Midair Collision Claims 67 Lives Near DC Airport
Image Courtesy of Axios
By Luis Zonenberg
Last week, DC residents had a shock to the system when an American Airlines jet crashed into the Potomac river. The plane had collided with a Black Hawk helicopter half a mile short near Runway 33. Sixty seven lives were lost in the collision, including sixty four passengers from the plane and three army soldiers from the helicopter.
In a CBS news report, the National Transportation Safety Board said data from the air traffic controller’s screens reported that the Black Hawk was 300 feet high during the night of the collision. Investigators reported that the helicopter was flying at around 325 feet, which was above the 200-feet ceiling set by the Federation Aviation Administration. All of this data was apparently rounded to the nearest 100 feet.
Crews began work salvaging the wreckage on Monday, recovering several pieces of the airplane. “Over the next twenty four hours, our goal is really to complete our commitment to finishing the civilian plane recovery,” Colonel Frank Pera of the U.S. Army Corps remarked. So far, the battered midsection of the plane’s fuselage was successfully recovered, as well as one of the engines and a wing.
In a more recent update, interviews with all five air traffic controllers working that night have been completed. Investigators say, “they’re still poring over the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from both aircraft.” They are currently pooling through data that includes training and flight logs for flight crews, including maintenance logs for both aircraft. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is currently building the crew’s daily histories.
All of the bodies have successfully been recovered, with 66 of them already identified. ABC News released an article detailing information about several of the passengers onboard when the collision occurred, including some you might recognize, such as renowned figure skaters Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shiskova. Other passengers consisted of DC residents and visiting family members from out of town.
In addition to this, Fox 5 recently reported two MWAA employees were arrested for allegedly leaking footage of the mid-air collision. Jonathan Savoy and Mohamed Lamine were charged with computer trespass, both being accused of producing unauthorized copies of the Aiport’s Authority records. Officials have yet to clarify how the footage was obtained or distributed and what fate lies in store for the two employees.
This plane crash marks the first major commercial airline crash since the Buffalo crash from 2009. The latter was the result of a crash landing that resulted in the loss of 49 passengers. There have been other incidents since then, such as the Asia runway crash at San Francisco International airport in 2013. None though were of this high a loss, and it is notable for this crash to be such a major loss since the 2009 crash landing.
People have been in a state of mourning since this tragedy occurred. A moment of silence was even held on Monday at skating rinks across the country to remember the 67 lives lost. More updates are coming in every passing day as investigators still try to piece together all information available. All of our staff and students at CUA keep the families of those lost in our prayers as we wait for more updates on the scene.
