By Celia Hack, Meg Britton-Mehlisch
Officials said Thursday morning they don’t think there are any survivors following a collision between a passenger flight from Wichita and a helicopter near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night.
Sixty-four people were aboard the American Eagle flight from Wichita, while three were in the military helicopter. The crash took place over the Potomac River, and each of the two aircraft landed in the water.
“We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” said John Donnelly, the fire chief in the nation’s capital. “We don’t believe there are any survivors.”
It’s the deadliest U.S. air crash in nearly 24 years.
Figure skaters, coaches were among passengers
Among the 60 passengers on the jet were figure skaters, their coaches and family members who were returning from a development camp held after the national U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita last week, U.S. Figure Skating said in a statement.
The organization confirmed that “several members of the skating community” were on the flight. It did not provide more details.
“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” the organization said. “We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available.”
Officials in Russia said two of the passengers were former gold medalists Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. They won the pairs title at the 1994 World Championships in Chiba, Japan. The Skating Club of Boston lists them as coaches. Their son, Maxim Naumov, is a competitive figure skater for the U.S.
“All those lives are so valuable”
First responders have recovered the bodies of 27 passengers. The body of the plane was found upside down in three sections in waist-deep water. The wreckage of the helicopter was also found.
More than 300 responders from multiple state and federal agencies began rescue efforts shortly after the crash at 8 p.m. CST Wednesday. Strong winds and cold weather made the situation difficult.
“It’s really hard when you lose, you know, probably over 60 Kansans simultaneously,” said U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas during a news conference early Thursday morning. “And I don’t want to forget the pilots and the flight attendants, who are doing their job, and the military personnel we lost. All those lives are so valuable.”
All of Kansas’s Congressional delegation, including the state’s two senators and four representatives, released a joint statement later Thursday morning.
“Our prayers are with the families and friends of those affected by the tragic plane crash that occurred in our nation’s capital. South Central Kansas is a close community, and it’s likely that many of us directly or indirectly know people who were on Flight 5342 on Jan. 29,” the statement said.
“This is a sad day for Kansans and our nation, and this community, steeped in aviation and manufacturing history, will feel the pain of this catastrophe for years to come.”
Sen. Jerry Moran, who chairs a Senate subcommittee on aviation, also spoke at the earlier news briefing.
“I know that flight, I’ve flown it many times myself,” Moran said. “I lobbied American Airlines to begin having a direct, nonstop flight service to DCA. That flight has been in existence for about a year and it’s certainly true that in Kansas — and in Wichita in particular — we’re going to know people who are on this flight, know the family members, know somebody.”
At a news conference late Wednesday night in Wichita, an airport official said family members and friends of the 64 people on the plane had begun arriving at Eisenhower National Airport.
“As a council, we really want to ask each and every Wichita Kansan and American to pray for everyone involved in this incident, whether involved in the incident in D.C. or those who are helping with the rescue efforts,” Mayor Lily Wu said during a news briefing at Wichita’s airport.
The airport has an Incident Family Support Team available in the terminal for relatives looking for information. The group is meant to be available on-site in the event of aircraft accidents for family members and friends of victims.
“The Incident Family Support Team is managed by our airport police and fire department, and so those officers have already been coordinating the assistance,” said Jesse Romo, the city’s Director of Airports.
The city is directing families seeking more information about the crash to call American Airlines directly at 800-679-8215. American Eagle is a subsidiary of American Airlines and operates regionally.
President Trump, Gov. Kelly react
President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance have been briefed on the plane crash. In a statement, Trump said he was monitoring the situation.
“May God Bless their souls. Thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders,” he said in a statement.
In a post later on Truth Social, Trump questioned the tactics of the military helicopter and the air traffic controllers — both agencies that report to him as the president.
Writing that the “airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach for an extended period of time” on a “CLEAR NIGHT,” Trump questioned, “why didn’t the helicopter go up or down or turn,” and “why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane.”
“What a terrible night this has been. God Bless you all!” he added in a subsequent post.
Reagan National Airport closed after the crash but is expected to reopen late Thursday morning.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said in a statement Thursday morning that flags would be lowered in the state “to acknowledge this devastating event and tragic loss of lives.”
Information about the crash
American Flight 5342 left Wichita at about 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday and was scheduled to land at Reagan National Airport at about 8:30 CST. The plane collided with a helicopter while on approach to the runway, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement on X.
It identified the plane as a Bombardier CRJ-700 regional aircraft. The FAA said the helicopter was an Army Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk, a military aircraft.
Defense officials said the helicopter, based at Virginia’s Fort Belvoir, was on a training flight.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said in a statement that the company was mobilizing a “go team” to participate in the investigation in Washington. Isom said he would join the team.
“We’re cooperating fully with the National Transportation Safety Board in its investigation and will continue to provide all the information we can,” Isom said. “Our cooperation is without pause.”
Camera appeared to catch the crash
Video from an observation camera at the nearby Kennedy Center shows two sets of lights consistent with aircraft appearing to join in a fireball.
The flight was inbound at an altitude of about 400 feet when it suffered a rapid loss of altitude over the Potomac River, the AP reported.
A few minutes before landing, air traffic controllers asked the flight to land on a shorter runway, and it adjusted its approach to do so.
Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter 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 radio transponder stopped transmitting about 2,400 feet short of the runway, roughly over the middle of the river.
“Tower, did you see that?” another pilot is heard calling seconds after the apparent collision.
The tower immediately began diverting other aircraft from Reagan.
The airspace in and around Reagan Washington National is complicated due to challenging approaches to the airport as well as flight restrictions above government buildings. It’s also a particularly busy airspace, with an influx of police and military helicopters operating in the area.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that, before the collision, the plane and helicopter flight paths “were not unusual for what happens in the DC airspace.”
“Everything was standard in the lead-up to the crash. Obviously, there was something that happened here,” Duffy said.
Contributing: Associated Press, NPR
Additional reporting by Rose Conlon, Suzanne Perez, Hugo Phan and Tom Shine
