DC plane crash investigators recover American Airlines black boxes after midair collision – Fox News

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.The National Transportation Safety Board says it has recovered a cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the American Airlines plane that collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport late Wednesday. Details are emerging about the 67 people presumed dead following the crash.Covered by: Greg Norman, Louis Casiano, Bradford Betz, Michael Dorgan, Chris Pandolfo, Rachel Wolf, Audrey Conklin, Alexandra Koch and Fox News StaffAn American Airlines plane and Army helicopter collided around 9 p.m. local time Wednesday near Reagan National Airport outside of Washington, D.C.. All 67 onboard both aircraft are presumed dead.President Donald Trump said Thursday that the deadly midair collision was a “confluence of bad decisions that were made and you have people that lost their lives, violently lost their lives.” 
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said “The entire strength of the airline is focused on taking care of the families and loved ones for those who are on this flight.”Fast, 24/7 alerts delivered to your inbox daily. Subscribe to be in the know of the most important moments around the world.By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy.incoming update…Coverage for this event has ended.
A general view of the control tower at Reagan National Airport, Friday, January 31, 2025. Flights have resumed since the tragic crash on Wednesday night were an American Airlines jet collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter. (Leigh Green for Fox News Digital)A New York Times report saying the air control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has been understaffed for years came amid a lawsuit claiming the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) discriminated against air traffic controller applicants based on their race.The Times report said the tower at the airport was nearly a third below targeted staff levels, with 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023, citing the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan, an annual report to Congress that contains target and actual staffing levels.The targets set by the F.A.A. and the controllers union call for 30.
The lawsuit represents nearly 1,000 individuals who went to school to become air traffic controllers. They passed the normal test to obtain the position right before the Obama administration said the class was too white and threw out the tests with the applicants, the suit alleges.Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who serves as co-counsel for Mountain States Legal Foundation, based in Colorado, is leading efforts for a lawsuit.
“When you travel and have a delay, it’s because there aren’t enough of these people,” Laxalt told the Wall Street Journal last year. “When you see these near incidents in air traffic control, it’s because there aren’t enough people. There are only 14,000 air traffic controllers. A thousand were scrapped a decade ago, and the bottom line is they’ve never made up losing all of this pipeline.”Fox News Digital Greg Wehner contributed to this update.Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser offered “love and prayers” to the loved ones of those lost to Wednesday’s midair collision.In a letter, Bowser thanks first responders and reflected on the grief being felt across the country over the collision that killed 67 people.”I am sending our love and prayers to the families, loved ones, and communities affected – we know that includes families here in our city and region, in Kansas and across the country, and even around the world,” she wrote.”There is a profound sense of loss and grief,” the mayor added.Bowser also urged local residents to call the Crisis Lifeline if they need grief counseling.The air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is seen, June 2, 2021, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
More than 90% of the country’s 313 air traffic control facilities operate below staffing levels recommended by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).As of January, 285 facilities were below levels set by the FAA and the union that represents controllers, the New York Times reported.In at least 73 facilities, at least a quarter of the workforce is missing, the report said.A Washington D.C.-based attorney on the American Airlines plane that collided with a military helicopter was on the aircraft after she made a last-minute decision to fly back early to celebrate her birthday with her boyfriend after a business trip.
Elizabeth “Liz” Keys, 33, and her boyfriend, David Seidman, had plans to dine at a local hotspot before hosting friends at a joint birthday party Saturday, the Washington Post reported.Seidman’s birthday is Sunday.“She was just the best partner and so special, had such a sharp wit, and just really pushed everyone around her to be the best version of themselves,” Seidman told the Cincinnati Enquirer.Keys graduated from Georgetown University Law Center and began her work as an attorney with Wilkinson Stekloff in DC, according to her profile on the firm’s website.
The air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is pictured, Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, in Arlington, Va., near the wreckage of a mid-air collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet in the Potomac River. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)Former U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio said congressional lawmakers were warned for years that the Washington D.C. region’s airports were at capacity.
