New Video of DC Aircraft Crash Shows The Moment When The Passenger Jet Plummets Into The Potomac

New images have surfaced of the aircraft crash in Washington D.C. in which 67 people are presumed dead.

The video, taken from a different angle to others that had already been posted, clearly show the American Airlines passenger jet as it approaches the Reagan airport and the Army Black Hawk helicopter coming in from its right. After the crash the video focuses on the plane, which can be clearly seen plummeting into the Potomac River.

Recovery efforts have found the plane's two black boxes (the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder), potentially getting more information about the moments that led to the crash.

"The recorders are at the NTSB labs for evaluation," the agency said in a statement to AFP. Divers pulled the black boxes from the Potomac River, where recovery efforts also included at least 40 bodies. The black boxes should help NTSB investigators piece together the data and communications between the aircraft and air traffic controllers.

"It should not have happened," new National Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a White House press conference that saw wide speculation about the cause. "When Americans take off in airplanes, they should expect to land at their destination – that didn't happen yesterday."

A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report revealed that the control tower where pilots were receiving instructions from was understaffed before the crash. Typically, two controllers are supposed to be informing airplanes landing at and leaving from the Ronald Reagan International Airport and directing helicopters flying in the area.

The control tower's staffing was "not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic," the report stated according to The New York Times..

Ronald Reagan International Airport has been facing an air traffic control staffing shortage, as many airports are across the country. But while the FAA and controllers' union want about 30 controllers on staff, the airport just had 19 fully trained controllers as of September 2023.

While the crash remains under investigation, audio recordings of air traffic control were released online, conveying the shock that personnel felt when they witnessed the crash. One person can be heard saying "Did you see that?"

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump appeared to blame diversity initiatives for the accident, despite no evidence arising that could have prompted that statement.

Trump went on to criticize Democrats, arguing that he "put safety first" while former Democratic administrations "put politics first."