Washington, D.C
Washington DC crash: Data from plane’s black boxes gives conflicting information on altitudes – as pictures of third soldier with Joe Biden and Ralph Lauren emerge
Preliminary data from the Washington DC air collision that killed 67 people gives conflicting information about the altitudes of the plane and military helicopter at the time of the crash.
In a news conference, officials from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said that data from the jet’s flight recorder showed its altitude as 325ft, plus or minus 25ft, when the crash happened on Wednesday night.
But preliminary data in the air traffic control tower showed the Black Hawk helicopter at 200ft at the time. The discrepancy has yet to be explained.
NTSB member Todd Inman also revealed that the jet’s flight recorder showed a change in its pitch but did not say whether this meant the pilots were trying to avoid the crash.
It comes as the third soldier who died onboard the Black Hawk has been named as Captain Rebecca M Lobach.
Final moments before the crash
Information from the jet’s black boxes has been recovered but the helicopter’s is taking more time to retrieve because it became waterlogged after the aircraft plunged into the Potomac River.
Brice Banning, the investigator in charge of the case, said the plane’s crew “had a verbal reaction” in the last moments before the crash.
He said the data recorder showed “the airplane beginning to increase its pitch… sounds of impact were audible about one second later, followed by the end of the recording”.
The NTSB also said five people were working in the air traffic control tower at the time of the crash, after reports that staffing levels were “not normal”. The NTSB did not comment on whether there was an appropriate number of staff on duty.
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New videos emerge of DC crash
The collision near Reagan National Airport in Washington was the deadliest US aviation incident in almost 25 years.
The 60 passengers and four crew on the American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, as well as the three soldiers on the army helicopter were killed.
Captain Lobach was from Durham, North Carolina
Last soldier named
Some 38 of the bodies have been identified, with authorities saying they expect to recover all the victims – but the plane’s fuselage will probably have to be pulled from the water to retrieve the rest.
More information about those who died has also emerged. The US Army identified Captain Rebecca M Lobach, from Durham, North Carolina, as the third soldier who died in the crash.
The names of the other two soldiers were released on Friday, but Ms Lobach’s name was withheld at the request of her family.
Captain Rebecca Lobach (left) with President Joe Biden and Ralph Lauren at an award ceremony. Pic: AP
They said she was “a bright star in all our lives”. Ms Lobach served as a White House military social aide and was pictured alongside President Joe Biden and Ralph Lauren during the awarding of the fashion designer’s Presidential Medal of Freedom earlier this year.
Army officials have said the helicopter crew was highly experienced and familiar with the congested skies around Washington DC.
‘They still want answers’
In an emotional news conference, Mr Inman said he has spent hours with the victims’ families since the crash.
“I don’t want to have to meet with those parents like that again.”
The families, he said, are struggling. “Some wanted to give us hugs. Some are just mad and angry,” Mr Inman said.
“They are just all hurt. And they still want answers, and we want to give them answers.”
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DC crash victim’s uncle: ‘A tremendous void’
Read more: What do we know about the victims of the Washington air crash?
Mr Inman became frustrated at points during the news conference, noting that the NTSB has made “several hundred” recommendations to improve aviation that have not been acted upon.
“From tragedy, we draw knowledge to improve the safety for us all. That’s what we’re doing right now, we’re dealing with tragedy, but we need to improve safety,” he said.
“You want to do something about it? Adopt the recommendations of the NTSB. You’ll save lives.”
The recovery operation is continuing in Washington DC, with the remains of 42 people retrieved from the river so far.
Captain Rebecca Lobach was onboard the military helicopter. Pic: Davis Winkie
As many Americans remained shocked by the deadly crash, a second aviation accident took place on Friday night in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
An air ambulance slammed into a busy junction, killing all six people on board, including a child who had just undergone treatment at a hospital, and at least one person on the ground.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Seventy-two veterans took a trip Saturday to our nation’s capital to visit memorials honoring their service in the armed forces.
This year marks the 12th trip to Washington, D.C. for Honor Flight Tallahassee.
Early Saturday morning, veterans and their guardians met to take a charter flight up to D.C.
Throughout the day, veterans were taken to the World War II memorial, as well as the Korean and Vietnam War memorials. The veterans also visited Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
More Tallahassee news:
The day ended with a wonderful welcome home celebration.
Our Jacob Murphey, Julia Miller, Taylor Viles, and Grace Temple accompanied the veterans, capturing moments from throughout the day.
The team will have live coverage from Washington, D.C. on Monday to share more from the day’s events.
We will continue to have coverage throughout the month of May, leading up to our Honor Flight special on Memorial Day.
To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Nextdoor and X (Twitter).
