Families of victims of the deadliest U. Washington, D. Divers are working diligently to locate remains as crews prepare to lift wreckage from the chilly Potomac River near Reagan National Airport as early as Monday morning, Donnelly said at a news conference. Francis B. Pera of the Army Corps of Engineers said divers and salvage workers are adhering to strict protocols and will halt work on moving debris if a body is found.
Portions of the two aircraft that collided over the river Wednesday night — an American Airlines jet with 64 people aboard and an Army Black Hawk helicopter with 3 people aboard — will be loaded onto flatbed trucks and taken to a hangar for further investigation.
Donnelly, Pera and other officials spoke hours after dozens of people who lost loved ones in the crash arrived in buses with a police escort to the Potomac River bank near where the two aircraft came to rest after colliding.
The jet, en route from Wichita, Kansas, was about to land. The Black Hawk was on a training mission. There were no survivors. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the probe, didn't hold a press briefing on Sunday, but the agency did release a photograph showing investigators on a small boat looking at wreckage and another of them examining a flight data recorder.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Sunday said he wanted to leave federal investigators space to conduct their inquiry. But he posed a range of questions about the crash while appearing on morning TV news programs. Were they understaffed? Army Staff Sgt. Rebecca M. Lobach, of Durham, North Carolina, were in the helicopter. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita and a group of hunters returning from a guided trip.
