DC plane crash black boxes found

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The black boxes for a commercial flight that collided with a military helicopter in Washington DC have been located, as questions mount about staffing and other close calls at the airport where the plane was landing.

Normally two people manage air traffic control for helicopters and airplanes flying in the area – one of the most controlled airspaces in the world – but only one person was doing so on Wednesday at the time of the crash, according to sources cited by the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

Officials are still investigating the cause of the incident that killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said a preliminary report will be issued in 30 days.

The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, known as the black boxes, can help offer clues to investigators about what may have gone wrong on the flight.

According to the NTSB, late on Thursday night both boxes were transported to one of its labs for evaluation.

In other developments on Thursday, air traffic control staffing numbers, first reported by the New York Times, were noted as “not normal”, according to a preliminary Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report.

The federal government has struggled for years to fill certain key positions at the FAA.

The type of staffing that had one air traffic control worker managing both the helicopters and planes at the Regan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night is reportedly not uncommon and did not breach guidelines.