Washington plane crash developments: Likely no survivors in plane crash, says fire chief

There are about 5,000 Black Hawks in use around the world, according to the aviation site FlightGlobal.com. The twin-engine, four-blade helicopter is manufactured by Sikorsky, a subsidiary of defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

The aircraft involved in Wednesday’s collision was an Army version. There are other variants made for the Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard, and for specialized duty such as intelligence gathering.

The Black Hawk made its debut in 1979. The helicopters have been involved in numerous U.S. military operations, including the raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in May 2011, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the invasions of Panama and Grenada.

The passenger jet was manufactured by Quebec, Canada-based conglomerate Bombardier Inc. The CRJ program was sold in June 2020 to the Japanese company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which no longer makes them but continues to produce parts.

The tight-knit figure skating community was rocked Wednesday when an American Airlines flight carrying athletes, parents and coaches from a development camp in Wichita, Kansas, collided with an Army helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River.

Sixty passengers and four crew members on the flight, along with three soldiers aboard the Blackhawk helicopter, are presumed dead. Among those killed were young skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, their mothers and coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, all of them representing the prestigious Skating Club of Boston.

The accident was an eerie reminder of the 1961 plane crash that killed the U.S. delegation en route to the world championships in Prague. Many of the top skaters on that team, including sisters Laurie and Maribel Owen, were from the Boston club.

All 64 people aboard an American Airlines jet that collided with an Army helicopter were feared dead in what was likely to be the worst U.S. aviation disaster in almost a quarter century, officials said Thursday.

At least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River after the helicopter apparently flew into the path of the jet late Wednesday as it was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, officials said. The plane carried 60 passengers and four crew. Three soldiers were aboard the helicopter.

“We don’t believe there are any survivors,” said John Donnelly, the fire chief in the nation’s capital. “We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation.”

If no one survived, the collision would be the deadliest U.S. air crash since 2001.

American Airlines passenger jet collides with Blackhawk helicopter while landing at Reagan National Airport

Passenger jet with 64 aboard collides with a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington; Trump “fully briefed on this accident”.

Fire chief says everyone aboard American Airlines jet that collided with Army helicopter is feared dead. 

-AP

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser says, “We are going to recover our fellow citizens,”. 

The person who told The Associated Press that there had been multiple deaths was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas said, “When one person dies it’s a tragedy, but when many, many, many people die it’s an unbearable sorrow.”

-AP

Hundreds of rescuers are searching the frigid waters of the Potomac River for any survivors of the plane crash.

Images show boats around a partly submerged wing and what appeared to be the mangled wreckage of the plane’s fuselage.

Helicopters fly overhead with powerful searchlights scanning the murky waters, while emergency vehicles lit up the banks of the Potomac in a long line of blinking red lights.

The water temperature was just above freezing.

-AP

American Airlines flight 5342 was inbound to Reagan National at an altitude of about 400 feet and a speed of about 140 miles per hour when it suffered a rapid loss of altitude over the Potomac River, according to data from its radio transponder.

The Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine jet was manufactured in 2004 and can be configured to carry up to 70 passengers.

Reagan Washington National is located along the Potomac River, just southwest of the city. It’s a popular choice because it’s much closer than the larger Dulles International Airport, which is deeper in Virginia.

Depending on the runway being used, flights into Reagan can offer passengers spectacular views of landmarks like the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the National Mall and the U.S. Capitol. It’s a postcard-worthy welcome for tourists visiting the city.

- AP

President Donald Trump says he’s been briefed on the ‘terrible accident’ at Reagan National Airport.

In a statement late Wednesday, Trump thanked first responders for their “incredible work,” noting that he was “monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she would be deploying all available resources from the U.S. Coast Guard for search and rescue efforts.

“We are actively monitoring the situation & stand ready to support local responders,” Noem said in a post on X.

Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asks the helicopter if it has the arriving plane in sight: “PAT25, do you have the CRJ in sight?”

