There are no survivors after the American Airlines plane crash, with 60 passengers and four crew members on board, colliding with a military helicopter carrying three soldiers as it was preparing to land on Wednesday night at Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington DC, just across the river from Washington. So far, 40 lifeless bodies have been recovered from the wreckage of the two aircraft that fell into the Potomac River, complicating the efforts of firefighters and coast guards due to the frigid water temperature, according to CNN data.
"We are now at a point where we are transitioning from a rescue operation to a recovery operation," said John Donnelly, chief of the Washington, D.C. fire department. "Unfortunately, we were unable to rescue anyone," explained Jack Potter, executive director of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
The crash occurred before nine o'clock in one of the most controlled and monitored airspaces in the world, about 4.8 kilometers (around 3 miles) south of the White House and the Capitol.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, the so-called black boxes of an aircraft, from the Bombardier CRJ700, said agency spokesperson Peter Knudson. They were already in the agency's laboratories for analysis.
The official investigation is underway, but the main hypothesis is human error. Sean Duffy, the new U.S. Secretary of Transportation who was sworn in just yesterday, explained that the flight paths of the plane and the helicopter "were not unusual for what happens in the DC airspace," which has a significant military presence, including the Pentagon and several nearby bases. Duffy stated that "everything was standard leading up to the accident," emphasizing that military helicopters routinely fly up and down the Potomac River. They transport, for example, the president or his family.
The plane was found upside down, in three sections and partially submerged, and emergency teams were searching several kilometers (miles) of the Potomac, Donnelly added. The helicopter wreckage was also found. Images taken in the river showed boats around the partially submerged wing and the twisted remains of the plane's fuselage.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom explained that his plane was on a normal approach when "the military aircraft entered the path" of the jet.
Similarly, the Secretary stated that "there was no interruption" in communication between the military helicopter, the plane, and the air traffic control tower, after an audio recording of a conversation between an air traffic controller seemed to warn the helicopter to avoid the plane, with no apparent response, sparking initial theories and conspiracies.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth explained that the Black Hawk crew had "reasonable experience" and were conducting an annual training exercise in darkness. "The crew was wearing night vision goggles," he noted. "We hope the investigation can quickly determine if the plane was in the corridor and at the correct altitude at the time of the incident," Hegseth said.
A single air traffic controller was responsible for coordinating the helicopters and planes arriving and departing at the time of the collision, according to a report from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) obtained by The Associated Press. These duties are usually divided between two people, but the airport typically combines these functions at 9:30 p.m., once traffic begins to decrease. On Wednesday, the tower supervisor had ordered the shift to occur earlier.
"The configuration of the positions was not normal for the time of day and the volume of traffic," the report stated. A person familiar with the situation said that the tower staff was at a normal level that night.
Positions are typically combined when controllers need to step away from the console for breaks, during shift changes, or when air traffic is slow, the person added, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures.
The FAA has long been dealing with a shortage of air traffic controllers.
The New York Times reported earlier that just before the accident, the control tower asked the plane pilots to change their landing route from one runway to another, according to a person familiar with the event and the conversation heard in audio recordings between an air traffic controller and the pilots. American Airlines Flight 5342 had been cleared by National Airport traffic control to land on the main runway, known as Runway 1. But in the final moments of the flight, as shown in the recordings, the controllers asked them to make a circling approach to a separate intersecting runway, Runway 33.
The blurry images show the helicopter making what appears to be an unexpected maneuver turning to the right as the plane was completing its approach, causing the collision and a massive explosion. The tragedy vividly recalls another accident almost in the same location over 40 years ago. On January 13, 1982, a passenger plane bound for Tampa, Florida, collided with a bridge over the river after taking off from Washington National Airport in the midst of a snowstorm, leaving 78 dead and the same images of the fuselage submerged in the water.
An audio recording from an air traffic controller, obtained by CNN, captures the moment when operators ask the helicopter if the commercial flight operated by PSA Airlines is in sight. One controller asks: "PAT 2-5, do you have the CRJ in sight?" and then tells them: "PAT 2-5 pass behind the CRJ." The audio then captured audible gasps, including a loud "oooh" apparently from the tower in the moment of the collision. And then a warning to other aircraft, explaining that there had been a "collision at the approach end of 3-3. We are going to close operations indefinitely."
An Army aviation senior officer said that the Black Hawk helicopter crew was "highly experienced" and familiar with the usual congestion in the city's airspace.
"Both pilots had flown this specific route before, at night. It was not new for either of them," stated Jonathan Koziol, Army aviation chief of staff, as reported by Ap.
The maximum altitude allowed for the helicopter at that time was about 60 meters (200 feet), Koziol added. It was not immediately clear if it had exceeded the limit, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth indicated that altitude seemed to have been a factor in the collision.
Among the passengers were a group of figure skaters, their coaches, and family members, returning from the U.S. Championships held in Wichita, Kansas, as confirmed by the U.S. Figure Skating Federation. According to Russian public media, two former world champions, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, were on the plane with their son, Maxim Naumov, whom they were coaching.
It is already assumed to be the darkest day since September 11, 2001. The most recent major commercial aviation accidents date back to 2013 when Asian Airlines Flight 214 crashed in San Francisco, leaving three dead and 187 injured. And to February 12, 2009, when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo, New York, with 50 fatalities.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom explained that the plane's pilot had extensive experience and had been with the airline for six years, while the first officer had been with them for two.
At 8:53 p.m., police reported that dozens of calls began to come in to report the incident, and firefighters and coast guards mobilized immediately, both on land and in the water. Various departments, including numerous professional divers, searched for survivors, as well as aircraft parts, in a wide area covering the District of Columbia and Virginia. Temperatures on Wednesday were not particularly low in the area, but the water was cold, following the start of the coldest year in decades, with temperatures below 15 degrees below zero last week. In some areas, blocks of ice could still be seen in the river this morning. The search conditions, without light and with strong winds and currents, are especially difficult and dangerous, as emphasized by officials in a press conference past midnight.
PSA, a regional carrier under American Airlines, operated the plane. The company blames the military helicopter for the incident and states that they do not understand "why the military aircraft intervened in the path" of their aircraft.