ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration is significantly restricting helicopter traffic in the immediate vicinity of Washington Reagan National Airport, according to an official briefed on the matter.
The decision was made following Wednesday night’s collision between and Army Black Hawk helicopter and a commercial jet that killed all 67 people who were on board the two aircraft.
Some of the airspace has already been restricted due to ongoing search and recovery efforts over the crash site. But now the agency responsible for air traffic control is indefinitely barring most helicopters from using the low-to-the-ground routes that run under or parallel to the airport’s flightpaths, said the official, who official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
Police boats returned to the Potomac River on Friday as part of the recovery and investigation.
More than 40 bodies have been pulled from the river as the massive recovery effort continued, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press on Friday. The officials were not authorized to discuss details of the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Crews worked under overcast skies Friday morning with rain expected throughout the day. Planes continued to take off and land at Reagan National, with airport operations gradually returning to normal after a slew of canceled and delayed flights following the crash.
Investigators have already recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of the American Airlines plane. Officials are scrutinizing a range of factors in what National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Hommendy has called an “all-hands-on-deck event.”
Air crash investigations can take months, and federal investigators told reporters Thursday they would not speculate on the cause.
Authorities were still looking for the helicopter’s black box recorder, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday on Fox News Channel. Other factors in the crash, including the helicopter’s altitude and whether the crew was using its night vision goggles, are still under investigation, Hegseth said.
Military aircraft frequently conduct such flights in and around the nation’s capital for familiarization with routes they would fly in case of a major catastrophe or an attack on the U.S. that would require relocation of key officials from the capital region.
“You need to train as you fight, you need to rehearse in ways that would reflect a real world scenario,” Hegseth said. He stressed that it remained the Pentagon’s duty to also mitigate risks, while conducting such training. But he underscored U.S. forces need “to ensure, if unfortunately, there were a real world event where things needed to happen we could respond to it day or night.”
The plane carried 60 passengers and four crew members, and three soldiers were aboard the helicopter.
One air traffic controller was responsible for coordinating helicopter traffic and arriving and departing planes when the collision happened, according to a report by the Federal Aviation Administration that was obtained by The Associated Press. Those duties are often divided between two people, but the airport typically combines the roles at 9:30 p.m., once traffic begins to slow down. On Wednesday the tower supervisor directed that they be combined earlier.
“The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” the report said.
A person familiar with the matter, however, said the tower staffing that night was at a normal level. The positions are regularly combined when controllers need to step away from the console for breaks, during shift changes or when air traffic is slow, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures.
The FAA has long struggled with a shortage of air traffic controllers.
