No more hope of finding survivors after plane with 64 aboard collides with Army helicopter near Washington DC
The conditions in the Potomac River, where the aircraft fell, are extremely rough for the responders, says city fire chief. The rescue effort has now switched to a recovery effort
Officials said on Thursday there is no more hope of finding survivors from the midair collision over Washington DC between an American Airlines flight and a military helicopter. It is the deadliest aviation disaster in the U.S. since November 12, 2001, when an American Airlines flight crashed in New York, killing all 260 people on board. So far, 27 bodies from the commercial passenger jet and one from the military helicopter have been recovered.
A large search operation got underway early Thursday in Washington DC after the commercial jet collided with an Army helicopter and fell into the Potomac River while attempting to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has confirmed that there were 64 people aboard the American Airlines aircraft (60 passengers and four crew members) and three soldiers in the military helicopter.
“We are now at a point where we’re switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation. At this point, we don’t believe there are any survivors from this accident,” said DC’s Fire Chief John A. Donnelly in a Thursday morning news conference.
Several members of the U.S. figure skating community were aboard the commercial aircraft, the organization overseeing the sport nationwide has confirmed. The athletes were returning home from an event held alongside the US Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas, where the regional flight had departed from. Russian authorities have stated that two world champions from that country were also on board the plane.
Donnelly said the conditions in the icy cold and choppy waters of the Potomac are dangerous for rescuers: “The conditions out there are extremely rough for the responders.” Some 300 first responders were on the scene as inflatable rescue boats were launched into the river from a point along the George Washington Parkway, just north of the airport. First responders set up light towers from the shore to illuminate the area near the collision site. At least a half-dozen boats were scanning the water using searchlights.
American Airlines Flight 5342 was inbound to Reagan National at an altitude of about 400 feet and a speed of about 140 miles per hour when it suffered a rapid loss of altitude over the Potomac River, according to data from its radio transponder. A few minutes before landing, air traffic controllers asked the arriving commercial jet if it could land on the shorter Runway 33 at Reagan National and the pilots said they were able. Controllers then cleared the plane to land on Runway 33. 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 the helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later: “PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ.” Seconds after that, the two aircraft collided.
The U.S. Army described the helicopter as a UH-60 Blackhawk based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. The helicopter was on a training flight. Military aircraft frequently conduct training flights in and around the congested and heavily-restricted airspace around the nation’s capital for familiarization and continuity of government planning.
In a post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump called the crash “a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented.” The crash is serving as a major test for two of the Trump administration’s newest agency leaders. Pete Hegseth, sworn in days ago as defense secretary, posted on social media that an investigation has been “launched immediately” by the Army and the Defense Department. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, just sworn in earlier this week, said at a somber news conference at the airport early Thursday that his agency would provide all possible resources to the investigation.
Reagan Airport will reopen at 11 a.m. Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced.
In Washington, people still remember the crash of Air Florida Flight 90, which took off from Ronald Reagan National Airport on January 13, 1982, bound for Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with a stopover in Tampa, Florida. The 12-year-old Boeing 737 crashed on the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac, killing all 74 people on board and leaving only five survivors.
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