Officials have recovered the cockpit voice recorder - also known as the black box - from the helicopter involved in the plane crash that killed 67 people at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday.

Emergency responders are planning to ramp up operations over the weekend to recover the debris from the site.

There were 64 passengers aboard an American Airlines flight when it collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter carrying three soldiers.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has since restricted helicopter traffic around the airport after concerns from officials about overcrowding in the airspace overhead.

As of Friday, 28 people from the crash had been identified and 41 bodies had been recovered from the water.

The rest of the bodies will not be found until officials are able to hoist the plane off the riverbed, officials have said.

Investigators recovered the black boxes from the wreckage of the passenger plane the day after the collision.

After soaking those black boxes and extracting the moisture from them, they will be able to get data from the recorders "very soon", National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman told reporters on Friday evening.

"We just have to work through a number of steps," Mr Inman said.

NTSB members said they still do not know the cause of the collision.

Mr Inman said the "main lifting" of the salvage operations, which will be carried out by the US Navy, will begin on Saturday.

Parts of the aircraft need to be removed from the water before divers can go back in.

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Madeline Halpert

BBC News