US President Donald Trump on Friday (Jan 31) said that the military helicopter was flying too high at the time of the Washington DC plane crash, that killed 67 people on board.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said that the helicopter was far above the 200-foot limit.
"The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200-foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???," he said in the post.
More than 40 bodies have been recovered from the Potomac River, a law enforcement official reportedly told the Associated Press.
Also read: 'Black boxes' recovered from Washington DC plane crash that killed 67
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the black boxes onboard the Black Hawk helicopter have not yet been recovered.
“That might tell us exactly who was piloting that Black Hawk," he said, adding, “if any confusion was there at the end.”
“Someone was at the wrong altitude” Hegseth added. “The investigation will help us understand that. Was the BlackHawk too high, was it on course? Right now we don’t know.”
Currently, the US Federal Aviation Administration is restricting helicopter flights near Reagan National Airport indefinitely, a FAA official reportedly told Reuters.
National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman said on Friday that they have hundreds of people in this investigation.
“Today will be yet another day of the teams going out there” he said. “They’re out in the field. They’re collecting data. They’ve started interviews.”
Earlier, Trump suggested that efforts to increase diversity at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) could have been a cause in the crash.
Moreover, the NTSB on Thursday announced that the flight data and cockpit voice recorders have been recovered from the passenger jet. The recording devices commonly known as black boxes were recovered from the crashed plane operated by an American Airlines subsidiary.
(With inputs from agencies)