SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Investigators are still looking for answers after a military helicopter collided with a passenger jet this week near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Sixty-seven people died. For now, federal authorities have restricted helicopter flights near the airport as they try and reassure the public about the safety of U.S. aviation. NPR transportation reporter Joel Rose joins us. Joel, thanks for being with us.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Hi, Scott. Good morning.
SIMON: And what is the latest on the investigation?
ROSE: Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board say they have recovered the black box from the helicopter. In this case, that is a combined voice and data recorder, and now they will try to extract that information from it. And if that works, it should tell them a lot about what was happening in the moments before the collision on Wednesday night. But board members have been emphatic that they will not speculate, and will wait until they have all the facts before drawing any conclusions. Here's board member Todd Inman at a briefing yesterday evening.
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TODD INMAN: NTSB is an independent, bipartisan board. Fifty-eight years as the gold standard. Our job is to find the facts, but more importantly, our job is to make sure this tragedy doesn't happen again, regardless of what anyone may be saying.
ROSE: Inman did not mention President Trump by name, but it was hard not to see the sharp contrast after the president claimed this week that diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the Federal Aviation Administration were to blame while also acknowledging that he had no direct evidence linking DEI to the crash.
SIMON: Joel, do you see any indication of what the focus of the investigation might be at the moment?
ROSE: There are a lot of questions focusing on that U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and whether it was in the right place. There is growing evidence that it was not based on NPR's analysis of flight data along with new video footage that circulated yesterday of the collision, which shows the helicopter out of the flight corridor where it was supposed to be operating. Instead, it was well out over the Potomac River when it collided with the plane. Sources tell NPR it was also flying above the 200-foot ceiling that it was required to maintain.
SIMON: And what about reports that the air traffic control tower might have been understaffed at the time of the crash?
ROSE: Yes, several outlets have reported on an internal FAA report that says an air traffic controller was doing double duty in two separate positions at the time of the collision because staffing was lower than normal for that time. NPR has not been able to confirm that independently. The head of the air traffic controller's union says it is not uncommon to combine positions like that.
The NTSB says staffing is something they are looking at, not just at the moment of the collision but in the days and weeks leading up to it. The board says they have begun interviewing the controllers who were on duty that night. But again, board member Inman did not want to speculate on whether that was a factor in the collision.
SIMON: And, Joel, what are the new flight restrictions near Reagan National?
ROSE: The FAA will limit helicopter flights on routes along the Potomac River near the airport, as well as over the airport itself. And Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that would help secure the airspace and restore public trust. The FAA says helicopter traffic will be restricted but not completely suspended. There will be exemptions, for example, for medical emergency flights, for law enforcement activity and VIP movements.
And investigators continue to pour over that area of the river where the two aircraft went down. The victims included the flight crew, three soldiers, competitive figure skaters from the U.S. and Russia, a civil rights lawyer and dozens of others. Authorities say they have located many bodies so far, but they say they will keep looking until they have found all of them.
SIMON: NPR's Joel Rose, thanks so much.
ROSE: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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