A jet with 60 passengers and four crew members collided with an Army helicopter while approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC, sending the two aircraft plummeting into the Potomac River.
Everyone on board the two aircraft is feared dead, officials said on Thursday.
The collision occurred on Wednesday night in some of the world’s most tightly controlled and monitored airspace, just over three miles south of the White House and the US Capitol.
– The crash:
The collision happened at around 9pm local time when a regional jet at the end of a flight from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a military helicopter on a training exercise, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
A few minutes before the jet was to land, air traffic controllers asked American Airlines Flight 5342 if it could do so on a shorter runway, and the pilots agreed.
Controllers cleared the jet to land and 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 a helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later, saying “PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ” — apparently telling the helicopter to wait for the Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine jet to pass. There was no reply. Seconds after that, the aircraft collided.
The plane’s radio transponder stopped transmitting about 2,400 feet short of the runway, roughly over the middle of the Potomac.
The body of the plane was found upside-down in three sections in waist-deep water, officials said. The helicopter’s wreckage was also found.
Authorities conducted a massive search-and-rescue operation that turned into a recovery mission.
Roughly 300 first responders were at the scene early on Thursday. Inflatable boats were combing the river and first responders set up light towers along the shore to illuminate the area. Helicopters from law enforcement agencies throughout the region were also being used in the methodical search for bodies.
“We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” Washington fire chief John Donnelly said at a Thursday morning news conference. “We don’t believe there are any survivors.”
– Victims:
If everyone on board the plane did die, it would be the deadliest US air crash in nearly 24 years. At least 28 bodies had been pulled from the river’s icy waters as of mid-morning.
The passengers included figure skaters returning from the 2025 US Figure Skating Championships in Wichita and two of their Russian coaches, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.
Other Russian nationals in addition to Ms Shishkova and Mr Naumov were also on the plane, according to the Kremlin. Coaches, skaters and others had been at the championships, which concluded on Sunday, and a development camp.
Ms Shishkova and Mr Naumov were married and won a 1994 world championship in pairs figure skating.
“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” US Figure Skating said in a statement.
Located along the Potomac just south west of Washington, Reagan National is a popular choice because it is much closer to the city than the larger Dulles International Airport.
All take-offs and landings from Reagan were halted. It was set to reopen at 11am on Thursday, the FAA said.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a news conference that the night was clear and that prior to the collision, the plane and helicopter flight paths “were not unusual for what happens in the DC airspace”.
“I would just say that everyone who flies in American skies expects that we fly safely,” he said. “That when you depart an airport, you get to your destination. That didn’t happen last night, and I know that President Trump, his administration, the FAA, the DOT, we will not rest until we have answers for the families and for the flying public.”
– The investigation:
Investigators will try to piece together the aircraft’s final moments before their collision, including contact with air traffic controllers as well as a loss of altitude by the jet.
– The aircraft:
The helicopter was a UH-60 Blackhawk based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, according to the US Army. A crew of three soldiers were on board the helicopter, an Army official said.
The plane was a Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine jet and was manufactured in 2004. It can carry up to 70 passengers.
– History of fatal aircraft crashes:
Fatal crashes of commercial aircraft in the US are rare. The last was in 2009 near Buffalo, New York. All 45 passengers and the four crew members were killed when the Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane crashed into a house. One person on the ground was also killed.
The incident on Wednesday recalled the crash of an Air Florida flight that plummeted into the Potomac on January 13, 1982, killing 78 people. That crash was attributed to bad weather.
