Tragedy in the sky: Black boxes found after fatal collision
The second black box of the Bombardier CRJ-700 passenger plane, which collided with a military helicopter near the airport in Washington on Wednesday and fell into the Potomac River, has been found, as reported by American media on Thursday.
Earlier, media in the USA reported that divers located one black box—the cockpit voice recorder. Then, the National Transportation Safety Board announced that the flight data recorder had been found.
The second black box of the plane was found
Both black boxes were underwater, but specialists indicate that their condition allows for the examination of the records they contain.
On Wednesday late evening, the Bombardier CRJ-700 passenger plane of American Airlines, operated by PSA Airlines and flying from Wichita, collided with a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter just in front of the runway at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington.
There were 64 people on board the passenger plane, including four crew members, while the helicopter carried three soldiers. All 67 people on board both aircraft tragically lost their lives.
President Trump commented on the tragedy
"The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!" wrote Donald Trump on his social media platform, Truth Social.
The President's comments were based on recordings of the accident and the conversation between the helicopter pilot and the air traffic control tower. Prior to the disaster, the controller had alerted the pilot to the approaching plane, asking if he saw it and requesting a safe distance. The pilot confirmed visibility of the plane.
This is the first commercial airplane disaster in the USA since 2009 when a Colgan Air plane crashed near Buffalo, resulting in 49 fatalities. However, it is not the first instance of a plane crash into the Potomac. In 1982, an Air Florida plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Reagan Airport, hitting a bridge over this river.
