DC Plane Crash: Gusty Winds Delay Wreckage Retrieval
Potomac River Recovery operations. Image credit X.com
Officials Say Bodies of Black Hawk Chopper Pilots Recovered
By Raisina Correspondent
New Delhi, February 2: Recovery efforts are facing roadblocks in gusty winds in the Potomac River in Washington D.C. Local officials said that bodies of both the pilots of the Blackhawk military helicopter have been retrieved from the wreckage.
Local officials continue to oversee the recovery efforts of bodies of the victims. Relatives of the victims continue to mourn at the Potomac River.
“Gusty winds are limiting crews from removing the aircraft from those frigid waters in the Potomac River,” said ABC news a report. Sixty-seven people were killed in the fatal mid-air collision between the Blackhawk military helicopter and an incoming American Airlines.
American Airlines was approaching the Reagan National Airport for landing.
“Tonight, crews on the chilly Potomac River are battling gusty winds as cleanup and recovery efforts enter a second day,” ABC’s transportation correspondent Gio Benitez reported from the spot.
He quoted officials, saying that the bodies of both pilots from the wreckage of the Blackhawk military helicopter have been retrieved.
The US continues to debate the circumstances leading to the mid-air crash. The Blackhawk military helicopter per reports was in the air at 325 feet as a part of training programme. The pilots were manning the chopper for an evacuation exercise of senior officials, said reports.
The Reagan National Airport is the busiest airport in the US. Civil aviation experts have stated that fifty choppers stay in air around the airport at any point of time amid heavy passenger airline traffic.
Sixty-four passengers and the crew of the American airline flying from Kansas perished. The three soldiers in the Blackhawk military helicopter also died.
Officials have ruled out hope of any survivor in the Potomac River. The wreckages of the airline and the chopper went down into the frozen waters of the Potomac River.
The crew of the Blackhawk military helicopter consisted of Ryan Austin O’Hara (29), Andrew Lloyd Eaves (39) and Rebecca Lobach. The US Defence department in the aftermath of the mishap claimed that the crew of the chopper were experienced.
Local media reports said that probe has begun into the circumstances leading to the mid-air crash. The final minutes leading up to the mid-air crash are being recreated.
The American Airlines flight was on descent while approaching for landing at the Reagen National Airport. The ABC News reported on final minutes, saying: “At 8:43 PM, the Jets pilots were told to land on a shorter runway. The Blackhawk helicopter was also making way up the Potomac River at 8:46, two minutes before the collision.”
It also stated that the “air traffic control told the helicopter about the American Airlines plane coming in for a landing from the South on runway 33”. The Blackhawk pilots were asked by the ATC to again confirm if they saw the American airline.
While the crew in the military chopper confirmed the ATC of “visual separation”, the Blackhawk within seconds crashed into the American airline. The officials have spoken to the air traffic controller who was heard in the final seconds.
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