The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, known as the black boxes, may offer clues about what went wrong before the crash.

Before Wednesday’s crash near Washington, D.C., there had not been a fatal collision involving a commercial aircraft in the United States since 2009.

Figure skaters and coaches returning from the U.S. national championships were aboard the American Airlines flight that collided with a Black Hawk helicopter Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian ice skating coaches and former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on board the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Potomac River in Washington on Wednesday night,