Part of the wreckage is seen as rescue crews search the waters of the Potomac River after a passenger plane on approach to Reagan National Airport crashed into the river after colliding with a US Army helicopter, near Washington, DC, on January 30, 2025.Photo:ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty
The National Transportation Safety Board is sharing when reports will be released after anAmerican Airlines plane collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter.
An investigation is underway after the jet and helicopter crashed midair near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Jan. 29.
A preliminary report about the crash will be released in 30 days, NTSB member Todd Inman said during an appearance onGood Morning Americaon Friday, Jan. 31.
However, it will likely take “a year, if not more” for the NTSB to determine a final probable cause, he added.
“We will be on scene here doing all the recovery of the perishable evidence we need for as long as it takes,” Inman told hostGeorge Stephanopoulos.
A view of the American Airlines plane in the water after it collided in midair with a military helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty
Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty
But the NTSB’s work on the case won’t end after the final report is released. “We make recommendations so that we don’t have tragedies like this again in the future,” Inman said.
Both the voice and data recorders have been recovered from the plane, according to Inman. The NTSB has begun the process of extracting data from them, a process that the board member said will take several days.
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“The data recorder itself has thousands of data points, and they all have to be synchronized against a lot of other things that happened in the plane,” Inman toldGMA. “The voice recorders actually have to be what is called ‘auditioned’ among a number of people so that there’s complete agreement of how the transcript will come out.”
Investigators will also look for “ancillary noises,” which Inman said may sound like “a boom or thud or crack or something in the cockpit.”
“We’re going to work. We’re going to continue. We’re going find out what happened and we’re going try to stop it from happening again,” Inman explained.
“Several” members ofthe U.S. Figure Skating communitywere onboard the American Airlines flight at the time, as well asmembers of the Wichita community in Kansas, plumbing union membersand more.
source: people.com
