No survivors are expected from the crash involving a passenger plane carrying 64 people and a military helicopter near the Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA), the DC Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly, Sr. said on Thursday morning.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed in a statement that a Bombardier CRJ700 plane and a Sikorsky H-60 helicopter collided in the skies at around 9 p.m. EST.
American Eagle Flight 5342, operated by PSA Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members while making an approach to land at Reagan Airport in Crystal City, Virginia, about five miles from Washington.
The plane had departed from Wichita, Kansas.
“At this point, we don’t believe there are any survivors from this accident, and we have recovered 27 people from the plane,” Donnelly said in a briefing on Thursday morning.
Audio from LiveATC.net, a source for in-flight recordings, captured what appears to be the final communications between the three crew members of the helicopter, call sign “PAT25,” before it collided with the plane, which was referred to as “CRJ” in the recording.
“PAT25, do you have a CRJ in sight? PAT25, pass behind the CRJ,” an air traffic controller said at 8.47 p.m. on Wednesday.
Seconds later, another aircraft called in to air traffic control, saying, “Tower, did you see that?”
Air traffic control then redirected planes heading to runway 33 at Reagan Washington National Airport to go around.
“Crash, crash, crash, this is an alert three,” one of the air traffic controllers can be heard saying in the audio from around the time of the crash.
“I don’t know if you caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approach into 33. We’re going to be shutting down operations for the indefinite future,” another controller said.
“Both the helicopter and the plane crashed in the river,” a third air traffic controller stated.
“It was probably out in the middle of the river,” the controller added. “I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven’t seen anything since they hit the river. But it was a CRJ and a helicopter that hit.”
Reports of some who were aboard the passenger plane have already begun to emerge.
U.S. Figure Skating issued a statement early on Thursday morning saying that “several members of our skating community were sadly aboard American Airlines Flight 5342.”
The organization said that they were devastated by the “unspeakable tragedy.”
“These athletes, coaches, and family members were returning home from the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas,” it said in a statement.
Russia’s state-owned news agency, TASS, reported that a pair of Russian world champion figure skaters were aboard the plane.
Coaches Evgenia Shishkova, 53, and Vadim Naumov, 56, won the world championship in 1994.
President Donald Trump said in a statement on Wednesday that he has been “fully briefed on the terrible accident which just took place at Reagan National Airport.”
“May God Bless their souls. Thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders,” Trump said. “I am monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise.”
Vice President JD Vance, in a statement posted to social media platform X, said, “Please say a prayer for everyone involved in the mid-air collision near Reagan airport this evening. We’re monitoring the situation, but for now let’s hope for the best.”
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Brace yourself for another pathetic media personal attack on Trump,,,,the most briefed and informed person on the planet who I guarantee you knows more than some Trump deranged reporter on a mission to keep America divided against itself. The helicopter pilots were most assuredly NOT the best nor brightest, but most supremely WOKE hired educated where the equity of stupidity and the lowest but most DEI incompetent hired and trained pilots, who might have got allowed to fly into commercial airspace at will, with perhaps a load of historical “Allah U Akbar” endings of their media indoctrinated E-mails? Just more reflections of a brain dead woke Joe Biden’s nation piloting legacy, left to a now crippled and mis-trained military where gender and skin color take precedence over competency and skill, as our military competence descends to the lowest common denominator of a Democrat socialist party apparatchik with corps of incapable DEI hire Kamala’s in the cockpits, who cannot complete the mission assigned, and end up taking everyone in the area and in her party down with her. Why are military training copters allowed within 5 miles of an active commercial flight approach sector???? Just another 911 awaiting another happening, allowed by incompetent woke hired Biden Boogermen, who can only look the other way while someone stuffs cash into their crime family pocket??? The public pays while the Biden Boogers got to pick and play.
Anyone who denies this non-accident was a result of an unqualified DEI hire by either the military or the airlines is a denier of reality, and a denier of the imperical results of the dangers that DEI have placed honest sane Americans into, all for the sake of satiating the secular socialist sob sisters who would control us with their tears, disguised as good inentions that always end up in bad, even horrifc results.I served over 20 years in the ariline industry and know of what I am speaking. Our American people deserve only the best and the brightest in the cockpits of airlines or the leading cockpits of government, and it all began when Jimmy Carter degerulated the airlines and the comptent American faces of those employed airline personnel; changed from the American best and brightest to the reflection of the foreign third world people of failure who now overwhelm our systems and weaken our American competence and strength, many with the worst of intentions to harm our nation.
DEI hires ? No idea, but that is the first thing that comes to mind.
What gets me is i’ve USED NVG’s before, and with all the lights out there in the city and the like, i am wondering DID THe pilot possibly get his goggles “Flashed” out??