An Army helicopter and an American Airlines passenger plane crashed into each other recently. They had 64 people aboard, but divers are still looking for the 12 remaining passengers due to only 55 of the 67 bodies that have been recovered so far.
These two aircraft collided near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport at a low altitude. The divers that are searching for the remaining bodies are looking in the frigid Pontac River, and currently due to unauthorized vessels, the waterway remains closed.
“Our goal is to really lift as much as we can, given the fact that we are also accounting for the human remains component,” said Col. Francis Pera of the Army Corps of Engineers.
Since this unfortunate accident happened just on January 30th, the process of working at the scene to take care of these aircrafts started last week on Monday. This crash that took place on Wednesday night is the deadliest air crash that has happened in two decades.
The National Transportation Safety board are still trying to figure out what could’ve caused the crash to happen. They are paying attention to details like exactly how high up they were from the ground, different aircrafts that were approaching the runway at the time, and more. It is said that the helicopter was on a training mission at night.
Officials in this investigation are working to figure out whether the crew had night vision while flying the dark skies. As expected, this event has raised concerns about the area’s level of air traffic congestion, which doesn’t leave much room for error in the airspace above major transport hubs that serve the nation’s capital region.
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/02/nx-s1-5284035/victims-recovered-dc-plane-crash
