The remains of all 67 victims of last week’s midair collision of an American Airlines flight and an Army helicopter near the nation’s capital have been recovered, authorities said Tuesday.
The chief medical examiner is still trying to positively identify one set of remains, officials said in a news release.
“Our hearts are with the victims’ families as they navigate this tragic loss,” they said in a joint release from the city and federal agencies involved, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Navy dive teams and Washington, D.C., police and fire crews.
The news came as crews worked to try to recover the cockpit and other parts of the jetliner from the Potomac River. Officials said their work might depend upon the wind and tidal conditions in the river, where the aircraft crashed last Wednesday night after colliding as the plane was about to land at nearby Ronald Reagan National Airport, killing everyone on board the two aircraft were killed.
Throughout the day, crews could be seen lifting large pieces of the plane from the river. The National Transportation Safety Board said it didn’t plan to provide further updates from the scene.
Authorities said early on in the effort that they had expected to recover the remains of everyone who died. They are focusing first on the jet and hope to recover the Black Hawk helicopter later this week.
Col. Francis B. Pera of the Army Corps of Engineers said salvage crews on Monday were able to pull one of the two jet engines from the river, along with large pieces of the plane’s exterior. They were also working to recover a wing of the plane, which had flown out of Wichita, Kansas.
Sixty passengers and four crew were on the American Airlines flight, including figure skaters returning from the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.
The Black Hawk was on a training mission. Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland; and Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, of Durham, North Carolina, were aboard.
Federal investigators are trying to piece together the events that led to the collision. Full investigations typically take a year or more, but investigators hope to have a preliminary report within 30 days.
Wednesday’s crash was the deadliest in the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, when a jet slammed into a New York City neighborhood just after takeoff, killing all 260 people on board and five on the ground.
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP)
