US restricts helicopter flights after Washington crash, 'black boxes' recovered

WASHINGTON: US authorities restricted helicopter flights near Reagan Washington National Airport on Friday (Jan 31), after a midair collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and a military helicopter killed 67 people.

Investigators were able on Friday to recover the helicopter's black box, which captures flight data and voices in the cockpit, National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman said at an afternoon briefing.

The information from the box, along with the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the CRJ700 airplane, could help authorities piece together what happened just before the two aircraft collided on Wednesday night and plunged into Washington's freezing Potomac River in the deadliest US air disaster in two decades.

The board has also conducted interviews with air traffic controllers, Inman said, including the lone controller working inside Reagan's tower at the time of the crash on Wednesday.

Authorities have not identified a cause, and Inman said the board would not engage in speculation before completing its investigation.

"The NTSB is an independent, bipartisan board - 58 years as the gold standard. Our job is to find the facts, but more importantly, our job is to make sure this tragedy doesn't happen again, regardless of what anyone may be saying," Inman said, adding that he had not spoken to President Donald Trump or anyone at the White House.

Separately, a medevac plane crashed near a shopping mall in Philadelphia on Friday evening with a child and five others aboard, the plane's air ambulance company said, adding that it had not confirmed any survivors.

Six Mexican nationals were onboard, authorities said, marking a second US aviation disaster in a week.

Video footage appeared to show the twin-engine plane descending at a sharp angle towards a residential area, sparking a huge fireball upon impact, and showering wreckage over homes and vehicles.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the aircraft was a Learjet 55 - an American-French business jet - that had taken off shortly before from Northeast Philadelphia Airport bound for Branson, Missouri.

"The patient had received care from Shriners Children's Philadelphia and was being transported back to her home country in Mexico on a contracted air ambulance when the crash happened," said Mel Bower, a spokesman for Shriners Children's Hospital.

Dozens of emergency workers were on the scene outside Philadelphia's Roosevelt Mall.

Trump posted on Friday on his Truth Social platform that he was "sad" to see "more souls lost" in the Philadelphia tragedy. He praised first responders, adding: "God Bless you all."

Witnesses told local TV crews that they saw body parts in or near the wreckage, as Philadelphia city council member Mike Driscoll said he feared residents or others on the ground may have been killed.

"It doesn't look good. And it's a sad situation here," he told CNN.

The FAA said it was launching an investigation with the National Transportation Safety Board.

Following the Washington crash, the FAA sharply restricted helicopter flights to reduce the risk of another collision, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said earlier on Friday, confirming news first reported by Reuters.

Duffy said the decision "will immediately help secure the airspace near Reagan Airport, ensuring the safety of airplane and helicopter traffic".

The FAA is barring most helicopters from parts of two routes near the airport and only allowing police and medical helicopters, air defence and presidential air transport in the area between the airport and nearby bridges.

The restrictions will last at least until the NTSB releases a preliminary report into the fatal collision, which typically takes 30 days. At that point, they will be reviewed, Duffy said.

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the airline would work with the government "to make our aviation system even safer, including by increasing investments in infrastructure, technology and personnel."

Crews have recovered 41 bodies from thus far, officials said. Pulling the debris from the Potomac River will begin "in earnest" on Sunday, Inman said, an effort that will likely last all week.

Washington, DC, Fire Chief John Donnelly told reporters that 28 bodies have been positively identified and that he expected all victims would eventually be recovered.

The American Airlines plane was trying to land when it collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter, killing all 60 passengers and four crew members aboard. Two of the three service members killed in the helicopter were identified on Friday.

QUESTIONS ABOUT SAFETY

The crash has shone a spotlight on concerns about air safety and a shortage of tower controllers at the heavily congested airport that serves the US capital.

The FAA is about 3,000 controllers behind staffing targets. The agency said in 2023 that it had 10,700 certified controllers, about the same as a year earlier.

One controller rather than two was handling local plane and helicopter traffic on Wednesday at the airport, a situation deemed "not normal" but considered adequate for lower volumes of traffic, according to a person briefed on the matter. Duffy on Thursday vowed to reform the FAA.

Airspace is crowded around the Washington area, home to three commercial airports, multiple military bases and some senior government officials who are ferried around by helicopter.

Over a three-year period ending in 2019, there was an average of 80 helicopter flights per day within 48km of Reagan National Airport, including about 30 military and 16 law enforcement flights, according to a 2021 Government Accountability Office report.

The helicopter's path has also drawn scrutiny. The military said the maximum altitude for the route the helicopter was taking is 200 feet (61m) but the collision occurred at an altitude of around 300 feet, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.

Trump weighed in on Friday, saying that the helicopter involved in the crash was flying too high.

"The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit" Trump said in a Truth Social post.

Senator Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, questioned the safety of military and commercial flights separated by as little as 350 feet vertically and horizontally.

Radio communications showed that air traffic controllers alerted the helicopter about the approaching jet and ordered it to change course.

The pilot of the American Eagle Flight 5342 had about six years of flying experience, according to the airline's CEO. The Bombardier jet was operated by PSA Airlines, a regional subsidiary.

Terry Liercke, vice president of Reagan National, said two of the airport's three runways were expected to remain closed for a week. The main runway at Reagan, which will stay open, handles about 90 per cent of the airport's flights and is the busiest single runway in the US.

The crash victims included people from Russia, China, Germany and the Philippines, as well as young figure skaters returning from an elite national training camp in Kansas, the state from which the passenger flight took off.