Emergency response units search the Potomac River for wreckage of an American Airlines plane and an Army Black Hawk helicopter, which collided Wednesday night as the jet made a landing approach to Reagan National Airport. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
At least eight of the 67 people who died Wednesday when an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines regional jet near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport were Maryland residents, according to news and official reports.
The Army confirmed Friday that one of the three soldiers aboard the helicopter was a resident of Great Mills. Chief Warrant Officer Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, served in the Navy from 2007 to 2017 when he transferred to the Army to pilot Black Hawks. As of Friday night, his remains had not beren recovered from the Potomac River, so his official status was whereabouts unknown, according to the Army.
Among the many young figure skaters on the plane, with their coaches and parents, were Olivia Eve Ter and her mother, Olesya, according to social media posts. Olivia skated at the Tucker Road Ice Rink in Prince George’s County and was returning from a skating event in Wichita, Kansas, with other skaters from the region.
Officials in Fairfax County, Virginia, confirmed Thursday that three students and six parents were on American Eagle Flight 5342 when the crash occurred. None of the passengers or crew of the plane or the helicopter survived the crash.
On Thursday, two Prince George’s County labor unions said five of their members were on the plane, on their way home from a duck-hunting trip. United Association Steamfitters Local 602, based in Capitol Heights, and UA Plumbers and Gasfitters Local 5 in Lanham identified those members Friday in a social media post.
Calvert County resident Jesse Pitcher, 30, was a member of Local 5. Members of the Steamfitters union who died in the crash were identifid as Michael “Mikey” Stovall, 40, of Waldorf; Charles “Charlie” McDaniel, 44; Jonathan D. Boyd, 40; and Alexander “Alex” Huffman, 34.
The crash occurred about 8:48 p.m. Wednesday as American Airlines Flight 5342, a Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet operated by American Eagle, was on its final approach to landing on National Airport’s Runway 33. The jet was over the Potomac River, just shy of the runway, when it collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter, a Sikorsky UH-60 based in Fort Belvoir, that was on a training flight along the Potomac.
Both aircraft immediately plunged into the frigid river. There were 60 passengers and a crew of four on the jet and a crew of three on the helicopter at the time. All 67 were killed in the accident, which shifted quickly from a rescue to a recovery operation.
Authorities said 40 bodies had been recovered from the river by Friday. The National Transportation Safety Board said Friday that it had recovered flight data recorders — the “black boxes” — from both jet and the helicopter. An initial report on the crash is expected within a month from the NTSB, but a final report is expected to take significantly longer.