Closing summary
As the investigation into Wednesday night’s deadly collision between a commercial plane and a Black Hawk military helicopter continues, here’s what we know:
More than 40 bodies have been recovered so far, of 67 people lost, officials said. The recovery efforts in the frigid Potomac River have been challenging, and will continue over the next few days.
More of the victims have been identified by their family members and friends, including a Filipino police officer, two lawyers, a law professor, two Chinese citizens, two parents from Kansas, a GE Aerospace employee, two young figure skaters and their parents, the president-elect of the National Association of Biology Teachers, and a college student.
The FAA and Trump’s newly appointed secretary of transportation announced that helicopter flights in the vicinity of Ronald Reagan airport would be temporarily restricted, with some exceptions for active law enforcement and emergency flights and Marine One, the president’s helicopter.
The army identified two of the three soldiers on the Black Hawk helicopter who were killed in the collision, as Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland, but said they were not immediately releasing the name of the third crew member on board the helicopter, at the request of the family, in what some news outlets said was a “highly unusual” choice.
The “black boxes” from both American Airlines flight 5342 and the military helicopter have been recovered and will be analyzed, a National Transportation Safety Board member said on Friday evening, noting that the cockpit voice recorder from the commercial flight appeared to have sustained some water damage.
President Donald Trump said on his social media platform that the military helicopter involved in the crash was flying above the 200 foot limit, despite officials still investigating. A White House spokesperson defended his post.
The father of one of the Black Hawk crew members killed in the crash criticized president Trump’s comments on Thursday blaming “DEI” for the tragedy, and said that no one in the army flies a helicopter without being highly qualified.
There are now over 100 family members of the crash victims in the Washington area receiving briefings from officials, a NTSB official said.
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NTSB board member emphasizes investigation is ‘nonpartisan’
Asked about the political dimension of the emergency response, and whether board members had been hearing directly from the White House Inman emphasized that the NTSB was a “nonpartisan” group and said their sole focus was making sure a tragedy like this never happens again.
“I never want to have to brief another set of families like that,” Inman said, and ended the press conference, as reporters continued shouting questions at him.
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