Crews continuing to search for debris from the deadly collision of a passenger jet and Army helicopter near Washington, D.C., used a plane outfitted with lasers to scan the bottom of the Potomac River early Saturday, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
Large pieces of the jetliner and helicopter, along with the remains of all 67 victims, were recovered last week. Crews will spend the coming days looking for smaller debris before finishing the work in about a week.
A plane operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and equipped with laser scanning technology flew at low altitudes over the crash site. The lasers are used to penetrate the river’s surface and map the riverbed.
“All major pieces” of the two aircraft have been found, and investigators will examine them for any markings that could reveal the angle of the collision, according to a National Transportation Safety Board statement released Saturday afternoon.
The agency said information collected will be part of its ongoing investigation into the Jan. 29 collision between the Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight. There were no survivors.
President Donald Trump on Thursday blamed the collision on what he called an “obsolete” computer system used by U.S. air traffic controllers and vowed to replace it.
National Transportation Safety Board officials told members of Congress that the helicopter’s advanced surveillance technology, which transmits aircraft location and other data to air traffic control and other aircraft, was turned off, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said Thursday.
Investigators are also looking into the altitude of the plane and helicopter, including whether the chopper was above its 200-foot flight ceiling.
The crash was the deadliest in the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, when a jet slammed into a New York City neighborhood just after takeoff, killing all 260 people on board and five on the ground.
