A passenger plane carrying 64 people crashed into Washington’s Potomac River on Wednesday after colliding with a military chopper in the air, with many dead recovered from the murky, near-freezing water, according to US media.
A large search and rescue operation was underway, with divers visible in the glare of strong lights as they dove into the snow-covered Potomac to look for the wreckage of both aircraft.
Washington Fire Chief John Donnelly told a press briefing that rescue workers, numbering roughly 300 people, were working in “extremely rough” conditions and had little hope of finding anyone alive.
“We’re going to be out there as long as it takes,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters.
According to CBS News, at least 18 corpses have been recovered, with NBC reporting more than a dozen.
According to US Figure Skating, several competitors, coaches, and officials were on the flight, while officials in Moscow verified that married Russian couple Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won the 1994 world pairs title, were also on board.
“We unfortunately see that these sad reports are being confirmed. Our other fellow citizens were there,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The crash occurred when the Bombardier plane, operated by an American Airlines subsidiary, approached Reagan National Airport at approximately 9:00 p.m. (0200 GMT) after flying from Wichita, Kansas.
According to US Army sources, the chopper in question was a Black Hawk carrying three soldiers on a “training flight.”.
Witness Ari Schulman was driving home when he noticed what he called “a stream of sparks” overhead.
“Initially, I saw the plane, and it looked fine, normal. It was right about to head over land,” he told CNN.
“Three seconds later, and at that point, it was banked all the way to the right… I could see the underside of it; it was lit up a very bright yellow, and there was a stream of sparks underneath it. It looked like a Roman candle,” Schulman added.”
Speaking on the crash, President Donald Trump said in an official statement that he had been “fully briefed” and added of any victims, “May God bless their souls.”
Less than four hours after the disaster—and while other officials stressed they were waiting for investigations to unfold—he took to social media to critique air traffic control.
“The aeroplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the aeroplane for an extended period of time. It is clear tonight; the lights on the plane were blazing,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“Why didn’t the helicopter go up or down or turn? Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane? This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. Not good.”
