WASHINGTON — Sixty-four people aboard a commercial airliner died Wednesday after it collided with a military helicopter midair near Reagan Washington National Airport.
Both the American Eagle jet and Army Black Hawk are in the Potomac River. The Black Hawk had three personnel onboard.
The collision occurred shortly before 9 p.m. ET.
President Donald Trump called the deadly collision a “a tragedy of terrible proportions” and said there were no survivors as he addressed reporters in the White House briefing room Thursday morning.
What we know about the plane
There were 60 passengers and four crew members on American Eagle Flight 5342, which was traveling from Wichita to Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, just over the Washington line, according to American Airlines.
The crash took place near the airport.
The flight number, 5432, will be retired, American Airlines said. Retiring flight numbers is a common practice following major aviation accidents.
What we know about the helicopter
The Army confirmed the helicopter was a Black Hawk operating out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the crew was “fairly experienced” and completing an “annual proficiency training flight” at the time of the collision.
Hegseth said the crew members were from the Bravo company 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir, an army base in Virginia that’s about 14 miles away from the airport.
A source involved with the search told NBc News that investigators are confident they will be able to locate the flight data recorder, or black box, from the helicopter.
No survivors from crash
All passengers and crew on both aircraft are presumed dead. Dozens of bodies have been recovered from the Potomac River amid a major recovery effort.
The flight carried several elite figure skaters from both the U.S. and Russia who were traveling back from a competition in Wichita.
Doug Zeghibe, cEO of The Skating club of Boston, said 14 skaters returning home from the national development camp in Wichita, Kansas, were killed in the crash.
Of those, six were from The Skating club of Boston — two coaches, two teenage athletes and the athletes’ mothers. Those six were identified as athlete Jinna Han; Jinna’s mother, Jin Han; athlete Spencer Lane; Spencer’s mother, christine Lane; and coaches Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova.
At least three of the crash victims were Russian nationals, including two former world champions in pair skating, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, according to Russia's Foreign Ministry. The chinese Embassy in Washington said two chinese nationals were killed in the crash.
By Friday morning, officials said that at least 41 bodies had been pulled from the water. Divers joined by National Transportation Safety Board teams are continuing recovery efforts.
D.c. Fire and EMS chief John Donnelly said in a news conference Friday that all bodies in the Potomac River are expected to be recovered, adding that the plane’s fuselage will need to be removed to guarantee access to additional remains.
The investigation into the crash
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation. The Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Army will also be involved in the investigation. The process can take a year or longer.
The NTSB said its investigators recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, and the black boxes are at a lab for evaluation.
Weather and communication did not appear to be issues when the crash occurred Wednesday night, as skies were clear and pilots were in communication with air traffic control.
Two aviation experts also told NBc News that there was no evidence pointing to missteps by the pilots.
Experts expect dialogue with air traffic control to be one of the main focal points of the investigation.
Both the plane and the helicopter were being flown by experienced pilots who had “standard communication” with air traffic control when they crashed, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters.
A source with knowledge of the situation told NBc News that at the time of the crash, there was one controller in the air traffic control tower focused on both helicopters and airplanes, according to a preliminary internal FAA safety report on the collision. Usually, the tower has a separate controller who deals exclusively with helicopter traffic. FAA safety standards allow for the combined position.
Trump sparked controversy when he implied at a news conference that diversity, equity and inclusion policies may have been the cause of the crash, although an investigation into the fatal disaster has only just begun.
“We have to have our smartest people” as air traffic controllers, Trump said Thursday morning. “It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. ...They have to be talented, naturally talented. Geniuses. can’t have regular people doing their job."
