Members of the family visit the crash site on the banks of the Potomac River, where American Airlines flight 5342 collided with a US Army military helicopter, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on February 2, 2025.
Tasos Katopodis | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The stays of all 67 people killed in Wednesday’s collision of an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River have been recovered, officials said Tuesday. Sixty-six of them have been identified, the D.C. Fire and EMS department said.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation, said Tuesday that the air traffic control tower display showed the helicopter at about 300 feet on the time of the collision. That’s above the utmost altitude of 200 feet helicopters in the realm are authorized to fly at under Federal Aviation Administration rules, however the NTSB cautioned it needs more information that may come from the Black Hawk once it’s recovered from the water.
Rescue responders had been working over the past several days to remove wreckage from the airplane, a Bombardier CRJ-700. Crews have up to now lifted out the precise wing, center fuselage, parts of the front of the cabin, tail cone and other parts.
American Airlines Flight 5342, operated by its regional subsidiary PSA Airlines, was seconds away from landing at Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport when it collided with the helicopter, killing all 64 people on board the plane and three military crew on the Black Hawk. The helicopter was on a training mission, officials said.
It was the deadliest U.S. air crash since 2001 and the primary deadly major passenger airline crash within the U.S. in nearly 16 years.
Investigators are still probing the reason for the collision. The NTSB said it has interviewed air traffic controllers on duty that night, including the one that was working on the time of the collision.
The NTSB has recovered the 2 data recorders from the American plane in addition to the recorder from the Black Hawk.
“NTSB investigators proceed to transcribe the cockpit voice recorders for each aircraft,” the NTSB said Tuesday. “Synchronization work for the Black Hawk flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder is ongoing.”
The FAA on Friday restricted helicopters from flying in the realm near the airport indefinitely.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom told employees in a note Tuesday that the corporate would hold a moment of silence Wednesday to mark per week for the reason that crash.
“Caring for and supporting everyone affected by this tragedy stays our top priority,” said Isom, who traveled to Wichita, Kansas, where the flight originated, to go to with local employees and officials.
While air crashes are extremely rare, American said it operates a so-called CARE Team for such rare disasters.
The team is made up of about 2,000 employees who volunteer from across the corporate, in accordance with the airline. They’re trained by the carrier’s emergency planning and response teams to assist victims’ relations and supply information from the corporate. Additionally they coordinate travel arrangements; arrange child, elder or pet care; assist with logistics, reminiscent of getting changes of clothing, toiletries and transportation; and hearken to affected relations, the airline said.
American’s COO David Seymour and other operations staff members were in Washington, D.C., this week to support that team, Isom said.
“Our CARE Team has stepped up in a major way within the wake of this unimaginable tragedy, and I’m so pleased with every part they’re doing,” he wrote.
