What we know about the crash and investigation
- All 67 people aboard an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight from Kansas were killed in a collision last night over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, officials said.
- The cause of the collision is unclear, and the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. A preliminary report by the Federal Aviation Administration indicated that air traffic control staffing was “not normal” the time of the crash.
- Investigators tonight recovered two flight data recorders — black boxes — from the American Airlines jet.
- President Donald Trump implied that diversity, equity and inclusion programs could be the cause, although an investigation has only just begun.
- Among the passengers on the doomed flight were elite figure skaters returning from a training camp in Wichita.
'FAA employees with disabilities did not cause last night’s tragic plane crash,’ group says
The American Association of People with Disabilities were among those who responded to Trump’s claims that workers with medical conditions may have been responsible for last night’s air disaster.
“FAA employees with disabilities did not cause last night’s tragic plane crash,” the group said.
“The investigation into the crash is still ongoing. It is extremely inappropriate for the President to use this tragedy to push an anti-diversity hiring agenda. Doing so makes all Americans less safe,” it said in a statement on X.
Earlier today, Trump appeared to blame past administrations in discussing the midair collision that killed 67 people, and he attacked DEI policies and mentioned the FAA and the air traffic controller workforce.
Trump said there had been “various articles that appeared prior to my entering office.”
He said one read: “The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative, spelled out on the agency’s website.”
Timothy Shriver, chair of the Special Olympics, posted that quote from Trump on Instagram in disputing his claim.
"Regarding President Trump’s comments that the FAA includes a focus on hiring people with severe intellectual disabilities and that the FAA wants individuals with severe disabilities to be air traffic controllers, to our knowledge, no persons with profound intellectual disabilities are employed as air traffic controllers in the U.S. or elsewhere,” Shriver wrote.
2 black boxes from crashed jet have been recovered
Two black boxes from the jet have been recovered, a source with knowledge of the investigation said.
Kansas officials expect to get names of passengers tomorrow
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said the NTSB told her that it expects to provide her office with the flight manifest tomorrow afternoon, once all of the passenger's families have been notified.
At a news conference, Kelly also assured future airline passengers that "there's probably no safer mode of transportation" than flying.
"When all is said and done, this one was probably an avoidable accident," she said. "So people should carry on with their plans. It's safe."
Victims on the minds of travelers at Reagan Airport a day after the crash
Reporting from Reagan National Airport
Reagan National Airport resumed flight operations this morning, and last night’s deadly crash was top of minds — and hearts — of passengers at the airport today.
They are very aware of what happened and became emotional thinking about the tragedy.
“There’s no words to describe how sad it is to see something like,” said Rachel Hillock, who traveled to Washington today on a Southwest flight from Chicago with her two daughters.
They flew over the wreckage site on the Potomac River as they arrived.
Hundreds of flights into and out of the airport were canceled today.
Army secretary nominee says flight training near airport like Reagan may not be appropriate
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the helicopter crew involved in the deadly crash at Reagan National was on an “annual proficiency training flight” when it collided with the American Eagle flight last night.
Daniel Driscoll, the military veteran and businessman whom Trump has nominated to lead the Army, said today at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee that conducting such training near an airport like Reagan might not be appropriate.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said at the hearing that last year had the most Class A flight mishap rates per 100,000 hours since 2007, according to the Army's fiscal 2024 accident or mishap assessment released last month. She asked Driscoll what his strategy would be to try to keep training flights out of harm's way.
Driscoll said the crash "is an absolute tragedy" and one that "seems to be preventable."
"There are appropriate times to take risk, and there are inappropriate times to take risk," he said. "I don’t know the details around this one, but after doing it, if confirmed, and working with this committee to figure out the facts, I think we might need to look at where is an appropriate time to take training risk, and it may not be near, at an airport like Reagan."
Boston-based figure skaters fondly remember lost clubmates
The deaths of two young figure skaters, their mothers and a pair of coaches were tantamount to losing blood relatives, their Boston-based teammates said.
