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 on board.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Friday 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 recorders are at the NTSB labs for evaluation,” the agency said in a post on X.
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 since 2009.
“We are going to conduct a thorough investigation of this entire tragedy, looking at the facts,” Homendy said.
The announcement comes 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.
“These are not people who should be doing this particular job,” Trump said at a news conference, without specifying whom he was referring to.
“We want brilliant people doing this. This is a major chess game at the highest level.”
Asked by a reporter how he could draw a link between the crash and DEI policies when investigations were not complete, Trump said 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 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,” Buttigieg said on X.
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.
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.
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, 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.
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