In an interview with Politico, the Oregon Democrat said pleas by Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority to Congress fell short. Meanwhile, lawmakers continued to vote to add more flights to the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which was already struggling with its heavy load and a shortage of air traffic controllers.“Every senator in particular wants a nonstop flight to and from wherever they live,” DeFazio told the news outlet.He noted that a reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration which passed last year added even more flights at DCA.“The airport said, ‘Don’t do it.’ And they did it,” he said. “So they added to what DCA said is already an overly congested and over-capacity airport.”DeFazio spent 36 years in the House and served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which he chaired from 2019-2023.Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, detailed the sequence of events that resulted in Wednesday’s deadly midair collision in a series of X posts on Friday.Cruz, who chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which oversees the aviation industry, said he’s been briefed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
“Flight 5342 was initially scheduled to land on Runway 1 at Reagan but was redirected to Runway 33,” he wrote. “Meanwhile, the helicopter was traveling along Route 1 before being shifted to Route 4.””We know that air traffic control confirmed with the helicopter crew that they had visual contact with the plane. Controllers then instructed the helicopter to move behind the plane,” he added. “However, instead of complying, the helicopter moved in front of the aircraft. The two aircraft collided mid-air, resulting in a catastrophic explosion.”He noted that both black boxes have been recovered.A single air traffic controller was monitoring both airplanes and helicopters at the time of the devastating Reagan National Airport crash, new reports revealed.A Reagan National Airport (DCA) tower supervisor allegedly let another air traffic controller leave work early Wednesday night. The F.A.A. calls for one controller to monitor planes, while another monitors helicopters.A preliminary report indicated that staffing levels at the time of the collision were “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.”
Radio transmissions do indicate that air traffic control warned the Black Hawk pilot of close proximity to the approaching American Airlines plane.American Airlines CEO Robert Isom on Friday thanked President Donald Trump for his leadership on aviation safety and his response to the deadly midair collision.
“We are all hurting as we continue to grieve the loss of our passengers and team members,” Isom said in a statement. “I thank President Trump for his leadership on aviation safety. I applaud him, Secretary Duffy and the Administration for taking quick and decisive action today to restrict helicopter activity around DCA.”“In the days ahead, we will work tirelessly with the Administration and leaders in Congress to make our aviation system even safer, including by increasing investments in infrastructure, technology and personnel,” he added.NTSB investigators examine the so-called, black box recovered from the American Airlines plane that crashed with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter Wednesday night near Washington, D.C. Thursday, Jan. 30, 2024. (Fox News/Pool)The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recovered the black box from the Army Black Hawk helicopter that crashed midair with an American Airlines passenger plane near Washington D.C. on Wednesday night.
During a press conference Friday night, NTSB member J. Todd Inman confirmed that the box, which is located in the cockpit, is intact.There is no exterior damage, “indicating it is not compromised,” Inman said.Authorities also provided more details about the two black boxes recovered Thursday from the passenger plane, noting they have a “high level of confidence” information will be retrievable.The flag data recorder was in “good condition” and crews are working on a download in the “near future,” Inman said.The voice recorder was opened and water intrusion was identified, but Inman said the NTSB “deal[s] with this all the time.”It was soaked in ionized water, then put in a vacuum oven to remove moisture. Crews are checking electric connections to attempt a download, and have “a high level of confidence.”A deadly midair collision near Reagan National Airport Wednesday night revealed a number of safety lapses officials are now scrambling to address.The Black Hawk helicopter, carrying three soldiers, was allegedly flying too high and on the wrong path, when it crashed into an American Airlines plane carrying 60 passengers and four crew members.Air traffic controllers were allegedly understaffed and are now accused of not being “proactive enough” in preventing the crash by directing the plane and helicopter to fly away from each other. Instead, the controller requested the helicopter avoid the plane.
