All major pieces from midair DC crash recovered as it releases new images of wreckage: NTSB

All of the plane and chopper wreckage has been fished from the icy Potomac River, as the National Transportation Safety Board continues to investigate the Jan.29 mid-air crash that killed 67 people.Now that the “major pieces” of the American Airlines plane and the Black Hawk helicopter have been recovered, they will be transported to a “secure airport facility for further examination and documentation,” according to a press release issued Saturday.“Investigators will be looking for witness marks on the aircraft that could provide clues to the angle of [the] collision,” reads the update.

“Teams also recovered the [commercial plane’s] Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) and retrieved additional avionics from the Black Hawk.”The tragic crash happened on Jan.29 near Reagan National Airport in Virginia.Surveillance cameras caught the disaster’s fiery orange explosion, which engulfed the sky just seconds after the two aircraft made contact before plummeting into the river below.The plane carried 60 passengers, including Brooklyn’s Melissa Nicandri, and four crew members, and three soldiers were aboard the helicopter.The helicopter was flying a training mission to re-qualify the pilots for flight in the area — something they’d done several times before, according to deputy director of aviation for the Army Col.

Mark Ott.One air traffic controller was responsible for coordinating helicopter traffic and arriving and departing planes when the collision happened, according to a report by the Federal Aviation Administration that was obtained by The Associated Press.Divers spent the five days after the crash recovering all of the victims’ bodies.“A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration TopoBathy lidar survey from a manned NOAA aircraft was conducted this morning and identified multiple underwater targets that could be additional aircraft debris,” the release added.“Divers investigated those targets today and will continue t...