Mangled remains of downed Black Hawk helicopter pulled from the Potomac River after DC crash: NTSB
The mangled remains of the Black Hawk helicopter involved in last week’s deadly midair plane crash in DC were pulled out of the Potomac River Thursday, the National Transportation Safety Board announced.
The NTSB recovered a large portion of what’s left of the UH-60 Black Hawk military chopper after it collided with an American Airlines passenger plane near Washington, DC’s Reagon National Airport last Wednesday, the agency announced Thursday night.
A crew from the Naval Sea Systems Command Supervisor of Salvage and Diving working in conjunction with the NTSB were able to recover several parts of the destroyed chopper — including its right engine and tail rotor.
In images shared by the NTSB, the crumpled metal that was once a working military helicopter can be seen being lifted from the water by a crane floating atop a barge in the Potomac River.
The recovered parts are being stored on a barge and will be transferred to a secure location Friday, as part of the ongoing investigation, according to a statement from NTSB.
Other parts of the decimated helicopter are still lost in the Potomac River — but officials are working to retrieve those too.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will be conducting lidar (light detection and ranging) scans of the river floor overnight, the NTSB said.
The detailed radar scan will allow officials to locate additional parts and pieces of the doomed chopper on the riverbed that will then be recovered by divers or cranes.
The NTSB said flight data has been recovered from both the helicopter and the American Airlines plane, which has already been pulled out of the chilly waters of the Potomac.
Earlier this week, officials confirmed that the Black Hawk helicopter was flying at an inappropriately high altitude at the time of the crash which killed all 67 passengers and crew members aboard both crafts.
The bodies of all 67 victims — 60 passengers and four crew members on the American Airlines flight and three soldiers on the chopper — were previously recovered from the river.
Data collected by air traffic control show the chopper was flying too high — at an altitude of 300 feet at the time of the fiery collision on Jan. 29, according to NTSB.
The maximum altitude for whirly-birds flying in the controlled airspace is 200 feet, according to the agency.
The passenger plane was flying at about 325 feet at the time of the accident, the agency reports.
Officials will continue their search in the Potomac River tomorrow, according to the NTSB statement.
