Recovery efforts continue on the Potomac River following a deadly midair collision between an American Airlines passenger plane and an Army helicopter. Officials say 55 victims have been identified, with 12 remaining. The focus is on the dignified removal of the victims and the recovery of the aircraft.
Recovery efforts continue on the icy Potomac River following the deadly midair collision between an American Airlines passenger plane and an Army helicopter on Wednesday night. Officials say 55 victims have been positively identified. Unified Command held a press conference Sunday afternoon, stating that crews are surveying the site to plan for aircraft recovery. Salvage equipment has been moved into place. The key priority is the dignified removal of the remaining 12 victims.
Officials say this will occur during the process of removing the plane. When a victim is found, operations will pause, and the remains will be carefully removed. Col. Francis Pera with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says removing the airplane is intentional, both to protect the NTSB's investigation and to ensure the proper and respectful removal of additional victims. 'All salvage operations will be completed in close coordination with the Unified Command,' Pera said. 'All of our partners, just really for strict adherence to our central priority of a dignified recovery of flight passengers and personnel will take precedent. Should any remains be found during our process, an automatic work stoppage happens, and we'll definitely begin to begin the proper coordination with the appropriate authorities.' The aircraft is expected to be lifted on Monday. Unified Command says the initial focus is the removal of the regional jet's remnants, which is expected to take at least three days. Following the jet's recovery, crews will shift to recovering the Black Hawk helicopter and its wreckage. Officials say on or around February 8, crews will focus on clearing the remaining debris with salvage baskets before demobilizing equipment by February 12. They ask anyone who discovers wreckage to call 911. The only injury during the recovery efforts so far was a diver who suffered hyperthermia during the search. Officials say the individual is doing fine now. All 67 people on board the American Airlines flight and the Blackhawk helicopter are presumed dead. On Wednesday evening, at about 9 p.m. ET, American Airlines Flight 5342 was inbound to Ronald Reagan National Airport at about 400 feet and a speed of about 140 mph when the plane rapidly lost altitude over the Potomac River, according to data from its radio transponder. A few minutes before landing, air traffic controllers asked the arriving commercial jet if it could land on the shorter Runway 33 at Reagan National, and the pilots said they were able. Controllers then cleared the plane to land on Runway 33. Flight-tracking sites showed the plane adjusting its approach to the new runway. Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the Black Hawk if it had the arriving plane in sight. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later: 'PAT 25, pass behind the CRJ.' Seconds after that, the two aircraft collided. The plane’s transponder stopped transmitting about 2,400 feet (732 meters) short of the runway, roughly over the middle of the river. Whether it was human error or a mechanical error that caused the deadly crash is yet to be determined. On Thursday evening, Peter Knudson, a NTSB spokesperson, confirmed crews recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the passenger airplane
Accidents Aviation Potomac River Mid-Air Collision American Airlines Army Helicopter Recovery Efforts NTSB Investigation
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