Washington mid-air collision: recorders recovered, 28 bodies found, and conflicting accounts of airport staffing

By Thursday night, the Potomac River was still giving up what it held. Investigators announced that they had pulled the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder from American Eagle flight 5342, the regional jet that collided with a military helicopter late Wednesday as it approached Ronald Reagan National Airport. The recorders are now at the National Transportation Safety Board's labs. Board member Todd Inman said officials aim to release a preliminary report within 30 days.

The jet, a Bombardier CRJ-700 flying for American Airlines and operated by PSA, had come from Wichita, Kansas. All 64 people aboard were killed, along with three soldiers in the Army Black Hawk. At least 27 bodies had been recovered from the plane and one from the helicopter. The jet broke into three pieces and lay in waist-deep water. More than 300 emergency workers, divers among them, worked through high winds and packed ice to bring out wreckage and remains.

Among the dead were as many as 14 figure skaters and coaches. The Skating Club of Boston said that 16-year-olds Jinna Han and Spencer Lane were on the flight, as were the Russian-born coaches Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, a married couple who had both been world champions. Coach Alexandr Kirsanov and two of his young students, Angela Yang and Sean Kay, were also named as victims. Chinese state media, citing the country's embassy, reported that two Chinese citizens were aboard. Senator Maria Cantwell said the dead also included people from Russia, the Philippines and Germany. Media reports identified the pilot and first officer as Jonathan Campos, 34, and Sam Lilley, 28.

What caused the collision is not known. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said both aircraft had been flying a standard pattern on a clear night, and that military aircraft are a regular sight over the capital, including near Reagan National in Arlington, Virginia. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon had opened its own investigation. He described the helicopter flight as an annual proficiency training flight, said the crew was fairly experienced, and noted that they had night vision goggles. American Airlines CEO Robert Eisen said the company did not know why the military aircraft came into the path of the PSA jet, and he gave families a helpline: 1-800-679-8215.

Reports disagree about staffing in the control tower. An initial Federal Aviation Administration report, obtained by the New York Times, the Associated Press and others, described staffing as not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic. Per the AP, it said a single controller was handling both helicopter traffic and arriving and departing planes at the time of the collision, a configuration the report called not normal. But a person familiar with the matter told the AP, speaking anonymously to discuss internal procedures, that Wednesday night's staffing was in fact at a normal level. That person said the positions are routinely combined during breaks, shift changes or slow traffic. The Washington Post reported a separate detail: the day before the collision, another jet at Reagan had to abort its landing and go around after a helicopter appeared near its flight path.

Politics moved in quickly. At a press conference, President Donald Trump suggested that the previous administration's diversity policies were behind the crash. Speaking of air traffic controller standards, he said his first administration had the highest standard possible and that Biden had changed it back. Democrats condemned the remarks. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said Trump was using the collision to peddle lies and conspiracy theories and to attack people of color and women without basis, and asked whether he had no decency or respect for the families. Journalists also noted Trump's reply when asked whether he would visit the site: "What's the site? The water? You want me to go swimming?" Trump later signed another executive order that officials said would end "woke policies" in federal aviation, after one the previous week ending diversity initiatives at the FAA.

The recorders and the NTSB's preliminary report, due within about a month, are the next concrete steps. They will be the first real test of the competing accounts of staffing and of why the two aircraft ended up in the same airspace.