President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order calling for an immediate assessment of aviation safety.A person walks by the deaptures board at Reagan National Airport, Friday, January 31, 2025. Flights have resumed since the tragic crash on Wednesday night were an American Airlines jet collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter. (Leigh Green for Fox News Digital)The Federal Aviation Administration will restrict helicopter traffic around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport airport, effective Friday.The decision was made with the support of President Donald Trump
and in consultation with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to a post on X from Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy.”Today’s decision will immediately help secure the airspace near Reagan Airport, ensuring the safety of airplane and helicopter traffic,” Duffy wrote.The change is part of the DOT’s ongoing commitment to safeguarding airspace and upholding the highest standards of air travel safety, according to the post.”We will continue to support [President Trump]’s directive to achieve uncompromised aviation safety,” according to Duffy. “The American people deserve full confidence in our aviation system and today’s action is a significant step towards restoring that trust.”The restricted area includes:- Memorial Bridge to South Capitol Street Bridge, excluding the Tidal Basin- Haines Point to Wilson Bridge- Over the top of DCAFog settled above Washington D.C. as crews continue recovery efforts amid cold conditions in the Potomac River on Friday.”In my view, it may slow it down, slightly, but we are all the units out here,” Fire and EMS Chief John A. Donnelly said Friday about the weather conditions.”The people working work year-round in all conditions
. We’re going to be careful,” he added. “We’re going to make sure we don’t hurt anybody else, but the weather we’ve seen so far is weather we can work in. And if that were to change, that would affect it. But we haven’t seen that.”A cold front is expected to move through Friday evening with possible rain, which could see temperatures in the Potomac River dip. Current water temperatures are hovering above freezing.Crews will have to remove the fuselage from the water in order to recover the rest of the remains, authorities said Friday.
“I believe for us to recover the rest of the remains that we are going to need to get the fuselage out of the water,” Fire and EMS Chief John A. Donnelly told reporters. “A lot of our operations, not all of them, but a lot of our operations today are focused on the helicopter.”So far, authorities have recovered 41 sets of remains and have identified 28 of those victims, officials said.”Going forward with our recovery operations, search teams will continue to work the site, will do side to side sonar scanning, searching the shoreline and aerial aberrations — our dive teams are working in targeted areas,” Donnelly said.The family of the third solider killed in Wednesday’s deadly midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is requesting their identity not be publicly released, the Army said Friday.The Army has named the other soldiers killed in the collision. They were identified as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland, and Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia.
Eaves’ remains have not been recovered. He served in the Navy from August 2007 to September 2017 before transitioning to a Black Hawk pilot for the Army in September 2017.O’Hara began serving as Black Hawk helicopter mechanic in July 2014.An American Airlines airplane lands near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in the aftermath of the collision of American Eagle flight 5342 and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that crashed into the Potomac River, outside Washington, D.C., Friday. (Reuters/Jeenah Moon)The flight number of the flight involved in the deadly collision with a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday will be retired, American Airlines announced today.”Service between Wichita, Kansas (ICT) and Washington, D.C. (DCA) is currently scheduled to operate tonight as AA5677,” the airline told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Flight AA5342 will not be used for any future American Airlines flights.”Airlines typically retire a flight’s number following serious incidents.A Connecticut youth soccer coach who is presumed dead following the Washington, D.C., plane crash is being hailed for enriching the lives of children in his community. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said Casey Crafton of Salem was a “a dedicated father, husband, and community member.”  
“Coach Casey was a valued volunteer with Montville Youth Soccer who helped to enrich the lives of all those that he came in contact with,” the Montville Youth Soccer Club said in a post on Facebook. “Our deepest condolences go out to his family during this tragic time.” Crafton leaves behind his wife Rachel and three sons, Greyson, Easton and Knox, according to the Norwich Bulletin newspaper.Footage taken from a dashcam captured the moment the American Airlines passenger jet collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night.The video was recorded from Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C.During the video, a fireball could be seen lighting up the night sky after the two aircraft collided.All 67 onboard both aircraft are presumed dead and bodies are still being recovered Friday from the Potomac River.
A source who captured the video, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Storyful they hope it “helps with the investigation” and that they are “traumatized” after witnessing the tragic event.Cedarville University announced the death of 20-year-old Grace Maxwell. (Cedarville University)Cedarville University student Grace Maxwell has been identified as one of the 60 passengers onboard the American Airlines plane that collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport earlier this week. The university located outside of Columbus, Ohio, told 10TV WBNS that Maxwell was a junior majoring in mechanical engineering. “Grace was a quiet person with a keen interest in helping others through engineering,” an advisor at the school, Tim Norman, told the station.Cedarville University President Thomas White said Friday that “We grieve, and we’re sad, and we don’t know why a young, bright, shining star was taken from us way too soon,” according to the Dayton Daily News.“But we know there’s a God that will make all things new. So we grieve, but not as ones without hope,” he added.
