Officials in Washington, DC, identified 55 bodies extracted from the Potomac River during a strenuous recovery operation several days after the air collision between a commercial plane and a Black Hawk helicopter last week.
DC Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly, Mr., told journalists on Sunday that the remains of 55 of the 67 victims of the aircraft collision have been identified. The only injury that Donnelly reported was a first responder who developed hypothermia while looking in cold cold water, but the person later recovered.
The authorities also said they plan to start lifting the debris of the Potomac River on Monday. Colonel Francis Pera, of the US Army Corps of Army.
“We have a process in which we will see the elevator as it happens,” Pera explained. “And then, if there are remains there, that will not move as long as we recover the remains. We will take those remains to the surface of the barge. Our process (s) to immediately load the barge to make sure we have complete discretion.”
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Emergency vehicles and recovery operations are observed near the mouth of the Anacostia River on the Potomac River, near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, on Friday, January 31, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
The authorities have been at the rubble site in the river since shortly after the collision between a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and a Bombardier Crj700 Airliner that operates under PSA Airlines, a subsidiary of American Airlines.
The plane’s flight data recorder indicated that the helicopter hit 325 feet on Wednesday night, and that before the impact, there was a change in the aircraft tone, according to the preliminary information published on Saturday.
“Currently, the CRJ (plane) based on the data recorder at the time of the impact was 325 feet, more or less 25 feet,” said the National Board of Transportation Security (NTSB), Todd Inman, in A Press Conference on Saturday. “And for those who follow this close, that is a corrected altitude.”
“I can tell you at one point, very close to the impact, there was a slight change in the tone, an increase in launch,” he added later, when asked if the plane stopped.
While air traffic control data had the altitude of the plane at 200 feet in Impact For the 100 apparent. -The difference of feet in altitude.
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The teams recover the remains of the 5342 flight of American Airlines of the Potomac River on January 30, 2025. (Leigh Green for Fox News Digital)
“Whenever we have the data of the recorder, we can give it a more specific answer,” said Inman.
Jake Crockett, firefighter and diver with the Scuba rescue team of Chesterfield Fire & EMS, told Fox News Digital last week that the recovery operation is “incredibly unusual.”
“We are trained and always ready to respond to the call … when the diving call enters, but that generally involves a victim. And, rarely, a couple of victims,” Crockett explained.
“But some of this magnitude, you know, to have 67 people to explain, along with two planes and all the debris is that it is incredibly out of common. It is something that, without a doubt, none of them or I could have predicted .
The firefighter also pointed out that the Potomac River raises challenges related to the temperature and visibility of water.
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A plane flies near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after the collision of the 5342 American Eagle flight and a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed into the Potomac River, in Arlington, Virginia, on January 30, 2025. (Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters)
“It will be zero visibility or near zero is that they will immerse themselves, so looking for small parts of an airplane in that type of visibility will be extremely challenging,” Crockett explained. “The waters here and the lakes, ponds and rivers … when you enter, it is simply dark.”
Mollie Markowitz de Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
