US restricts helicopter flights after Washington crash, 41 bodies recovered

The Manila Times

US restricts helicopter flights after Washington crash, 41 bodies recovered  US authorities restrict helicopter flights near Reagan Washington National Airport indefinitely on Jan. 31, 2025, after a midair collision between a passenger jet and a military helicopter killed 67 people. Officials said that 41 of the victims' bodies had been recovered. The Federal Aviation Administration restricted helicopter flights to reduce the risk of another collision as crew worked to pull the wreckage of America's deadliest air disaster in two decades from the Potomac River. It was not clear how long those restrictions would last. Washington, DC Fire Chief John Donnelly told reporters that 28 of the bodies recovered so far had been positively identified.  REUTERS VIDEO  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe    Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #TheManilaTimes #tmtnews  #washingtonplanecrash

Transcript

00:00Overnight, our teams continued search operations and surface work, including

00:05side sonar scanning, shoreline searches, and aerial searches. Also, two Coast Guard

00:10cutters have arrived on station, and you may be able to see them out there on

00:14the water. We've identified 41, or we have recovered 41 sets of remains, and 28 of

00:20those victims have been positively identified. And as of 6 a.m. this morning,

00:25next of kin notifications have been made to 18 families. We expect to recover all

00:31of the bodies. That's why our teams are still working. We're going to

00:35have to work with the salvage company to do some of that work. Going forward with

00:40our recovery operations, search teams will continue to work the site. We'll do

00:45side sonar scanning, searching the shoreline, and aerial operations.

00:50Our dive teams are working in targeted areas, and additional Coast Guard assets

00:55will arrive this afternoon. The salvage crews have begun to arrive on the scene,

01:01and they're assessing the work that's going to be needed to recover the

01:05aircraft from the water. We expect those operations to begin no later than

01:09tomorrow afternoon. The teams are also working the shoreline down the river, as

01:13we do expect some debris to be dragged by the current. And if members of the

01:17public believe they have information or have discovered potential wreckage, we're

01:21asking you not to touch it and to call 9-1-1, and we will send somebody out to

01:25get it. The question is, why are two of the three runways here at National

01:30Airport closed? So if you're familiar with the runway configurations here, we

01:34have a main north-south runway, and we have two what we call crosswind runways.

01:39The two crosswind runways, if aircraft were to take off or land over the

01:46aircraft recovery sites that is out there right now, those would be

01:50impactful to the operation. So we've elected to keep those runways closed.

01:53We've worked with the FAA. I think what we've communicated is we anticipate our

01:59expectation is weak. However, we'll reassess on Monday, and as the recovery

02:05efforts go, it's a fluid situation, obviously.

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