by Mick the Ram

An American Airlines passenger jet has crashed into the Potomac River in the US capital Washington DC after being struck by a Black Hawk military helicopter.

Flight 5342 was approaching Runway 33 of Ronald Reagan National Airport at around 9pm local time, with 60 passengers and 4 crew members on board after leaving Wichita, Kansas.

The Sikorsky H-60 helicopter is believed to have been on a training exercise carrying three soldiers from the nearby Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

More than 300 responders are at the scene and so far 19 bodies have been pulled from the freezing water, where the aircraft has split in two and the chopper lies upside down in a depth of approximately 8 feet.

It is feared that all 67 of those on board the two aircraft will have lost their lives as divers – who have already recovered what appears to be one of the two black boxes – continue to search the freezing water.

Flights that were supposed to land at the airport are being diverted to Dulles International Airport, which is around 28 miles away.

Statement from FAA

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a statement immediately after the incident which read: “A PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet collided in mid-air with a Sikorsky H-60 helicopter while on approach to Runway 33 at Reagan Washington National Airport around 21:00 local time.

“PSA was operating as Flight 5342 for American Airlines and it departed from Wichita, Kansas. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate. The NTSB will lead the investigation and we will provide updates as information comes in.”

No response to Air Traffic Control?

According to some early reports, moments before the crash, an air traffic controller can be heard asking the helicopter if it has the American Airlines passenger jet “in sight”.

Then another warning is given by air traffic control and seconds later the collision happens. There does not appear to have been any response from the helicopter to the warnings. The audio was published on Live ATC, which is a site that focuses on aviation communications for more than 1,200 airports, although this is still to be verified.

Below freezing

Temperatures are thought to be below freezing in the area of the collision, with ice covering parts of the river. Surviving in such conditions for any period of time are said to be unlikely, as hypothermia sets in very quickly.

Therefore, it is not expected that any survivors will be found.

Witness saw fireball

An eyewitness told local media they saw sparks and flashes when the mid-air collision happened. Ari Schulman said what unfolded quickly changed from what he considered to be “completely normal” to something that was obviously “very, very wrong”.

He said there was “a stream of sparks” coming from underneath the jet which he likened to a “giant Roman candle”, before looking back to see “a fireball”.

Message from President

President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he had been briefed that the plane was on a “perfect and routine line of approach to the airport” and that the helicopter was going “straight at the aircraft” for an extended period of time.

He said: ”It is a clear night (written in capital letters) and the lights on the plane were blazing, so 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.”

Expert perplexed

Geoffrey Thomas, who is an aviation consultant, was perplexed as to how this incident could happen. He said: “The US has the safest airline system in the world, so these sorts of things don’t happen in the United States any more”.

He continued to spell out how mid-air collisions were supposed to be something of the past, and that new technology has enabled aircraft to electronically talk to each other to warn pilots of such impending collisions.

A system called the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), has he said “saved tens of thousands of lives in the last few decades” and that all commercial aircraft and most military aircraft are fitted with the technology.  

US skaters amongst passengers

It was later reported that amongst the 60 passengers on board the American Airlines flight were several members of the US Figure Skating team and their families.

They had been at a National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.