But even before the National Transportation Safety Board completes its investigation—a neurotically thorough process that will probably take about a year, and thus meshes poorly with the news cycle and the conspiracy-theorist cycle—it is easy to see some of the lines of inquiry that crash detectives will pursue.

Minnesota native Wendy Jo Shaffer is among those who died when a passenger jet and a Black Hawk helicopter collided in midair Wednesday night near Reagan National Airport, family friends tell WCCO. Multiple flights between Minneapolis-St.