Families visit aircraft collision site as data show conflicting altitude readings

ARLINGTON, Va. — Families of victims of the deadliest U.S. air disaster in a nearly in 25 years visited the crash site Sunday just outside Washington.

Dozens of people walked along the banks of the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport, close to where an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided Wednesday, killing all 67 people on the aircraft.

The families arrived in buses with a police escort, memorializing loved ones as federal investigators worked to piece together the events that led to the crash and recovery crews were set to pull more wreckage from the water.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Sunday said he wanted to leave federal aviation investigators space to conduct their inquiry, but he posed questions about the crash while appearing on morning TV news programs.

“What was happening inside the towers? Were they understaffed? … The position of the Black Hawk, the elevation of the Black Hawk, were the pilots of the Black Hawk wearing night vision goggles?” Duffy asked on CNN.

The American Airlines flight, with 64 people on board, was preparing to land from Wichita, Kan. The Army Black Hawk helicopter was on a training mission and had three soldiers on board. Both aircraft plunged into the Potomac River after colliding.

The plane’s passengers included figure skaters returning from the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita and a group of hunters returning from a guided trip. Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Ga.; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Md.; and Cpt. Rebecca M. Lobach, of Durham, N.C., were killed in the helicopter.

The National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, said Saturday that preliminary data showed conflicting readings about the altitudes of the aircraft. Investigators also said that about a second before impact, the jet’s flight recorder showed a change in its pitch. But they did not say whether that change in angle meant that pilots were trying to perform an evasive maneuver to avoid the crash.

Data from the jet’s flight recorder showed its altitude as 325 feet, plus or minus 25 feet, when the crash happened Wednesday night, National Transportation Safety Board officials told reporters. Data in the control tower, though, showed the Black Hawk helicopter at 200 feet at the time. The discrepancy has yet to be explained. Officials say the helicopter’s maximum allowed altitude at the time was 200 feet.

Investigators hope to reconcile the altitude differences with data from the helicopter’s black box, which is taking more time to retrieve because it was waterlogged. They also said they plan to refine the tower data, which can be less reliable.

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“This is a complex investigation,” Brice Banning, the NTSB investigator in charge, said at a Saturday evening news conference. “There are a lot of pieces here. Our team is working hard to gather this data.”

Banning also discussed the last moments from the jet’s two black boxes, which captured sound in the cockpit and flight data.

“The crew had a verbal reaction,” Banning said, with the data recorder showing “the airplane beginning to increase its pitch. Sounds of impact were audible about one second later, followed by the end of the recording.”

NTSB member Todd Inman expressed frustration that accidents like these occur, noting that the board has made “several hundred” recommendations to improve aviation that have not been acted upon.

“From tragedy we draw knowledge to improve the safety for us all. That’s what we’re doing right now, we’re dealing with tragedy, but we need to improve safety,” he said.

“You want to do something about it? Adopt the recommendation of the NTSB. You’ll save lives,” he said, adding that he has spent hours with victims’ families since the crash. “I don’t want to have to meet with those parents like that again.”

The families, he said, are struggling.

“Some wanted to give us hugs. Some are just mad and angry,” Inman said. “They are just all hurt. And they still want answers, and we want to give them answers.”

The remains of dozens of people had been pulled from the river and officials expect to recover all of the remains, though the wreckage of the plane’s fuselage will probably have to be pulled from the water to get the rest.

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Army officials have said the helicopter crew was highly experienced, and familiar with the congested skies around the city. Military aircraft frequently make such flights to practice routes they would use if key government officials need to be evacuated during an attack or major catastrophe.

Investigators are examining the actions of the military pilot and air traffic control. The Federal Aviation Administration has long struggled with a shortage of controllers.

Full NTSB investigations typically take at least a year, though investigators hope to have a preliminary report within 30 days. Hundreds of responders were taking part in the recovery effort, officials said.

With the nation already grieving the collision, an air ambulance plane slammed into a busy intersection in a crowded Philadelphia neighborhood Friday night, killing all six people on board, including a child who had just undergone treatment at a hospital, and at least one person on the ground. Nineteen were reported injured, and at least three remained hospitalized Saturday, though officials said it could be days until the full toll of the dead and injured is clear.

Wednesday’s crash was the deadliest in the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, when a jet slammed into a residential neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, just after takeoff from Kennedy Airport. The crash killed all 260 people on board and five people on the ground.

Experts regularly highlight that plane travel is overwhelmingly safe, but the crowded airspace around Reagan National can challenge even the most experienced pilots.

Martin and Lauer write for the Associated Press.