The accident occurred during landing at 9 pm (3 am in Italy). No survivors. Also on board were young skaters, their coaches and relatives returning from the National Skating Championships.
Serious plane crash in the skies of Washington , United States . At 9 pm local time, 3 am in Italy, flight 5342 operated by PSA Airlines on behalf of American Airlines, departing from Wichita, Kansas , with 64 people on board (60 passengers and 4 crew members) collided with a military helicopter with 3 US soldiers on board. The plane then crashed into the Potomac River , near Ronald Reagan Airport . So far, 30 bodies have been recovered. Following the collision, the plane broke in two and the wreckage is located over two meters deep in the icy waters of the river, where the military helicopter also crashed .
Both wreckages are said to be in a "very unstable" position for rescue operations. One of the two black boxes has been recovered. The causes of the tragedy are still unknown : among the hypotheses, human error or a technical problem, but the FBI has ruled out that it was an act of terrorism. Trump : "A tragedy that should have been avoided. There are no survivors".
Data from the last minutes of the flight
The accident occurred around 9 p.m., when the plane, a Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine aircraft built in 2004, was in the process of landing and, according to initial images from a surveillance camera at the nearby Kennedy Center, turned into a fireball. The messages exchanged with the control tower will be particularly important for understanding the dynamics. Flight 5342 was arriving at Reagan at an altitude of about 400 feet (120 meters) and at a speed of about 140 miles per hour (225 km/h) when it suffered a rapid loss of altitude over the Potomac River, according to data from its radio transponder.
Hegseth: "The helicopter crew was experienced"
As for the Black Hawk helicopter, it was reportedly on an annual training flight, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. The Pentagon is keeping the names and ranks of the crew members under wraps until next of kin have been notified. Hegseth said, "This was a fairly experienced crew that was doing a mandatory annual nighttime assessment. They were wearing night-vision goggles."
An investigation will clarify the dynamics
The unit, the 12th Aviation Battalion, is currently on an operational pause, the Pentagon chief said, while the incident is investigated. An investigation will try to determine whether the helicopter was in the correct corridor and at the correct altitude when the incident occurred, he added. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told Fox News that the helicopter's crew included an officer, a noncommissioned officer and a crew chief.
Audio with flight controllers
Minutes before the plane was to land, air traffic controllers asked the incoming commercial jet if it could use the shorter Runway 33, and the pilots said yes. The controllers then cleared the plane to land. But flight tracking sites show that the plane changed its approach to the new runway. Less than 30 seconds before the crash, a traffic controller asked the Blackhawk helicopter if it had sight of the incoming plane. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later: "Pat 25 is going behind the CRJ." Seconds later, the two planes collided. The plane's radio transponder stopped transmitting about 2,400 feet from the runway, about halfway across the river.
The "Reagan" Reopens After Accident
Ronald Reagan Washington Airport is reopening, the Federal Aviation Administration announced. During the day, the families of many of the plane's passengers arrived at the airport. A painful and distressing procession amid still fragmentary information.
Also on the plane were two former world skating champions and several young athletes
Also on board the plane were Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, the 1994 world figure skating champions. According to the U.S. Figure Skating Federation, the flight carried about 15 coaches, skaters and their families returning from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Kansas.
Three hundred rescuers at work
About 300 rescuers are involved in the search and rescue effort, Washington Fire Chief John A. Donnelly Sr. said at a news conference at Reagan Washington Airport. A rescue manager said the Potomac water is frigid (around 1 degree Celsius), dark and murky, making it difficult for divers to work.
Washington Fire and Emergency Services Chief John A. Donnelly Sr. said search and rescue conditions for the plane crash were "dangerous," adding that recovery efforts would likely take several days. "The river is a big black spot at night with no lights," Donnelly said, predicting the collision investigation would take time.
The precedent: 78 people died on the Potomac in 1982
The crash is reminiscent of the Jan. 13, 1982, crash of an Air Florida flight into the Potomac River, killing 78 people. That crash was blamed on bad weather, but skies were clear over the capital tonight. Last year, another American Airlines plane was near-miss at Reagan National Airport. The near-collision in midair between two jets that were within 1,300 feet (400 meters) of each other prompted the FAA to investigate. The investigation found that an American Airlines flight to Boston had been cleared for takeoff, but the clearance was canceled to avoid colliding with an incoming King Air plane that had been cleared to land on a nearby runway.
Trump: "Tragedy That Should Have Been Avoided"
US President Donald Trump expressed his condolences for the victims of the plane crash. "God bless the souls of those involved," reads a note published on the social media platform X by the White House, in which Trump also thanks the rescuers engaged in the search for survivors. Then, on Truth he states: "The plane was on a perfect, routine approach to the airport. The helicopter was heading straight for the plane for an extended period. The night was clear, the lights on the plane were on. Why didn't the helicopter go up or down, or why didn't it turn? Why didn't the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if it saw the plane? This is a bad situation that should have been avoided."
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