Shaun
During a White House press briefing on Thursday, Donald Trump confirmed that “sadly, there are no survivors” in the horrific collision.
An American Airlines regional jet reportedly collided midair with a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The plane was coming from Wichita, Kansas. A person familiar with the details said the flight was carrying 64 people, CNBC reported. The airport was closed Wednesday night, January 29.…Read More
The PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet collided with a Sikorsky H-60 helicopter around 9 pm ET while the passenger jet was on approach to Runway 33 at the airport, the FAA said. On board the flight were 60 passengers and four crew members. The helicopter was an Army Black Hawk, according to a defence official and an Army official. According to local officials, the plane went down in the Potomac River.
During a White House press briefing on Thursday, Donald Trump confirmed that “sadly, there are no survivors” in the horrific collision. A total of 67 people, including three soldiers on board the military helicopter, are believed to have died in the accident. The president began his address with a “moment of silence,” calling Wednesday a “dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital and in our nation’s history.”
Trump wasted no time after the accident as he appointed an acting Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) commissioner. “I’m immediately appointing an acting commissioner to the FAA, Christopher Rocheleau, a 22-year veteran of the agency, highly respected,” the president said, adding, “We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system.”
“NTSB investigators recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the Bombardier CRJ700 airplane involved in yesterday’s midair collision at DCA,” National Transportation Safety Board spokesperson Peter Knudson said, via AP. “The recorders are at the NTSB labs for evaluation.”
President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on aviation safety, claiming it will reverse the “harm” caused to federal agencies under the Biden administration. He also reiterated his belief that “incompetence” may have contributed to the crash.
On Thursday, reporters gathered at the White House for a press briefing. A reporter asked President Trump about his plans to visit a specific site. Trump responded, “I do have a plan to visit, but not the site. What is the site? Water? Are we going to go swimming?”
Recovery operations have been paused until Friday morning after responders retrieved an additional eight bodies on Thursday. Four individuals have been located but are still trapped inside the plane, while two soldiers inside the helicopter have yet to be extricated. A crane is being brought in to assist with the operation, but it is expected to take 24 to 48 hours before it can be used, according to CNN. Fourteen victims are still unaccounted for.
American Airlines is set to resume its regional service from Wichita to Reagan National Airport on Friday, the airline confirmed to CNN.
One of the flight data recorders, commonly known as a black box, from the CRJ 700 that crashed after colliding with a military helicopter near Reagan National Airport has been recovered from the Potomac River, according to Washington Senator Maria Cantwell’s (D) office.
Authorities have recovered 40 complete bodies along with partial remains of others, according to a law enforcement source involved in the investigation, CBS reports. Some of the remains have washed ashore.
Investigators believe they have retrieved all the remains that are currently accessible but suspect more are still inside a section of the aircraft’s tail, which remains unreachable for now.
Recovery efforts will pause at dusk and resume at first light tomorrow. However, officials fear that some bodies may never be recovered, the source added.
President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Thursday directing Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies from the department. The move aims to reverse initiatives from the Biden and Obama administrations, which Trump referred to as “woke” policies.
Trump’s directive comes after he suggested that DEI efforts could have played a role in Wednesday night’s aircraft collision, though investigators have not identified a cause. Multiple agencies are still looking into the crash.
A group of Black lawmakers expressed their condolences for the lives lost in the D.C. plane collision while strongly criticizing Trump’s remarks blaming diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts for the tragedy, AP reports.
“It is our hope that the outpour of condolences and support from people across our nation will bring solace during this season of bereavement,” said Rep. Yvette Clark, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. “However, the opportunity to fully focus our sympathies on those who are in mourning and who may not have even retrieved their dearly departed was marred by a truly disgusting and disgraceful display of racist political prognostication.”
“We know they’re there, they are underwater,” NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said in a news briefing on Thursday.. “This is not unusual for the NTSB. We have many times recovered flight data recorders in water.”
The NTSB plans to analyze the plane’s flight data recorder at its nearby lab, while the helicopter’s recorder will be reviewed by either the NTSB or the Department of Defense under a shared agreement. Once recovered, the data will help provide further details on the investigation.
National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman stated that there are currently no indications that emergency evacuation slides were deployed on the commercial plane after its crash into the Potomac River on Wednesday night.
“Right now, we’re going through the debris fields. Nothing we’ve seen would indicate that maybe slides or shoots were deployed,” he said. “It was a very quick, rapid impact.” He stressed that the NTSB still needs to verify this information.
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a former Black Hawk pilot, torched President Trump after he suggested that Democrats’ federal diversity and inclusion policies might be to blame for the crash.
“How dare the commander in chief of the greatest military on the face of the earth attack the soldiers that just died last night by saying that he’s implying that they were not qualified to do their jobs.
“I am offended that the commander-in-chief of the United States military would actually say that about the soldiers he has sworn to lead. Shame on him,” he added.