The newspaper reported that Maxwell was traveling back to the school after attending her grandfather’s funeral in Wichita, Kan.
Everly and Alydia Livingston were killed in a plane crash between an American Airlines flight and an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Va., on Wednesday, Jan. 29. (Instagram/@ice_skating_sisters)Everly and Alydia Livingston, figure skaters who were known as the “ice skating sisters” on social media, have been identified as being among the 67 presumed dead in the midair collision near Reagan National Airport. Videos and photos show the two sisters skating together and doing their own routines at various competitions. Donna Livingston and Peter Livingston, their parents, died in the Wednesday crash as well. 
“I knew Donna in college. She was a wonderful, positive, and sweet person,” the Livingstons’ friend, Scott Molony, wrote in a Facebook post. “I watched her life and family grow and evolve through social media, including the two beautiful, talented daughters she shared with her husband. They were clearly proud, loving, supportive parents, devoted to their daughters’ love of ice skating.” Fox News’ Stepheny Price, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Alexandra Koch and Audrey Conklin contributed to this report. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a press briefing at the White House, on Friday, Jan. 31, in Washington. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday that President
Donald Trump “believes that it is still indeed safe and Americans should feel safe travelling our skies.” “We certainly have seen the deterioration of federal hiring standards at the FAA and the president wants to increase those standards,” she added. “He wants pilots in this country who have the great responsibility of flying American citizens by the tens of millions every single day to be chosen for that position based on their merit and their skills, so the administration will continue to prioritize this.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday that “Everyone in this White House continues to mourn the victims and keep their friends and families in our thoughts and prayers during this unimaginable time.  “The president was briefed on Wednesday evening following the crash, again on Thursday morning, and he has continued to receive updates as recovery efforts continue on the ground,” she continued. “The president, as you know, took time to address
the nation yesterday afternoon to deliver accountability. President Trump swiftly signed a memorandum directing an immediate assessment of the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure the federal government is maintaining the highest personnel and policy aviation safety standards.” “The memorandum directs the Secretary of Transportation and the FAA administrator to immediately review all hiring decisions and changes to safety protocols made during the prior four years, and to take all necessary corrective actions to achieve uncompromised aviation safety,” according to Leavitt. “The review will include a comprehensive assessment and reversal of any deterioration in hiring standards in aviation safety standards and protocols during the previous administration,” she also said. Law enforcement conducts a search on Thursday, Jan. 30 near Reagan National Airport following the airplane crash. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)A riverkeeper who routinely patrols the Potomac River reportedly found multiple items belonging to the American Airlines plane after it crashed Wednesday night, including pages from a flight manual, a woman’s sweater and what appeared to be the cushion from a pilot’s seat. 
Dean Naujoks of the environmental group Potomac Riverkeeper told the Associated Press that he discovered the items near the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge – about two miles away from the crash site – and that they have been handed over to the FBI. He reportedly got permission to take his boat to the scene and found the items in shallow coves. “Everything is covered in jet fuel,” Naujoks said. “I’m thinking of the people these things belonged to and it’s a punch to the gut. It’s just a sad day on the river.” Naujoks also said he recovered a piece of the interior wall from the passenger cabin that had surrounded a window. The Associated Press contributed to this report. U.S. military helicopter crashes like the one that took down a commercial American Airlines flight over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night are very rare, but there has been an uptick in these incidents in recent years, according to military statistics and an aviation expert.A total of 64 people, including passengers and flight crew members, were aboard AA Flight 5342 from Wichita to Reagan National Airport (DCA). Three soldiers were conducting a training operation on the Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk that came from Fort Belvoir in Virginia. “It’s concerning, certainly, the number of incidents that there have been,” Timothy Loranger, an aviation attorney at Wisner Baum and a Marine Corps veteran, told Fox News Digital. “But if you compare it to the thousands and thousands of hours of flights that occur without any incident … that’s all very good.”
