Recovery efforts are ongoing following the tragic Wednesday night mid-air collision between a military H-60 Black Hawk helicopter and a PSA-operated CRJ700 near Reagan National Airport (DCA) in Washington, D.C. 

Friday afternoon, there were two press conferences held by officials: the first from EMS/first responders and the second by the National Transportation Safety Board. 

Following is a brief summation of the information shared by authorities at the press conferences:

EMS/First Responders

Per John Donnelly – DC Fire EMS Chief:

• The NTSB is leading the investigation.
• Overnight, EMS continued search operations.
• Coast Guard cutters are now on-site to assist.
• They have recovered 41 sets of remains; 28 have been positively identified, and next-of-kin notifications have been made to 18 families.
• Search teams will continue to work the site using sonar scanning and with dive teams working in targeted areas.
• A salvage crew is on scene assessing the work needed to recover the aircraft from the water.
• They are also working the shoreline downriver to recover debris.
• They believe that the other remains are likely with the aircraft.

Per Terry Liercke – VP and Airport Manager of Reagan National Airport:

• The airport is open and operating.
• It is operating at reduced capacity due to the location of the recovery site.
• Two runways are shut down and about 100 flights were canceled Friday.

NTSB

Per Todd Inman:

• They conducted family briefings last night; those continue today.
• The DOD is assisting with the investigation, but the NTSB operates independently.
• The NTSB has its own Black Hawk certified pilot on staff based in Alaska; he was brought in and is on scene now.
• The Navy supervisor of salvage is conducting salvage operations; there are barges en route from Virginia Beach, and they will be on-site tomorrow morning.
• This is being done in conjunction with the D.C. Medical Examiner’s Office in order to make sure that any additional victims are recovered and turned over to the ME and then returned to their families.
• The “sup salv” is also debris-mapping, which will assist in their analysis. 
• There are two distinct debris fields — one housing the Sikorsky (smaller) and one with the CRJ; there are large chunks that will be easily recoverable, and this will aid in the investigation.
• There are two separate recorders from the CRJ. 
  • The FDFR (flight data recorder) is in good condition; it was soaked in alcohol overnight and opened today; they have a high level of confidence that they will be able to get a full download from it; they will not release that information immediately; it will take some time to go through and assess.
  • The CVR (cockpit voice recorder) had some water intrusion, which is not uncommon; it was soaked overnight in ionized water; the team put the CVR into a vacuum oven to extract moisture; they are still checking the electrical connections to see if it is ready for download; they have a high level of confidence that they can retrieve the data.
• The Sikorsky has a combined black box, which was retrieved and is at NTSB headquarters; they will begin its evaluation to determine when/how to take action; they saw no exterior damage, indicating it was compromised; they have a high level of confidence in full extraction.

Inman took several questions from the press. In a nutshell, the investigation is ongoing, and they will continue to investigate the cause(s) of the crash and keep the public apprised. He noted that their job is to find the facts and make sure a tragedy like this never happens again.

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