‘Heartbreaking’ search for those killed in D.C. air crash as army helicopter’s black box recovered

Aviation expert Pierre-Henri Chuet says the flight data recorder from the helicopter will help investigators understand the sequence of events.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Police boats combed the banks of the Potomac River on Friday, slowly scanning the shoreline in the rain as investigators sought clues into the midair collision that killed 67 people and raised questions about air traffic safety around the nation’s capital.

The black box from the Army Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a commercial jetliner and crashed into the Potomac River has been recovered, investigators announced. They are reviewing that flight data recorder along with two recovered earlier from the jet.

No one survived the Wednesday night collision. The remains of 41 people had been pulled from the river as of Friday afternoon, including 28 that had been positively identified, Washington, D.C., Fire Chief John Donnelly Sr. said at a news conference. He said next of kin notifications had been made to 18 families, and he expects all the remains to be recovered.

The wreckage of the plane’s fuselage will probably have to be pulled from the water to get all the bodies, he said.

“This is heartbreaking work,” Donnelly said, noting that more than 300 responders were taking part in the effort at any one time, including teams of divers and two U.S. Coast Guard cutters, at least one of which carries a crane. “It’s been a tough response for a lot of our people.”

It was unclear how long the recovery operation would take.

“We’re working as fast as we can,” Donnelly said. “We need your patience.”

The American Airlines jet was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members. The helicopter had three soldiers on board.

Although Ronald Reagan National Airport reopened, two of its three runways remained closed to keep aircraft from flying over the crash scene, said Terry Liercke, the airport’s vice president and manager. Roughly 100 flights were canceled Friday.

The Federal Aviation Administration also heavily restricted helicopter traffic around the airport, the Department of Transportation said in a statement, hours after President Donald Trump claimed in a social media post that the Army Black Hawk had been flying higher than allowed.

Investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of the American Airlines jetliner, which collided with the chopper as the plane was coming in for a landing at the airport, which is just across the Potomac from Washington.

The flight data recorder was in good condition and its information was expected to be downloaded shortly, National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman told reporters. He said water entered the cockpit voice recorder, and while that’s not unusual, it adds to investigators' work.

The helicopter’s data, contained in a single black box, was at NTSB headquarters and appears to be undamanged, Inman said.

Investigators are examining the actions of the military pilot as well as air traffic control, after the helicopter apparently flew into the jet’s path. NTSB investigations normally take at least a year, though investigators hope to have a preliminary report within 30 days.

Military aircraft frequently conduct such flights in and around the capital to practice routes they would fly if key government officials had to be quickly moved during a major catastrophe or attack.

Other potential factors in the crash, including the helicopter’s altitude and whether the crew was using night vision goggles, are still under investigation, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News Channel.

On Friday the Army released the names of two of the soldiers who died: Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia, the crew chief; and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland. Eaves was one of the pilots on the helicopter.

But in an unusual move, the name of the third soldier is not being released for now at the family’s request, the Army said.

The FAA on Friday barred helicopters from flying over a roughly 6-mile (10-kilometer) stretch of the Potomac and parts of its shoreline, including over the airport, according to the Department of Transportation statement. The new limits exempt helicopters on emergency medical flights, active law enforcement and air defense missions, and carrying the president. They are expected to remain in place at least until the NTSB finishes its preliminary report.

Officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet arrived from Wichita, Kansas, carrying, among others, nine students and parents from Fairfax County, Virginia schools, a group of elite young figure skaters, their parents and coaches and a group of hunters.

Crash debris has drifted miles (kilometers) downriver.

Dean Naujoks, who routinely patrols the Potomac for the environmental group Waterkeeper Alliance, found floating debris Thursday in a pair of shallow coves along the Maryland shore.

The wreckage included pages from a flight manual, part of the plane’s cabin wall, a woman’s sweater and dozens of sugar packets with the American Airlines logo. Naujoks, who had law enforcement permission to take his motorboat about 2 miles (roughly 3 kilometers) from the crash site, turned the items over to the FBI.

“Everything is covered in jet fuel,” Naujoks said Friday. “The sugar packets made me think of the flight attendants. I’m thinking of the people these things belonged to, and it’s a punch to the gut. It’s just a sad day on the river.”

According to an FAA report obtained by the AP, one air traffic controller was responsible for coordinating helicopter traffic and arriving and departing planes when the collision happened. Those duties are often divided between two people, but the airport typically combines them at 9:30 p.m., once traffic begins to slow down. On Wednesday, though, the tower supervisor combined them earlier, which the report called “not normal.”

However, a person familiar with the matter said tower staffing that night was actually normal. The positions are regularly combined when controllers need to step away for breaks, shift changes or when traffic slows, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures.

Inman said investigators had interviewed at least one air traffic controller working at the time of the crash. He said interviews were ongoing, and it was unclear how many controllers were working at the time.

“Air traffic control interviews are critical,” Inman said. “That’s the reason why there’s a process in place that began immediately after the accident.”

Investigators will also examine staffing levels, training, hiring and other factors, in addition to looking at controllers' records.

The FAA has long struggled with a shortage of air traffic controllers.

Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation, said the helicopter crew was “very experienced” and familiar with the congested flying that occurs daily around the city.

The helicopter’s maximum allowed altitude at the time was 200 feet (about 60 meters), Koziol said. It was not immediately clear whether it exceeded that limit, but Hegseth said altitude seemed to be a factor in the collision.

A day after he questioned the helicopter pilot’s actions and blamed diversity initiatives for undermining air safety, Trump said Friday that the helicopter was “flying too high.”

“It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???” Trump said in a post on the Truth Social platform.

Wednesday’s crash was the deadliest in the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, when a jet slammed into a residential area of Belle Harbor, New York, just after takeoff from Kennedy Airport, killing all 260 people aboard and five people on the ground.

Experts often highlight that plane travel is overwhelmingly safe, but the crowded airspace around Reagan National can challenge even the most experienced pilots.

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By Lindsay Whitehurst, Zeke Miller, Claudia Lauer and Adriana Gomez Licon/

Gomez Licon reported from Miami. Associated press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Tara Copp, Meg Kinnard, Chris Megerian, Aamer Madhani and Michael Biesecker in Washington; Lea Skene; and Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland, contributed.