By GB News (World News) | Created at 2025-01-31 09:36:28 | Updated at 2025-01-31 13:01:39
3 hours ago
Divers have recovered the black boxes from the plane that crashed into the Potomac River in Washington DC after colliding with a helicopter.
Washington's fire divers aim to "salvage the aircraft" and find additional components as the recovery option resumes today.
The American Airlines jet was about to land at Reagan National Airport when it collided with an Army helicopter on a training flight.
The National Transportation Safety Board is studying the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the aircraft, which carried 60 passengers and four crew members, all of whom died in the crash. The three members of the helicopter crew also died.
Washington crews remain at work in the Potomac
Reuters
NTSB investigators carry the black box of American Eagle flight 5342
Reuters
The Coast Guard investigates aircraft wreckage on the Potomac River
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Part of the wreckage is seen as rescue boats search the waters
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Pete Hegseth speaks about the mid-air crash between American Airlines and a military helicopter,
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One controller rather than two was handling local plane and helicopter traffic on Wednesday night at the airport, a situation deemed "not normal" but considered adequate for lower volumes of traffic, according to a person briefed on the matter.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the helicopter was flown by a "fairly experienced crew" of three soldiers who were wearing night-vision goggles on an annual training flight.
Officials said they were grounding other flights from the Army unit involved in the crash and would reevaluate training exercises in the region.
It comes as President Donald Trump suggested without evidence that diversity efforts championed by the previous administration could have played a role, something that was met with backlash from senior Democrats.
President Donald Trump holds up an executive order entitled 'Immediate Assessment of Aviation Safety,' following Wednesday's deadly midair collision
Reuters
Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network civil rights group, said: "How can he make these brash statements when an investigation is barely under way?
"It doesn’t matter if these were DEI hires or Ivy League hires.
"What matters is the families who are grieving, who do not want to see this moment politicized by a president bent on peeling back DEI policies."
