Cleanup and recovery efforts have entered a second day after a Black Hawk helicopter crashed into an American Airlines flight over the Potomac River. @GioBenitez has details, with an update from the NTSB. https://abcnews.link/zeYGXMK
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Gusty winds are hampering recovery efforts in the Potomac River after a tragic collision. An Army Blackhawk helicopter on a training mission collided with an American Airlines flight, killing all 67 on board.
The bodies of both Black Hawk pilots have been recovered. The NTSB is investigating, revealing the commercial jet was operating at 325 feet just before the crash. The victims include the airline passengers and crew, as well as the three soldiers aboard the helicopter: Ryan Austin O'Hara, Andrew Lloyd Eaves, and Rebecca Lobach.
Air traffic control instructed the jet to land on a shorter runway and alerted the Black Hawk to the plane's approach. The NTSB interviewed the air traffic controller involved. Investigators hope the black boxes reveal critical information about the final moments in both cockpits, specifically if the pilots were aware of the impending collision and if there was any confusion.
Speaker 0: To the latest on the recovery efforts in the Potomac River. Gusty winds are limiting crews from removing the aircraft from those frigid waters. Sixty seven people died after an army Blackhawk helicopter on a training mission collided with an American Airlines flight coming in for landing at Reagan National Airport, 1 of the busiest runways in the country. ABC's transportation correspondent, Gio Benitez, is back on the scene again tonight as we hear from some of the victims' families.
Speaker 1: Tonight, crews on the chilly Potomac River are battling gusty winds as cleanup and recovery efforts enter a second day. US Officials say they have recovered the bodies of both pilots from the wreckage of the Black Hawk helicopter. The NTSB working to access that chopper yesterday. The NTSB tonight with new details about that American Airlines flight before the collision.
Speaker 2: The CRJ was operating at three hundred and twenty five feet plus or minus 25.
Speaker 1: In all, 67 lives were lost in the accident. The 64 passengers and crew aboard that American Airlines flight and the three soldiers in the Black Hawk. Three people died aboard that helicopter, 28 year old Ryan Austin O'Hara, thirty nine year old Andrew Lloyd Eaves, and Rebecca Lobach, her family remembering her as a bright star in all our lives. Investigators recreating the final minutes leading up to that midair crash before that American Airlines flight started its descent. At 08:43PM, the jet's pilots told to land on a shorter runway.
That Black Hawk helicopter now also making its way up the Potomac River. At 08:46, two minutes before the collision, air traffic control telling the helicopter about the American Airlines plane coming in for a landing from the south on Runway 33. At roughly 08:48, asking the Black Hawk pilots to again confirm they see the jet. You can hear the alarm go off as they ask the Black Hawk, do you see that jet?
Speaker 2: F25G, this is RJ in flight. F25FOn is RJ. This club has a aircraft inside. Chris was separate separate.
Speaker 1: Seconds later, the collision.
Speaker 2: 320. 1 7. The
Speaker 1: NTSB saying they interviewed the air traffic controller heard in the final seconds leading up to the worst plane crash in decades. The FAA saying in a statement that Reagan National Airport has 25 air traffic controllers with three more in training with a full staff of 28. And this video from 2022, our affiliate WJLA speaking with sisters, 11 year old, Alidia, and 14 year old, Everly Livingston. How much fun do you have here with your sister?
Speaker 2: A lot. It's really fun to have a sister to skate with.
Speaker 1: Both of those little girls losing their lives with their parents, Donna and Peter.
Speaker 0: Just so heartbreaking. Gio Benitez joins us now from Washington. And Gio, we know the black boxes for both the plane and helicopter have all been recovered. What are investigators hoping that they reveal?
Speaker 1: Well, Lindsay, the most critical will be the voices. What were those final like in both cockpits? In the airplane, for example, did they even know that the helicopter was heading right toward them? And in the helicopter, did they know that they were looking at the right plane or the wrong plane? Was there any confusion at all?
These are the critical questions tonight,
Speaker 2: Lindsay.
Speaker 0: Gio, thank you.
