ARLINGTON, Virginia, Feb. 1, 2025 (UPI) — Remains of 41 of the 67 victims of the mid-air collision between American Eagle Flight 5342 and a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport have been recovered so far, officials confirmed Friday.
Some 28 of the victims have been identified and next-of-kin notifications have been sent to 18 families, D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly told reporters during a briefing by the unified disaster command team in Washington.
Dive teams are using sonar to scan for more human remains in the icy waters of the Potomac River, and officials are searching the shoreline for debris from Wednesday’s collision, in which 64 passengers were onboard Flight 5432 and three service members onboard the U.S. Army Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk helicopter were killed.
Donnelly said is confident the bodies of all of the remaining victims will be recovered but warned it may not be possible until the fuselage of the downed regional jet is removed from the river.
“I believe for us to recover the rest of the remains, that we are going to need to get the fuselage out of the water,” he said.
The recovery mission has been a rough and taxing one for first responders with extra support becoming necessary, the fire chief added.
“This has been a tough response for a lot of our people,” he said. “We’ve had over 300 responders operating at one time, and I think we’ve got about 500 people that have worked through the site. Unified command has activated peer support for its first responders, to make sure that everybody has somebody that can help us get through this.”
National Transportation Safety Board member J. Todd Inman said the safety board’s investigation of the accident so far is “progressing the way we want it to.”
All NTSB staff investigators are now at the scene of the crash, including a Black Hawk certified pilot, he told reporters in an update issued late Friday afternoon, adding that the “black box” from the helicopter has been recovered in good condition.
Two recorder devices previously recovered from the airliner are expected to yield usable results, despite the presence of “water intrusion” in one of them.
“That is not uncommon,” Inman said. “It is not an unusual event for us to receive a recorder with water intrusion. We deal with that all the time.”
Interviews of the air traffic controllers on duty at the time of the crash have begun, he added.
Barges dispatched from Virginia Beach, Va., are expected to arrive at the Potomac crash site early Saturday to help with the recovery operations.
Earlier in the day, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a full ground stop that halted all air traffic at the airport for about an hour, but delays because of weather will continue through midnight, officials said.
“Airport volume” led the FAA to briefly issue the directive around 7:30 a.m. EST.
“Departures to Ronald Reagan Washington National are delayed [an] average [of] 62 mins due to low ceilings,” the agency wrote in an update, adding some flights had been delayed up to 143 minutes because of the weather.
Also Friday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that the FAA is restricting helicopter traffic around the airport.
“Today’s decision will immediately help secure the airspace near Reagan Airport, ensuring the safety of airplane and helicopter traffic,” he he posted on Twitter. “This is part of the @USDOT‘s ongoing commitment to safeguarding our nation’s skies and upholding the highest standards of air travel safety.”
As officials continued recovery efforts on Friday, they warned members of the public not to touch any debris they encounter from the collision.
“If you believe you have information related to the recovery efforts in the Potomac or Anacostia Rivers or on the shore, immediately call 911. Do not touch or remove the item(s). Following this guidance is critical to supporting the impacted families & investigation,” the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments wrote on X and Facebook.
The New York Times published a report Friday quoting sources saying the helicopter may have been flying at a higher-than-permitted altitude at the time of the crash.
President Donald Trump on Friday also said the helicopter was flying too high although it wasn’t immediately clear if his comments came in response to the Times article or from an official briefing.
“The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200-foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it?,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Authorities have confirmed air traffic controller staffing within the airport’s tower was “not normal” on the night of the collision.
Almost one year ago, the FAA launched a program to recruit and retain new air traffic controllers in an effort to curb high attrition and transfer rates in the profession across the country.
