DC plane crash updates: 55 victims recovered and positively identified

All 67 people on board the plane and the helicopter were killed.

Last Updated: February 2, 2025, 4:59 PM EST

An American Airlines regional jet went down in the Potomac River near Washington, D.C.'s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after colliding with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night, with no survivors.

Sixty-four people were on board the plane, which departed from Wichita, Kansas. Three soldiers were on the helicopter.

The collision happened around 9 p.m. when the PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet was on approach to the airport.

Map of the area around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the layout of Runway 33, which the regional American Airlines jet was approaching at the time of the collision with the Army Black Hawk helicopter, according to officials.
ABC News, Google Earth, Flightradar24, ADS-B Exchange
Feb 01, 2025, 5:50 PM EST

Army IDs 3rd Black Hawk pilot

The Army identified the third soldier on the Black Hawk helicopter as Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach.

The Army has identified the third Soldier on the Black Hawk helicopter involved in the DC mid-air collision as Captain Rebecca M. Lobach.
Courtesy U.S. Army

Lobach served as an aviation officer (15A) in the Army from July 2019 to January 2025 and had no deployments. She was assigned to the 12th Aviation Battalion, Ft Belvoir, Virginia.

-ABC News' Luis Martinez

Feb 01, 2025, 5:08 PM EST

Unified Command provides update on recovery, salvage operation

Unified Command provided an update Saturday afternoon on its recovery and salvage operations in the Potomac River.

"The Black Hawk helicopter was briefly stabilized with a crane to assist in recovery efforts, however, it has not been removed from the water," it said in a statement.

No wreckage is expected to be raised for the rest of the day, according to Unified Command.

Additionally, officials said 42 sets of remains and 38 have been positively identified by the DC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

-ABC News' Victor Ordonez

Jan 31, 2025, 6:07 PM EST

Air traffic controller working at time of crash interviewed by NTSB investigators

The DCA air traffic controller who was working at the time of the collision has been interviewed, NTSB member Todd Inman said during the briefing.

"His interviews are ongoing throughout the day," Inman said.

Part of the NTSB's investigation will entail looking at the hiring and training of any air traffic controllers involved in the incident, he said.

"We'll go back and look at their past, probably, 72 hours, even two or three weeks," he said. "We'll look at their training, their hiring, everything. What they probably ate that day."

"But it is not one point that tells us everything. It's layered into a lot of other information that's very critical," he continued.

Investigators will also look at ATC staffing and job functions.

"Obviously, we'll be looking at not only staffing that day, but progressively staffing. How many people, what job functions they were doing? Were they being combined? Were they not?"

Jan 31, 2025, 5:57 PM EST

Black Hawk black box recovered: NTSB

The Black Hawk's black box -- a combined cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data recorder -- has been recovered in good condition, NTSB member Todd Inman said during a briefing.

The jet's two black boxes were recovered on Thursday. The flight data recorder was found to be in good condition, while the cockpit voice recorder had water intrusion, which is not uncommon, Inman said during the briefing.

Inman said they have high confidence they will be able to extract data from all three black boxes.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators examine cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder recovered from the American Airlines passenger jet that crashed with an Army helicopter Wednesday night near Washington, Jan.30, 2024.
NTSB via AP

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