The collision has sparked questions about how such a devastating accident could happen in one of the most tightly controlled airspaces in the country and the world. The last significant fatal commercial crash happened in 2009, when a Continental Airlines flight crashed into a house in Buffalo, New York, killing 49 people. “Is there something that we can point to? Training? Is the budget of the military sufficient to make sure that pilots and the crew have enough training and experience in order to fly those aircraft?” Loranger said. “Those are the kinds of questions that have to be asked. If it’s a problem with the aircraft itself, a mechanical issue, what is that? Is it a design issue? Is it a manufacturing issue? Is it a maintenance issue?”Military helicopter crashes, while uncommon, have been occurring more frequently over the last year, according to Army data.Photos of victims following the collision between an American Airlines jet and a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter (Getty Images)Family and friends of those who lost their lives in the deadly American Airlines and Army helicopter collision are sharing tributes online as they wait for more answers about how this tragedy happened. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves confirmed on X Thursday night one of the Army pilots who died in the wreck was Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, a Brooksville native.Tim Lilley identified his son, 28-year-old Sam Lilley, as first officer on American Airlines flight 5342.A flight attendant on board the flight has been identified as Ian Epstein.Fox News Digital has learned the identity of another victim on board flight 5342, a mother of two young children, Wendy Shaffer. 
“I’m still waiting to wake up from this nightmare, but I fear this is the truth. Wendy was not just beautiful on the outside, but was a truly amazing woman through and through,” Wendy’s husband, Nate Shaffer, shared in a statement with Fox News Digital.Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, told “Fox & Friends” on Friday that “there needs to be some oversight from Congress” following the Washington, D.C. plane crash. “We need to make sure that if these airports are struggling with air traffic controllers, they bring it to our attention, and we can try to encourage more younger people to get into that field,” Nehls said. “I have to say when you look at our aviation record, our safety record over the past 15 years — in 2009 obviously we had the Colgan Air crash that killed 47 people – but we haven’t had a major incident in the United States in the past 15 years,” he added, noting that there are 45,000 flights daily in the U.S. 
“Overall, I believe our record, our safety record is the gold standard. But when we have an issue like this, it needs to be addressed and I believe the NTSB will conduct a very thorough investigation and they will come up with some recommendations to make sure that we can mitigate risk and something like this never takes place again,” Nehls also said. The Federal Aviation Administration reportedly is restricting helicopter flights near Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Va., following the deadly midair collision earlier this week. An FAA official told Reuters
that the agency is prohibiting most helicopters from parts of two routes near the airport, only allowing first responders into the area. The routes are believed to be the same ones the Army Black Hawk helicopter was traveling along Wednesday night when it collided with the American Airlines passenger jet. The FAA also said to lawmakers that the restrictions will remain in place indefinitely as it conducts an investigation, according to Reuters. “Our union fully supports this action by the FAA,” the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said. “Operations should change, at the very least until we learn more about what led to the deadliest U.S. aviation accident in 24 years. 67 souls were lost not even 48 hours ago — we should not operate as if nothing happened.”
Emergency vehicles and recovery operations are seen near the mouth of the Anacostia River at the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, on Friday, Jan. 31. (AP/Carolyn Kaster)Rain, fog and gusty winds in the Washington, D.C. area Friday could complicate efforts to recover victims and debris from the Potomac River following the deadly midair collision that claimed 67 lives, according to FOX Weather. The FOX Forecast Center is saying light rain or drizzle is expected through this morning before steadier rains move in this afternoon. Blustery conditions then will persist through the evening, with wind gusts up to 30 miles per hour. High temperatures will reach the low to mid 50s before dropping to the 30s by tomorrow night. Plane wreckage is seen Thursday in the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport. (Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Giles, U.S. Coast Guard via AP)Reviews of the moments leading up to Wednesday’s fatal midair crash involving an Army helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet have revealed several failures and mistakes.
