The stays of all 67 victims of final week’s midair collision of an American Airways aircraft and an Military helicopter close to Washington DC have been recovered, authorities mentioned on Tuesday.
The chief health worker remains to be making an attempt to positively determine one set of stays, officers mentioned in a information launch.
“Our hearts are with the victims’ households as they navigate this tragic loss,” they mentioned in a joint launch from the town and federal companies concerned, together with the US military corps of engineers, navy dive groups and Washington DC police and hearth crews.
The information got here as crews labored to attempt to get well the cockpit and different components of the jetliner from the Potomac River. Officers mentioned their work may depend on the wind and tidal circumstances within the river, the place the aircraft and helicopter crashed final Wednesday night time after colliding because the aircraft was about to land at close by Ronald Reagan Nationwide airport, killing everybody onboard each plane.
All through the day, crews could possibly be seen lifting massive items of the aircraft from the river. The Nationwide Transportation Security Board mentioned it didn’t plan to offer additional updates from the scene.
Authorities mentioned early on within the effort that that they had anticipated to get well the stays of everybody who died. They’re focusing first on the jet and hope to get well the Black Hawk helicopter later this week.
Col Francis B Pera of the military corps of engineers mentioned salvage crews on Monday have been capable of pull one of many two jet engines from the river, together with massive items of the aircraft’s exterior. They have been additionally working to get well a wing of the aircraft, which had flown out of Wichita, Kansas.
Sixty passengers and 4 crew have been on the American Airways flight, together with determine skaters coming back from the 2025 US Determine Skating Championships in Wichita.
The Black Hawk was on a coaching mission. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia; Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Nice Mills, Maryland; Capt Rebecca M Lobach, of Durham, North Carolina, have been onboard.
Federal investigators are attempting to piece collectively the occasions that led to the collision. Full investigations sometimes take a 12 months or extra, however investigators hope to have a preliminary report inside 30 days.
Wednesday’s crash was the deadliest within the US since 12 November 2001, when a jet slammed right into a New York Metropolis neighborhood simply after takeoff, killing all 260 folks onboard and 5 on the bottom.
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