Federal investigators mentioned Friday they discovered the black field from the Military helicopter that collided with a passenger jet close to Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport Wednesday night time, whereas one of many aircraft’s black bins had water inside it.
Nationwide Transportation Security Board member Todd Inman, who’s main the investigation into the crash that killed 67 individuals, mentioned some water from the Potomac River leaked contained in the American Airlines jet’s cockpit voice recorder.
The regional provider jet from Wichita, Kansas, was approaching the airport’s runway simply earlier than 9 p.m. Wednesday when it collided with a Black Hawk helicopter on a routine coaching flight. Each plane plunged into the icy river beneath.
Mr. Inman mentioned a waterlogged black field just isn’t an unusual problem for investigators, and they’re troubleshooting the right way to entry its information.
“We take care of that on a regular basis,” Mr. Inman mentioned on the Friday night briefing. “Our recorders division is without doubt one of the greatest on the planet, truly — we’ve orders despatched all over the place — so the [voice recorder] was soaked in a single day in ionized water, at which level the staff put the [voice recorder] right into a vacuum oven as a way to extract moisture. They’re nonetheless checking electrical connections to find out in the event that they’re able to attempt a obtain.”
The opposite black field, the flight information recorder, was in “what we contemplate good situation,” Mr. Inman mentioned. “Now we have a excessive degree of confidence that we’ll get full obtain within the very close to future.”
He mentioned salvage groups on the river had been in a position to retrieve an intact black field from the Military Black Hawk helicopter concerned within the collision.
“I can inform you from a visible inspection, we noticed no exterior harm that might point out that it was compromised presently,” Mr. Inman mentioned. “Now we have a excessive degree of confidence that we can have a full extraction from that as properly.”
Investigators mentioned salvage barges coming from Virginia Seashore are anticipated to reach on the scene Saturday morning. He anticipates the vessels will be capable to pull the wreckage out of the river with out a lot subject.
“The excellent news is, primarily based upon the preliminary mapping … there are massive chunks that shall be simply recoverable and it’ll support within the investigation,” Mr. Inman mentioned.
Earlier Friday, D.C. Fireplace and EMS Chief John Donnelly mentioned the barges are wanted to take away the aircraft’s fuselage to get to victims nonetheless encased inside and round the place the American Airlines flight arriving from Wichita, Kansas, went down.
Officers mentioned 41 our bodies have been pulled from the river. Chief Donnelly mentioned he’s assured the remainder of those that had been killed are within the aircraft’s particles discipline.
He added that investigators haven’t drawn any conclusions about who was at fault for the disaster, the deadliest aviation accident in additional than twenty years.
“We all know that there was a major incident wherein the 2 plane collided — a reasonably vital fireball,” Mr. Inman mentioned.
The business jet was carrying 60 passengers and 4 crew members, whereas three troopers had been contained in the Black Hawk. Officers mentioned nobody survived the crash.
