Bernd Debusmann Jr
US reporter

A few moments ago, I spoke to Brad Thavenet, a professional rescue and salvage diver, who has worked both with FEMA and as a trainer for Dive Rescue International.

Thavenet says that the dive operation to recover debris, evidence and human remains in the waters of the Potomac River is complex, complicated by increases and decreases in depth - as the river is an estuary - and by "entanglement hazards".

"That could be miles of cable and wiring, or jagged metal," he explains. "But there are also hazardous materials, such as jet fuel or black and grey [sewage] water from the flight."

Wet weather forecast in the DC area today could complicate matters further, he adds, by causing run-off from local sewage systems.

Thavenet said that a primary challenge is the cold, dark waters of the Potomac River, which he said would reduce visibility to near-zero.

The rescue divers, who are equipped with communications equipment, would often be guided by operators above-water who have access to sonar imagery.

"They'd be doing a lot of it in the dark, basically, because of the flow of the water," he says. "The communications would allow the divers to get some directions, such as 'go to the right'."

Authorities have confirmed that divers involved in the operating are operating for about 20 minutes at a time - which Thavenet says is standard operating procedure in these conditions.

"It's crucial to avoid burnout in these situations, both of personnel and equipment," he said.

Darrell Feller, a former US Army National Guard pilot, says he regularly flew the same route as the one taken by the military helicopter involved in the crash.

Here he describes being unable to see a commercial plane in the dark because of the lights coming from the city below.

Forty-one bodies have now been recovered, including the three people who were flying on the US military helicopter, DC emergency officials tell the BBC.

Sixty-seven people, in total, died after a passenger plane collided with a helicopter on Wednesday night.

The cold weather has made the recovery difficult - it was paused overnight.

Adam Easton
Warsaw Correspondent

The Polish foreign ministry has confirmed that a Polish citizen was among the victims of Wednesday's crash.

“Among the victims is Justyna Magdalena Beyer, nee Witkowska, she held a Polish passport issued in 1999,” spokesman Pawel Wronski told the state news agency PAP.

Earlier, NBC reported that 42-year-old Justyna Beyer and her 12-year-old daughter Brielle, who lived in Aldie near Washington DC were among the victims.

• For context: Sixty-seven people were killed in the crash, other victims include top figure skaters from the US and Russia, a young pilot, flight attendants, and a lawyer travelling home on her birthday

Image source, Getty Images

A member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says recovering the commercial plane's black boxes is a "good start to putting together one of the very many pieces of this puzzle".

Speaking to Good Morning America, spokesperson for the investigation Todd Inman says it will take "several days" to get the information from the black boxes - noting that several people have to go through the audio tapes.

On the wider investigation, he says "these major investigations will take us a year, if not more, to come to a final probable cause".

He says they will then make recommendations to avoid similar accidents in the future.

Matt Spivey
Live page editor

In the wake of President Trump suggesting that the US army helicopter involved in Wednesday's fatal air crash was "flying too high", his Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said - at this stage - there's still speculation as the investigation is ongoing.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is still conducting its investigation, which will take into consideration the actions of multiple players - including air traffic control, the military crew and the passenger plane's pilots.

According to analysis by the BBC's US partner, CBS News, the Black Hawk helicopter may have been flying above the permitted altitude.

Todd Inman, NTSB board member and spokesperson for the investigation, says "our intention is to have a preliminary report within 30 days". A final report will be issued "once we've completed all the fact-finding investigations".

The goal of the investigative team, he adds, is not just to understand what happened but why.

Image source, Getty Images

As Donald Trump raises questions about the location of the Black Hawk involved in Wednesday's crash at the time of the incident, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth reiterates the ongoing investigation will help clarify what caused the collision.

Speaking to Fox News, he says there could have been "depth perception problems" around the busy airport.

“We are looking at altitude... someone was at the wrong altitude. The investigation will help us understand that – was the Black Hawk too high? Was it on course? Right now we don’t quite know,” Hegseth adds.

He says this is speculation, and the investigation will reveal more - adding that the black boxes from the helicopter have yet to be recovered.

Investigators have recovered the flight data recorders, known as black boxes, from the wreckage of the passenger plane, with a preliminary report into the crash set to be issued in 30 days.

Officials have now resumed their recovery operation at the site of the crash, as this footage shows.

Divers were forced to pause their search and recovery efforts in the Potomac River on Thursday due to dangerous conditions in the water.

Stav Danaos
Lead weather presenter

Weather conditions remain unfavourable for search and rescue in the area today.

An active weather system continues to move through the region with overcast skies bringing persistent, and at times, heavy rain.

Winds will be fresh to strong throughout the day. Temperatures will be milder today, compared to recent days, with highs of around 14C (57F), although it won't feel mild with the cloud, breeze and rain.

After the recent very cold snap across the central and eastern USA, the waters of the River Potomac remain very cold, with average water temperatures at the crash site hovering around 2 degrees (37F).

Conditions improve into the weekend across the DC area, with drier and sunnier weather forecast – although it will turn chiller again with day maxes of 9 or 10C (48 to 50F) and chilly nights, with perhaps a touch of frost.

As Washington DC faces another day, the wreckages of the plane and helicopter involved in the collision lie in the water, underneath the flight path of Ronald Reagan Washington National airport:

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

President Trump has taken to his own social media platform, Truth Social, to claim that the Black Hawk helicopter involved in Wednesday's deadly crash was "flying too high, by a lot".