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4 things to know about the weather:
- Chances of rain in the morning
- Gusty Sunday
- Chilly Monday
- Temps will rise again through the work week
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.
The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.
Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.
However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.
QuickCast
SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s
MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
Washington, D.C
‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington
The most severe energy shock since the 1970s, the risk of a global recession and households everywhere stomaching a renewed surge in the cost of living – hitting the most vulnerable hardest.
In a sweltering hot Washington DC this week, the message at the International Monetary Fund meetings was chilling: things had been looking up for living standards around the world. But then came the Iran war.
“Some countries are in panic,” said the fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, addressing the finance ministers and central bank bosses in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. “The sooner it [the Iran war] ends, the better for everybody.”
Such gatherings are not typically used to fight geopolitical battles. “You don’t get people shouting at one another at these things,” one senior figure remarked. But, as a record-breaking April heatwave swept the US capital, no one could ignore the mounting damage from the Iran war.
Those familiar with the mood over breakfast at a meeting of the G20’s representatives on Thursday, which included Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the outgoing US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell – said the atmosphere in the room was sombre amid an open exchange of serious views.
“It is such a twilight-zone meeting,” said Mohamed El-Erian, a former IMF deputy managing director who is now chief economic adviser at the Allianz insurance group. “There are several shadows hanging over it: one is the shadow that comes from concern about the global economy as a whole.
“The second is that some countries are going to be particularly hard hit, and it’s mostly countries that very few people are talking about. But the third concern is the adding of insult to injury: the fact that the US, which started a war of choice, is going to be hit, but by a lot less than elsewhere in relative terms.”
Before Thursday’s breakfast, Rachel Reeves had started her day with an early-morning jog. Joined by her counterparts from Spain, Australia and New Zealand for a run down the iconic National Mall, she posted an Instagram selfie with a not-so-subtle dig: “Friends that run together – work together.”
A day earlier, the chancellor had told a CNBC conference that she thought “friends are allowed to disagree on things” as she criticised Trump’s Iran war as a “mistake” and a “folly” that had not made the world safer.
Speaking at a venue just steps away from the White House, before a one-on-one meeting with Bessent, she said this “fair message” was needed because UK families and businesses were feeling the pain from higher energy prices triggered by the conflict.
Those close to Reeves insist her meeting remained cordial. Britain and the US have significant shared interests in AI, financial services and trade. The chancellor also said the UK government had little time for the Iranian regime.
But with the IMF having warned on Tuesday that the Iran war could risk a global recession – in which Britain would be the biggest G7 casualty – it was clear Reeves had travelled to Washington ready to pick a fight.
“I’m struck by how vocal she has been and the words she used,” said one global financier. “We know the disagreement between Bessent and [European Central Bank president] Christine Lagarde earlier in the year. But that was in private.”
At a cocktail party held at the British ambassador’s residence for hundreds of diplomats and financiers – including the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, and dozens of senior figures – this transatlantic tension, weeks before King Charles’s US state visit, was a major topic of conversation.
The other, in the balmy residence gardens, was one of its former occupants, Peter Mandelson, as revelations about the former ambassador’s appointment threatened to further rock the UK government.
Before the war, the agenda for the IMF had been about global cooperation; the adoption of AI, jobs and work to eradicate poverty. Each of those tasks had now been complicated, but not least the task of countries working together.
For many at the meetings, the focus was on forging closer global cooperation without the world’s pre-eminent superpower.
“Everybody is talking about how you hedge against American decisions,” said David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary, who now runs the International Rescue Committee. “You can’t do without them, because they’re 25% of the global economy. But, in a lot of fora, they’ve pulled out.
“So everyone has to think, how does one structure international cooperation? The old west is not coming back. And so everyone has to figure out how to position themselves for that world.”
For those gathering in Washington, there was irony in the fact that they were meeting in the halls of institutions founded, under US leadership, to promote global cooperation after the second world war. The whole idea of the Bretton Woods institutions was to avoid the dire economic conditions and warfare of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet this year’s meeting was taking place amid these intertwining problems.
In their conversations about the best economic policy response to the shock of conflict, the economists also knew the real power to make a difference lay two blocks across town from the IMF and the World Bank – behind the security cordons and construction equipment blocking the White House from public view. “It is not clear they can do anything about it,” said El-Erian.
Still, with a booming economy driven by AI – including Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, the topic of much conversation – most countries cannot afford to completely break off US ties.
“People want to find ways to insulate themselves from the mess. But, on the other hand, they admire the US private sector,” El-Erian said. “The best way I’ve heard it put, is: they want to go long the private sector and short the mess. But it’s almost impossible to do.”
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