- Rescuers are searching for survivors in the Potomac River after an American Airlines plane collided midair with a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport outside Washington, DC.
- Police said multiple agencies were involved in the search and rescue operation in the river, which borders the airport, but there was no immediate word on casualties. Washington, DC, fire chief John Donnelly said that at least 300 first responders were involved in the “highly complex” rescue operation in the US state of Virginia.
- American Airlines says 60 passengers and four crew were on board the plane which was arriving in Washington, DC from Wichita, Kansas. Three people were on the military helicopter, according to the Washington, DC mayor.
- The Ronald Reagan national airport has halted all takeoffs and landings following the collision.
- Timeline: Fatal plane crashes in the USHere are some of the deadliest commercial plane crashes in the US, according to reports from the National Transportation Safety Board:February 12, 2009: A Colgan Air plane crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing everyone on board the Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane, including 45 passengers, two pilots and two flight attendants. Another person on the ground also died, bringing the total death toll to 50.August 27, 2006: A Comair aircraft crashed when taking off in Lexington, Kentucky, after it left from the wrong runway and ran off the end. Two crew members and 47 passengers were killed.November 12, 2001: Just after takeoff, an American Airlines flight crashed into a residential area of Belle Harbor, New York. All 260 people on board the plane and another five people on the ground were killed.January 31, 2000: An Alaska Airlines flight crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Anacapa Island, California. The crash killed 83 passengers and five crew members.July 17, 1996: A Trans World Airlines flight crashed in the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, on its way to Paris, France. All 230 people on board were killed, and the aeroplane was destroyed.
- The deadly collision is ‘very unusual’: ExpertTodd Curtis, CEO of consultancy firm AirSafe.com, says the deadly collision is “very unusual”.“The Washington National Airport, where this event occurred, is one of the busiest in the country and it’s very, very well managed by air control,” Curtis, a former airline safety engineer for Boeing, told Al Jazeera.Curtis added that flying low along the Potomac River was something that’s done on a regular basis by such [military] helicopters.“So again, it’s surprising to me that something that is routine for the military somehow ended in a tragedy. I suspect there are several things that had to go wrong for this to happen.”
- ‘Unbearable sorrow’: Kansas Senator Roger MarshallUS Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas, where the flight originated, said at a news conference at Reagan airport that “it’s really hard when you lose probably over 60 Kansans simultaneously.“When one person dies, it’s a tragedy, but when many, many, many people die, it’s an unbearable sorrow,” he said. “It’s a heartbreak beyond measure.”The official casualty figures are still not out.
- US Figure Skating says several members of ice skating community on the planeUS Figure Skating said several members of its skating community were on the American Airlines plane that crashed into Potomac River.Earlier, we reported Russia’s Tass news agency saying that Russian ice-skating coaches and former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on board the plane as well.
- World champion Russian figure skaters were on board plane: ReportRussian figure skaters and coaches Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on board the American Airlines plane that crashed, Russian state-run TASS and RIA news agencies reported.The couple were reported to have been returning from the competition and travelling with a group of young skaters.Their son Maxim was also feared to have been on board the plane, the Russian news agencies reported. He had been competing at the US figure skating championships in Wichita, Kansas from January 20-26, according to the event’s website.Shishkova and Naumov, who were married, won the world championship in pairs figure skating in 1994.
- Trump says crash ‘should have been prevented’While the Pentagon said it was launching an immediate investigation into the incident, President Donald Trump appeared to blame the helicopter crew and air traffic controllers in a post on Truth Social.“The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn,” Trump wrote.“Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”
LIVE: American Airlines plane with 64 aboard, Black Hawk crash near DC