"The Black Hawk 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 writes.

As a reminder, an investigation into what led to the crash is currently under way, with a preliminary report expected to be released within the next 30 days.

Investigations are ongoing into the cause of the fatal crash which saw a collision between a passenger plane and a Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington DC.

The helicopter appears to have been flying above the permitted altitude, according to analysis by the BBC's US partner CBS News.

Recordings of air traffic control conversations published online suggest a controller tried to warn the helicopter about the American Airlines plane in the seconds before the collision.

Image source, Getty Images

American Airlines has told the BBC that flights running from Wichita, Kansas to Washington DC are set to resume today.

Flight number AA5677 operates six times a week, a spokesperson for the airline said.

Meanwhile, the Reagan National Airport - close to where the collision happened and the destination of the passenger plane - is "operating normally, including all customer services", the airport says.

An American Airlines flight to Miami set off from the airport ahead of schedule early this morning, with further departures currently expected to run on time.

As we've been reporting, a passenger plane and a Black Hawk helicopter were involved in a crash on Wednesday night.

The CRJ-700 plane was carrying 60 passengers and four crew. The aircraft is a twin engine, medium range jet, Sky Brary says on its website.

The passenger plane is 106ft 1in (32.3m) long, more than double the 50ft 1in (15.27m) US army helicopter.

There were three soldiers on board the helicopter.

Adam Goldsmith
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

It’s lunchtime in the UK, and as Washington DC braces for another day of recovery efforts on the Potomac River, here's a look back at what you need to know.

Investigators have recovered the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, known as black boxes, from the American Airlines plane. The recorders will be analysed at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) lab, nearby the site of the crash, according to CBS.

Multiple factors are being considered in the investigation, officials say, as media reports suggest that one air traffic controller was doing the work of two people at the time of the crash.

The names of some of the 67 victims killed in the fatal crash are being released. Including crew members and passengers on the plane, and two of the three crew on board the US army helicopter.

Overnight, recovery efforts were paused due to "difficult conditions" as DC’s emergency services say they expect to work with NTSB to "conduct additional searches and begin operations to salvage the aircraft".

Weather conditions are not expected to be particularly favourable today, BBC Weather's Sarah Keith-Lucas reports.

We'll continue to bring you the latest updates and analysis from our teams in London and Washington DC, stay with us.

Victoria Park-Froud
BBC News

Image source, BBC/Mo Khimji

I've been speaking with Mo Khimji, a pilot who regularly flies in and out of Reagan National Airport.

He says the airport and surrounding airspace are extremely congested and that even with all the superb training pilots receive, this exposes vulnerabilities.

“If we are landing on the river and we have a strong right to left crosswind, we have to be cognizant of it. A late turn can result in that wind pushing us into the restricted airspace by a whisker," Mo tells me.

“There are times when we are watching planes land and we find ourselves saying 'whoa that is close'.

"Having said that air traffic control does an exemplary job. This was an absolute tragedy and could have been avoided," he adds.

Sarah Keith-Lucas
Weather presenter

Weather conditions are currently chilly, damp and breezy in Washington. Over recent hours, the southerly wind has been picking up, and at 2am local time was around 11mph.

Light rain has started falling, and temperatures are around 6C and will continue to fall over the next few hours.

The forecast into Friday is not looking particularly favourable. There will be some fairly persistent rain accompanied with moderate south-westerly winds.

It will turn milder though, with air temperatures reaching around 14C by the afternoon.

Looking ahead to the weekend, things will turn cooler but also drier and brighter as high pressure builds in from the west. Highs will reach around 9 or 10C by day, but ice and frost are likely on Saturday night though as temperatures fall to around -2C.

Rescue teams are facing "terrible conditions" in the recovery operation at the Potomac River, a former US Coast Guard member has said.

Shannon Scaff, a senior risk consultant, says rescue teams are working in "low to zero visibility" and have the currents of the river and the fuselage of the aircraft to contend with. They're also operating in "cumbersome" suits to protect them from the cold, he adds.

"The deck is stacked against them," Scaff says.

Image source, Reuters

Turning attention back to the investigation now, it's just turned 06:45 in Washington DC and daylight is emerging onto the site of the fatal plane crash, where we're expecting recovery operations to resume.

The city's fire and emergency department says: "Divers will work with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to conduct additional searches to locate aircraft components, to support the investigation, and begin operations to salvage the aircraft."

No survivors are expected to be recovered from the Potomac River, and the names of some of the victims of the crash are slowly being released.

Stick with us as we bring you updates on the recovery efforts and the search for answers.

Image source, Getty Images

As the names of some of the 67 people killed in the fatal crash are slowly emerging, US politicians are paying tribute to members of their communities who lost their lives.

Governor of Rhode Island Dan McKee says the state's "heart breaks for their devastating loss", after figure skater Spencer Lane, 16, and his mother Christine Lane were killed.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin says that he’s learned “Virginia families were among those lost”, but has not identified the victims himself.

In Wichita, Kansas, where the flight to Washington DC departed, US Senators Ron Estes and Roger Marshall issued a joint statement.

They say "it’s likely that many of us directly or indirectly know people who were on Flight 5342", adding that it is a "sad day for Kansans and our nation".

"This community - steeped in aviation and manufacturing history - will feel the pain of this catastrophe for years to come.”