All 67 people aboard the American Airlines flight from Kansas and the U.S. Army helicopter were killed in a collision last night over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, officials said. This is the country’s deadliest aviation disaster since 2001.
At least 28 bodies had been recovered from the water as of Thursday morning, D.C. Fire Chief John A. Donnelly Sr. told reporters.
Officials said American Eagle Flight 5342 was on a standard descent to the runway in the busy airspace when the passenger et and Army helicopter collided midair, bursting into flames and plunging into the Potomac River. The military helicopter was found upside down in the water and the plane had broken into pieces, according to witnesses.
President Donald Trump confirmed there were no survivors and described the deadly collision as “a tragedy of terrible proportions” as he addressed reporters at the White House. “This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital and in our nation’s history and a tragedy of terrible proportions as one nation, we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly,” Trump said on Thursday morning.
What we know about the plane
There were 60 passengers and four crew members on American Eagle Flight 5342, which was traveling from Wichita to Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia. The flight was a Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet operated by American Airlines subsidiary PSA Airlines.
What we know about the helicopter
The U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was operating out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the three crew members were from the Bravo Company 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir, an army base in Virginia. The helicopter crew involved in the crash was “fairly experienced” and was doing an “annual proficiency training flight” at the time of the collision.
Cause of midair collision
The cause of the collision is unclear: The National Transportation Safety Board said it was too soon to speculate and said it would release a preliminary report within 30 days. Officials said flight conditions were clear and that the jet coming from Wichita was making a routine landing when the helicopter flew into its path.
“Everything was routine up to the point of the accident,” Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin told Reuters. The airport is just across the river from Washington near Virginia.
Some reports suggest that the air traffic control tower at Reagan National Airport was understaffed at the time when a passenger plane and a military helicopter collided in midair, killing 67 people.
According to the report by The Washington Post, two people were handling the jobs of four among other colleagues at the control tower at the time of the collision. The control tower staffing levels, the report concludes, were “not normal” for the time of day or the amount of air traffic over D.C., where an average of more than 100 helicopters a day zip around. Only a day before, another plane had to abort a landing at the same airport to avoid a crash with a helicopter.
Victims of the D.C. midair collision
The flight carried several elite figure skaters from both the U.S. and Russia who were traveling back from a competition in Wichita. Doug Zeghibe, CEO of The Skating Club of Boston, said 14 skaters returning home from the national development camp in Wichita, Kansas, were killed in the crash.
Senator Maria Cantwell said that the dead also included citizens from Russia, the Philippines and Germany. These included two former champion figure skaters from Russia, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. Two Chinese citizens had been killed in the crash.
The Chinese embassy in the U.S. confirmed that two Chinese nationals were among the victims of the crash and would provide consular protection and assistance. “The Chinese Embassy extends deepest condolences to all the victims and sympathies to the bereaved families,” an embassy statement said.
Investigators find black boxes after deadly plane crash
Investigators confirmed they have recovered black boxes — a cockpit voice recorder and a flight data recorder — from American Eagle Flight 5342. While it is too early to conclude the cause of the collision, President Donald Trump baselessly blamed a diversity program but provided no evidence for the claim.
A preliminary report about the incident is expected within 30 days.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading the investigation, which will also involve the Federal Aviation Administration and the Army. “We look at the human, the machine and the environment,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said. “We will look at all the humans that were involved in this accident. We will look at the aircraft. We will look at the helicopter. We will look at the environment in which they were operating in. That is standard.”