WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) -
Data retrieved from an American Airlines ( AAL ) regional
passenger jet and a U.S. Army helicopter that collided last week
in Washington over the Potomac River killing 67 people will be
released on Monday, National Transportation Safety Board Chair
Jennifer Homendy said in an interview on Fox News.
"We are not ruling out any information or any issue.
We're taking in everything we can and not really focused in any
particular area in order to collect everything we need to
evaluate this particular accident," Homendy said.
The Army Corps of Engineers on Monday began lifting the
wreckage from the river, which officials have said could take a
week or longer.
Wreckage is being moved to a hangar at Washington Reagan
National Airport. Much of the Potomac River remains restricted
to authorized vessels. Two of the lesser-used runways at the
airport remain closed.
Investigators from the NTSB said on Saturday that they
had determined that the CRJ-700 airplane was at 325 feet (99
meters), plus or minus 25 feet, at the time of impact.
The new detail suggests that the Army Black Hawk
helicopter was flying above 200 feet (61 meters), the maximum
altitude for the route it was using.
"With respect to the helicopter, it's important to
understand that DC radar picked up that it was at 200 feet, but
that radar doesn't update again and for a full five seconds,"
Homendy said.
Homendy said the NTSB was working to get "better, more
granular information to understand the altitude."
Data confirmed that the air traffic controller alerted
the helicopter to the presence of the CRJ-700 about two minutes
before the crash.
The Washington, D.C., fire department said on Sunday
that officials had positively identified 55 of the 67 people
killed in the collision.
Meanwhile, relatives of some of the victims visited the
edge of the river near the crash site on Sunday.