WASHNGTON, January 31. /TASS/. Flight data recorders are yet to be lifted from the bottom of the Potomac River following the latest of the plane crash in Washington, Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Jennifer Homendy has told reporters.
"We have not recovered the flight data recorders yet. We know they're there. They are underwater. This is not unusual for the NTSB, we have many times recovered flight data recorders in water," she said. "Once we get those, we'll be able to get those read and information from them."
NTSB Member Todd Inman said, in turn, that "we'll be able to get" the black boxes and read information from them.
"We will probably have more than one black box," he said, adding that the helicopter that collided with a passenger jet above Washington was "equipped with some form of recording devices."
"Those will be read either by the DoD [Department of Defense] or by us," he added.
An American Airlines passenger jet and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter collided near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The American Airlines flight, en route from Wichita, Kansas, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members. There were at least three service members aboard the helicopter. Upon the collision, both aircraft crashed into the Potomac River. The bodies of 28 people have been plucked out of the water so far. US authorities said there are no survivors.
According to the Wichita Eagle newspaper, members of the US junior figure skating team were aboard the plane. A source told TASS that Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won the world championships in pairs figure skating for Russia in 1994, were also among the passengers, as well as Inna Volyanskaya, Soviet bronze medalist in pairs figure skating.
US President Donald Trump confirmed that Russian citizens were killed in the plane crash. The US has already been in contact with Russia about transferring of their remains.