Barges are expected to arrive in the D.C. area on Saturday to help with salvage operations from Wednesday’s deadly plane crash at Regan National Airport (DCA) as questions remain as to how an Army Black Hawk helicopter could have collided with an American Airlines plane midair, killing 67 people.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Todd Inman said Friday the barges will help with salvage operations to ensure the remaining victims are recovered. He said their remains would immediately be turned over to them and the D.C. Medical Examiner’s Office for identification and then returned to their families.
At least 40 bodies had been pulled from the Potomac River on Friday. Both black boxes have been recovered.
DC PLANE CRASH INVESTIGATORS RECOVER AMERICAN AIRLINES BLACK BOXES AFTER MIDAIR COLLISION
A new report by the New York Post suggests that the Black Hawk was flying nearly twice as high as it should have been and that the helicopter was not equipped with a new technology that would have alerted air traffic control to its dangerously deviated path. Meanwhile, a preliminary report indicated that staffing levels at the time of the collision were “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.”
The Black Hawk chopper was flying more than 300 feet above the Potomac River at the time of the deadly smash, even though aviation guidelines require helicopters on that route to stay below 200 feet, the outlet reports.
The news would corroborate President Donald Trump’s view that the military aircraft was traveling too high.
“The Black Hawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200-foot limit,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday. “That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???”
Trump on Thursday signed an executive order calling for an immediate assessment of aviation safety.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which oversees the aviation industry, said he’s been briefed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and detailed the sequence of events that resulted in Wednesday’s deadly midair collision.
“Flight 5342 was initially scheduled to land on Runway 1 at Reagan but was redirected to Runway 33,” he wrote on X. “Meanwhile, the helicopter was traveling along Route 1 before being shifted to Route 4.”
“We know that air traffic control confirmed with the helicopter crew that they had visual contact with the plane. Controllers then instructed the helicopter to move behind the plane,” he added. “However, instead of complying, the helicopter moved in front of the aircraft. The two aircraft collided mid-air, resulting in a catastrophic explosion.”
In an episode of “The Verdict” podcast, Cruz said the collision may have been avoided if the Army had outfitted the Black Hawk with an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast device, a relatively new technology that allows air traffic control operators to see an aircraft’s altitude.
“The Black Hawk helicopter had a transponder, so it was appearing on radar. It did not have technology called ADS-B, which is technology that pings the location of an aircraft, and it does so using GPS rather than radar,” he said. “ADS-B is more accurate and more reliable than simply a transponder that is pinging on radar.”
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER LEFT EARLY FROM WORK BEFORE CRASH: REPORT
Meanwhile, a preliminary FAA report indicated that a single air traffic controller was monitoring both airplanes and helicopters at the time of the devastating crash.
Staffing levels at the time of the collision were “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” the New York Times reports, citing the report. Additionally, a tower supervisor allegedly let another air traffic controller leave work early Wednesday night. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) calls for one controller to monitor planes, while another monitors helicopters.
The Times report said the tower at the airport was nearly a third below targeted staff levels, with 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023, citing the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan, an annual report to Congress that contains target and actual staffing levels.
The targets set by the FAA and the controllers union call for 30.
Five current and former controllers told the outlet that the controller in the tower should have more proactively directed the helicopter and the plane to fly away from each other. Instead, the controller asked the helicopter to steer clear of the plane.
Another New York Times report suggests that more than 90% of the country’s 313 air traffic control facilities operate below the staffing levels recommended by the FAA.
The New York Times reported that as of January, 285 facilities were below levels set by the FAA and the union that represents controllers. In at least 73 facilities, at least a quarter of the workforce is missing.
The Army has named the other soldiers killed in the collision. They were identified as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland, and Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia.
The family of the third solider killed in Wednesday’s deadly midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is requesting their identity not be publicly released, the Army said Friday.
The doomed American Airlines plane was carrying more than a dozen people returning from a training camp following the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas, where the flight originated. Those victims included Spencer Lane and Jinna Han, both 16, who were promising skaters at The Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, Massachusetts, as well as Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov who together won a 1994 world championship in pairs figure skating.
Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration will restrict helicopter traffic around DCA, effective Friday.
The decision was made with the support of Trump and in consultation with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to a post on X from Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy.
“Today’s decision will immediately help secure the airspace near Reagan Airport, ensuring the safety of airplane and helicopter traffic,” Duffy wrote.
The restricted area includes Memorial Bridge to South Capitol Street Bridge, excluding the Tidal Basin, Haines Point to Wilson Bridge and over the top of DCA.
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