WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 31, 2025 (UPI) — Several victims of a mid-air crash between an American Airlines flight and a military helicopter Wednesday night were identified on Thursday, as officials said they have recovered the passenger jet’s black boxes.
More than 40 of the 67 bodies from Wednesday night’s mid-air crash that happened shortly before 9 p.m. EST near Reagan National Airport have been recovered from the Potomac River by late Thursday afternoon.
So have both of the airlines’ black boxes — the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder — according to a late Thursday statement from the National Transportation Safety Board.
“The recorders are at the NTSB labs for evaluation,” the federal agency said in a social media post that included pictures of the boxes.
Dive operations ceased when daylight became scarce and water conditions made diving to dangerous, CNN reported.
Rescuers said most of the remaining victims can’t be recovered until removing the airliner’s fuselage.
Several of the passengers and crew aboard American Airlines Flight 5342 and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter were identified Thursday as an investigation into the mid-air crash continues.
A total of 67 people died in the mid-air collision on Wednesday night with none surviving, making it the worst airplane crash in the United States since 260 people aboard American Airlines Flight 587 were killed when the plane crashed in Queens, New York City, in November 2001.
Among the deceased in Wednesday night’s crash were several figure skaters who had participated in a U.S. Figure Skating developmental camp in Wichita, Kan.
The Skating Club of Boston named six of the victims, including former 1994 world figure skating pairs champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.
Others named by the Boston skating club are skater Jinna Han and mother Jin Han and skater Spencer Lane and mother Christine Lane.
“Our sport and this Club have suffered a horrible loss with this tragedy,” Skating Club of Boston CEO and Executive Director Doug Zeghibe said in a statement.
“We are devastated and completely at a loss for words.”
Officials for the Fairfax County, Va., Public School system said three students and six parents also were among those killed in the air crash, Superintendent Michelle Reid said in a statement.
“What we know at this time is that three of our FCPS students and six of our FCPS parents were lost, affecting multiple schools and departments here at FCPS,” Reid said.
Reid did not name the crash victims due to privacy concerns.
The airliner was carrying 64 passengers and crew when it departed Wichita, and the U.S. Army helicopter carried three soldiers on a training flight.
While the cause of the mid-air crash remains uncertain, President Donald Trump suggested rules changes made during the Obama and Biden administrations were contributing factors — comments that attracted swift condemnation for spreading potential conspiracy theories and attempting to politicize the tragedy.
“American families woke up without their loved ones after what should have been a routine trip,” Trump said in an online assessment Thursday afternoon.
“This shocking event follows problematic and likely illegal decisions during the Obama and Biden administrations that minimized merit and competence in the Federal Aviation Administration,” Trump continued.
He said the Obama administration implemented a biographical questionnaire that shifted the FAA’s hiring focus away from “objective aptitude.”
Trump said his administration raised those standards during his first term in office, but the Biden administration “egregiously rejected merit-based hiring” in favor of “‘diversity, equity and inclusion,” standards, including recruiting individuals with “‘severe intellectual disabilities.'”
Trump said he ordered the FAA and Department of Transportation to review all hiring decisions and changes to safety protocols made during the past four years and take corrective actions when necessary.
The president was swiftly chastised for his comments attempting to politicize the crash.
“It’s one thing for Internet pundits to spew up conspiracy theories. It’s another for the President of the United States of America to throw out idle speculation even as victims are still being recovered and families are still being notified,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement.
“It turns your stomach.”
Asian Americans Advancing Justice accused Trump of “callously” using his position to exploit the tragedy to discriminate against vulnerable communities by baselessly attacking DEI.
“In the face of such a devastating loss, it is reprehensible that the president chose to use his airtime to attempt to cast blame on diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the Federal Aviation Administration for the incident,” AAJC said in a statement emailed to UPI.
“A tragic aviation incident is not a time for racist, divisive lives when our nation needs true leadership.”
D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly said during a press conference Thursday morning there were no survivors in the crash between and American Airlines jet and a military helicopter.
About 300 first responders worked the crash in harsh conditions, heavy wind, ice on the water and they operated all night in those conditions. Donnelly said several local and state agencies responded in addition to Washington first responders and the Department of Defense.
Donnelly said responders will continue to work to find all the bodies from the crash. He said the Virginia and Army medical examiners are involved in the effort to retrieve and identify the bodies of the victims.
“We have located the two aircraft. The fuselage of the American Airlines plane was inverted. It’s been located in three different sections. It’s in about waist-deep water,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.
He said the government will not rest until it gets answers for the families and for the flying public about what caused an airliner to collide with a military helicopter.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a video statement Thursday the military helicopter was on an annual proficiency training flight.
“It was a fairly experienced crew that was doing the required annual night evaluation. They did have night vision goggles,” Hegseth said. “We anticipate that the investigation will quickly be able to determine whether the aircraft was in the corridor at the right altitude at the time of the incident.”
Hegseth said next-of-kin notifications are ongoing for the three soldiers lost in the helicopter.
“It’s a tragedy, a horrible loss of life for those 64 souls on that civilian airliner and of course the three soldiers in that Blackhawk,” Hegseth said. “They’re in our prayers. We are actively investigating to find out what happened and why.”
Despite this deadly crash, Americans have the safest airports in the world, Duffy added.
“I will tell you with complete confidence, we have the safest airspace in the world,” he said.
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said first responders “worked throughout the night in very tough and heartbreaking conditions.”
She expressed sorrow for the families who lost loved ones.
American Eagle Flight 5342, operated by PSA Airlines, collided with a Black Hawk military helicopter when the chopper entered the airliner’s landing path as it approached Reagan National Airport before 9 p.m. EST Wednesday.
Duffy said prior to the collision the flight paths of the two aircraft weren’t unusual for what happens in the Washington airspace. He said everything was standard in the lead-up to the crash.
He said with the investigation authorities and the public will learn what happened.
“Something went wrong here,” Duffy said, “I look forward to the time we can give you that information.”
Trump earlier expressed condolences for the victims in a briefing from the White House.
“I speak to you this morning in an hour of anguish for a nation … Sadly there are no survivors. This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital and in our nation’s history and a tragedy of terrible proportions. As one nation we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly.”
He said the tragedy has shaken a lot of people. He said on behalf of the nation and the White House, “our hearts are shattered.”
“In moments like this the differences between Americans fade to nothing compared to the bonds of affection and loyalty that unite us all, both as Americans and even as nations. We are one family and today we are all heartbroken. We’re all searching for answers.”
He said the FAA, the NTSB and the U.S. military will be carrying out a systematic and comprehensive investigation.
Reagan National Airport reopened at 11 a.m. EST Thursday, according to Airports Authority CEO Jack Potter.
Potter said each airline will announce or communicate to their passengers what their operations are going to be. He said airport networks were disrupted overnight and recovery from that might be slow.
“There are going to be a lot of questions, obviously, a lot of questions. And that’s what the NTSB’s job is, to be an independent investigator of incidents like this. It’s not a time to speculate, it’s a time to get answers that we need,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said.
Recovery operations are ongoing and the crash area is spread out in the Potomac River.
“I want to express my sincere condolences for the accident that happened at DCA last night. We’re absolutely heartbroken for the family and loved ones of the passengers and crew members and also for those that were on the military aircraft,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said.
“Our focus right now is to doing everything that we can to support all of those involved and also the PSA Airlines team. This is devastating. We are all hurting incredibly.”
