Among those killed were two teen figure skaters, Spencer Lane and Jinna Han , from the Skating Club of Boston who were returning from a national meet with their mothers and coaches .
A midair collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight from Kansas killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft, officials said Thursday, as they scrutinized the actions of the military pilot after the country’s deadliest aviation disaster since 2001.
More than 40 bodies have been pulled from the river after collision, law enforcement official says — 9:20 a.m. Link copied
By the Associated Press
The bodies were pulled from the Potomac River as a massive recovery effort continues following the deadliest aviation disaster in a generation, a law enforcement official told Associated Press. The recovery efforts were continuing Friday. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
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President Trump says the Army helicopter was ‘flying too high’ at time of midair crash — 9:10 a.m. Link copied
By the Associated Press
“It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???” Trump added in a Friday morning post on his Truth Social platform.
The comments from the president come the day after he questioned the actions of a U.S. Army helicopter pilot involved in the midair collision with a commercial airliner, while also blaming diversity initiatives for undermining air safety.
The maximum altitude where the Black Hawk was at the time of the crash — along a published corridor called Route 4 — was 200 feet above ground, according to Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that elevation seemed to be a factor in the crash.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth stresses the importance of the US military’s ‘continuity’ training — 9:06 a.m. Link copied
By the Associated Press
The three-person Army crew on the UH-60 Black Hawk was conducting a continuity of government planning training mission at the time of the midair crash.
Military aircraft frequently conduct such training flights in and around the nation’s capital for familiarization with routes they would fly in case of a major catastrophe or an attack on the U.S. that would require relocation of key officials from the capital region.
“You need to train as you fight, you need to rehearse in ways that would reflect a real world scenario,” Hegseth said during a Friday morning appearance on “Fox and Friends.”
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Hegseth stressed that it remained the Pentagon’s duty to also mitigate risks, while conducting such training. But he underscored U.S. forces’ need “to ensure, if unfortunately, there were a real world event where things needed to happen we could respond to it day or night.”
Skating Club of Boston has a glorious, and tragic, history — 9:02 a.m. Link copied
By Kat Cornetta, Globe Correspondent
There are few figure skating clubs in the world with the facilities and influence of the Skating Club of Boston, but also few that have experienced such repeated tragedy.
The Norwood-based club, home of two skaters and two coaches killed in the collision Wednesday night between a passenger jet and a military helicopter near Reagan National Airport, has been the standard bearer for the sport in the United States for 114 years. A host of the 2016 world championships and eight US figure skating championships, the club has taken on a special importance in the past decade, proving to be among the last of its kind to survive the drastic decline in popularity of the sport in the United States.
It was also involved in its greatest tragedy when the entire US skating team, including 10 members from the Boston club, died in a plane crash in Belgium in 1961 on their way to the world championships.
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Teen figure skaters and their coaches, group of hunters and students among victims of air crash — 8:45 a.m. Link copied
By the Associated Press
The victims of the crash included teen figure skaters returning from a national meet with their mothers and coaches, an Ohio college student coming from her grandfather’s funeral, two Chinese nationals and a group of hunters headed back from a guided trip in Kansas.
As the search for remains continued Thursday, communities grieved. Faith leaders held a vigil Thursday in the city council chambers.
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Olympians Tenley Albright (left) and Nancy Kerrigan (right) stood with Doug Zeghibe, director of the Skating Club of Boston at the club in Norwood on Thursday. Two skaters, two parents, and two coaches associated with the club were killed in the crash. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff
“The only way we will get through this is together,” said the Rev. Pamela Hughes Mason of Wichita’s St. Paul AME Church.
American Airlines set up a hotline as well as centers in Washington and Wichita for people searching for information about family members who may have been aboard the downed flight. The hotline can be reached at 1-800 679 8215.
Crews in midair crash included 2nd-generation pilot and flight attendant ‘full of life’ — 8:30 a.m. Link copied
By the Associated Press
Sam Lilley knew he wanted to fly and began training to be a pilot, like his father, right out of college.
“You don’t really expect to meet people that find their purpose so early on in life, and Sam found his in flying,” said Kaitlin Sells, who met Lilley while they were students at Georgia Southern University.
Lilley was the first officer aboard the American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members that collided midair Wednesday night with an Army helicopter carrying three soldiers, legislators in Georgia said.
Lilley and the rest of the American Airlines crew were traveling on a daily direct route from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington, D.C., at the time of the collision. The soldiers aboard the Black Hawk helicopter were conducting an annual night proficiency training flight, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, adding they were a “fairly experienced crew.”
Hegseth says helicopter black box still not recovered — 8:20 a.m. Link copied
By the Associated Press
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says investigators have not yet recovered a key recording device from the Army helicopter involved in Wednesday’s fatal collision at Ronald Reagan National Airport.
Speaking on Fox News Channel on Friday, Hegseth noted authorities were still looking for the helicopter’s black box. Other factors in the crash, including the helicopter’s altitude and whether the crew was using its night vision goggles, are still under investigation, Hegseth said.
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What is the NTSB’s history? — 8:17 a.m. Link copied
By the Associated Press
The NTSB history dates to 1926, when Congress passed a law charging the U.S. Department of Commerce with investigating aircraft accidents.
It was established as an independent agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation in 1967 and then separated by Congress in 1974 as a stand-alone organization, fully independent from any other federal agencies.
Since its creation in 1967, the agency reports it has investigated more than 153,000 aviation accidents and incidents.
How will the investigation work? — 8:11 a.m. Link copied
By the Associated Press
Board member Todd Inman said the NTSB’s working groups include operations, which will examine flight history and crewmember duties; structures, which will document airframe wreckage and the accident scene; power plants, which will focus on aircraft engines and engine accessories; systems, which will study the electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic components of the two aircraft; air traffic control, which will review flight track surveillance information, including radar, and controller-pilot communications; survival factors, which will analyze the injuries to the crew and passengers and crash and rescue efforts; and a helicopter group.
The investigation also will include a human-performance group that will be a part of the operations, air traffic control and helicopter groups and will study the crew performance and any factors that could be involved such as human error, including fatigue, medications, medical histories, training and workload, Inman said.
What to know about the NTSB and the investigation into the DC plane crash — 8:05 a.m. Link copied
By the Associated Press
National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Hommendy described the investigation into the crash Wednesday night as an “all-hands-on-deck event” for the agency during a news conference Thursday in which she appeared with members of the board and a senior investigator overseeing the probe.
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The NTSB is an independent federal agency responsible for investigating all civil aviation accidents as well as serious incidents in the U.S. involving other modes of transportation, such as railroad disasters and major accidents involving motor vehicles, marine vessels, pipelines and even commercial space operators.
For the investigation into Wednesday’s crash, the NTSB will establish several different working groups, each responsible for investigating different areas connected to the accident, board member Todd Inman said.