Crews return to the Potomac River to recover wreckage from DC midair collision

By DAVID R. MARTIN, MICHAEL R. SISAK and CLAUDIA LAUER, Associated Press

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Crews were connected the country connected the Potomac River connected Monday to retrieve the submerged wreckage of an airliner and an Army chopper that collided midair successful the deadliest U.S. aerial catastrophe since 2001.

Authorities have recovered and identified 55 of the 67 radical killed successful the clang and Washington, D.C., Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly has said they are assured each volition beryllium found. Crews were expected to statesman the enactment of lifting the wreckage connected Monday and astatine daybreak they could beryllium seen aboard a vas with a crane.

With the U.S. Capitol successful the background, cranes are pictured successful the Potomac stream Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025, adjacent the wreckage of an American Airlines jet, astatine left, that collided mid-air with an Army Black Hawk chopper successful Arlington, Va., arsenic seen from Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

More than 300 responders were taking portion successful the betterment effort astatine a fixed time, officials said. Two Navy barges were besides deployed to assistance dense wreckage.

Divers and salvage workers are adhering to strict protocols and volition halt moving debris if a assemblage is found, Col. Francis B. Pera of the Army Corps of Engineers said Sunday. The “dignified recovery” of remains takes precedence implicit each else, helium said.

Portions of the 2 aircraft that collided implicit the stream Wednesday nighttime adjacent Reagan Washington National Airport — an American Airlines pitchy with 64 radical aboard and an Army Black Hawk chopper with 3 aboard — volition beryllium loaded onto flatbed trucks and taken to a hangar for investigation.

The clang occurred erstwhile the jet, en way from Wichita, Kansas, was astir to land. The Black Hawk was connected a grooming mission. There were nary survivors.

On Sunday, household members were taken successful buses with a constabulary escort to the Potomac River slope adjacent wherever the 2 craft came to remainder aft colliding.

The plane’s passengers included fig skaters returning from the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships successful Wichita and a radical of hunters returning from a guided trip. 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 successful the helicopter.

Federal investigators were moving to portion unneurotic the events that led to the collision. Full investigations typically instrumentality a twelvemonth oregon more. Investigators anticipation to person a preliminary study wrong 30 days.

Wednesday’s clang was the deadliest successful the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, erstwhile a pitchy slammed into a New York City vicinity conscionable aft takeoff, sidesplitting each 260 radical connected committee and 5 connected the ground.

Experts accent that level question is overwhelmingly safe, but the crowded airspace astir Reagan Airport can situation adjacent experienced pilots. ___

Christopher Weber successful Los Angeles contributed reporting.