American Airlines plane collides with helicopter, crashes into river with 60 passengers on board

A plane crash occurred in Washington, near Ronald Reagan Airport. A passenger plane collided in mid-air with a military helicopter and fell into the Potomac River near the airport complex. Air force promptly reports details of the tragedy.

Photo: Ritu Jethani | Dreamstime.com

The PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 jet was operating American Airlines Flight 5342, a domestic flight from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington, D.C., the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The plane collided in mid-air with a Sikorsky H-60 ​​helicopter while approaching runway 33 at Reagan Washington National Airport at around 21:00 local time (02:00 GMT).

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There were 60 passengers and four crew members on board the civilian aircraft. Three US Army soldiers were on board the military helicopter that collided with the PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the status of the soldiers was not yet known but said there were no senior officials on board. The Pentagon said the Army UH-60 helicopter took off from Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Fort Belvoir is a large military installation about 15 miles (24 km) from the airport and near Mount Vernon, home of George Washington.

A police statement said emergency services began receiving the first reports of the crash at 20:53 local time.

Washington emergency services immediately began converging on Reagan National Airport. Fire boats began combing the river for victims of the tragedy.

The American Airlines plane that crashed broke in half in the Potomac River. The military helicopter involved in the crash is upside down in the water near the plane.

Eyewitness accounts

Ari Schulman, a witness to the crash, told NBC Washington that he was driving along the George Washington Highway, which runs alongside the airport, when he saw the plane coming in for a landing. He has seen airliners landing at the airport many times during his travels. He watched this plane approach.

Everything was fine at first, he told the publication. Shulman was distracted for a moment, and when he looked back at the plane, "everything looked very, very wrong."

According to him, the plane suddenly tilted to the right, almost 90 degrees.

"I could see the bottom of the plane, and it was very, very dark outside, so the bottom shouldn't have been visible."

Shulman said the plane was brightly lit yellow and "there was a stream of sparks underneath it. It looked like a giant Roman candle." He said the sparks ran from the nose of the plane to the tail.

The witness looked at the road again. He heard no explosion or loud noise. Shulman looked for evidence of a crash, but found no signs of it.

"I turned around, hoping to see a fireball. I wanted to see the crash, anything, but I couldn't see anything. Everything looked completely normal," he told NBC. "The thought immediately crossed my mind: Am I hallucinating? If there had just been a terrible plane crash, why didn't I see anything after that?"

As Shulman continued driving through the area, he began to notice a buildup of emergency services.

A woman who lives in one of the houses near the airport said residents gathered on the roof of the house. They watched in shock as emergency vehicles and rescue services were pulled to the scene of the tragedy.

Flights are being diverted from Reagan Airport to Dulles Airport.

The Association of Flight Attendants, which represents 55 flight attendants from 000 airlines, said two of its members were on board the flight that crashed in the Potomac.

"We ask the public to respect efforts to pass information on to their loved ones first, as everyone's hopes are for survivors."

The FBI issued a statement asking that questions regarding the incident be directed to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Flights scheduled to land at Reagan National Airport are being diverted to Dulles International Airport, about 28 miles away, and the Washington Metro system is running extra trains to transport arriving passengers, Transportation Authority CEO Randy Clark said.

According to him, the department sends “warming buses” to those who work at the scene of the rescue operation in cold weather.

Temperatures in the impact area will drop below freezing overnight, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

Washington has been hit by freezing temperatures in recent weeks, leaving parts of the Potomac River frozen over, although Wednesday, January 29, was one of the warmest days of the year.

Weather conditions will be a key factor in the rescue operation.

Fire department officers and divers, supported by police boats, continue to search the water for survivors, a D.C. law enforcement official told our American partner CBS News.

US President Donald Trump said he was "fully informed of the horrific accident that occurred at Reagan National Airport."

National Transport Safety Council to Conduct Investigation

More than a quarter of passengers traveling through Reagan National Airport fly American Airlines, the largest commercial carrier at the airport.

The airline carried more than 12 million passengers through the airport in the 6 months to October, government figures show.

They included many members of Congress, as well as federal employees and journalists.

New Transportation Department Commissioner Sean Duffy said he was at the Federal Aviation Administration's headquarters in Washington and was "monitoring the situation closely."

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He was confirmed in office just a day ago.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will conduct an investigation, led by the NTSB.

This is the first air disaster of this scale after the previous one. Let us recall that on February 12, 2009, Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed, flying from Newark (New Jersey) to Buffalo (New York). All passengers and crew died then - 49 people in total.

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