Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN/AP) - It is feared on Thursday that 64 people aboard an American Airlines jet, along with three soldiers aboard an Army Black Hawk helicopter, are dead following a midair collision Wednesday night just outside the Ronald Reagan National Washington National Airport in the nation's capital.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says the crash occurred before 9 p.m. in some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world, just over 3 miles to the South of the White House and the Capitol.
American Airlines Flight 5342 was inbound to Reagan National at an altitude of about 400 feet and a speed of about 140 mph when it rapidly lost altitude over the Potomac River, according to data from its radio transponder. The Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine jet, manufactured in 2004, can be configured to carry up to 70 passengers.
A few minutes before landing, air traffic controllers asked the arriving commercial jet if it could land on the shorter Runway 33 at Reagan National, and the pilots said they were able. Controllers then cleared the plane to land on Runway 33. Flight-tracking sites showed the plane adjust its approach to the new runway.
Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter, a UH-60 Black Hawk, if it had the arriving plane in sight. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later: "PAT 25, pass behind the CRJ."
Seconds after that, the two aircraft collided.
The plane’s transponder stopped transmitting about 2,400 feet short of the runway, roughly over the middle of the river.
As of Thursday afternoon, at least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River.
The plane was found upside-down in three sections in waist-deep water, and first responders were searching an area of the Potomac River as far South as the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, roughly 3 miles away from the airport, according to officials. The helicopter wreckage was also found.
Images from the river showed boats around the partly submerged wing and the mangled wreckage of the plane’s fuselage.
If no one survived, the collision would be the deadliest U.S. air crash since November 2001, when an American Airlines flight crashed into a residential area of Belle Harbor, New York, just after takeoff from Kennedy Airport, killing all 260 people aboard.
However, the crash of Flight 5342 on Wednesday is the most recent major commercial airline crash in the U.S., with the last one taking place nearly 16 years ago. That was the crash of Continental Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air, on Feb. 12, 2009 in Clarence Center.
The Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane crashed into a house along Long Street in the evening hours of Feb. 12 as it made its final approach to the Buffalo Niagara International Airport. The crash claimed all 50 souls on board the aircraft, and another inside the house.
There was no immediate word on the cause of the collision in Washington on Wednesday, but officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet arrived from Wichita, Kansas, with U.S. and Russian figure skaters and others aboard.
“On final approach into Reagan National, it collided with a military aircraft on an otherwise normal approach," American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said. "At this time, we don’t know why the military aircraft came into the path of the ... aircraft.”
President Donald Trump opened a White House news conference after the crash with a moment of silence honoring the victims, calling it an “hour of anguish” for the country.
But he spent most of his time casting political blame, lashing out at the Biden administration and diversity efforts at the FAA, saying they had led to slipping standards — even as he acknowledged that the cause of the crash was unknown.
Without evidence, Trump blamed air traffic controllers, the helicopter pilots and Democratic policies at federal agencies. He claimed the FAA was “actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative."
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Inside Reagan National Airport, the mood was somber Thursday morning as stranded passengers waited for flights to resume, sidestepping camera crews and staring out the terminal’s windows at the Potomac, where recovery efforts were barely visible in the distance.
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Flights resumed at the airport shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday. But many flights had been canceled, and airport information boards were covered in red cancellation messages. Other flights were delayed until late morning or afternoon.
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