In normal operating conditions, air traffic control for helicopters and planes at Reagan National Airport is handled by two operators. However, on Wednesday, the duties were combined, leaving just one person to handle both duties, The New York Times reported.The outlet, citing a source who was not authorized to speak publicly, noted that there is usually only one air traffic controller after 9:30 PM, but a supervisor let one leave early. The midair collision that left 67 dead occurred just before 9:00 PM local time.However, a person familiar with the matter explained to Fox News Digital that the positions get combined regularly if air controllers have to step away from the console for breaks, or if they are involved in a shift change. Controllers may also have to step away when air traffic is slow, the person explained, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures.
Multiple reports also indicate that the Black Hawk helicopter may have been flying higher than it was supposed to, putting it outside its approved flight path. The Times reported that the Black Hawk deviated from the approved low-altitude flight path that would have let it avoid the passenger airliner. A senior Army official told the outlet that the Black Hawk pilots had flown the route before and were aware of the altitude restrictions.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth revealed to Fox News on Friday more details about the training flight that the Army Black Hawk helicopter was taking earlier this week when it collided with an American Airlines passenger jet.“Without getting anything into anything that’s classified, there are many things that happen in and around the Capitol that ensure in a contingency, in an emergency, our government is able to continue to operate,” Hegseth said. “And what happened in this particular instance was one of those types of flights.
“I mentioned it at the press conference yesterday, a continuity of government. There are other aspects to what is done there and you need to train as you fight. You need to rehearse in ways that would reflect a real-world scenario,” Hegseth added.In this image provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, wreckage is seen in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, on Thursday, Jan. 30. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Taylor Bacon, U.S. Coast Guard via AP)More than 40 bodies have now been recovered from the Potomac River following this week’s midair collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport.DC Fire and EMS told Fox News that 41 bodies in total have been retrieved from the crash site.Officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet arrived Wednesday from Wichita, Kansas, carrying, among others, a group of elite young figure skaters, their parents and coaches, and four union steamfitters from the Washington area.A top Army aviation official said the crew of the helicopter, a Black Hawk, was “very experienced” and familiar with the congested flying that occurs daily around the city.“Both pilots had flown this specific route before, at night. This wasn’t something new to either one of them,” Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation, told the AP.
Fox News’ Ashley Cozzolino and the Associated Press contributed to this report.Former Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Scott Brenner told “America’s Newsroom” Friday that he believes the air traffic controllers at Reagan National Airport had the “adequate resources there to do the job” when the midair collision happened earlier this week. Brenner spoke following a report citing the FAA saying that the number of staff members working at the air control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia, was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.” The Associated Press obtained a report which showed one air traffic controller was working two positions at the time of the crash. “Controller staffing is a problem. Congress, FAA have been working on this for years. But controllers are bright folks, if they are getting into a situation where they are getting overwhelmed, they will start to slow traffic,” Brenner said.  
“From my understanding, you had in the tower at the time of the crash, you had three controllers, you had a supervisor and you had a supervisor in training. They had adequate resources there to do the job,” he continued. “The decision by the supervisor to split the duties of one of the controllers – because normally you have one controller just focused on helicopters and they usually cut that off around 9:30 at night because traffic starts to die down. But everything that I have seen so far and heard, the controllers did what they are supposed to do.” Fox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report.A timeline of events leading up to Wednesday’s fatal midair collision near Reagan National Airport in the Washington, D.C. area. (Fox News)
National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman told FOX Business on Friday that “the most important thing right now is to obtain and preserve any perishable evidence so that whenever we come off scene, we can start the analyzation of it. “Today will be yet another day of the teams going out there. Yesterday, we had our organizational meetings. They’re doing another one this morning. They’re out in the field. They’re collecting data. They’ve started interviews,” he said. “We have hundreds of people in this investigation.” “Everything that’s there should be good for 30 days, but we want to make sure we get everything preserved immediately,” Inman also said. A total of 67 people are presumed dead following the midair collision Wednesday night between the American Airlines passenger jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport.  For more information on this heartbreaking event in the Potomac River, you can refer to the past live updates from Fox News Digital from Wednesday and Thursday. FOX Business’ Grady Trimble contributed to this report.National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman speaks during a press conference at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Thursday, Jan. 30, in Arlington, Va. (AP/Stephanie Scarbrough)National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman told FOX Business on Friday that the agency knows where the black boxes are from the Army Black Hawk helicopter involved in the deadly midair collision. “We know where they’re at right now. We’ve got to get the rest of the victims out,” he said, noting that the boxes haven’t been removed yet as officials are working to retrieve bodies from the Potomac River. Inman added that families of victims that are arriving in Washington, D.C. are “shellshocked.” “We have a duty to try to provide as much information to them as long as they need it. Right now, of course, their biggest concern is their family members and the identification of those bodies,” Inman said. “The medical examiner from D.C. was there last night with this. He outlined the process. We believe notifications may start in the next day or so. And so they’ll start working on taking their family members home.” 
