President Donald Trump says the Army Black Hawk helicopter involved in Wednesday's tragic collision with an American Airlines passenger jet at Reagan National Airport was "flying too high, by a lot."
In a post to his Truth Social account early Friday, the president said:
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???
Trump did not immediately cite any source or provide any additional detail.
The crash killed 67 people — 60 passengers and four crew members on American Airlines Flight 5342 and three aboard the Army helicopter.
The National Transportation Safety Board has recovered the airliner's voice and data recorders amd is evaluating the information they contain.
"The preliminary report, we believe, will be out in 30 days but in case of these major investigations, it will take a year, if not more, for us to come to a final probable cause," Todd Inman, an NTSB board member, told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Friday. "The most important thing is, the work doesn't just end then. We make recommendations so that we don't have tragedies like this again in the future."
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