Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here. News World. Families visit US air disaster crash site as officials say 55 of 67 bodies recovered. By Associated Press. Tweet Facebook Mail. Authorities say they have recovered the remains of 55 of the 67 people killed in the deadliest US air disaster since Washington, DC Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly said at a news conference that divers still need to find the bodies of 12 more victims and are committed to the dignified recovery of remains as they prepare to lift wreckage from the Potomac River as early as Monday morning local time Monday evening AEDT.
Portions of the aircraft will be loaded onto flatbed trucks and taken to a hangar for further investigation. They spoke hours after families of the victims visited the crash site just outside Washington, DC, walking along the banks of the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport to memorialise their loved ones. Dozens of people arrived in buses with a police escort close to where an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided last Thursday, killing all 67 aboard the two aircraft.
Federal investigators were working to piece together the events that led to the crash while recovery crews were set to pull more wreckage from the chilly water. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he wanted to leave federal aviation investigators space to conduct their inquiry. But he posed a range of questions about the crash while appearing on morning TV news programs.
Were they understaffed? The American Airlines flight with 64 people on board was preparing to land from Wichita, Kansas. The Army Black Hawk helicopter was on a training mission and had three soldiers on board. Both aircraft plunged into the Potomac River after colliding. The plane's passengers included figure skaters returning from the US Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas, and a group of hunters returning from a guided trip.
The National Transportation Safety Board said on Saturday that preliminary data showed conflicting readings about the altitudes of the airliner and the Army helicopter. Investigators also said that about a second before impact, the jet's flight recorder showed a change in its pitch. But they did not say whether that change in angle meant that pilots were trying to perform an evasive maneuver to avoid the crash.
