Black boxes recovered from plane in deadly American Airlines crash near DC

All 67 people on board the American Airlines jet crashed into a US Army helicopter near Washington, DC, killing all 67 of the passengers on board.

The Bombardier CRJ700 jet collided with a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter over Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced on Friday that it had recovered the cockpit voice recorders and flight data.

In a post on X, the organization stated that “the recorders are at the NTSB labs for evaluation.”

The investigation into the accident, which was the first fatal crash involving a US commercial airliner in more than 15 years, would “leave no stone unturned,” NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy earlier said.

“We are going to conduct a thorough investigation of this entire tragedy, looking at the facts”, Homendy said.

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, made the announcement after he claimed the Federal Aviation Administration’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies (DEI) may have contributed to the disaster.

Trump said at a press conference, “These are not the people who should be doing this particular job,” without naming the target audience.

We want brilliant individuals to perform this. At its highest level, this is a significant chess game.

When an investigator asked how he could link the crash to DEI policies when the investigations were still in progress, Trump responded that he had “common sense.”

Trump’s comments prompted condemnation from Democrats and disability rights groups, including the National Disability Rights Network, which branded his statement “irresponsible, disparaging, and wrong”.

Pete Buttigieg, who served as transportation secretary under former US President Joe Biden, called the comments “despicable”.

“As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We prioritized safety, conducted close calls, increased Air Traffic Control, and avoided fatalities from millions of commercial airline crashes while monitoring our watch, Buttigieg said on X.

Air traffic controllers asked the pilots if they could land on Runway 33 before the scheduled arrival of American Airlines Flight 5342 on Wednesday, and the pilots responded with an updated flight path request.

An air traffic controller asked the army helicopter’s crew if they could see the approaching aircraft less than 30 seconds before the midair collision.

Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed into a house in Buffalo, New York, inching its first fatal collision for a US commercial airline since 2009. All 49 people on board and one on the ground were killed in the collision.

Authorities have so far recovered about 40 bodies from the Potomac River.

While officials have not released a full list of the victims, they include two former world champion figure skaters, two Chinese nationals, a group of friends who had been on a duck-hunting trip, and the crews of the two aircraft.

Reagan National, located in Arlington, Virginia, is the closest airport to Washington, DC, situated less than 8km (5 miles) from the US capital.