Washington D.C., USA — Out of the 64 people feared dead after the mid-air collision between an American passenger plane and a military helicopter on evening of January 29, 41 remains have been retrieved from the crash as of Friday.
Officials confirmed that 41 victims’ bodies have been recovered from the Potomac river until Friday, with Washington, D.C., Fire Chief John Donnelly reporting 28 of the retrieved bodies have been positively identified.
Among the known passengers boarded on the plane were top figure skaters from United States and Russia, a young pilot, flight attendants, and three people who were flying on the US military helicopter.
On Friday, the Philippine National Police (PNP) confirmed a PNP official was onboard the plane involved in the collision. PNP identified the officer as Police Col. Pergentino Malabed, chief of the Supply Management Division and member of the Philippine National Police Academy Class of 1998, who was on official travel to the United States.
Authorities are now working on picking up the submerged main body of the plane out of the water to hopefully access more bodies from the collision.
During retrieval operations, Washington fire department also confirmed that the plane’s black boxes have been recovered, while the helicopter’s black box, which captured flight data and voices in the cockpit, have been recovered over the weekend.
As of the last reports, authorities have not yet pinpointed the reason for the collision, and the investigations are still going on.
Meanwhile, following the collision, US authorities have restricted helicopter flights near Reagan Washington National Airport to reduce risk of another collision.