WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials gave an update on operations days after a plane and a helicopter collided, killing 67.
The NTSB said that Monday, recovery teams had successfully recovered the plane’s aft fuselage, right engine and right pylon.
The helicopter would be recovered after the airplane. The NTSB said that doing so would take several days.
NTSB investigators already have training and flight logs for both flight crews and are working on building histories for the flight crews. Investigators also already have maintenance logs for both the airplane and the helicopter.
The NTSB said it had also finished interviewing all five staffed Air Traffic Control tower positions.
“NTSB investigators are working to synchronize flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder data from both aircraft, ATC communications and radar scope data to obtain a detailed timeline. The flight data recorder for the Black Hawk did not have timestamps. Investigators will have to manually create timestamps, which requires additional time to validate,” a statement said.
The NTSB’s announcement comes hours after officials with DC Fire and EMS and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held a news conference on the attempts to recover the remains of those who died in the crash and pull the plane from the Potomac River.
“We think we’ve got a great, solid plan that we’ve executed on a number of occasions now successfully, as far as a dignified recovery of those remains,” said Col. Francis Pera, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
According to officials, the remains of 55 people have been positively identified. There are additional remains at the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Pera said the goal for Tuesday is to continue the removal of the plane from the water — the focus on Tuesday is the cockpit.
