Plane Wreckage Recovered From DC River

As teams attempted to retrieve wreckage from the Potomac River, officials said Tuesday that they had recovered all 67 victims of last week’s horrific plane and helicopter disaster outside the nation’s capital.

Investigators at the scene of the incident progressed in their investigation into the collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk and an American Airlines aircraft.

On Monday, authorities began retrieving one of the plane’s wings and hauled the fuselage and two of its engines out of the sea.

In a Tuesday afternoon report, the National Transportation Safety Board stated that it has recovered significant chunks of the forward cockpit and cabin, the right wing, and a portion of the left wing.

Once the jet is recovered, which will take an estimated three days, crews will shift focus to the helicopter before both aircraft are brought to Hangar 7 at the nearby airport.

The NTSB stated that to “verify data points,” which are unclear, its inspectors must inspect the helicopter.

Five employees who were in the control tower when the two aircraft collided on Wednesday night have been interrogated by the NTSB recently.

By gathering flight information and communications between the passenger jet, the helicopter, and air traffic controllers, investigators were creating a comprehensive crash timeline.

NTSB Investigation Update So Far

The NTSB announced on Tuesday that it had obtained fresh information from the disaster and added that they were still working to collect the plane’s wreckage from the Potomac.

The display from the air traffic control tower showed that the Black Hawk was flying at 300 feet at the time of the incident, they said, even though the flight track data was rounded to the nearest 100 feet.

Although the exact height of the helicopter is currently unknown, the most recent source states that it was 300 feet high on the air traffic control display at the time of the crash, which is higher than its 200-foot restriction in that area.

The data is rounded to the nearest 100 feet, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

They also stated that “investigators continue to transcribe the cockpit voice recorders for both aircraft.”

“Synchronization work for the Black Hawk flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder is ongoing,” they informed.

To confirm additional details regarding the accident, the NTSB stated that it still needs to recover the Black Hawk’s wreckage, which it anticipates doing later this week.