Senators grill investigators on the collision between an American Airlines plane and a helicopter

Washington (CNN) — Investigators trying to determine what caused last week’s deadly midair collision between a US military Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines plane near Washington, DC, briefed lawmakers Thursday on what they’ve learned after combing through data from both aircraft and air traffic control.

Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration spoke to the bipartisan Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Less than 5 miles away, crews kept searching the frigid waters of the Potomac River to remove pieces of wreckage from the January 29 disaster that killed 67 people near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

After the briefing, some senators discussed questions they posed to the NTSB, but did not reveal any new significant details from the investigation.

“There’s still evidence that has yet to be pulled from the water,” Sen. Jerry Moran, a Republican from Kansas, told reporters after the briefing. “There’s a lot more yet to be learned. But it’s clearly a thorough investigation by NTSB.”

On Thursday afternoon, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said the Black Hawk helicopter has been recovered from the water.

Homendy said the NTSB does not currently know whether the helicopter’s ADS-B advanced surveillance technology was installed, as questions mount after Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth gave conflicting comments after the briefing.

“We believe there are avionics on that helicopter that we need to evaluate in order to determine what they did have and what was on at the time. More to come,” Homendy told reporters.

The ADS–B broadcasts information about an aircraft’s location, altitude, ground speed and other data to aircraft and air traffic control, according to the FAA.

Cruz said earlier after the briefing: “This was a training mission, so there was no compelling national security reason for ADS-B to be turned off.” Duckworth, a former Black Hawk pilot, said it’s not clear whether the technology was turned on but noted the “Army was clear it was installed in the aircraft.”

Search teams are continuing to look for additional parts of the Black Hawk in the Potomac River, including the right engine and tail rotor, the NTSB said in an investigative update Thursday evening.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will be flying a “light detection and ranging” scan flight, or TopoBathy lidar, overnight to scan the river floor for debris, the NTSB said.

While investigators search for clues, the FAA is reducing traffic into and out of Reagan National partly because of the recovery efforts, an FAA spokesperson said in a statement Thursday.

Thursday’s statement did not quantify the reduction. However, according to a source familiar with the FAA’s plans, the airport’s aircraft arrival rate is being reduced from 28 to 26 per hour, and average delays will increase from 40 minutes to 50 minutes.

“The FAA is slowing traffic into and out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport due to weather conditions and recovery efforts in the area,” Thursday’s statement from the FAA spokesperson reads. “Real time updates are available at fly.faa.gov.”

Two of Reagan National’s runways – 15-33 and 4-22 – are closed during the ongoing salvage operation, the airport said Wednesday morning. Flights are operating only on the airport’s main runway, impacting airline schedules, according to the airport.

FAA to look into other airports

The Black Hawk helicopter, which was stationed at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, was flying a training mission when it collided with the American Airlines plane in a busy stretch of airspace.

The FAA told CNN Thursday it has begun “reviewing other airports with high volumes of mixed helicopter and airplane traffic nearby.”

The agency’s announcement came after some senators told reporters following Thursday’s briefing they want to know which other airports across the country have high volumes of helicopter traffic in the same area as commercial jets.

“I asked the FAA today to conduct a review of helicopter routes not just at (Reagan National), but at other airports across the country to determine where there are risks of a similar such collision,” Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, said.

Moran described “a lot of conversations about other airports across the country that have a lot of helicopter traffic and significant air traffic congestion.”

“We ought to be looking at seeing whether there are similar kinds of circumstances in other places where this congestion is prevalent,” he said.

Conflicting data on the helicopter’s altitude

The NTSB is grappling with conflicting altitude data as it tries to figure out how the collision unfolded.

One set of data comes from Potomac TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control). Potomac TRACON is a regional air traffic control facility that fuses information from radar sensors with the GPS data each aircraft broadcasts on its position.

The Potomac TRACON data for the Black Hawk showed the helicopter at about 300 feet shortly before the collision, the NTSB said Tuesday. The helicopter’s designated route had a strict altitude limit of 200 feet, according to FAA charts.

But radar readings from the airport tower place the helicopter at 200 feet, while the flight data recorder for the commercial jet – which was approaching Reagan National Airport for a landing – reported the jet was at an altitude of 325 feet, NTSB member J. Todd Inman said over the weekend.

Determining the Black Hawk’s precise altitude at the time of the collision is seen as a crucial step in understanding how two aircraft collided under clear skies over some of the country’s most tightly controlled airspace.

In the meantime, the FAA has indefinitely suspended the use of most designated helicopter routes over the Potomac.

Both the aircrafts’ flight data and cockpit voice recorders – known as black boxes – have been recovered. Investigators have been working to synchronize the recordings to better understand the events leading to the collision.

In addition, separate teams are reviewing maintenance records for both aircraft.

“Every piece of the information is critical to the investigation, and the NTSB is about transparency,” Homendy told CNN on Monday.

Officials urged the public not to draw premature conclusions about the cause of the crash.

The NTSB is expected to release a preliminary report on the crash within 30 days. While final investigations often take more than a year to complete, Homendy voiced optimism that this case could progress more quickly.

“I would hope it would be much less than that,” Homendy said.

Crews led by the NTSB and the US Navy Supervisor of Salvage and Diving have pulled significant pieces of the passenger jet from the Potomac River, including its right wing, sections of the fuselage, the cockpit and key flight systems, according to the NTSB.

What investigators are looking for in the wreckage

The wreckage is being sent to a secure location “for a full wreckage layout and examination,” the NTSB said this week.

The investigation will include a detailed inspection of the jet’s major components, structural damage and fracture surfaces as well as an assessment of its overall “airworthiness,” the NTSB said.

Investigators will also examine cockpit switch positions and instrument readings, the agency said.

All 67 killed have been identified

All 67 people killed in the collision have been recovered and identified, officials said Wednesday.

Among them was Ian Epstein, a charismatic American Airlines flight attendant who was remembered in a celebration of life In North Carolina Wednesday, CNN affiliate WBTV reported.

“He was just the greatest guy who made everybody happy all the time,” Lynne Southmayd, a former flight attendant, told WBTV.

Those killed also included a civil rights attorney, the president-elect of the National Association of Biology Teachers and 28 members of the US Figure Skating community.

“What happened with this accident was tragic and catastrophic. 67 souls lost their (lives),” Cruz said Thursday. “We need to learn lessons from the cause of that accident (and) do everything possible to prevent a subsequent accident.”

CNN’s Pete Muntean contributed to this report.

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