Plane with 60 passengers collides with a helicopter in Washington

Observer

30-01-2025

Washington - A US passenger plane carrying 64 people crashed into Washington DC's chilly Potomac River after colliding mid-air with a military helicopter on a nighttime training exercise Wednesday, prompting a major emergency response and the grounding of all flights.
After flying from Kansas, The plane was about to land at nearby Reagan National Airport. American Airlines, whose subsidiary operated the flight, said "There were 60 passengers and four crew members on board the aircraft."
A US Army official said the helicopter involved was a Black Hawk model carrying three soldiers -- their status currently unknown. They had been on a "training flight," a separate military spokesperson said in a statement. Washington police said, "There is no confirmed information on casualties at this time." However, a massive search and rescue operation was in progress, with divers visible as they plunged into the Potomac.
The Washington Post quoted unnamed sources saying police had started to pull multiple bodies from the snow-lined Potomac. Witness Ari Schulman described "a stream of sparks" and what looked like a large firework when the collision erupted overhead as he drove home. "Initially I saw the plane and it looked fine, normal. It was right about to head over land," he told CNN.
"Three seconds later, and at that point, it was banked to the right... I could see the underside of it, it was lit up a very bright yellow, and there was a stream of sparks underneath it," Schulman added. "It looked like a Roman candle."
President Donald Trump said in a statement that he had been "fully briefed". He said of any victims, "May God bless their souls." - Dark, near-freezing river - The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of all planes at Reagan National. Washington's police said on X that "multiple agencies" were responding to the crash site in the Potomac. Kristi Noem, the country's new secretary of homeland security, posted on X that she was "deploying every available US Coast Guard resource for search and rescue efforts in this horrific incident at DCA." Police said fireboats had joined the operation on the river, where any work was complicated by the fact it was dark and close to freezing. Dozens of fire trucks headed toward the airport.
The FAA said a Bombardier regional jet operated by American Airlines subsidiary PSA Airlines "collided in midair" with a Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter as it approached for landing at Reagan at around 9:00 pm (0200 GMT).
The plane had left from Wichita, Kansas. US Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas said the collision was "nothing short of a nightmare." "I ask the world to join me in praying for Kansas this evening, the first responders, rescue crews, and all those involved in this horrific accident," he wrote on X. - Crowded airspace - Questions were expected to focus on how a passenger plane with modern collision-avoidance technology and nearby traffic controllers could collide with a military aircraft over the nation's capital.
However, the airspace around Washington is often crowded, with planes coming in low over the city to land at Reagan Airport and helicopters -- military, civilian, and carrying senior politicians -- buzzing about both day and night.
The same airport was the scene of a deadly crash in January 1982 when Air Florida flight 90, a Boeing 737, took off but quickly plummeted, hitting the 14th Street bridge and crashing through the ice into the Potomac River. 78 people died. Investigators concluded the pilot had failed to activate sufficient de-icing procedures. The last major fatal US crash was in 2009, when Continental Flight 3407 from New Jersey to Buffalo, New York crashed and killed all 49 people aboard.