American Airlines Wreckage Lifted Out of Potomac as Efforts Continue to Recover Bodies of D.C. Plane Crash Victims

A number of parts of the American Airlines plane that collided with a U.S. Army helicopter have now been lifted from the Potomac River.

The National Transportation Safety Board announced on Monday, Feb. 3 that they had “recovered the aft fuselage, right engine and right pylon” of the jet.

At a news briefing, Colonel Frank Pera of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore district said that efforts to remove additional pieces of the wreckage, including from the Black Hawk helicopter, will continue, but that the entire process will likely take several days, according to NBC News.

“The level of coordination both behind the scenes and out on the Potomac is exceptional,” added Baltimore District Commander Col. Francis Pera “We have not and will not lose focus of what is most important — the safety of our crews and accounting for those still missing to bring closure to their families and loved ones.”

Additionally, the NTSB said investigators have “obtained training and flight logs for both flight crews and maintenance logs” for both of the aircrafts — and they’re currently working to “synchronize flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder data.”

American Airlines Flight 5342 was making its descent from Wichita, Kan., into Reagan National Airport around 9 p.m. local time Wednesday, Jan. 29, when it collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter. The crash resulted in an explosion, and the plane plummeted into the river below.

Three people were inside the helicopter while 64 people — including 60 passengers and 4 crew members — were on the plane. Since the morning after the crash, Chief of DC Fire and EMS John A. Donnelly Sr. has said his team does not believe there are any survivors.

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Over the weekend, Donnelly said that the bodies of 41 victims had already been recovered from the water, but that in order to find all of the victims, they’d need to move the plane out of the water. As of Feb. 3, the number of victims whose bodies have been recovered and positively identified has grown to 55, according to The New York Times.

The collision marks the deadliest U.S. air disaster since November 2001 when American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in Belle Harbor, Queens, killing all 260 people onboard and five people on the ground.