More Bodies in American Airlines Crash Will Not Be Found Until Plane Is Hoisted Out of Potomac River, D.C. Fire Chief Says

Mar. 15, 2025

Emergency response units search the crash site of the American Airlines plane on the Potomac River on Jan. 30.Photo:Alex Wong/Getty

Alex Wong/Getty

The remaining bodies of those who died in the recentWashington, D.C., plane crashwill likely not be immediately recovered.

“For us to recover the rest of the remains,” D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John A. Donnelly said during anews briefingon Friday, Jan. 31, “we going to need to get the [plane] out of the water.

Donnelly said the bodies of 41 victims have already been recovered from the water, while 28 of those victims have been positively identified. He added, “As of 6 a.m. this morning, next of kin notifications have been made to 18 families.”

Asked at another point in the press conference if authorities were confident they knew the location of the remaining bodies, Donnelly replied, “we think we know,” and reiterated the need to remove the aircraft from the water.

“We expect to recover all of the bodies. That’s why our teams are still working,” he said, but cautioned that they don’t have a timeline to share just yet, but that they’re “working as fast as we can.”

PEOPLE reached out to the Washington, D.C., Fire and EMS Department for further information on Feb. 1, but did not receive an immediate response.

Lights from emergency vehicles on the Potomac River on Jan. 29.ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP

In an earlier NTSBpress conferenceon Thursday, Jan. 30, officials said that investigators were still working at the scene, but that they had not yet seen any evidence thatsuggested slides or chutes had been deployed.

“It was a very quick, rapid impact," said NTSB board member J. Todd Inman. “We’ve seen nothing in that regard so far from the evidence we have, but we still need to verify all of that information.”

Atotal of 67 people perishedwhen American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter in mid-air near Reagan National Airport on Wednesday, Jan. 29. There were 60 passengers and four crew members aboard the plane as well as three soldiers on board the helicopter. There were no survivors.

Passengers on the plane included mothers and children, teen figure skaters returning from skating camp in Kansas, and agroup of adult friendsreturning from a hunting trip.

While the cause of the crash is unknown, aviation experts suspect that the Army helicopter did not see the plane before the deadly collision.

​​"I guarantee it was basically pilot error,” an active duty Army helicopter pilot, who did not want to be identified, previouslytold PEOPLE.

The pilot, who has investigated helicopter collisions in the past, explained: “The Black Hawk accepted responsibility for the separation of traffic. That means, they would monitor and address the flight paths themselves. The Black Hawk asked for ‘visual separation,’ meaning, ‘We got this.’ "

Laurie Garrow, a professor and director of the Air Transportation Lab at Georgia Tech, said she did not believe the Black Hawk pilot saw the plane before the crash, and she also noted that the airspace lanes near Reagan National are “very narrow.”

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

source: people.com