The Black Hawk helicopter which collided with a passenger plane in Washington DC, at the cost of dozens of lives, was on a drill involving the evacuation of the White House. No one survived the mid air collision between the American Airlines plane and the Army helicopter. The remains of 41 people had been pulled from the river as of Friday afternoon, including 28 who have been positively identified, Washington DC Fire Chief John Donnelly Sr. said at a news conference.

Now it has emerged the Black Hawk had been in the midst of a drill in case Washington DC, the capital of the US, comes under attack. Source said it was carrying out a rehearsed evacuation of the President, in a drill known as a Continuity of Government contingency plan. Military aircraft frequently conduct these raining flights in and around the US capital in order to familiarise them with routes they would fly if evacuating high-ranking officials in the event of a major attack. All three soldiers were among the 67 people killed in the disaster in Washington DC, US, on Wednesday night.

The American Airlines plane was arriving from Wichita, Kansas and the 60 doomed passengers included a group of figure skaters who were returning from a competition . O’Hara and the co-pilot's bodies have been recovered but Eaves is still in the water along with several of the airline passengers. Among the dead were 13-year-old TikTok skating star Jinna Han, and sisters Everly and Alydia Livingston, aged 14 and 11 respectively. Russian figure skating champions and renowned athlete couple Evgenia Shishkova, 53, and Vadim Naumov, 56, also lost their lives.

The accident is the deadliest incident involving an aircraft in the United States since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Air crash investigations normally take 12-18 months, and investigators told reporters on Thursday they would not speculate on the cause. Investigators have not yet confirmed cause of the collision - though Donald Trump today claimed the helicopter was flying "too high" and above the 200ft limit. He had previously suggested that "diversity hires" of disabled people in air control may have caused the crash.

Diving teams returned to the Potomac river on Friday morning, scanning the shoreline under rainy skies as investigators hunted clues into the mid air collision. Washington DC Fire Chief John Donnelly Sr told a news conference that of the 41 bodies pulled from the river, 28 had been positively identified. He said next of kin notifications had been made to 18 families, and he expects all 67 bodies of the dead will eventually be recovered.