
Divers returning to the Potomac River for DC plane crash recovery and investigation
AP-US-Aircraft-Down, 1st Ld-Writethru
Jan 31, 2025 7:43 AM – 761 words
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, TARA COPP, ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and LEA SKENE Associated Press
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Divers are expected to return to the Potomac River on Friday as part of the recovery and investigation after a midair collision killed 67 people in the United States’ deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter century.
Investigators have already recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of the American Airlines plane that collided with an Army helicopter as the plane was landing Wednesday night at Ronald Reagan National Airport next to Washington, D.C. Officials are scrutinizing a range of factors in what National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Hommendy has called an “all-hands-on-deck event.”
All aboard the two aircraft were killed, with officials examining the actions of the military pilot as well as air traffic control after the helicopter apparently flew into the path of the American Airlines jet.
Air crash investigations can take months, and federal investigators told reporters Thursday they would not speculate on the cause.
At least 28 bodies have been pulled from the Potomac River. The plane carried 60 passengers and four crew members, and three soldiers were aboard the helicopter.
One air traffic controller was responsible for coordinating helicopter traffic and arriving and departing planes when the collision happened, according to a report by the Federal Aviation Administration that was obtained by The Associated Press. Those duties are often divided between two people, but the airport typically combines the roles at 9:30 p.m., once traffic begins to slow down. On Wednesday the tower supervisor directed that they be combined earlier.
“The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” the report said.
A person familiar with the matter, however, said the tower staffing that night was at a normal level. The positions are regularly combined when controllers need to step away from the console for breaks, during shift changes or when air traffic is slow, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures.
The FAA has long struggled with a shortage of air traffic controllers.
Officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet arrived from Wichita, Kansas, carrying, among others, a group of elite young figure skaters, their parents and coaches, and four union steamfitters from the Washington area.
A top Army aviation official said the crew of the helicopter, a Black Hawk, was “very experienced” and familiar with the congested flying that occurs daily around the city.
“Both pilots had flown this specific route before, at night. This wasn’t something new to either one of them,” said Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation.
The helicopter’s maximum allowed altitude at the time was 200 feet (about 60 meters), Koziol said. It was not immediately clear whether it exceeded that limit, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said altitude seemed to be a factor in the collision.
Koziol said investigators need to analyze the flight data before making conclusions about altitude.
Flights at Reagan National resumed around midday Thursday.
Wednesday’s crash was the deadliest in the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, when an American Airlines flight slammed into a residential area of Belle Harbor, New York, just after takeoff from Kennedy Airport, killing all 260 people aboard and five people on the ground.
The last major fatal crash involving a U.S. commercial airline occurred in 2009 near Buffalo, New York. Everyone aboard the Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane was killed, along with one person on the ground, bringing the total death toll to 50.
Experts often highlight that plane travel is overwhelmingly safe, however. The National Safety Council estimates that Americans have a 1-in-93 chance of dying in a motor vehicle crash, while deaths on airplanes are too rare to calculate the odds. Figures from the Department of Transportation tell a similar story.
But the airspace around Reagan National can challenge even the most experienced pilots no matter how ideal the conditions. They must navigate hundreds of other commercial planes, military aircraft and restricted areas around sensitive sites.
Just over 24 hours before the fatal collision, a different regional jet had to go around for a second chance at landing at Reagan National after it was advised about a military helicopter nearby, according to flight tracking sites and control logs. It landed safely minutes later.
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Gomez Licon reported from Miami. Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Meg Kinnard, Chris Megerian, Michael Biesecker in Washington; Claudia Lauer in Arlington, Virginia; Brian Melley in London; John Hanna in Wichita, Kansas; and Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland, contributed.
Previous coverage:
WASHINGTON (AP) — A collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people brought renewed focus on the federal agency charged with investigating aviation disasters.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Hommendy described the investigation into the crash Wednesday night as an “all-hands-on-deck event” for the agency during a news conference Thursday in which she appeared with members of the board and a senior investigator overseeing the probe.
Here are some things to know about the NTSB:
What does the agency do?
The NTSB is an independent federal agency responsible for investigating all civil aviation accidents as well as serious incidents in the U.S. involving other modes of transportation, such as railroad disasters and major accidents involving motor vehicles, marine vessels, pipelines and even commercial space operators.
“We’re here to ensure the American people that we are going to leave no stone unturned in this investigation,” Hommendy said, noting the probe is in the very early stages. “We are going to conduct a thorough investigation of this entire tragedy, looking at the facts.”
The agency has five board members who serve five-year terms and are nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
How will the investigation work?
For the investigation into Wednesday’s crash, the NTSB will establish several different working groups, each responsible for investigating different areas connected to the accident, board member Todd Inman said.
Inman said those groups include operations, which will examine flight history and crewmember duties; structures, which will document airframe wreckage and the accident scene; power plants, which will focus on aircraft engines and engine accessories; systems, which will study the electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic components of the two aircraft; air traffic control, which will review flight track surveillance information, including radar, and controller-pilot communications; survival factors, which will analyze the injuries to the crew and passengers and crash and rescue efforts; and a helicopter group.
The investigation also will include a human-performance group that will be a part of the operations, air traffic control and helicopter groups and will study the crew performance and any factors that could be involved such as human error, including fatigue, medications, medical histories, training and workload, Inman said.
