DC plane crash updates: Remains of 55 victims recovered and positively identified

A flight manifest from American Airlines flight 5342 may be made public by Friday, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly told reporters during a briefing, based on her conversations with the airline.

This process has been delayed while the airline notifies all victims' next of kin, including ones who live overseas, she said.

At this point, it's unclear how many victims were from Kansas, according to Wichita Mayor Lily Wu. One family arrived at Wichita's Eisenhower National Airport last night seeking information about their loved one on the flight, though so far no other families here in Wichita have reached out to her office, she said during Thursday's briefing.

-ABC News' Mola Lenghi

Spencer Lane, 16, and his mother, Christine Lane, 49, were among the passengers on the American Airlines flight when it crashed on Wednesday.

They were returning home from the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas, and were among six victims -- including two coaches, two teenage athletes and two moms of athletes -- from the Skating Club of Boston, the organization said.

Spencer Lane's father, Doug Lane, remembered his son as a "force of nature."

"He just had amazing athletic abilities," Doug Lane told ABC Boston affiliate WCVB. "If he was like, 'hey, that's interesting to me,' you couldn't stop him. And figure skating is, I think, the best example of that."

The teen decided to try skating three years ago after seeing Nathan Chen in the Olympics and "committed himself to it," his dad said.

Doug Lane remembered his wife as a "beautiful, creative person" who had many talents, including quilting, and volunteered at a local animal rescue. She loved being a mother to their two sons, who were both adopted from South Korea, he said.

"[She would] do everything for her children, including fly to Wichita, Kansas, for a week," he said. "She just gave parenting her all."

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted photos of the downed Black Hawk helicopter and said she joined the Coast Guard as they enforced a safety zone around the crash site.

"Thank you to our Coast Guard, interagency partners, and local responders," she said.

When aircraft volume goes down, a supervisor can make the decision to combine two controller positions into one position. This happens routinely, and on Wednesday at Reagan Airport, it happened 40 minutes earlier than it normally does because the supervisor determined that the traffic was low enough to combine, according to a source with direct knowledge.

This position handles local arrivals into Reagan and helicopter traffic when it’s combined.

Reagan is not understaffed, the source added.

The air traffic controllers’ union said in a statement that it's working with all federal agencies and "stands with the highly trained, highly skilled" workforce that "keeps the United States as the gold standard for aviation safety."

-ABC News’ Sam Sweeney