FOX Business’ Grady Trimble contributed to this report.President Donald Trump speaks at the White House on Thursday following the deadly midair collision. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump said Friday that the Black Hawk helicopter that collided with the American Airlines passenger jet near Reagan National Airport “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 wrote on Truth Social. NTSB member Todd Inman, when asked by FOX Business this morning about whether the helicopter’s altitude played a role in the crash, said “Right now, we’ve not ruled anything in or out.”
“But I would be very careful to anyone who’s listening to this to rely upon off the shelf software, speculation they’re seeing online. Our job is to get the absolute facts as we get these [black] boxes in and get them analyzed and we look at more granular data, will be able to give a much better picture on that,” he said. FOX Business’ Grady Trimble contributed to this report. Military helicopter flights forced at least two planes to abort landings at Reagan National Airport in the week before a deadly collision presumably killed 67 people on Wednesday, according to a report.
On Tuesday night, just one day before the collision between an American Airlines flight and an Army Black Hawk helicopter, a different plane alerted the air traffic control tower that it had to abort its landing to avoid collision with a helicopter, the Washington Post reported.Yet another plane arriving at DCA from Charlotte scrubbed its landing on Jan. 23, again because of a helicopter.”They had to circle back around because there was a helicopter in the flight path,” said RIchard Hart, a passenger on the Jan. 23 flight who spoke to the Washington Post. “At the time I found it odd. … Now I find it disturbingly tragic.”
The two close calls came within a week of Wednesday’s horrifying collision, in which an inbound commercial flight from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a military helicopter over the Potomac River. A total of 64 people, including four crew members, were aboard passenger American Airlines Flight 5342, and three soldiers were on the Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk that came from Fort Belvoir in Virginia. All are presumed dead.Kiah Duggins was known for her bright smile and zest for life. (Howard University)A Howard University professor and former Miss Kansas contestant known for her bright smile and zest for life was among the victims
in Wednesday’s midair collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines plane near Reagan National Airport.Kiah Duggins, 30, was named as a victim in the disaster by Howard University President Ben Vinson III, who called for privacy and respect for her family, students, and colleagues during this difficult time.In a statement, the university said Duggins was set to begin a new chapter as a professor at Howard University School of Law this fall.”As a civil rights lawyer, she dedicated her career to fighting against unconstitutional policing and unjust money bail practices in Tennessee, Texas and Washington, D.C.,” the statement reads. “Plans to honor her legacy will be shared in coming days.”Duggins was also a civil rights attorney with the non-profit Civil Rights Corps, based in Washington D.C.Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told “FOX & Friends” on Friday that “the environment around which we choose pilots or air traffic controllers, as the president pointed out correctly yesterday, better be the highest possible standard.”  “I don’t care what background they come from, what their race is, what their gender is, if they are rich or if they are poor, I just need them to be good at their job because I need my flight to land safely,” Hegseth said.  “The same thing applies to the Defense Department, to our military. I don’t care about your background, your gender or your skin color, I want the best,” he added. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told “FOX & Friends” on Friday that the black boxes onboard the Black Hawk helicopter that collided with the American Airlines passenger jet near Reagan National Airport have not yet been recovered. “In this particular case, they were qualifying on a night flight which included night vision goggles – now we don’t know is whether the goggles were engaged or up,” he said.  “You have a lot of ambient light, a lot of things happening around Reagan [airport], there could be depth perception problems – again that is speculation, our investigation will tell us more,” Hegseth added. “We are looking at altitude… someone was at the wrong altitude. The investigation will help us understand that – was the Black Hawk too high? Was it on course? Right now we don’t quite know,” Hegseth also said. Wreckage is seen in the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport on Thursday. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Taylor Bacon, U.S. Coast Guard via AP)NTSB member Todd Inman told ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ on Friday that “it will take several days” to extract data from the black boxes of the American Airlines passenger jet involved in Wednesday’s deadly midair collision. “The data recorder itself has thousands of data points and they all have to be synchronized against a lot of other things that happened in the plane,” he said. “The voice recorders actually have to be what is called ‘auditioned’ among a number of people so that there is complete agreement to how the transcript will come out.” 
