Latest news with #DavidHoagland
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
First responders coping with emotions after deadly midair collision near Reagan National Airport
ARLINGTON, Va. () — First responders, both past and present, are coping with heavy emotions from the grueling recovery efforts after the deadly midair collision near Reagan National Airport (DCA) late last month. Nearing three weeks since an American Airlines flight collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River, those incredibly difficult recovery efforts to bring the bodies of all 67 victims to shore have come to an end, but the healing process is only just beginning. 'There's physical scars and, there's emotional scars that people have as a result of this tragedy,' said David Hoagland, president of the D.C. Firefighters Association. DC-area figure skaters unite after deadly collision near Reagan National Airport For him, and hundreds of other first responders who showed up to help in the hours that followed the crash it was unlike any call they'd ever responded to. 'This was obviously a very catastrophic event. Our members worked for a very long time on the scene under extremely hazardous conditions. There was jet fuel throughout the water. There was debris from the airplane. Everybody drove for several hours in icy conditions,' Hoagland DC Fire and EMS Department Foundation said it'll be there to help first responders heal and provide ongoing mental health support. 'The struggles that they have after an event like this can happen today, they can happen six months from now, they can happen six years from now,' said Amy Mauro, the foundation's executive director. Some former first responders said those images and those feelings don't ever really go away. Don Usher was the pilot of U.S. Park Police helicopter Eagle 1 rescuing people from the Potomac River after Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th Street Bridge back on a snowy, icy day in 1982. He recalls the entire rescue operation that day in great detail. 'These aircraft accidents are always just a series of little events that, but for one thing, might have changed the entire outcome,' Usher said. 'Safety must not be compromised': DC-area lawmakers express concern over DOGE interfering with FAA For him, the recent headlines have reopened old wounds, remembering both the remarkable rescues and the lives lost 43 years ago. 'For me, it was just shock and then absolute sorrow, because here we were, going through another process in the Potomac River, the loss of innocent life in an airplane crash that probably didn't have to happen, just like Air Florida didn't really have to happen,' he said. The DC Fire and EMS Foundation is always accepting donations, and proceeds from the upcoming Legacy on Ice figure skating event at Capital One Arena will benefit first responders impacted by the crash. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Axios
31-01-2025
- General
- Axios
"Crash, crash, crash": How D.C.'s first and last responders are recovering the dead
The conditions are unthinkable — a mass casualty site on the frigid Potomac. The complexity of the operation, numbing. After America's deadliest airline crash in a generation, disaster crews turned to the painstaking tasks ahead: recovering every body, identifying each life lost, reuniting the dead with those they leave behind. The big picture: Emergency responders deployed overnight Wednesday, plumbing the watery grave left by the collision between American Airlines flight #5342 and one of the Army's Black Hawk helicopters. Zoom in: Divers worked in 20-minute shifts around the wreckage, swimming through the pitch-black depths and taking breaks at times to replace their suits, torn by debris. An ice-breaking D.C. fire boat couldn't be called in because it was out of service. Jet fuel clouded the river. Twisted pieces of aircraft snarled the path to some victims. The water was 36 degrees. They train for this. And yet. "They normally get calls for aircraft in distress. This time it rang, and all they heard was crash, crash, crash," said David Hoagland, head of the Fire and EMS union. As families of the victims were invited to a support center, counselors were deployedto help the disaster crews themselves. By Thursday morning, currents were pushing debris as far south as the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge. National Harbor and other neighborhoods temporarily closed the public access to their waterfronts. Search vessels combed the shoreline and surface. The expectation being that remnants of the crash will wash ashore. From the water, boats moved the victims to D.C.'s Southwest waterfront, the transfer of remains from the first responders to the last responders. Red tents popped up near Audi Field, a makeshift morgue. The last acts of caretaking for the dead began. By Thursday evening, they had found 28 people. On the flight were young figure skaters with Olympic dreams, five members of a steamfitters union from Annapolis, a pilot who was engaged to be married. Divers will return today to continue the recovery mission and begin extracting the aircraft from the water, D.C. Fire & EMS told Axios. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board will be on the scene, said NTSB member Todd Inman, "for as long as it takes."
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Recovery crews search for wreckage, victims in icy Potomac River
WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — Recovery crews continued to scour the icy Potomac River on Thursday after Wednesday's collision between American Airlines Flight 5342 and a Black Hawk helicopter. D.C. Fire Association President David Hoagland told NewsNation this recovery has been particularly perilous. 'It has been one of the coldest winters (D.C. residents have) had in years,' said Hoagland. 'This river has not been frozen like this for quite some time.' DC crash co-pilot 'at the prime of his life': Dad Federal investigators will try to reconstruct the moments before the collision, including any communication between the two aircraft and air traffic controllers and any other actions the pilots might have taken. At least 30 bodies had been recovered from the scene Thursday afternoon, including one of the pilots. In a Thursday morning update, officials said 27 bodies were recovered from the jet, and one was pulled from the helicopter. Hoagland said his dive team has encountered multiple difficulties at the scene. 'We're working on getting everybody new personal protective equipment because everybody who has been operating on the boats is just covered with debris,' he said. 'Our divers work continuously for five hours; their suits were getting torn with debris.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
