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

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the investigation is ongoing into whether the controller was diversity, equity and inclusion hire.

This comes after President Donald Trump on Thursday claimed without evidence that DEI initiatives could be a factor in the crash.

DEI or any similar program does not apply to hiring for air traffic control, which requires rigorous health examinations and a multiyear training process. Applicants must pass a medical exam, an aptitude test and a psychological test that is more stringent than that required of a pilot, said Chris Wilbanks, FAA deputy vice president of safety and technical training.

Trump on Thursday pointed to a New York Post article as he accused Democrats of pushing to hire people with severe mental disabilities at the FAA. But the diversity language referenced in the article was on the FAA website during the entirety of Trump’s first term and has been on the site for more than a decade, according to Snopes.

The cause of the crash has not been determined.

Leavitt said Trump believes commercial flying "is still indeed safe, and Americans should feel safe."

"With that said, two things can be true at the same time, and we certainly have seen the deterioration of federal hiring standards at the Federal Aviation Administration," Leavitt said at a press briefing Friday. "And the president wants to increase those standards. He wants pilots in this country who have the great responsibility of flying American citizens by the tens of millions every single day, to be chosen for that position based on their merit and their skills. And so, the administration will continue to prioritize this."

American Airlines will retire the flight number 5342, the company said, which is standard action following major aviation incidents.

Recovery crews are now awaiting heavy machinery, including cranes, from the Army Corps of Engineers, Coast Guard and private contractors before they can extract additional victims, sources familiar with the operation told ABC News.

The hope is the equipment will be in position to begin raising pieces of the fuselage as soon as today, but the operation is expected to last at least through the weekend, sources said.

The bodies of plane victims are lodged beneath and inside the fuselage and cannot be accessed by divers, the sources said.

The body of one soldier has been recovered; the other two Black Hawk victims remain inside the helicopter, sources said.

Debris is being collected at a spot near the airport. Military debris is being sent to Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling.

-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky

President Donald Trump is continuing to place apparent blame on the helicopter even though the National Transportation Safety Board says the cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that the Black Hawk "was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit."

"That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???" he wrote.

The helicopter appeared to be flying at about 350 feet, above the mandated 200 feet, according to sources familiar with the operation.

On Thursday, Trump said the helicopter could have moved out of the way.

"I have helicopters. You can stop a helicopter very quickly. It had the ability to go up or down. It had the ability to turn. And the turn it made was not the correct turn, obviously, and it did somewhat the opposite of what it was told," Trump said at a press briefing. "We don't know that that would have been the difference because the timing was so tight. It was so, it was so little. There was so little time to think."

"Again, you could have slowed down the helicopter substantially," Trump continued. "You could have stopped the helicopter. You could have gone up, you could have gone down. You could have gone straight up, straight down, you could have turned. You could have done a million different maneuvers. For some reason, it just kept going, and then made a slight turn at the very end, and it was, by that time, it was too late."