WASHINGTON, Jan 31 — US authorities said on Thursday it was not yet clear why a regional jet crashed into a US Army helicopter at a Washington airport, killing 67 people in the country’s deadliest air disaster in more than 20 years.
President Donald Trump, without providing evidence, said that federal diversity efforts could have been a factor, reiterating a theme that has become a focus of his presidency. Rights groups and Democrats accused him of politicising the disaster.
The investigation into the crash in the nation's capital has just begun.
The American Airlines Bombardier jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided with the Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River as it prepared to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night.
The names of all the victims have not yet been released, but they included a number of promising young figure skaters and people from Kansas, where the flight originated.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said both aircraft had been flying standard flight patterns and there had been no breakdown in communication.
"Everything was routine up to the point of the accident," Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin told Reuters. The airport is located just across the river from Washington, in Virginia.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators said they would have a preliminary report within 30 days. They said they had not yet recovered the "black boxes" on the aircraft that record flight data.
"This is an all hands on deck event," chair Jennifer Homendy told a press conference.
The agency has begun collecting wreckage, including portions of the helicopter, and is storing it at a hangar at Reagan National.
At the White House, Trump criticised the helicopter pilots and suggested air traffic controllers were to blame.
"We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas," he said.
Radio communications show that air traffic controllers alerted the helicopter about the approaching jet and ordered it to change course.
One controller rather than two was handling local plane and helicopter traffic on Wednesday night at Reagan National, a situation that was deemed "not normal" but considered adequate staffing for lower volumes of traffic, according to a person briefed on the matter.
The decision to combine duties in the evening is not uncommon, the source said. The New York Times first reported the "not normal" designation.
A shortage of air traffic controllers in the United States in recent years has spurred safety concerns. At several facilities, controllers work mandatory overtime and six-day work weeks to cover shortages. The Federal Aviation Administration has about 3,000 fewer controllers than it says it needs.
Meanwhile, the United Press International (UPI) reported later that the identities of several passengers and crew aboard the American Airlines flight and a US military helicopter have been confirmed, while a black box has been recovered,
More than 40 of the 67 bodies from Wednesday night’s crash were retrieved from the Potomac River by late Thursday afternoon.
At least one of the aircraft’s black boxes has also been recovered, according to major news outlets including CNN, ABC News, and Newsweek.
— Reuters
