DC plane crash update: Army identifies helicopter pilot taking part in ‘doomsday’ training as black box recovered

Mourners for the victims of the deadly aircraft collision above Washington, D.C. visited the crash site Sunday, ABC News reports.

All 67 people who were on board both aircraft are presumed dead.

“They’re all just hurt and they want answers, and we want to give them answers,” National Transportation Safety Board member J. Todd Inman said. “It’s horrible. No one has to suffer this.”

Members of the Army Corps of Engineers are preparing to begin removing the American Airlines jet from the Potomac River on Monday, before moving to the Black Hawk helicopter.

Crews have recovered and identified 55 of the 67 victims presumed dead in the aircraft collision over Washington D.C., officials said Sunday.

This comes after mourners gathered on the banks of the Potomac River Sunday to honor those killed in the deadly crash.

A single controller was left to handle the air traffic of planes and helicopters flying over the airspace when two people would typically be monitoring both flight paths, sources told NBC.

King Charles has said he is “profoundly shocked and saddened” after an army Black Hawk helicopter collided with a commercial plane in Washington D.C., killing 67 people.

“Our hearts, and our special thoughts, are with the people of the United States and our deepest sympathy goes to the families and loved ones of all the victims,” Charles said in a statement released by Buckingham Palace on Saturday.

“I would also like to pay a particular tribute to the emergency responders who acted so quickly to this horrendous event.”

“The president made very clear that he wasn’t blaming anybody, but he was being very explicit about the fact that DEI policies have led our air traffic controllers to be short-staffed,” Vance told Fox News on Sunday. “That is a scandal. Thankfully, it’s a scandal that the president has stopped.”

All 67 people on both aircraft are believed to be dead, and the cause of the collision is still under investigation.

When asked why he was now blaming efforts to recruit people with disabilities during a White House press conference, Trump replied: “Because I have common sense, okay, and unfortunately, a lot of people don’t,” he said.

Vance said it’s important officials “investigate everything” but doubled down on his claims that “DEI policies” may have impacted air traffic control.

“Let’s just say the person at the controls didn’t have enough staffing around him or her because we were turning people away because of DEI reasons,” Vance said.

“There is a very direct connection between the policies of the last administration and short-staffed air traffic controllers,” he added.

Captain Rebecca Lobach, the final person on the Black Hawk helicopter to be identified, served as an aviator and White House Military Social Aide, her family revealed in a statement.

“Rebecca was a warrior and would not hesitate to defend her country in battle,” the statement reads. “But she was as graceful as she was fierce: in addition to her duties as an Army aviator, Rebecca was honored to serve as a White House Military Social Aide, volunteering to support the President and First Lady in hosting countless White House events, including ceremonies awarding the Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”

A passenger jet had to suddenly abort its landing at Reagan National Airport because of a helicopter in its flight path, just a day before an airliner and a military helicopter catastrophically collided in the same airspace, highlighting the complications of managing helicopter traffic around the busy Washington-area airport.

On Tuesday night, a Republican Airways Flight radioed air traffic controllers at Reagan about an alert they had received about “helicopter traffic below us,” prompting the tower to tell the twin-jet Embraer ERJ 175 jet to “go around,” The Washington Post reports.