Investigators in the United States have located the black boxes from the American Airlines jet that crashed into a US Army helicopter near Washington, DC, killing all 67 people aboard both aircrafts.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Friday, January 31, 2025, said it recovered the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the Bombardier CRJ700 jet that collided with a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter over Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The agency said in a post on X that the recorders are at the NTSB labs for evaluation.

NTSB Chairman, Jennifer Homendy earlier told reporters that the agency would “leave no stone unturned” in its investigation into the accident, the first deadly crash involving a US commercial airliner in more than 15 years. “We are going to conduct a thorough investigation of this entire tragedy, looking at the facts,” Homendy said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is studying the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the CRJ700 airplane, and is expected to provide a preliminary report in 30 days.

Washington’s fire department said that aside from recovering the so-called black boxes from the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Potomac River after colliding with an Army Black Hawk helicopter, divers aim to “salvage the aircraft” and find additional components today, Friday, January 31, 2025.

Before the scheduled landing of American Airlines aircraft Flight 5342 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday, air traffic controllers asked the pilots if they could land on Runway 33, and flight tracking sites showed that they adjusted their flight path to meet the request.

Less than 30 seconds before the midair collision, an air traffic controller asked the crew of the army helicopter if it could see the approaching plane.

The crash was the first deadly incident involving a US commercial airline since 2009 when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed into a house near Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground.

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.

The airport is popular with many travellers because of its proximity to Washington, DC, compared with the larger Dulles International Airport, which is about 37km (23 miles) further away.

Trump’s Comment Draw Ire

The announcement came after US President Donald Trump drew ire for claiming that diversity, equity and inclusion policies (DEI) at the Federal Aviation Administration may have been to blame for the disaster.

Trump accused his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden of lowering hiring standards and suggested the Federal Aviation Administration’s diversity push could have weakened its capabilities.

Trump said at a news conference, without specifying whom he was referring to, “These are not people who should be doing this particular job.” He added, “We want brilliant people doing this. This is a major chess game at the highest level.”

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 put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch.”
Pete Buttigieg