(AFP) – Divers scoured for the remaining bodies from the Washington plane crash Friday as President Donald Trump posted his own politicized verdict on the deadliest US air disaster in almost a quarter century, with the investigation barely underway. Forty-one victims have been pulled from the icy depths of the Potomac River, and rescuers voiced confidence that the other 26 would be retrieved in the massive operation to recover the passenger jet that collided in midair with a Black Hawk military helicopter Wednesday night.
“Our dive teams are working in targeted areas and additional Coast Guard assets will arrive this afternoon. The salvage crews… are assessing the work that’s going to be needed to recover the aircraft from the water,” Washington Fire Chief John Donnelly told a news conference at Reagan National Airport, outside the US capital. “We expect those operations to begin no later than tomorrow afternoon.” He told reporters that lifting the aircraft’s fuselage out of the river would likely reveal the remaining bodies, adding: “If it doesn’t, we will continue the search.”
Authorities are also looking for the helicopter’s black box after retrieving the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the Bombardier jet operated by an American Airlines subsidiary. As the Federal Aviation Administration restricted helicopter flights to reduce the risk of another collision, the gruesome physical search ran parallel with a complex technical analysis of what went wrong. The airliner was coming in to land at Reagan National Airport — just a few miles from the White House — when it collided with a US Army helicopter on a training mission.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is expected to compile a preliminary report within 30 days, although a full investigation could take a year.
– ‘Disgusted’ –
But the lack of clarity over the accident’s cause has not deterred Trump’s politicized commentary since the first moments after the plane — on a routine flight from Wichita, Kansas with 64 people aboard — struck the Black Hawk, carrying three. Trump was at it again Friday, posting on his Truth Social platform: “The Blackhawk helicopter 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???”
This followed a torrent of posts and a news conference Thursday where the Republican pinned the blame for the crash on his Democratic predecessors Joe Biden and Barack Obama, claiming without evidence they had hired the wrong people due to anti-racism and other non-discrimination initiatives known as DEI. “They actually came out with a directive: ‘too white.’ And we want the people that are competent,” Trump said.
Chesley Sullenberger, who famously landed a stricken plane on the Hudson River in New York in 2009, told network MSNBC he was “disgusted” but “not surprised” by Trump’s rhetoric. The hero pilot, known as Sully, noted that it took 16 months for the final report when his own flight crash-landed. Aviation experts, meanwhile, homed in on whether the helicopter crew could see through military night-vision goggles and whether the Reagan National control tower was understaffed.
– ‘Speculation’ –
According to The New York Times, one controller, rather than the usual two, was handling both plane and helicopter traffic at the time. Just 24 hours earlier, another plane had to make a second approach to the airport after a helicopter neared its flight path, The Washington Post and CNN reported, citing an audio recording from air traffic control. NTSB member Todd Inman told CNN the investigation would resist political pressure to reach a conclusion about the crash ahead of the investigation playing out. “There’s a lot of people that have speculation and want to be heard in that regard,” he said. “We understand that, but our job is to find, ultimately, what caused this and prevent it in the future.”
The collision was the first major crash in the United States since 2009 and the deadliest since the American Airlines jet crash in Belle Harbor, New York in 2001 that killed 260. Among those on Wednesday’s doomed airliner were several US skaters and coaches, and Russian couple Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won the 1994 world pairs title. Two Chinese citizens and a Filipino were also among the victims, according to official sources in the countries.
Terry Liercke, vice president and manager of Reagan National Airport, said the hub was operating at reduced capacity, with two of three runways closed and 100 flights canceled Friday.
– Frankie TAGGART
© 2024 AFP
