WASHINGTON D.C. – HOUSTON COUNTY AL: This week this nation experienced a major tragedy when an airplane and helicopter collided at Reagan International Airport. There were 64 passengers and staff on the aircraft and three on the helicopter, and all lives were claimed.
In videos you can see a fiery explosion when the two collide. The aircraft fell into the Potamac. The Potomac is primarily freshwater, but it becomes brackish (a mix of fresh and saltwater) as it approaches and enters Chesapeake Bay forming an estuary. An estuary is where the ocean tides meet the river.
Temperatures were reported to be around 36 to 37 degrees.
On Thursday RSN spoke with Chris Ball, President of Houston County Alabama Rescue Unit. Today one of the primary missions of Houston County Rescue Unit, a volunteer organization, is water rescue and/or recovery of victims from water incidents.
As President Chris Ball, a professional diver and owner of a Dothan Scuba diving business, explains, a lot of factors weigh into the search. This morning (Friday January 31, 2025) Fox News reports, only 28 of the 67 bodies have been recovered. That leaves some 38 bodies unrecovered.
If visibility is low, searches are conducted by Sonar water scan and / or grid searches with someone holding a water tinder line, watching the divers bubbles and holding them to certain grids.
When a person drowns, where the person goes down is where they are going to be for a period of time. That period of time is determined on several factors, such as weight, what they are wearing, water temperature and other factors. The difficult situation in the Washington D.C. search is, based on the visual of the fireball in the sky, I personally do not believe anyone realized what happened or were alive when the debris impacted the water. Due to the fiery explosion, my belief all were burned to death when the plane was falling to the ground. With that said, the bodies were possibly thrown in multiple directions because the aircraft is reported in three sections. But also consider the aircraft was one minute from landing so all on board should have had their seatbelts on and were strapped into their seats.
An additional factor is, where was the impact of the helicopter to the airplane and the blades on top of the helicopter which were turning on impact. That constitutes extreme damage to the aircraft and potential damage to the bodies. In the search, if all were burned from the jet fuel and helicopter fuel, and an extremely hot fire, there is not much left of the body to recover. Sorry to sound brutal, just realistic. Remember, I served as Coroner and currently serve as Deputy Coroner in two counties.
Chris Ball discusses the difficulties in search and recovery of the bodies. Ball discusses issues on searches and what it is like. Houston County Rescue has traveled all across Alabama and other states in rescue and recovery. He does this for free, keeping equipment ready to respond in a moment’s notice to hopefully rescue and save lives.
Chris Ball also recently completed two years of the Alabama Police Academy traveling a weekend a month to Birmingham. All done at his own expense. In addition to Houston County Rescue, Ball donates his time with Houston County Sheriff’s Office.
The video with Chris opens with a Sonar image and you can see the body in the image. That is marked and divers normally sent down to verify.
