The team working in the Potomac River after a disastrous mid-air collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter has begun to remove the wreckage.
All 64 people aboard the American Airlines plane and three soldiers in the Blackhawk are presumed dead. The two aircraft crashed during the plane’s final descent into Reagan Washington National Airport on a trip from Wichita, Kansas.
About 300 federal, Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. emergency responders searched the river for survivors of the crash, but no one was found alive. More than three dozen bodies have been recovered as the search continues.
A stretch of the Potomac River around the debris field has been closed during these operations. The Captain of the Port has restricted vessel traffic in all navigable waters north of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has been helping to clear away ice so that responders can continue their mission.
USACE, the Coast Guard, and the U.S. Navy Supervisor of Salvage and Diving continue with salvage operations, which began on Monday. So far, the regional jet’s right wing, center fuselage, part of the left wing and left fuselage, significant portions of the forward cabin and cockpit, vertical and horizontal stabilizers, tail cone, rudder, elevators, TCAS computer and quick access recorder have all been salvaged. The recovered wreckage will be moved to a secure location for a wreckage layout examination.
Following recovery of the jet, crews will focus on the Black Hawk and its wreckage. Investigators are waiting on data points they say are still with the helicopter. They hope to shift to cleaning up the remaining debris field by Feb. 8 with expected completion around Feb. 12. Drone video from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) shows the debris field of the plane and later shows the Black Hawk, which is mostly in one piece:
USACE notes that throughout the salvage, there will be “strict adherence to the central priority of the dignified recovery of missing flight passengers and personnel.” If any remains were found during salvage, it would mean an automatic work stoppage.
The Coast Guard continues to help with victim recovery as well, and has deployed boat crews from ten individual stations and four cutters ranging from 87′ to 175′.
Since the initial rescue efforts and recovery mission, many of the victims have been identified, and they include top figure skaters from the U.S. and Russia, as national news outlets have reported, and several residents of the Chesapeake Bay region. The organizers of the White Marlin Open confirmed that one of the victims was a boat owner in last year’s tournament. In a Facebook post, the tournament says, “Steve Johnson, owner of the boat Ctrl-Alt-Del, who was among those who lost their lives in the AA accident,” and expressed condolences to Johnson’s friends and family.
The NTSB has recovered the black boxes from both aircraft and are beginning to piece together the minutes before the collision and the moment of impact. NTSB Investigator in Charge Brice Banning said that according to the plane’s flight data, one second before the crash, the plane increased in pitch. The helicopter’s flight data hasn’t yet been analyzed.
“We have a lot more work to do,” said NTSB member Todd Inman. Ultimately, he said, they will likely have to go through hundreds of thousands of pages of data.
Meanwhile, the Potomac Riverkeepers Network is keeping a close eye on potential pollutants affecting the river. The riverkeeper group says it is most worried about jet fuel (the smell is perceptible along the river), hydraulic fluids, oils, fire suppressants, weapons residue from the Blackhawk, and deicing fluids.
