DC plane crash updates: 55 victims recovered and positively identified

The three Army Soldiers aboard the Black Hawk were very experienced, according to an Army official who briefed reporters in a phone briefing.

Jonathan Koziol, a retired Army chief warrant officer with more than 30 years of flight experience, told reporters that the flight was a nighttime qualification flight with an instructor pilot evaluating an experienced pilot on the flight routes that their unit routinely flies day and night around the Potomac River.

Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the Army’s Combat Readiness Center at Fort Novosel, Alabama, said that just like all soldiers who must meet regular qualifications for their weapons, Army aviators have to meet annual qualifications, regardless of their flight experience. For aviators, that means flying under different conditions, which could mean flying in daytime or nighttime.

Koziol confirmed that the instructor pilot had more than 1,000 flight hours and that the pilot being evaluated had more than 500 hours. The evaluated pilot was in command of the flight, but if an emergency was to occur the instructor would have taken control of the helicopter.

Koziol said the maximum altitude for this route is 200 feet; the helicopter appeared to be flying at about 350 feet, according to sources.

Part of the unit’s responsibility is to fly VIPs around the D.C. area, and that includes getting them out of the area if "something really bad happens," he said, "so they do need to be able to understand the environment, the air traffic, the routes, to ensure the safe travel of our senior leaders throughout our government."

Koziol described the helicopter flight corridor above the Potomac as "a relatively easy corridor to fly, because you're flying down the center of the river, and it's very easily identifiable, especially at night" because there aren’t a lot of lights.

The helicopter had a black box with a voice and flight data recorder.

-ABC News’ Luis Martinez

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom remains in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to support the families and help authorities.

The flight, number 5342, had 60 passengers on board and four Charlotte-based crew members, Isom said in a letter to American team members.

"Out of respect for the families, we are not sharing the names of the two pilots and two flight attendants at this time, but our thoughts and prayers go out to their loved ones," Isom said.

-ABC News’ Ayesha Ali

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer slammed President Donald Trump's comments at the press briefing, during which Trump, without citing evidence, said diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for air traffic controllers at the Federal Aviation Administration -- under Democratic presidents -- were partly to blame for the crash.

"It's one thing for internet pundits to spew off conspiracy theories. It is another for the president of the United States to throw out idle speculation as bodies are still being recovered and families are still being notified," Schumer said during a press conference.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Trump owes the American people an apology.

"It was just grotesque the way he immediately politicized this terrible tragedy," he said.

-ABC News' Allie Pecorin

Natalya Gudin, the wife of Alexandr Kirsanov, a coach of two of the youth ice skaters on board the American Airlines plane, told ABC News, "I lost everything. I lost my husband, I lost my students, I lost my friends."

Gudin said Kirsanov traveled with two youth skaters to attend a development camp in Kansas this week. Gudin, who also coaches students with her husband in Delaware, said she stayed home to be with their other skaters.

Gudin last spoke with her husband as he boarded the flight, she said.

"I need my husband back," Gudin said as she waited at a Washington, D.C., area hotel for further information from authorities. "I need his body back."

There were 60 passengers and four crew members on board the plane and three soldiers on the helicopter. No survivors are expected.

-ABC News’ Miles Cohen