ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — A jet with 60 passengers and four crew members collided with an Army helicopter while approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C., sending the two aircraft plummeting into the Potomac River. Everyone on board the two aircraft is feared dead, officials said Thursday.
The collision occurred Wednesday night in some of the world’s most tightly controlled and monitored airspace, just over 3 miles (5 kilometers) south of the White House and the U.S. Capitol.
Here are some things to know about the collision:
The crash
The collision happened at around 9 p.m. 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 copter 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 (732 meters) 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.
Emergency response
Authorities conducted a massive search-and-rescue operation that turned into a recovery mission.
Roughly 300 first responders were at the scene early 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 U.S. 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 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita and two of their Russian coaches, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.
Other Russian nationals in addition to Shishkova and Naumov were also on the plane, according to the Kremlin. Coaches, skaters and others had been at the championships, which concluded Sunday, and a development camp.
Shishkova and 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,” U.S. Figure Skating said in a statement.
The airport
Located along the Potomac just southwest of Washington, Reagan National is a popular choice because it’s much closer to the city than the larger Dulles International Airport.
All takeoffs and landings from Reagan were halted. It was set to reopen at 11 a.m. 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 D.C. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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 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.
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