The Director of the DC Fire and EMS, John Donnelly, Sr., stated on Friday, January 31st, that it is necessary to recover the aircraft that crashed into the river after the air disaster in order to find all the bodies of the victims.
Donnelly said during a press conference on Friday, “I believe that in order to find the remaining bodies, we need to retrieve the fuselage from the water.”
He added that most (but not all) of the recovery work conducted on Friday was focused on the crashed U.S. military Black Hawk helicopter.
Previously, Donnelly mentioned that rescuers had recovered 41 bodies from the water. It is believed that a total of 67 people perished in the crash, with 64 onboard the American Airlines flight and 3 onboard the Black Hawk military helicopter.
The air disaster occurred on Wednesday night when the two aircraft collided in the skies over Washington, D.C., and subsequently crashed into the Potomac River near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It is believed that all passengers and crew on both the commercial and military aircraft have tragically lost their lives.
During the press conference on Friday, Donnelly revealed that the identities of 28 out of the 41 recovered victims have been confirmed, and the authorities have informed the families of 18 of the victims.
Donnelly expressed confidence that all bodies will be found. He stated, “This is why our team is still working,” and highlighted that the dive teams are operating in the “target area.”
“For many of us, this is a challenging rescue operation,” Donnelly said. “We previously had over 300 rescuers working simultaneously, and now we have around 500 personnel on-site.”
(This article referenced reports from CNN)