A remarkable exclusive interview and first hand account of the body recovery and salvage of the Potomac DC AA flight 5342 plane crash and the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. A true account of when regular commercial divers have to do the tough job of body recovery and salvage after tragic events in the water. This is a very important episode for divers to listen to before working a disaster in which loss of life occurs. It was very courageous of Glenn O’Connell to have a tough conversation with us in the hopes of helping other divers who find themselves in similar situations. It also highlights the often thankless tasks that commercial divers sometimes perform that are relatively unknown to the public. Please share this episode with everyone that you know.
On January 29, 2025, a Bombardier CRJ700 airliner operating as American Airlines Flight 5342 (operated by PSA Airlines as American Eagle)[b] and a United States Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter operating as Priority Air Transport 25 collided mid-air over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.. The collision occurred at 8:47 p.m. at an altitude of about 300 feet (100 m) and about one-half mile (800 m) short of runway 33 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia. All 67 people aboard both aircraft were killed in the crash, including 64 passengers and crew on the airliner and the 3 crew of the helicopter. It was the first major U.S. commercial passenger flight crash in nearly 16 years since Colgan Air Flight 3407 in 2009, and the deadliest U.S. air disaster since the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in 2001.