Just offshore of the towering national monuments of Washington, a tall crane now hovers over the Potomac River. It casts a large shadow over the effort to understand what caused the collision of a passenger jet and a military helicopter last Wednesday as a new phase of the recovery starts.

Crews using a crane lifted the first pieces of wreckage from the downed American Airlines regional jet from the Potomac River on Monday morning as rescue workers sought to recover all 67 bodies from the crash site near Ronald Reagan National Airport.

A crane was removing the fuselage of the passenger jet that crashed into the river last week after colliding with a U.S. Army helicopter.

Crews have begun removing wreckage from the Potomac River from the deadly midair collision last week that killed 67 people. Col. Francis B.