Divers return to the Potomac River as part of the recovery after the United States’ deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter century

Jonathan Koziol, a retired Army chief warrant officer with more than 30 years of flight experience, told reporters that the flight was a nighttime qualification flight with an instructor pilot evaluating an experienced pilot on the flight routes that their unit routinely flies day and night around the Potomac River.

An American Airlines flight and a military helicopter collided and crashed into the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport Wednesday evening.

Officials say the conditions of the Potomac River are complicating recovery efforts of the bodies of the 67 presumed dead in a mid-air collision between American Airlines flight 5342 from Wichita and a military Black Hawk helicopter.

Plus: President Donald Trump's comments over DEI in the aftermath of the tragedy. | Senate confirmation hearings continued Thursday.

It's one of the most important pieces of forensic evidence following a plane crash: The so-called “black box." There are actually two of these remarkably sturdy devices: the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.