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Three black boxes — one from the Black Hawk helicopter and two from the American Airlines jet — have been recovered from the wreckage in Washington D.C.’s Potomac River, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The helicopter’s box was recovered Friday after investigators previously recovered two black boxes from the jet. All three devices will now be taken for analysis, NTSB board member Todd Inman said Friday.
“We have a high level of confidence that we will be able to have a full extraction,” Inman said of the helicopter’s black box.
At least 41 bodies have been recovered so far, officials said, including the three service members on the Black Hawk. All 67 people involved in the mid-air collision Wednesday evening near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport are presumed dead.
More than 30 victims have already been publicly identified, including both pilots on the American Airlines jet and two of three soldiers on board the helicopter. The victims also include two teenage figure skaters, their parents and two coaches.
Elsewhere, Jo Ellis, a Black Hawk pilot with the Virginia Army National Guard who is transgender, was falsely identified as the captain flying the U.S. military helicopter after President Donald Trump baselessly blamed diversity, equity, and inclusion programs for the crash.
FAA restricts helicopter activity near Reagan Airport
The Federal Aviation Administration has restricted helicopter activity around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
“Today’s decision will immediately help secure the airspace near Reagan Airport, ensuring the safety of airplane and helicopter traffic,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday.
NEW: With the support of @POTUS and in consultation with the @SecDef, effective today, the @FAANews will restrict helicopter traffic around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport airport.
Today’s decision will immediately help secure the airspace near Reagan Airport, ensuring… pic.twitter.com/Oo6B9H8z8S
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) January 31, 2025
Katie Hawkinson1 February 2025 14:54
Bodies of two soldiers recovered from Black Hawk wreckage
The bodies of two soldiers have been recovered from the wreckage of the Black Hawk helicopter that collided with an American Airlines jet Wednesday night, CBS News reports.
The bodies, which investigators identified as a man and a woman, were recovered yesterday, the outlet reports.
Three people were on board the helicopter when it crashed. Two of them have been identified: Staff Sgt. Ryan O’Hara and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves. Army officials have declined to release the third person’s identity.
The bodies recovered yesterday are believed to belong to Eaves and the third person on board, as O’Hara’s body was recovered earlier in the week, according to CBS.
Read more about O’Hara, Eaves and the two pilots on board the American Airlines jet:
Katie Hawkinson1 February 2025 14:34
Investigators downloading data from all three black boxes
Investigators are working this weekend to download data from the three black boxes recovered from the crash’s wreckage.
Recovery crews found one black box for the Black Hawk helicopter Friday, while the other two belonged to the American Airlines jet.
Investigators expect a “full download” from the jet’s flight data recorder as well, National Transportation Safety Board board member Todd Inman said.
All 67 people on both aircraft are presumed dead after the helicopter and jet collided over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Wednesday night.
Recovery crews have found at least 41 bodies as of Saturday morning.
Katie Hawkinson1 February 2025 14:17
Black Hawk helicopter was on a ‘continuity of government’ training flight
The Black Hawk helicopter that collided with a passenger jet in Washington on Wednesday was on a training flight along a route core to a seldom-discussed military mission to evacuate senior officials to safety in the event of an attack on the U.S., officials say.
The military mission, known as “continuity of government” and “continuity of operations,” is meant to preserve the ability of the U.S. government to operate.
Most days, crews like the one killed on Wednesday transport VIPs around Washington, which is buzzing with helicopter traffic.
But U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disclosed the Black Hawk crew’s ties to the mission during a White House press conference on Thursday, saying they “were on a routine, annual re-training of night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity of government mission.”
Still, little of such missions is publicly discussed.
The three soldiers killed in the collision were part of the 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, whose responsibilities in a national crisis include evacuating Pentagon officials. Another 64 people were killed in the passenger plane.
Holly Evans1 February 2025 14:02
Is flying really safer than driving? What the stats show after devastating Washington D.C. plane crash
Recovery efforts are ongoing for dozens of bodies in the Potomac River, where the remnants of the American Airlines flight and the US army Black Hawk helicopter lie after the January 29 disaster.
Officials in the US have sought to reassure citizens that flying is safe. Transport secretary Sean Duffy insisted that passengers should be “assured” that flying is a safe mode of transport in a press conference on Thursday morning.
Read the full article here:
Holly Evans1 February 2025 13:01
Who was flying the American Airlines plane and Black Hawk helicopter before Washington DC crash?
Holly Evans1 February 2025 12:11
Who is Jo Ellis, the transgender pilot wrongly named in DC crash?
Jo Ellis’s record of service in the Virginia National Guard appears to be nothing but honorable.
She served in Iraq as a helicopter door gunner, then in Kuwait as part of the multi-national fight against the Islamic State. And in 2023, with the support of her commanders, she began medically transitioning to female.
Read the full article here:
Holly Evans1 February 2025 12:00
Issue around shortage of tower controllers highlighted by crash
The crash has shone a spotlight on concerns about air safety and a shortage of tower controllers at the heavily congested airport that serves the U.S. capital.
The FAA is about 3,000 controllers behind staffing targets. The agency said in 2023 that it had 10,700 certified controllers, about the same as a year earlier.
One controller rather than two was handling local plane and helicopter traffic on Wednesday at the airport, a situation deemed “not normal” but considered adequate for lower volumes of traffic, according to a person briefed on the matter. Duffy on Thursday vowed to reform the FAA.
Airspace is crowded around the Washington area, home to three commercial airports, multiple military bases and some senior government officials who are ferried around by helicopter.
Over a three-year period ending in 2019, there was an average of 80 helicopter flights per day within 30 miles (48 km) of Reagan National Airport, with the majority either military or law enforcement flights, according to a 2021 Government Accountability Office report.
Holly Evans1 February 2025 11:00
Philadelphia plane crash: What we know so far after Learjet crash goes down in huge explosion near mall
The aircraft came down just after 6 p.m. local time near the Roosevelt Mall, damaging several homes and vehicles. Shocking footage showed a large mushroom-shaped fireball shooting into the sky.
City law enforcement quickly declared the crash a “major incident” and urged residents to stay away from the area.
Read the full article here:
Holly Evans1 February 2025 10:10
The National Transportation Safety Board have conducted interviews with air traffic controllers, member Todd Inman said, including the lone controller working inside Reagan’s tower at the time of the crash on Wednesday.
Authorities have not identified a cause, and Inman said the board would not engage in speculation before completing its investigation.
“The NTSB is an independent, bipartisan board – 58 years as the gold standard. Our job is to find the facts, but more importantly, our job is to make sure this tragedy doesn’t happen again, regardless of what anyone may be saying,” Inman said, adding that he had not spoken to President Donald Trump or anyone at the White House.
Holly Evans1 February 2025 10:00
