The families of the victims visit the air accident site near Washington, DC

The members of the family of the victims of the MORE MORE MORE American Air Disaster In almost 25 years he visited the scene of the accident on the outskirts of Washington, DC

Ten charter bus with a police escort transported family members to the banks of the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport, near where an Airlines American Jet and a black hawk helicopter from the army collided on Wednesday, killing the 67 aboard.

Meanwhile, federal researchers are working to Gather the events That led to the clash and the recovery teams are ready to get more remains of cold water.

The American Airlines flight, with 64 people on board, was preparing to land from Wichita, Kansas. The Black Hawk army helicopter was on a training mission and had three soldiers on board. Both planes immersed themselves in the Potomac River after colliding.

He plane passengers including figurative skaters returning from 2025 American artistic skating championships In Wichita, Kansas, and a group of hunters returning from a guided trip.

Army staff sergeant. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, from Lilburn, Georgia; NCOs Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, by Great Mills, Maryland; and CPT. Rebecca M. Lobach, from Durham, North Carolina, were killed in the helicopter.

The remains of 42 people had been taken from the river until Saturday afternoon, including 38 that have been positively identified, the authorities said. They hope to recover all the remains, although the fuselage of the plane will probably have to be removed from the water to obtain the rest.

The National Transport Security Board on Saturday that preliminary data showed contradictory readings about the altitudes of the plane and the army helicopter.

The researchers also said that approximately a second before the impact, Jet’s flight recorder showed a change in his field. But they did not say if that change in the angle meant that the pilots were trying to perform an evasive maneuver to avoid the accident.

The data registrar data of the plane showed their altitude as 325 feet (99 meters), more or less 25 feet (7.6 meters), when the accident occurred on Wednesday night, NTSB officials said to journalists. However, the data in the control tower showed the black hawk to 200 feet (61 meters), the maximum allowed altitude for helicopters in the area.

The discrepancy has not yet been explained.

“Our preliminary review of what the CAB DE LA TORRE was showing on the data screen that would have been in front of the controllers, it was 200 feet near the time of the accident”, a member of NTSB Todd Inman He said Saturday.

The researchers said they expected to reconcile the difference with the data of the black box of the helicopter, which is taking more time to recover because it felt flood after the black hawk submerged in the Potomac. They also said they plan to refine the tower data, which can be less reliable.

“That’s what our job is to solve it,” Inman said.

“This is a complex investigation,” said the researcher by Brice Banning. “There are many pieces here. Our team is working hard to collect this data.”

Banning said that the voice recorder of the cabin of the plane captured the sound moments before the accident.

“The crew had a verbal reaction,” said Banning, and the flight data recorder showed that “the plane began to increase its tone. The impact sounds were audible about a second later, followed by the end of the recording.”

Complete research of NTSB generally takes at least one year, although researchers hope to have a preliminary report within 30 days.

The researchers said there were five controllers in service at the time of the accident: a local controller, ground controller, assistant controller, supervisor and training supervisor.

“This is the worst nightmare of a controller,” Inman said. “It hits everyone who works in that taxi and knows them very hard. These interviews take a long time because there are several breaks that occur for emotions, just to be able to talk about what happened.”

According to a FAA report obtained by Associated Press, a controller was responsible for the traffic of helicopters and airplanes. These tasks are often divided between two people, but the airport usually combines them at 9:30 pm, once the traffic slows down. On Wednesday, the tower supervisor combined them previously, which the report called “not normal.”

“The shortage of personnel for air traffic control has been an important problem for years and years,” said Duffy, promising that President Trump’s administration would address shortage with “bright, intelligent and bright people in the towers that control the space air”.

Wednesday’s accident was the most deadly in the United States since November 12, 2001, when a plane crashed into a residential neighborhood in the New York city district, just after takeoff from Kennedy airport . The accident killed the 260 people on board and five people on the ground.