The National Transportation Safety Board provided steps on how it plans to investigate a deadly plane crash near Washington, D.C., that occurred Wednesday night.
“This is an all-hands-on-deck event,” NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said during a press conference on Thursday.
An American Airlines regional jet collided mid-air with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport Wednesday night. Sixty passengers and four crew members were on board the American flight. There are no survivors from the crash.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Thursday morning that the fuselage of the regional jet was found in three parts and was submerged into the Potomac River.
NTSB officials emphasized that the agency would only report facts surrounding the crash.
“Our mission is to understand not just what happened, but why it happened,” said NTSB board member J. Todd Inman, who is leading the investigation. “And to recommend changes to prevent it from happening again.”
U.S. Safety Investigators Reveal Some Details on Crash
Inman said the agency plans to release a preliminary report on the collision within 30 days.
He added that no chutes or slides were deployed from the American plane and cautioned that it was too early to tell if the crash was a result of a human error or mechanical failure.
“It was a very quick, rapid impact, but we’ve seen nothing in that regard so far from the evidence we had, but we still need to verify all of that information,” he said.
Homendy said the agency has not recovered flight data recorders from the crash yet because they are underwater.
Inman said the agency received a “very large package” from the Federal Aviation Administration in regards to their air traffic control at 3 a.m. on Thursday. The New York Times reported that a preliminary FAA report found that staffing at Reagan National was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.”
“We’ve been getting briefed more and more by the FAA,” Inman said.
Earlier on Thursday, President Donald Trump speculated that DEI hiring policies within the FAA led to the crash without citing any evidence. When asked about Trump’s remarks, Inman said, “Unfortunately, I didn’t hear the remarks.”
“As part of any investigation, we look at the human, the machine, and the environment,” Homendy said.