DC Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly has feared that there are “no survivors” from the midair plane collision over the Potomac River between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter.
“We are now at a point where we’re switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation. At this point, we don’t believe there are any survivors from this accident,” Fire Chief Donnelly stated during a Thursday morning news conference.
He cited that all individuals aboard the American Airlines jet that collided with the Army helicopter were feared dead, per CNN report. Recovery efforts have so far resulted in the retrieval of the bodies of 27 passengers from the American Airlines jet and one individual from the helicopter.
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Authorities ‘confident that they will’ recover all the bodies
Officials remain confident that they will recover the bodies of all those who perished in the Wednesday night collision. The American Airlines passenger jet and the military helicopter collided midair, leading to the presumed deaths of sixty-seven people: 64 passengers from the jet and three individuals aboard the US Army Black Hawk helicopter.
“I’m confident that we will do that, and that will take us a little bit of time, though. It may involve some more equipment,” Donnelly expressed. He added that the National Transportation Safety Board would lead the next phase of the operation.
American Airlines CEO blames military helicopter
Following the collision, the CEO of American Airlines, Robert Isom, seemed to place blame on the military helicopter. “At this time, we don’t know why the military aircraft came into the path of the PSA aircraft,” Isom said on Thursday morning.
Notably, both the jet and the helicopter were following a “standard flight pattern” on Wednesday night, according to Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. “Last night was clear, and the helicopter was following the standard pattern. If you’re a DC local, you’re no stranger to seeing helicopters moving along the river. This was a standard flight pattern last night as well,” Duffy explained.
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“We are going to wait for all the information to come in from this vantage point, but … what I’ve seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely,” he added.
