Washington, DC: Investigators hunt for midair crash clues

The FAA on Friday announced that it had restricted helicopter traffic in the Washington DC area in response to Wednesday evening’s deadly midair collision.

The FAA said it was halting most helicopter traffic on two routes near Reagan National Airport. The agency said only police and medical choppers would be allowed to enter the busy airspace between the airport and nearby bridges.

Washington’s airspace is particularly crowded with helicopters that are given great freedom to use low-altitude routes below the flightpaths of commercial carriers.

Earlier on Friday, President Trump suggested that Wednesday’s crash may have been the result of a military helicopter flying higher than it was supposed to and ultimately occupying the same airspace as an approaching American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas.

At the time of the midair crash on Wednesday, the situation in the air-traffic control tower at Reagan National Airport was "not normal," according to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report seen by Associated Press.

The report said one controller was responsible for both helicopter traffic in the area as well a coordinating arriving and departing flights.

However, a source familiar with the situation said there was in fact nothing out of the ordinary, adding that it is common for one person to take on extra responsibilities during shift changes, when colleagues need to go on break or when traffic is slow.

The FAA is currently understaffed with some 10,700 controllers, roughly 3,000 less than the number it has set as its staffing target.

Authorities say some 40 bodies have been recovered from the waters of the Potomac River in Washington DC as of Friday morning. The search for 27 more individuals continues following the Wednesday crash.

Federal investigators have publicly stated that they would not speculate on the cause of the mid-air collision between a plane and a helicopter, despite President Donald Trump doing so repeatedly.

Investigators say it is simply too soon to definitively say what happened.

Floating debris as well as personal affects belonging to passengers onboard the American Airlines plane downed in the incident are currently being recovered as well.

Speaking with the Associated Press news agency, volunteer Dean Naujuks said: "everything is covered in jet fuel. I’m thinking of the people these things belonged to and it’s a punch in the gut. It’s just a sad day on the river."

US President Donald Trump says the military helicopter involved in the crash in Washington, DC, was flying too high when the accident happened that killed 67 people.

He said the Black Hawk aircraft was well above the maximum allowed altitude of 200 meters (60 feet).

"The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it?" Trump said in an online post on his Truth Social post.

The crash is still under investigation by federal transportation authorities.

A top military aviation official said the helicopter crew was "very experienced" and familiar with the busy air traffic daily around the city.

US military helicopters regularly fly over the Potomac River near the busy Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, on a path known as Route 4. For safety reasons, the altitude on such flights is capped.

Democratic figures have responded angrily to US President Donald Trump's accusation that his Democratic predecessors Joe Biden and Barack Obama's inclusion policies were to blame for the crash. 

Trump accused the pair of having kept good employees out of the aviation agency in pursuit of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) — a decades-old policy aimed at combating racism and sexism. 

"They actually came out with a directive: 'too white,'" said Trump. "And we want the people that are competent."

The US president also directed his remarks against Biden's openly gay Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who had oversight of the agency.

"He's run it right into the ground with his diversity," Trump said.

Vice President JD Vance and new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth repeated, without evidence, the hard-right theory that diversity measures had kept capable individuals out of responsible jobs.

Asked if he was blaming workplace diversity for the crash, Trump answered: "It could have been." 

Buttigieg responded on X, calling Trump "despicable."

"As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying," he said.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said Trump's comments "blaming the FAA's hiring of women and black people for the crash, was disgusting."

"He's in charge. This happened on his watch," Murphy said.

A Filipino police officer was among those who died in the collision, Philippine police say.

"The Philippine National Police mourns the tragic loss of Police Colonel Pergentino N. Malabed, Chief of the Supply Management Division, who was among those on board the American Airlines flight that collided mid-air with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport," an official statement said.

Police spokesman Colonel Randulf Tuano told reporters that Manila had been notified that a body carrying Malabed's passport was recovered from the Potomac.

He added that the officer's widow was set to fly to the United States to formally identify and claim the remains.

Investigators are pushing ahead with efforts to retrieve the two aircraft involved in a collision passenger jet and an Army helicopter near Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport. 

Flight data black boxes from the American Airlines plane were found on Thursday but divers now aim to "salvage the aircraft" and find additional components on Friday, Washington, DC's fire department said.

"Overnight, boats will remain on scene for security and surface searches from local, state, and federal regional partners," the department said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is examining the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the CRJ700 airplane,

Authorities have not identified a reason for the collision, which took place as the regional jet was about to land.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is leading the investigation into the midair crash, has asked for time to weigh up all information before allocating fault.

"You need to give us time," NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy told a press briefing.

"It's not that we don't have information, we do have information. We have data we have substantial amounts of information we need to verify... we need to take our time to make sure it is accurate."

"As part of any investigation, we look at the human, the machine and the environment," Homendy said. "So we will look at all the humans that were involved in this accident."

About 50 investigators are at work at the accident scene on the Potomac River, while specialists at the agency's headquarters are also dealing with the case. 

"We're here to assure the American people that we are going to leave no stone unturned in this investigation," Homendy promised.

Another agency representative, Todd Inman, said the intention was to provide a preliminary report within 30 days with a final report to be issued "once we've completed all of our fact-finding and investigation." 

rc/wd (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)