An American Airlines jet carrying 64 people plunged into the Potomac River after colliding in midair with an Army helicopter on Wednesday night. Recovery teams had pulled more than two dozen bodies from the icy water, officials said.
Officials believe that no one survived the midair collision on Wednesday night of a commercial jet carrying 64 people and an Army helicopter carrying three U.S. service members near Washington, D.C.
Both aircraft crashed into the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport, and crews searching the icy waters had pulled 27 bodies from the plane and one from the helicopter, officials told a news conference on Thursday morning. Emergency responders were switching from a rescue to a recovery operation, said John Donnelly, Washington’s fire chief.
“This morning, we all share in a profound sense of grief,” said Washington’s mayor, Muriel Bowser.
Some of those aboard the plane, which had departed from Wichita, Kan., were figure skaters attending the national figure skating championships there this month. Russian figure skaters were also among the passengers, the Kremlin said. Army officials said that the helicopter, a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, was on a training flight operating out of Davison Army Airfield in Fort Belvoir, Va.
As federal investigators began examining the collision, officials said that initial information indicated little unusual about the moments leading up to the crash. The night was clear and both the plane and the helicopter were on standard flight patterns, according to Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, who said there had been no breakdown in communications between the two aircraft and the control tower. Robert Isom, the chief executive of American Airlines, said that the pilot of the jet was experienced.
The debris field was spread across an area of less than a mile, with the fuselage of the plane found in three sections in waist-deep water, officials said.
American Airlines said in a statement that 60 passengers and four crew members had been onboard Flight 5342, which had departed from Wichita at about 6:20 p.m. Eastern. It collided in midair with the helicopter at around 9 p.m. while on approach to Runway 33 at Reagan National, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The plane was a Bombardier CRJ700. According to F.A.A. records, it was built about 20 years ago. The helicopter was a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, the Army said in a statement. It was not clear whether it was departing from or returning to Fort Belvoir.
The crash confronts the new Trump administration with one of its first major disasters. It happened just a day after Mr. Duffy was sworn in, and on the first week that Pete Hegseth is serving as defense secretary.
Even as much about the crash remained unclear early Thursday, President Trump speculated on the cause and began to assign blame. In a social media post just after midnight, he called it “a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented.” He said earlier that he had been “fully briefed” on the crash.
