Grim search for plane crash bodies as Trump doubles down

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Local first responders salute the flag draped bodies of service members killed in the aviation crash at a temporary emergency disaster site at Buzzards Point. — Pic by AFP

WASHINGTON, Feb 1 — Divers scoured for the remaining bodies from the Washington plane crash yesterday as President Donald Trump posted his own politicized verdict on the deadliest US air disaster in almost a quarter century, with the investigation barely underway.

Forty-one victims have been pulled from the frigid Potomac River, and rescuers voiced confidence the other 26 would be retrieved in the operation to recover the passenger jet that collided midair with a Black Hawk military helicopter Wednesday night.

“Our dive teams are working in targeted areas and additional Coast Guard assets will arrive this afternoon. The salvage crews... are assessing the work that’s going to be needed to recover the aircraft from the water,” Washington Fire Chief John Donnelly told a news conference at Reagan National Airport, outside the US capital.

Lifting the aircraft’s fuselage out of the river would likely reveal the remaining bodies, he said, adding: “If it doesn’t, we will continue the search.”

Investigators on Thursday found the helicopter’s black box after having already retrieved the cockpit voice and flight data recorder from the Bombardier jet operated by an American Airlines subsidiary.

Officials are confident data can be fully extracted from the recorders, said Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

As the Federal Aviation Administration restricted helicopter flights to reduce the risk of another collision, the physical search ran parallel with a complex technical analysis of what went wrong.

The airliner was coming in to land at Reagan National Airport -- just a few miles from the White House -- when it collided with the US Army helicopter on a training mission.

The NTSB is expected to compile a preliminary report within 30 days, although a full investigation could take a year.

A Coast Guard crane arrives to remove the wreckage of a military Black Hawk helicopter on the Potomac River. — Pic by AFP

‘Disgusted’

The lack of clarity over the accident’s cause has not deterred Trump’s politicized commentary since the first moments after the plane -- from Wichita, Kansas with 64 people aboard -- struck the Black Hawk, carrying three.

Trump posted yesterday on his Truth Social platform: “The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???"

This followed a news conference Thursday where the Republican pinned the blame for the crash on his Democratic predecessors Joe Biden and Barack Obama, claiming without evidence they had hired the wrong people due to non-discrimination initiatives known as DEI.

“They actually came out with a directive: 'too white.’ And we want the people that are competent,” Trump said.

Chesley Sullenberger, who famously landed a stricken passenger plane on New York's Hudson River in 2009, told network MSNBC he was “disgusted” but “not surprised” by Trump's rhetoric.

The hero pilot, known as Sully, noted that it took 16 months for the final report when his own flight crash-landed.

Aviation experts, meanwhile, homed in on whether the helicopter crew could see through military night-vision goggles and whether the Reagan National Airport control tower was understaffed.

‘Speculation’

According to The New York Times, one controller, rather than the usual two, was handling both plane and helicopter traffic at the time.

Just 24 hours earlier, another plane had to make a second approach to the airport after a helicopter neared its flight path, The Washington Post and CNN reported, citing an audio recording from air traffic control.

Inman, the NTSB member, told CNN the investigation would resist political pressure.

“There’s a lot of people that have speculation and want to be heard in that regard,” he said. “Our job is to find, ultimately, what caused this and prevent it in the future.”

The collision was the first major crash in the United States since 2009, and the deadliest since an American Airlines jet crash in Belle Harbor, New York in 2001 that killed all 260 aboard.

Among those on Wednesday’s doomed airliner were several US skaters and coaches, and Russian couple Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won the 1994 world pairs title.

Two Chinese citizens and a Filipino were also among the victims. — AFP