By Associated Press’s LOLITA C. BALDOR, TARA COPP, BRIAN MELLEY, and SARAH BRUMFIELD
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP)—In what is likely to be the biggest aviation accident in almost 25 years, officials announced Thursday that all 64 people on board an American Airlines plane that collided with an Army helicopter were believed dead.
According to officials, the helicopter reportedly flew into the path of the jet late Wednesday as it was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, resulting in the removal of at least 28 bodies from the frigid waters of the Potomac River. There were four crew members and sixty passengers on the aircraft. The helicopter carried three soldiers.
The nation’s capital’s fire chief, John Donnelly, stated, “We don’t think there are any survivors.” At this stage, the effort is being transitioned from a rescue to a recovery.
First responders were scouring a portion of the Potomac River as far south as the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, about three miles south of the airport, after discovering the plane upside-down in three sections in waist-deep water, according to Donnelly. The wreckage of the helicopter was also discovered.
The collision would be the deadliest U.S. plane crash since 2001 if no one survived.
Officials claimed flying conditions were clear as the jet arrived from Wichita, Kansas, carrying Russian and American figure skaters among others. The cause of the incident was not immediately known. At the moment of the collision, it was getting ready for a standard landing.
According to American Airlines CEO Robert Isom, it struck a military plane during its last approach into Reagan National during a routine approach. We don’t currently know why the military plane crossed the course of the… plane.
Later Thursday, President Donald Trump expected to speak from the White House about the disaster.
Images taken from the river revealed the shredded wreckage of the plane’s fuselage and boats around the partially submerged wing.
As stranded travelers waited for flights to resume inside Reagan National Airport on Thursday morning, they avoided TV crews and gazed out the terminal’s windows at the Potomac, where recovery efforts were just beginning to take shape.
Since Wednesday night, Aster Andemicael had been at the airport with her aging father, who was taking a plane to Indiana to see relatives. She thought about the victims and their families for a large portion of the long night.
Her voice cracked as she said, “I’ve been crying since yesterday.” Around the time of the crash, she remembered seeing a young woman rushing wildly around the airport, perhaps looking for a loved one who would never come back.
She said, I pray for them. This is terrible.
Investigators will attempt to piece together the last moments of the aircraft’s flight, including its interactions with air traffic controllers, before to the accident.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated, “I would just say that everyone who flies in American skies expects that we fly safely.” that you arrive at your destination after leaving an airport. That didn’t happen last night, and I am confident that the FAA, DOT, President Trump, and his administration won’t stop until we have answers for the flying public and their families. You should feel secure knowing that you are safe when flying.
On Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration stated that Reagan Airport would reopen at 11 a.m.
Duffy, who was sworn in earlier this week, was asked if he could convince Americans that the world’s safest airspace still belongs to the United States.
Can I assure the flying public in the United States that the airspace in the United States is the safest and most secure in the world? He replied, “And the answer to that is, absolutely yes, we do.”
Authorities have early indicators of what went wrong
According to Duffy, the night was clear, the plane and helicopter were both flying according to their regular routines, and the aircraft and the tower were communicating normally.
Duffy stated, “We have early indicators of what happened here,” but he would not go into further detail until an investigation was completed.
“Having a military plane flying the river and another plane landing at the airport is not uncommon,” he said. Duffy responded that the helicopter knew there was a plane nearby when asked if the plane knew there was a helicopter nearby.
Duffy responded, “From what I’ve seen so far, do I think this was preventable?” when asked about Trump’s suggestion in an overnight social media post that the incident could have been avoided. Of course.
Likely the deadliest plane crash since November 2001
It would be the deadliest U.S. airline disaster if all 260 people on board perished, making it the deadliest since Nov. 12, 2001, when an American Airlines flight crashed into a residential neighborhood in Belle Harbor, New York, shortly after taking off from Kennedy Airport.
Near Buffalo, New York, in 2009, there was the most recent significant deadly crash involving a commercial aircraft in the United States. The Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane killed two pilots, two flight attendants, and forty-five passengers. The death toll now stands at 50 as another person on the ground passed away. According to an investigation, the pilot unintentionally caused the aircraft to stall as it got closer to Buffalo’s airport.
A group of figure skaters, their coaches, and family members were among the passengers on Wednesday’s flight. They were returning from a development camp that took place after the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.
In a statement, U.S. Figure Skating said, “We are deeply saddened by this unimaginable tragedy and hold the families of the victims close to our hearts.”
The Kremlin recognized two of those coaches as Russian figure skaters Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, who competed twice in the Olympics and won the pairs title at the 1994 world championships. Their son, Maxim Naumov, competes in figure skating for the United States, and they are listed as coaches by the Skating Club of Boston.
The group was extremely gifted, according to club CEO Doug Zeghibe, who also stated that the skating world would be affected for years by their passing.
“People are just in disbelief,” Zeghibe stated. To us, they are like family.
What happened
Just over 3 miles south of the White House and the Capitol, the airborne disaster happened before 9 p.m. EST in arguably of the world’s most closely monitored and controlled airspace, according to the FAA.
Data from American Airlines Flight 5342’s radio transponder indicates that it rapidly lost height over the Potomac River when it was inbound to Reagan National at a speed of around 140 mph (225 kph) and an altitude of approximately 400 feet (122 meters). The 2004 Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine aircraft, built in Canada, has a maximum capacity of 70 people.
The pilots of the approaching commercial jet responded that they could land on the shorter Runway 33 at Reagan National when air traffic authorities questioned them a few minutes prior to arrival. After that, controllers gave the aircraft the all-clear to land on Runway 33. The plane’s approach to the new runway was adjusted, according to flight-tracking websites.
An air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it could see the approaching airliner less than 30 seconds before the tragedy. Shortly after, the controller radioed the helicopter again to let it know that PAT 25 was passing behind the CRJ. The two planes crashed into each other a few seconds later.
About 2,400 feet (732 meters) short of the runway, or just over the center of the river, the plane’s transponder ceased sending out signals.
Two sets of aircraft-like lights appeared to merge into a fireball on video captured by an observation camera at the nearby Kennedy Center.
The helicopter was identified by the U.S. Army as a UH-60 Blackhawk, which is stationed in Virginia’s Fort Belvoir. Such training flights in and around the nation’s capital are often carried out by military aircraft.
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Brumfield reported from Cockeysville, Maryland, and Melley from London. This article was written in Washington by Zeke Miller, Meg Kinnard, Chris Megerian, Lea Skene, and Michael Biesecker of the Associated Press.