Remains of All 67 Victims of the Midair Collision near DC Recovered as NTSB Probes Altitude Data

AP

17:41 JST, February 5, 2025

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — The remains of all 67 victims of last week’s midair collision of an American Airlines flight and an Army helicopter near the nation’s capital have been recovered, authorities said Tuesday. All but one has been identified.

Meanwhile the NTSB said it was examining new data that could put the helicopter above its 200-foot (61-meter) flight ceiling. The airport’s air traffic control screen — relying on radar sensors and other data — had it at 300 feet (91 meters), the agency said. However that figure would have been rounded to the nearest 100 feet, according to authorities.

Investigators said they need to get more information from the still-submerged Black Hawk to verify the data.

The jet’s flight recorder showed its altitude as 325 feet (99 meters), plus or minus 25 feet (7.6 meters).

Earlier in the day, crews working in choppy conditions raised a number of large pieces of the jetliner from the Potomac River, including the right wing, the center fuselage and parts of the forward cabin, cockpit, tail cone and rudder.

“Our hearts are with the victims’ families as they navigate this tragic loss,” officials said in a joint statement from the city and federal agencies involved in the search and recovery, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Navy dive teams and Washington police and fire crews.

The chief medical examiner will be working to positively identify the final set of remains, officials said.

The collision occurred last Wednesday night as the plane was about to land at nearby Ronald Reagan National Airport, killing everyone on board both aircraft.

Authorities said early on that they expected to recover the remains of everyone who died, and they are now focusing on retrieving the jet and hope to recover the helicopter later this week.

On Monday salvage crews were able to pull one of the two jet engines from the river, along with large pieces of the plane’s exterior, Col. Francis B. Pera of the Army Corps of Engineers said.

Sixty passengers and four crew were on the American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, including figure skaters returning from the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships there.

The Black Hawk was on a training mission. Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland; and Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, of Durham, North Carolina, were aboard.

Federal investigators are trying to piece together the events that led to the collision. Full investigations typically take a year or more, but they hope to have a preliminary report within 30 days.

Wednesday’s crash was the deadliest in the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, when a jet slammed into a New York City neighborhood just after takeoff, killing all 260 people on board and five on the ground.