Investigators also recovered voice recorder from the pilot’s cabin and flight data recorder, which will be analyzed by the National Transport Security Board; In the accident, 67 people died
64 People traveled on the civil plane that collided with an army helicopter with three military personnel on board on Wednesday night over the Potomac River. The accident is the worst air catastrophe of Since an American Airlines plane crashed shortly after the takeoff from John F. Kennedy airport in in November 2001. The two black boxes of the passenger plane were found and will be analyzed by the National Transport Security Board, responsible for the investigation, sources reported to CBS News and ABC News.
Divers took bodies out of the icy waters from the Potomac River in Washington. The wreckage of the two aircraft is emerging from the waters and rescue boats and divers teams sew the area. Until Thursday night, more than 40 bodies had been rescued, the American press.
FAA reported that the plane was a bombardier, operated by an American Airlines subsidiary. According to the airline, the aircraft was flying from Wichita, Kansas, towards Ronald Reagan airport in the American capital. The helicopter made a “training flight,” said a military spokesman.
Defense Secretary Pete Heweth explained that the Black Hawk helicopter had “a very experienced crew that was making a mandatory annual night assessment.” “They wore nightlife glasses,” he added. In an audio of the air traffic service it is possible to hear the controllers by repeatingly asking the helicopter crew if the passenger plane had “in sight” and, moments before the collision, saying it “passed behind” the plane.
“I just saw a fireball and disappeared,” one controller told another after communication with the helicopter was interrupted. With the water temperature around the 2 ° C, the possibilities of survival in the river were very scarce, according to experts.
The couple of Russian artistic skating Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, world champions in 1994, were aboard the plane, along with other personalities of the skating world. Ari Schulman, a witness who saw the accident while driving to his house, saw “a jet of sparks” and something like fireworks when the collision occurred.
“At first, I saw the plane and seemed to be well, normal. I was about to land, ”he told CNN. “Then, three seconds later, it tilted completely to the right […] I could see his bottom, was lit by a very bright yellow and there was a jet of sparks under him, ”he added.
*With information from AFP
Posted by Victor Oliveira
