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Remains of 55 of the 67 victims have been recovered, officials said on Sunday as they prepared to lift the wreckage of the jet out of the Potomac River on Monday.
Feb. 2, 2025, 6:32 p.m. ET
The authorities have drawn closer to finding and identifying all victims of the midair collision last week between a commercial jet and an Army helicopter just outside Washington, D.C., officials said at a news briefing on Sunday.
John Donnelly, the chief of Washington’s fire and emergency medical services department, said that remains of 55 of the 67 victims had been recovered and positively identified. He added that though officials involved in the recovery operation did not yet know where all of the remaining victims were, he was confident that they would be found.
“We have some work to do as the salvage operation goes on,” he said. “We will absolutely stay here and search until such point as we have everybody.”
Earlier on Sunday, relatives of people killed in the accident gathered alongside the Potomac River at Reagan National Airport for a private memorial. The event was organized by the federal agency that is investigating the accident, the National Transportation Safety Board, with the support of other federal, state and local agencies.
At the news briefing, officials said that at first light on Monday morning, salvage teams from the Army Corps of Engineers would begin the process of lifting the wreckage of American Airlines Flight 5342 from the Potomac an operation that is expected to take three days.
Col. Frances Pera of the Corps of Engineers said the crews would take great care in the salvage work, knowing that it could reveal the bodies of some of those who are still missing. There were 64 people aboard the jet and three in the helicopter.
