An American Airlines plane with sixty passengers and four crew members on board has collided with an army helicopter as it was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington. This has led to a large search-and-rescue operation in the nearby waters of the Potomac River.
However, authorities at the crash site have reasons to conclude that no one on board the two aircraft survived the accident, they stated at a second press conference in Washington on Thursday morning local time.
"We don't think there are any survivors of this accident," said John Donnelly, chief of the Washington D.C. Fire Department.
"We are all working jointly to search the area and locate all survivors," Donnelly added.
Up to this point, 27 bodies have been recovered from the plane, while one body was taken from the helicopter. At the time of the incident, the military Black Hawk helicopter was flying on a training mission with a crew of three soldiers, authorities confirm.
Remains of the plane were discovered inverted in three parts in the water, about waist-deep. The wreck of the helicopter was also found. Difficult weather was slowing down the ongoing retrieval efforts, which were taking place as of Thursday.
Both aircraft were in standard flight patterns on a clear night with good visibility, officials stated.
The airport was slated to resume operations at 11 am local time, which corresponded to 5 pm Central European Time.
A situation that should have been avoided entirely.
Several US figure skaters, who had just finished a training camp, were among the passengers on the American Airlines flight, along with two Russian figure skaters and their coaches, according to official sources.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem said she will be dispatching all available assets from the U.S. Coast Guard to assist in search and rescue operations.
"We are closely monitoring the situation and remain prepared to assist local emergency response efforts," Noem stated in a post on X.
US President Donald Trump stated he had been "fully briefed on this tragic incident" and, referring to the travelers, added, "May God bless their lives."
Posting on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump stated: "This situation is a bad one that appears to have been preventable. That's not a good thing."
Vice President JD Vance asked followers on the social media platform X to "say a prayer for everyone involved."
The Federal Aviation Administration stated that the mid-air collision took place at approximately 9 pm local time (3 am Central European Time) when a regional jet that departed from Wichita, Kansas, encountered a military helicopter on a training flight while the regional jet was on its final approach to an airport runway.
The accident happened in one of the most closely regulated and supervised airspaces in the world, just five kilometers south of the White House and Capitol.
A video recorded by an observation camera at the nearby Kennedy Space Center shows two sets of lights that match those of aircraft, which appear to be merging into a fireball.
The airport has announced that emergency personnel are currently attending to "an aircraft incident on the airfield."
The incident brought back memories of a 1982 Air Florida flight that had catastrophically crashed into the Potomac River on January 13th, resulting in the loss of 78 lives, with adverse weather conditions cited as a contributing factor.
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