Over 60 people were feared dead after an American Airlines regional passenger jet collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the frigid Potomac River near Reagan Washington National Airport.
“At this point we do not believe there were any survivors,” District of Columbia fire chief John Donnelly said at a Thursday press conference at the airport.
Donnelly said 28 bodies had been recovered from the river so far, in what was shaping up to be the deadliest US air disaster in more than a decade. “We will work to find all the bodies and reunite them with their loved ones,” he said.
American Airlines confirmed 60 passengers and four crew members were aboard the jet. The helicopter, on a training flight, was carrying three soldiers, a US official said.
Passengers on the American Airlines flight included ice skaters, family and coaches returning from events in Wichita, Kansas, including Russian-born former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.
CBS News reported that a dive team had recovered one of the two data recorders, the so-called black boxes, from the plane.
The midair collision occurred as the passenger jet flying from Wichita was approaching to land at Reagan. Radio communications between the air traffic control tower and the Black Hawk showed the helicopter crew knew the plane was in the vicinity.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said both the helicopter and the airplane had been flying normal flight patterns. “This was not unusual,” he said.
The Pentagon said it was launching an investigation.
In a post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump questioned the actions of the helicopter crew and air traffic controllers on what he described as a clear night.
“This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!,” he wrote.
American Eagle Flight 5342 was operated by PSA Airlines, an Ohio-based regional subsidiary of American Airlines. The plane was a CRJ-700, the airline said, from a line of regional jets made by Canada’s Bombardier, later sold to Mitsubishi.
Air traffic control recordings appear to capture the final attempted communications with the helicopter, call sign PAT25, before it collides with the CRJ jet.
“PAT25, do you have a CRJ in sight? PAT25, pass behind the CRJ,” an air traffic controller says at 8:47 p.m. (0147 GMT), according to a recording on liveatc.net.
Seconds later, another aircraft calls in to air traffic control, saying, “Tower, did you see that?” – apparently referring to the crash. An air traffic controller then redirects planes heading to runway 33 to go around.
Webcam video of the crash showed the collision and an explosion lighting up the night sky.
“I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven’t seen anything since they hit the river,” an air traffic controller was heard saying over the radio.