“We also look for ancillary noises, maybe a boom or thud or crack or something in the cockpit – those things are going on concurrently along with the fact that we have several hundred people in the field looking at every other aspect of this investigation,” Inman also said. All 67 people onboard the American Airlines passenger jet and the Army Black Hawk helicopter are presumed dead following Wednesday’s collision.Inman said a preliminary NTSB report is expected to be out in 30 days, but it will take “a year if not more for us to come to a final probable cause.”Former Black Hawk pilot Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., told ‘Fox & Friends First’ on Friday that “one thing I am interested in looking at is should we outfit our military aircraft with the collision avoidance system that the civilian airliners have.” 
“Those systems only work if the two aircraft can talk to one another through their transponders. If one has it and one doesn’t, oftentimes that won’t alert the other pilot that there could be a midair collision,” he said. Barrett spoke as reports are emerging that the Black Hawk helicopter involved in Wednesday’s crash was possibly flying higher than approved and outside of its flight path when it collided with the American Airlines passenger jet. The aircraft was supposed to be flying lower and in a different location while in the airspace around Reagan National Airport, the New York Times reported, citing four people briefed on the matter. 
“Would it have prevented this accident? That is a question that remains open right now, but these are all things that we need to gather more facts around,” Barrett added. Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report. A Kansas pastor who helped families as they arrived at the airport in Wichita, Kan., on Wednesday night searching for news about their loved ones told ‘Fox & Friends First’ Friday that everybody there was in “stunned silence.” “When we all started watching the news, we were all just stunned,” Chapel Hill United Methodist Church Rev. Ben Staley said. “As I was watching the news I realized that this is Wichita, this is us. These are our neighbors.” Staley, who said he was “drawn by their need of hope,” described how he prayed with a father whose daughter was onboard the American Airlines plane that crashed near Washington, D.C. “You could imagine, everybody there at the airport just waited in stunned silence,” he added. The control tower at Reagan National Airport is seen Thursday following the nearby crash. (Getty Images)American Airline flights from Wichita to Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. are scheduled to resume Friday, two days after a deadly midair collision near the airport.Fox News’ Mark Meredith reports there have been dozens of cancellations but with minimal delays.Weather forecasts in the area were showing a 100% chance of rain with wind gusts as high as 25 mph.Meanwhile, there were reports of debris floating to areas along the Potomac River, the site of Wednesday evening’s deadly collision. Local governments have been urging residents not to touch or remove any of the found items. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy speaks Thursday during a news conference at the White House. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said late Thursday that Wednesday’s deadly midair collision was “not what I expected” on his first day on the job.
“This is not what I expected my first day on the job to be, but I do believe that God puts us exactly where we’re supposed to be,” Duffy said, pledging to the families of the victims “get to the bottom of what happened and be 100% transparent about the results of the investigation.”Duffy, who is expected to visit the FAA command center and recovery hangar today, promised to “fix” the agency.I will continue to keep the families and the public up-to-date with what we are doing in this situation and every other situation that falls under [the Department of Transportation],” Duffy said.NTSB investigators evaluate the recorders at agency labs. (NTSB)The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recovered critical evidence that could piece together the final moments before Wednesday’s deadly midair collision.In a statement to Fox News, the agency said the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from American Airlines flight 5342 has been found by NTSB investigators.”The recorders are at the NTSB labs for evaluation,” an NTSB spokesperson said.Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.Live Coverage begins hereThis material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2025 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. 
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