The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced that the black boxes in the passenger plane that crashed into the Potomac River after colliding with a military helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport have been found and the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have been recovered.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stated in a preliminary report that the number of personnel at the airport’s air traffic control tower was abnormally insufficient.
According to reports in the US media, air traffic controllers asked the plane’s pilots if they could land on runway 33 before the planned landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. According to flight tracking sites, the pilots adjusted their course to land on the runway. Less than 30 seconds before the collision, the air traffic controller asked the crew of the military helicopter if they could see the approaching passenger plane.