Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are using parts of the wreckage from the deadly plane-helicopter collision in Washington, D.C., to begin to understand what happened. CBS News' Kris Van Cleave reports.

Washington

A regional jet carrying 64 people collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter while on approach to Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC.

D.C. Crash

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are actively working to understand the circumstances surrounding a recent deadly plane-helicopter collision in Washington, D.C. Efforts are currently focused on recovering parts of the airplane from the Potomac River. A piece of the fuselage has already been retrieved, and crews are awaiting favorable conditions to extract further components, particularly the flight deck. These will eventually be examined in detail at Washington Reagan's National Airport, where an exemplar CRJ 700 aircraft is available for comparison.

The investigative process also includes analyzing data from the flight recorders of both aircraft involved. This task is complicated and expected to take considerable time. Additionally, the investigators are constructing a timeline of pilot activities and reviewing the maintenance history of the two aircraft in question. Interviews with the five air traffic controllers present during the incident have been completed, with the NTSB preparing to update the public with preliminary findings. The investigation is anticipated to last up to a year before a comprehensive report is released. 

The emphasis remains on recovering the wreckage and identifying victims, with 55 identified so far out of 67 fatalities reported in the crash. Full identification of victims and understanding of the incident's probable causes will follow as the investigation progresses.



How the NTSB is analyzing evidence from the D.C. plane crash

Recovery efforts in the Potomac River are focused on the front of the airplane to include the flight deck. We know that one piece of fuselage has been taken out of the water this morning. Crews were waiting for high tide to try to then get the the front of the airplane out of the water and onto a barge. Eventually all of those pieces will come ashore and go to a hangar at Washington Reagan's National Airport where the NTSB will be able to more closely examine the wreckage. They also have an exemplar airplane a CRJ 700 there that they can compare against the wreckage. That's helpful in things like looking at the cockpit configuration, switches, positioning, that kind of thing. Ongoing also is this effort to understand the data from the flight recorders on both the airplane and the helicopter. That is a complicated task that will take some time. Also a team of investigators are building timelines. They're going over the training of all of the pilots, building a 72-hour calendar of their lives as to leading up to this accident, as well as the maintenance history of the two aircraft. They have completed their interviews with air traffic controllers, the five air traffic controllers that were in the tower when the incident happened. Then we are waiting for an update from the NTSB about some of the things they've been able to glean so far. But you know final answers, things like the cause of this accident, that won't come for months. We expect this investigation from the NTSB to last up to a year before a report comes out that will determine the probable causes of this accident. For now the focus is on getting the airplane wreckage out of the water and continuing to work to identify the remaining victims of this crash. At least 55 have been identified, 67 people lost their lives.

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D.C. Crash