Remains of 55 of the 67 victims of DC midair crash have been recovered

Families of victims of the deadliest U.S. air disaster since 2001 visited the crash site on Sunday and divers scoured the submerged wreckage for more remains after authorities said they’ve recovered and identified 55 of the 67 people killed.

Washington, D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly said officials are confident all will be found. Divers are working diligently to locate remains as crews prepare to lift wreckage from the chilly Potomac River as early as Monday morning, Donnelly said at a news conference.

Col. Francis B. Pera of the Army Corps of Engineers said divers and salvage workers are adhering to strict protocols and will stop moving debris if a body is found. The “dignified recovery” of remains takes precedence over all else, he said.

Divers have high-definition cameras with feeds monitored on support boats, Pera said, putting “four or five sets of eyes” inside of the wreckage. Owing to the frigid conditions, one diver was treated at a hospital for hypothermia, Donnelly said.

Portions of the two aircraft that collided over the river Wednesday night near Reagan Washington National Airport — an American Airlines jet with 64 people aboard and an Army Black Hawk helicopter with 3 aboard — will be loaded onto flatbed trucks and taken to a hangar for investigation.


Family members were taken in buses with a police escort to the Potomac River bank near where the two aircraft came to rest after colliding. The jet, en route from Wichita, Kansas, was about to land. The Black Hawk was on a training mission. There were no survivors.

The National Transportation Safety Board didn’t hold a press briefing on Sunday, but did release a photograph showing investigators on a small boat looking at wreckage and another of them examining a flight data recorder.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he wanted to give investigators space to conduct their inquiry.

The NTSB said Saturday that preliminary data showed conflicting readings about the altitudes of the airliner and the helicopter.

Investigators also said that about a second before impact, the jet’s flight recorder showed a change in its pitch. But they did not say whether that change in angle meant that pilots were trying to perform an evasive maneuver to avoid the crash.


Data from the jet’s flight recorder showed its altitude as 325 feet, plus or minus 25 feet when the crash happened, NTSB officials told reporters. Data in the control tower, though, showed the Black Hawk at 200 feet, the maximum allowed altitude for helicopters in the area.

The discrepancy has yet to be explained.



(AP Photo Carolyn Kaster)