Helicopter black box found after Washington DC plane crash

Investigations continue into cause of collision, which killed 67

Officials are continuing to search the Potomac River for bodies, having recovered 41 so far. Reuters

The black box from the Black Hawk helicopter that collided with an aeroplane in Washington DC has been recovered, investigators said on Friday.

Officials are reviewing the flight data recorder along with two from the plane as they investigate the cause of the devastating crash that occurred late on Wednesday night.

An American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, was preparing to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport and collided with a helicopter that was on a training mission in the area. Both landed in the Potomac River.

Sixty-seven people were killed in the crash: 60 passengers and four crew members on the plane, and three soldiers on the helicopter. Officials have pulled 41 bodies from the water and 28 have been identified.

The crash is the worst US air disaster in years.

‘No survivors’: Rescue mission becomes grim recovery operation after Washington air crash

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Police boats returned to the icy waters of the Potomac River on Friday as recovery efforts continued.

Authorities are examining factors in the crash, including the helicopter’s altitude and whether the crew was using its night vision goggles, are still under investigation, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth added.

The area over the Potomac River and near the airport is now off-limits to most helicopters to ensure safety in the aftermath of the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Two of the three main runways at the airport remain closed because of the crash and recovery effort, with about 100 flights cancelled during the day.

One air traffic controller was responsible for co-ordinating helicopter traffic as well as arriving and departing planes when the collision happened, according to a report by the FAA that was obtained by AP. Those duties are often divided between two people, but the airport typically combines the roles at about 9.30pm, once traffic begins to slow down.

On Wednesday, the tower supervisor had directed that they be combined earlier. “The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” the report said.

The FAA has long struggled with a shortage of air traffic controllers. The agency is about 3,000 controllers behind staffing targets and said in 2023 that it had 10,700 certified controllers, about the same as a year earlier.

A vase of red roses honours victims of the deadly collision at the Law Enforcement Memorial in Wichita, Kansas, where the passenger flight originated from. AP

After the crash, US President Donald Trump blamed his predecessor, Joe Biden, for diversity hiring practices that he said – without evidence – contributed to the incident. He also blamed the FAA for instituting those practices and issued a memo demanding the agency and the Transport Department “review all hiring decisions and changes to safety protocols made during the prior four years, and to take such corrective action as necessary to achieve uncompromised aviation safety”.

On Friday, Mr Trump took aim at a new target, saying the helicopter was flying too high. “That's not really too complicated to understand, is it?” he said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

The helicopter's maximum allowed altitude at the time was reportedly about 60 metres. It was not immediately clear whether it had exceeded that limit, but Mr Hegseth said altitude seemed to be a factor in the collision. The collision occurred at an altitude of around 90 metres, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.

Fatal crashes of commercial aircraft in the US have become a rarity. The deadliest recent crash was in 2009 near Buffalo, New York, when all 45 passengers and four crew members were killed when a plane crashed into a house. One person on the ground also was killed.

In 1982, an Air Florida flight crashed into the Potomac and killed 78.