Officials in Washington, D.C., identified 55 bodies pulled from the Potomac River during a strenuous multi-day recovery operation following the midair collision between a commercial plane and a Black Hawk helicopter last week.
D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly, Sr. told reporters on Sunday that the remains of 55 of the 67 victims of the aircraft collision have been identified. The only injury that Donnelly reported was a first responder who developed hypothermia while searching in the freezing cold water, but the person later recovered.
Officials also said they plan to start lifting the debris out of the Potomac River on Monday. Col. Francis Pera from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers said he anticipates “a successful lift” on Monday morning, later adding that they will cover the wreckage with a tent to protect any human remains.
“We do have a process where we will be watching the lift as it happens,” Pera explained. “And then if there are remains in there, that will not move while we’re recovering the wreckage. We will bring that wreckage to the surface of the barge. Our process [is] to immediately tent the barge to make sure that we have full discretion.”
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Officials have been at the debris site in the river since shortly after the collision between a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and a Bombardier CRJ700 airliner operating under PSA Airlines, a subsidiary of American Airlines.
The plane’s flight data recorder indicated that it was struck at 325 feet by the helicopter on Wednesday night, and that prior to impact, there was a change in the aircraft’s pitch, according to preliminary information released on Saturday.
“Currently, the CRJ (plane) based on the data recorder at the time of impact was 325 feet, plus or minus 25 feet,” National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Todd Inman said at a Saturday news conference. “And for those who follow this closely, that is a corrected altitude.”
“I can tell you at one point, very close to the impact, there was a slight change in pitch, an increase in pitch,” he added later, when asked whether the plane pulled up.
While air traffic control data had the plane’s altitude at 200 feet at impact, Inman said they “have not finalized that and need to get more granularity to it,” and that data from the Black Hawk’s recorder is also needed to answer for the apparent 100-foot difference in altitude.
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“Whenever we have the data from the recorder, we will be able to give you a more specific answer,” Inman said.
Jake Crockett, a firefighter and diver with the Scuba Rescue Team of Chesterfield Fire & EMS, told Fox News Digital last week that the recovery operation is “incredibly unusual.”
“We’re trained and always ready to answer the call…when the dive call comes in, but that’s typically involving one victim. And, in rare occasions, a couple of victims,” Crockett explained.
“But something of this magnitude, you know, having 67 people to account for, along with two aircraft and all the debris is just it’s incredibly out of the ordinary. It’s something that, no doubt, none of them nor myself could have predicted.”
The firefighter also noted that the Potomac River poses challenges related to temperature and water visibility.
“It’s going to be zero visibility or close to zero is that they’ll be diving in, and so looking for small parts of an aircraft in that kind of visibility is going to be extremely challenging,” Crockett explained. “The waters here and the lakes and ponds and rivers…when you go in, it’s just dark.”
Fox News Digital’s Mollie Markowitz contributed to this report.
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