Inside the massive recovery efforts after the Potomac midair collision
WASHINGTON (7News) — Within a week of the midair collision over the Potomac River, divers recovered the remains of all 67 passengers as forensic teams worked around the clock to identify each victim.
“I hope they understand that we did everything humanly possible that we could to rescue their loved ones,” said Captain Michael Puglisi with the DC Fire & EMS Department. He was driving one of the rescue boats that night, on Jan. 29, 2025.
The river was dark, freezing, and filled with debris from the aircraft.
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For Astasia Myler, an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department Harbor Patrol Unit, it was her first real dive—just three weeks into the job.
“I trusted my training and my experience,” Myler said. “And I just went out there and did what I could do.”
She explained that divers would only stay in the water for 15 to 20 minutes at a time to avoid hypothermia. Teams rotated constantly, warming up briefly on boats before heading back in.
“We had a bunch of divers that night, so we were just kind of swapping out,” Myler said. “Some people were getting warm in boats and just going again.”
The cold wasn’t the only danger. Sharp plane debris tore through dive suits, sometimes filling them with icy water mid-dive.
Then the tide came.
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“As the tide continued throughout the night, the debris field started to expand,” Puglisi explained. “We had to search through an ever-expanding debris field because of the tides to make sure that we were accounting for all of the victims.”
Hours turned into days. As divers recovered the remains, another critical operation unfolded on land. The D.C. Department of Forensic Sciences shifted its priorities entirely to this case.
“I got to know a lot of [the victims’ families] on a first-name basis,” said Dr. Francisco Diaz, the director of that department and the District’s chief medical examiner. “I have to say that’s the most gracious group of people I have encountered in light of this tragedy.”
Within a week of the crash, all of the victims were recovered and identified. Their remains were returned to their families.
“I hope they sleep better at night knowing that we honored their loved ones and did everything in our powers that we could to bring them home,” Puglisi said.