“We lost family members today,” Misha Mitrofanov, who teamed with Alisa Efimova to win the U.S. pairs championship, told reporters in Norwood, Massachusetts. “This is something that will take a lot of time for us to process, and it will never be the same. But they will always be remembered.”
Their Skating Club of Boston teammates Spencer Lane, 16, and Jinna Han, 13, were in Wichita for a special training camp targeting promising young skaters before they boarded an ill-fate flight home via Reagan National.
“Absolutely phenomenal,” Jimmy Ma, 29, who finished fifth at the nationals in Wichita last weekend, said of his clubmates. “Back when I was their age, they would blow me out of the water. Even Jinna at 13 years old, I couldn’t do anything, and she was already 10 times better than me.”
With no direct flights from Wichita to Boston, everyone took long multileg journeys home. Mitrofanov and Efimova had to go through Dallas, while Ma said he “flew all over the U.S. before I got back.”
Chart: A recent spike in Army aviation branch mishaps
The Army tracks its aviation branch mishaps, and according to its data there were more serious mishaps — involving deaths, disability or multimillion dollars of damage — last year than there were in any year of the previous decade.
Air traffic control staffing 'allowed, but not ideal,' under safety standards
Reporting from Washington, D.C.
Typically at Reagan Washington National Airport, the air traffic control tower has one controller for planes and one controller for helicopters.
Last night, however, there were not two controllers in the tower, sources said. Instead, one controller was handling both planes and choppers, which is allowed under FAA standards but is not the ideal scenario.
Questions are surfacing about the level of staffing, given the volume of traffic last night at the airport.
The NTSB is methodical in the way it handles investigations, and typically a definitive cause in an incident is not determined for 12 months.
Tragedy stuns many in Wichita
Reporting from Wichita, Kansas
Many in the Wichita community are in complete and utter shock since last night's deadly crash of a jet that originated in the Kansas city. Many here say they haven't been able to sleep.
The city of about 500,000 people had recently hosted the Prevagen U.S. Figure Skating Championship, which had been a point of pride for the city. More than a dozen athletes and members of the figure skating community were on the doomed flight.
As Wichita learns the identities of those who were killed, a standing-room-only group gathered for a vigil today to offer support, condolences and prayers for those affected by the deadly crash.
Many say the pain will linger for some time.
Without evidence, Trump casts blame for crash on DEI policies
Speaking to reporters in the White House Briefing Room, Trump today implied that diversity, equity and inclusion policies within the FAA — policies he ordered an end to last week — contributed to the deadly plane collision.
“A group within the FAA determined that the workforce was too white, then they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change that and to change it immediately,” Trump said.
When reporters asked how he could determine that diversity had something to do with the crash while the investigation is in the early stages, he replied, "Because I have common sense."
Trump's comments quickly drew condemnation from the NAACP, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and a former investigator for the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board.
NTSB leaders said they will take a "careful approach" in their investigation and "look at all the humans that were involved in this accident."
Meanwhile, some Democrats in Congress said the crash illustrates their concerns that the air traffic in Washington's sky is too congested, and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said, "Clearly, this was a confluence of errors."
What we know about the crash
- American Eagle Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided midair with an Army Black Hawk helicopter carrying three people last night as the commercial airliner was attempting to land at Reagan Washington National Airport.
- All 67 people on both aircraft are presumed dead, Washington Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly said today.
- Emergency personnel are trying to recover remains from the Potomac River.
- A cause has not been determined. National Transportation Safety Board leaders said the agency will issue a preliminary report within 30 days.
- Victims on the American Airlines flight included Russian Olympic figure skaters, youth skaters and their parents, and Skating Club of Boston coaches, who were returning from a national development camp in Wichita.
- Members of Plumbers, Pipefitters and Steamfitters Local 602, which is based in the Washington area, were on board, as well. Suburban school districts in Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Virginia also said members of their communities were among the victims.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the helicopter crew was “fairly experienced,” that it belonged to a battalion at a nearby Army base in Virginia and that it was on an “annual proficiency training flight.”
- A full list of the victims' names has not been released.