash.
Meanwhile, Reagan National Airport continues to face disruptions following the crash. On Friday, two of the three runways remained closed, which led to over 100 flight cancellations, according to Terry Liercke, the airport's vice president and manager. Liercke said the runaways are expected to remain closed for possibly another week.
Federal authorities also restricted helicopter flights near the Reagan National Airport on Friday, according to two Federal Aviation Administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid getting ahead of the ongoing investigation into why the collision occurred.
Timeline
On Wednesday night, an American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members was en route to Reagan National Airport from Wichita, Kan.
That same evening, a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter carrying three "fairly experienced" crew members was taking part in a required, annual training exercise, according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The unit involved in the crash — Bravo Company, 12th Aviation Battalion — was flying out of Fort Belvoir in Virginia.
Then, shortly before 9 p.m. EST, the two aircraft crashed in a low-altitude collision as the commercial plane approached an airport runway.
Both aircraft plunged into the 8-feet-deep waters of the Potomac River, where temperatures were hovered around 36 degrees overnight — complicating search and rescue operations, D.C. Fire Chief John Donnelly said.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the American Airlines jet was found "inverted" and in "three different sections" after the collision.
The NTSB said it will perform a thorough and accurate investigation of the incident and provide a preliminary report in the next 30 days.
"We will not be determining the probable cause of the accident while we are here on scene, nor will we speculate about what may have caused this accident," J. Todd Inman, a member of the NTSB, said Thursday.
Passengers and crew members have begun being identified
All 67 passengers, crew members and Army service members are believed to have died.
Two of the three crew members on the Black Hawk helicopter were identified by the governors of Mississippi and Georgia as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves from Brooksville, Miss., and Staff Sgt. Ryan O'Hara from Georgia. The Army does not plan to release the name of the third crew member at the request of her family, a U.S. military official told NPR.
On the American Airlines flight, more than a dozen of the passengers were young figure skaters, coaches or family members, according to the Skating Club of Boston, which sent several of its team members to Wichita for the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championship.
Russian World Champion figure skaters Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova were also aboard.
Member station KMUW reported that a 30-year-old civil rights attorney, Kiah Duggins, was also returning home to Washington, D.C., after visiting her mother in Wichita who had undergone a surgical procedure.
"We are coming to terms with the grief associated with the loss of our beautiful and accomplished firstborn," Kiah Duggins' father, Maurice Duggins, told KMUW in a statement.
Others onboard included Police Col. Pergentino Malabed from the Philippines, who was on official travel, the Philippine National Police said in a statement. Two Chinese nationals were also among the passengers, according to China's Foreign Ministry.
President Trump questions if DEI policies are to blame
In the immediate aftermath of the crash, President Trump said he had been briefed on the incident and offered his condolences.
The next day, he hypothesized in remarks to the press without offering evidence that faulty night vision goggles or diversity, equity and inclusion policies could have played a part in the collision.
A reporter asked how a conclusion about the relevance of DEI could be reached so early on in the investigation, to which the president said: "Because I have common sense, OK? And unfortunately, a lot of people don't. We want brilliant people doing this."
Trump also said Americans should not be afraid to fly.
"This is something that — it's been many years since something like this has happened, and the collision is just something that we don't expect it to happen ever again," he said.
It's the deadliest crash since November 2001, when a passenger jet, also an American Airlines flight, crashed into a neighborhood in Queens, N.Y, killing 265 people. The last major commercial airplane accident involving a U.S. passenger plane was in 2009 when a Colgan Air flight crashed near Buffalo, N.Y., killing 50 people.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said, "Our hearts and our prayers go out to all of the families and loved ones impacted by this horrific collision. I am very proud of our first responders in DC and in the entire region who continue recovery efforts."
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