The National Transportation Safety Board says it has recovered two so-called “black boxes” from the American Airlines regional jet, following the deadly collision with an Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday evening.
The devices, a cockpit voice recorder and a flight data recorder, have been taken them for lab analysis, according to a NTSB spokesman.
The NTSB previously promised to “leave no stone unturned” in its investigation. Whether human or mechanical factors contributed to the crash that left 67 people dead is not yet clear, officials said.
A preliminary report by the Federal Aviation Administration found that staffing at the Ronald Reagan Airport air traffic control tower was “not normal” at the time of the deadly collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet.
The internal report, released on Thursday and reviewed by The New York Times said the controller who was handling helicopters in the airport’s vicinity on Wednesday night was also instructing planes that were landing and departing from its runways.
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These jobs are typically assigned to two different controllers.
At a press briefing hours earlier, President Donald Trump linked the FAA’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies to the incident.