The NTSB investigation into last week’s midair collision on the Potomac River will include examining the wreckage of the American Airlines plane crews spent days recovering.
As of Thursday afternoon, crews completed the removal of all major components of the American Airlines regional jet and U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter from the Potomac River, according to Unified Command.
Officials said salvage crews will now shift their focus to removing smaller debris before demobilizing equipment by Feb. 16.
Starting early morning Friday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will conduct a low-altitude flight over the Potomac River using a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with LiDAR scanning technology to scan the remaining debris.
Individuals are being advised to avoid direct eye contact with the laser technology. Here's a look at the aircraft and its expected flight path:
The large pieces of plane wreckage were offloaded from the barge Wednesday and 7News cameras captured parts being transferred to an airport hangar Wednesday.
Investigators will be conducting a “full wreckage layout and examination,” per the NTSB.
The examination of the wreckage will include accounting for major portions of the aircraft and the general airworthiness of the aircraft.
“They'll probably be able to pull a lot of information just by damage and physical evidence,” explained Jim Brauchle, an aviation attorney at the Motley Rice law firm who is a former U.S. Air Force navigator.
“More safety reforms are needed but this investigation will take time, especially since multiple agencies and laws will be involved,” he said. “We need to give regulatory agencies room to do what they need to do.”
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill were briefed Thursday on the crash by NTSB and FAA officials.
Senator Ted Cruz said the officials told them the helicopter’s ADS-B data was turned off. This data provides real-time surveillance of aircraft.
Sen. Cruz said he raised questions as to why it was off, arguing there was no compelling reason for the ADS-B to be turned off since it was a training mission. He noted FAA rules allow military aircraft to disable the system under certain circumstances.
“I’ve also asked the Army to reconsider and assess with what frequency is the army turning off ADSB out on military missions, particularly missions that do not have a sensitive national security component," he told reporters.
Brauchle said because ADS-B is a widely-available, public system, the military has an exemption that they can turn it off at times.
“For training, someone could look at historical data and could look at possible tactics, ingress, egress routes, those kind of things," Brauchle told 7News.
"So there's a lot of a lot to be gleaned from being able to track aircraft. And so for operational security, they can turn it off.”