How long will the investigation take?
NTSB officials did not say Thursday how long the investigation would take, but accident investigations often take between one to two years to complete.
The agency typically releases a preliminary report within a few weeks of the accident that includes a synopsis of information collected at the scene.
What is the NTSB’s history?
The NTSB history dates to 1926, when Congress passed a law charging the U.S. Department of Commerce with investigating aircraft accidents.
It was established as an independent agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation in 1967 and then separated by Congress in 1974 as a stand-alone organization, fully independent from any other federal agencies.
Since its creation in 1967, the agency reports it has investigated more than 153,000 aviation accidents and incidents.
Prior coverage:
By HALLIE GOLDEN Associated Press
A jet with 60 passengers and four crew members collided with an Army helicopter while approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C., sending the two aircraft plummeting into the Potomac River. Everyone on board the two aircraft is feared dead, officials said Thursday.
The collision occurred Wednesday night in some of the world’s most tightly controlled airspace, just over 3 miles (5 kilometers) south of the White House and the U.S. Capitol.
Here are some things to know about the collision:
The crash
The collision happened at around 9 p.m. when a regional jet at the end of a flight from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a military helicopter on a training exercise, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
A few minutes before the jet was to land, air traffic controllers asked American Airlines Flight 5342 if it could do so on a shorter runway, and the pilots agreed. Controllers cleared the jet to land and flight tracking sites showed the plane adjust its approach to the new runway.
Less than 30 seconds before the collision, an air traffic controller asked a helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later, saying “PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ” — apparently telling the copter to wait for the Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine jet to pass. There was no reply. Seconds after that, the aircraft collided.
The plane’s radio transponder stopped transmitting about 2,400 feet (732 meters) short of the runway, roughly over the middle of the Potomac.
The body of the plane was found upside-down in three sections in waist-deep water, officials said. The helicopter’s wreckage was also found.
The emergency response
Authorities conducted a massive search-and-rescue operation that has turned into a recovery mission.
Roughly 300 first responders were at the scene early Thursday, with inflatable boats combing the river and mobile light towers along the shore illuminating the area. Law enforcement helicopters from throughout the region were taking part in the search for bodies, and Coast Guard boats later joined the effort.
“We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” Washington fire chief John Donnelly said at a Thursday morning news conference. “We don’t believe there are any survivors.”
The investigation and questions
Federal investigators will try to piece together the moments before the collision, including any communication between the aircraft and air traffic controllers and a loss of altitude by the jet.
President Donald Trump, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Secretary of the Army nominee Daniel Driscoll all said it appeared to them that the crash could have been avoided.
“I think we might need to look at where is an appropriate time to take a training risk, and it may not be near an airport like Reagan,” Driscoll said at his Senate confirmation hearing.
Trump took the opportunity to criticize diversity hiring efforts at the FAA, though when pressed about why, he acknowledged that there is no evidence yet that it could be blamed for the collision.
“It just could have been,” he said.
The victims
If everyone on the plane did die, it would be the deadliest U.S. air crash in nearly 24 years. At least 28 bodies had been pulled from the river’s icy waters as of mid-morning.
Among the passengers were several members of the Skating Club of Boston who were returning from the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita. They included teenage figure skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, the teens’ mothers and two highly regarded Russian-born figure skating coaches, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.
Shishkova and Naumov, who were married and had lived in the U.S. for many years, won a 1994 world championship in pairs figure skating. Among their students was their 23-year-old son, Maxim Naumov, a former U.S. junior champion who narrowly missed the podium Sunday while his parents watched.
Other Russians were also on the jet, according to the Kremlin.
The three soldiers aboard the helicopter were doing an annual night proficiency training flight, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, adding they were a “fairly experienced crew.” Their names had not been released as officials were notifying relatives, he said.
The airport
Located along the Potomac just southwest of Washington, Reagan National is a popular choice because it’s much closer to the city than the larger Dulles International Airport.
All takeoffs and landings from Reagan were halted. It was set to reopen at 11 a.m. Thursday, the FAA said.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a news conference that the night was clear and that prior to the collision, the plane and helicopter flight paths “were not unusual for what happens in the D.C. airspace.”
“I would just say that everyone who flies in American skies expects that we fly safely,” he said. “That when you depart an airport, you get to your destination. That didn’t happen last night, and I know that President Trump, his administration, the FAA, the DOT, we will not rest until we have answers for the families and for the flying public.”
The crash happened as federal authorities and aviation experts have expressed concerns about increasing close calls between planes.
The aircraft
The helicopter was a UH-60 Blackhawk based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, according to the U.S. Army.
The plane was a Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine jet and was manufactured in 2004. It can carry up to 70 passengers.
History of fatal aircraft crashes
Fatal crashes of commercial aircraft in the U.S. are rare. The last was in 2009 near Buffalo, New York. All 45 passengers and the four crew members were killed when the Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane crashed into a house. One person on the ground was also killed.
The incident Wednesday recalled the crash of an Air Florida flight that plummeted into the Potomac on January 13, 1982, killing 78 people. That crash was attributed to bad weather.
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Associated Press reporters from throughout the U.S. contributed.