Day: February 1, 2025

Investigators were able on Friday to recover the helicopter’s black box, which captures flight data and voices in the cockpit, National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman said at an afternoon briefing.

The information from the box, along with the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the CRJ700 airplane, could help authorities piece together what happened just before the two aircraft collided on Wednesday night and plunged into Washington’s freezing Potomac River in the deadliest U.S. air disaster in two decades.

The board has also conducted interviews with air traffic controllers, 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.

Separately, a medevac plane crashed near a shopping mall in Philadelphia on Friday evening with a child and five others aboard, the plane’s air ambulance company said, adding that it had not confirmed any survivors.

Following the Washington crash, the FAA sharply restricted helicopter flights near Reagan to reduce the risk of another collision, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said earlier on Friday, confirming news first reported by Reuters.

Duffy said the decision “will immediately help secure the airspace near Reagan Airport, ensuring the safety of airplane and helicopter traffic.”

The FAA is barring most helicopters from parts of two routes near the airport and only allowing police and medical helicopters, air defense and presidential air transport in the area between the airport and nearby bridges.

The restrictions will last at least until the NTSB releases a preliminary report into the fatal collision, which typically takes 30 days. At that point they will be reviewed, Duffy said.

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the airline would work with the government “to make our aviation system even safer.”

Crews have recovered 41 bodies thus far, officials said.

Pulling the debris from the Potomac River will begin “in earnest” on Sunday, Inman said, an effort that will likely last all week.

Washington, D.C., Fire Chief John Donnelly told reporters that 28 bodies have been positively identified and that he expected all victims would eventually be recovered.

The American Airlines plane was trying to land when it collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter, killing all 60 passengers and four crew members aboard. Two of the three service members killed in the helicopter were identified Friday.

QUESTIONS ABOUT SAFETY

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.

The helicopter’s path has also drawn scrutiny. The military said the maximum altitude for the route the helicopter was taking is 200 feet (61 meters) but the collision occurred at an altitude of around 300 feet, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.

Trump weighed in on Friday, saying that the helicopter involved in the crash was flying too high.

“The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

Senator Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, questioned the safety of military and commercial flights separated by as little as 350 feet (107 m) vertically and horizontally.

Radio communications showed that air traffic controllers alerted the helicopter about the approaching jet and ordered it to change course.

The pilot of the American Eagle Flight 5342 had about six years of flying experience, according to the airline’s CEO. The Bombardier jet was operated by PSA Airlines, a regional subsidiary.

Terry Liercke, vice president of Reagan National, said two of the airport’s three runways were expected to remain closed for a week. The main runway at Reagan, which will stay open, handles about 90% of the airport’s flights and is the busiest single runway in the United States.

The crash victims included people from Russia, China, Germany and the Philippines, as well as young figure skaters returning from an elite national training camp in Kansas, the state from which the passenger flight took off.

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Reporting by David Shepardson, Jeff Mason, Steve Holland and Costas Pitas; Additional reporting by Joseph Ax, Bianca Flowers and Brad Brooks; Editing by Scott Malone, Gerry Doyle, Mark Porter, Nia Williams, Sandra Maler and Himani Sarkar

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Air traffic controllers knew there was a problem moments before the deadly Friday night crash of a Medevac jet in Philadelphia that also injured over a dozen people on the ground.

The cause for the crash is not yet known. The Learjet 55 departed Northeast Philadelphia Airport at about 6:30 p.m. ET bound for Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri, and the pilot did not mention any problems in recorded air traffic control communications.

But the air traffic control tower caught on that there was an issue, the recordings suggest. “Medevac med service zero-five-six, northeast tower, are you on frequency?” a controller asks almost four minutes after the jet’s takeoff from Northeast Philadelphia Airport in an audio file downloaded from liveatc.net.Then, a request for response from the aircraft is repeated by the controller. About five minutes later, another voice comes on the radio asking, “What’s going on down there?””We have a lost aircraft,” the operator responds. “We’re not exactly sure what happened, so we’re trying to figure it out. For now, the field is going to be closed, so no inbounds or outbounds, probably,” the operator responds.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators were arriving at the crash site, said the Federal Aviation Administration, which will assist with the probe.

DC plane crash:Search for bodies continues; officials to remove aircraft from Potomac

Philadelphia plane crash victims

Aboard the plane was one pediatric patient, the child’s mother and four crew members, Jet Rescue Air Ambulance said. All six were from Mexico and were reported dead, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Saturday morning on X.

The plane crashed near the Roosevelt Mall at Cottman Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard, a busy hub with dozens of businesses and hundreds of homes. The crash caused an explosion scatting debris, setting some homes and cars on fire and injuring some people on the ground, officials said.

Officials on Saturday morning confirmed an additional fatality: One person who was in their car when the medical flight crashed to the ground. At the time, they said 19 others have been injured but there could be others.

Philadelphia plane crash: Air traffic control recording hints at problem

The audio file on the air traffic broadcasting website includes more than 30 minutes of communications between the tower employees and crew on the plane. Air traffic controllers can be heard giving the plane approval to depart.

Tower employees give instructions to switch frequencies after the successful takeoff. A pilot acknowledges and switches radio frequencies.

Approximately a minute later, one controller makes another request for the plane to contact the tower, followed by about 30 seconds of silence. Within minutes, they realize there is an issue and shut down the airfield.

Where was the Medevac jet that crashed headed?

The aircraft with four crew members and two passengers – a young girl, who had been treated at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia, and her mother – were headed to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri.

The child was on her way home with a final destination of Tijuana, Shai Gold, who works on corporate strategy with Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, told CNN on Friday.

(This story has been updated with new information.)

Contributing: Minnah Arshad, Shane Brennan, Jo Ciavaglia and Karissa Waddick; and Reuters.

Follow Mike Snider on Threads, Bluesky and X: mikegsnider &@mikegsnider.bsky.social &@mikesnider.

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