An American Airline carrying 64 people crashed into Washington’s Potomac River Wednesday after colliding midair with a military helicopter on a night training exercise, prompting a desperate search for survivors in the dark, near-freezing water.
The incident involved a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet and a Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk helicopter, both of which went down while attempting to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
American Eagle Flight 5342 had departed from Wichita, Kansas, bound for Washington, DC. The jet, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, collided with the Black Hawk helicopter, which had three soldiers on board.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the collision occurred around 9 p.m. local time as both aircraft were approaching Runway 33.
The plane was approaching Reagan National Airport at around 9:00 pm (0200 GMT) after flying from Wichita, Kansas, when the collision happened.
American Airlines, whose subsidiary PSA Airlines operated the Bombardier regional jet, said “there were 60 passengers and four crew members on board the aircraft.”
A US Army official said the helicopter involved was a Black Hawk carrying three soldiers — their status currently unknown. They had been on a “training flight,” a separate military spokesperson said in a statement.
Washington police said “there is no confirmed information on casualties at this time.”
In response, all flights were grounded immediately, and emergency teams were deployed to assist with search and rescue operations. A massive search and rescue operation was in progress, with divers visible in the glare of powerful lights as they plunged into the snow-lined Potomac to scour the wreckage of both aircraft.
“We’re going to be out there as long as it takes, and we’re obviously trying to get to people as soon as possible, but we are going to recover our fellow citizens,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters.
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Washington Fire Chief John Donnelly said at a press briefing that emergency crews, totaling about 300 people, were working in “extremely rough” conditions and gave little indication they expected to find anyone alive.
“We will re-evaluate where we are with the rescue operation in the morning, when we get a better sense of it,” Donnelly said.
“But we are still out there working, and we’re going to continue that throughout the night.”
A police official at the scene told CBS News that three debris fields were visible in the river, and by 11:30 p.m. ET, at least 18 bodies had been recovered.
“No survivors had been found so far,” the police official said.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has raised questions over the collision of a passenger flight and an Army helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington.
He said in an official statement that he had been “fully briefed” and said of any victims, “may God bless their souls.”
But less than four hours after the disaster — and while other officials stressed they were waiting for investigations to unfold — he returned to social media to critique air traffic control.
“The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“Why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of all planes at Reagan National and the airport was not due to reopen until 11:00 am (1600 GMT) Thursday.
American Airlines’ chief executive issued a video statement in which he expressed “deep sorrow”, while US Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas called the collision “nothing short of a nightmare.”