Investigators have not yet recovered the black box from the flight that crashed into the Potomac River, the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed.
The black box is a flight data recorder that documents all actions and speech made in the cockpit of a commercial aircraft. In previous plane crashes, black boxes have given investigators clues into how or why the flight went down. They are meant to survive plane crashes and can reveal what happened in a flight’s final moments.
“We have not recovered the flight data recorders yet. We know they’re there. They are underwater. This is not unusual for the NTSB. We have many times recovered flight data recorders underwater,” NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said. “Recovering [it] …is one of NTSB’s main priorities.”
She added that the NTSB “plans to release a report of their preliminary findings within 30 days.”
The NTSB will focus on recovery efforts before the investigation into the cause of the crash begins. Homendy said 50 NTSB crew members were at the crash site as of Thursday but that they will first “allow the responders to do their important safety mission, which in this case was search and rescue and recovery.”
“We stand back to allow them to do their important safety mission,” Homendy added.
Staffing at the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport was “not normal,” according to a preliminary FAA report obtained by several outlets. The controller was reportedly handling both local planes and helicopter traffic, a job which is usually handled by two people. The Reagan National Control Tower is 85% staffed, according to CNN.
However, the NTSB said they could not confirm the preliminary FAA report.
NTSB member Todd Inman additionally said the agency will brief the victims’ families later on Thursday.
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“We normally try to do this before media events, but in this case, they’re still arriving,” he said. “Our family assistance specialists are already working closely with local officials and others to help assist them in their efforts to support everyone that’s affected by this accident.”
“Our heart-filled sorrow goes out to everyone that’s affected,” Inman continued. “It affects us, affects everyone around us. There are a lot of people hurting today.”
