All Hope Lost for Miracle Rescue on the Potomac After Midair Crash
All 67 people aboard an American Airlines jet and a military helicopter that collided midair on Wednesday near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport outside Washington, D.C., are now believed dead, officials said Thursday morning.
'At this point, we don't believe there are any survivors from this accident,' D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John A. Donnelly said at a news conference.
Emergency responders have recovered 27 victims from the plane and one from the helicopter, he added.
About 300 people from state and federal agencies mounted a dangerous rescue mission overnight in the freezing waters of the Potomac River, where the plane fell after the crash.
That rescue missions has now been shifted to a recovery mission, Donnelly said.
Officials did not say what might have caused the crash, and they held off on identifying any of the victims.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said both the U.S. Army Black Hawk and the American Airlines flight were following standard flight patterns.
The plane was carrying a group of elite young figure skaters, their parents, and coaches returning from an invitation-only development camp held after the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, which took place from Jan. 20 to 26 in Wichita, Kansas, where the downed flight originated, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Russian state media reported that among the coaches on the flight were the married former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova, 52, and Vadim Naumov, 55, who won the pairs title for Russia at the 1994 world championships. They have trained young American skaters since 1998, according to Reuters.
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