The controller makes another radio call to PAT25 moments later: “PAT25 pass behind the CRJ.”

The two aircraft collide seconds later.

The audio from flight tracking sites doesn’t record any response from the helicopter, if any, to the warnings from air traffic control.

The plane’s radio transponder stopped transmitting about 2,400 feet (730 meters) short of the runway, roughly over the middle of the river.

- AP

The last fatal crash involving a U.S. commercial airline occurred in 2009 in New York, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Everyone aboard the Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane was killed, including 45 passengers, 2 pilots and 2 flight attendants. Another person on the ground also died, bringing the total death toll to 50. An investigation determined that the captain accidentally caused the plane to stall as it approached the airport in Buffalo.

- AP

The U.S. Army said the helicopter that collided with a passenger jet was a UH-60 Blackhawk based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. A crew of three soldiers were onboard the helicopter, an Army official said. The helicopter was on a training flight.

Military aircraft frequently conduct training flights in and around the congested and heavily-restricted airspace around the nation’s capital for familiarization and continuity of government planning.

- AP

In a post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump questioned the tactics of the military helicopter and the air traffic controllers — both agencies that report to him.

Writing that the “airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach for an extended period of time” on a “CLEAR NIGHT,” Mr. Trump questioned, “why didn’t the helicopter go up or down or turn,” and “why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane.”

“What a terrible night this has been. God Bless you all!” he added in a subsequent post.

- AP

Washington Fire and EMS Chief John A. Donnelly said that conditions are “extremely rough for responders,” with cold weather and intense wind.

The Potomac River is about 8 feet deep where the aircraft crashed after their collision.

“The water is dark. It is murky,” Mr. Connelly said.

- AP

Officials offered few details on the status of the victims as they concluded their early-morning press briefing.

“I can’t say anything about the rescue operation right now,” said Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, as reporters continue to press for updates on the passengers.

She also declined to comment on the condition of aircraft, which remains submerged in the Potomac River.

Asked if there are any survivors, Fire and EMS Chief John A. Donnelly, responded: “We don’t know yet. But we’re working.”

Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas said “when one person dies it’s a tragedy, but when many, many, many people die it’s an unbearable sorrow.”

There are currently about 300 responders working on the rescue operation.

- AP

Russian figure skaters and coaches Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were aboard the American Airlines plane that crashed near Reagan Washington National Airport, Russian state-run TASS news agency reported, citing a source.

Shishkova and Naumov, who were married, won the world championship in pairs figure skating in 1994.

An American Airlines regional passenger jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed into the Potomac River after a midair collision near Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night, officials said.

- Reuters

The crash is serving as a major test for two of the Trump administration’s newest agency leaders. Pete Hegseth, sworn in days ago as defense secretary, posted on social media that an investigation has been “launched immediately” by the Army and the Defense Department. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, just sworn in earlier this week, said in a social media post that he was “at the FAA HQ and closely monitoring the situation.”

American Airlines Flight 5342 was inbound to Reagan National at an altitude of about 400 feet and a speed of about 140 miles per hour when it suffered a rapid loss of altitude over the Potomac River, according to data from its radio transponder. The Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine jet, manufactured in 2004, can be configured to carry up to 70 passengers.

A few minutes before landing, air traffic controllers asked the arriving commercial jet if it could land on the shorter Runway 33 at Reagan National and the pilots said they were able. Controllers then cleared the plane to land on Runway 33. Flight tracking sites showed the plane adjust its approach to the new runway.

Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later: “PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ.” Seconds after that, the two aircraft collided.

The plane’s radio transponder stopped transmitting about 2,400 feet short of the runway, roughly over the middle of the river.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the midair crash occurred around 9 p.m. EST when a regional jet that had departed from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a military helicopter on a training flight while on approach to an airport runway. It occurred in some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world, just over three miles south of the White House and the Capitol.

Investigators will try to piece together the aircrafts’ final moments before their collision, including contact with air traffic controllers as well as a loss of altitude by the passenger jet.