A total of 64 people, four crew and 60 passengers, were onboard the jet with a number of young Russian ice skaters feared to be among the dead
Nineteen bodies have been recovered from the scene of a crash involving a passenger jet and a US Army helicopter in Washington DC.
The collision occurred while the American Airlines flight was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, prompting a large search-and-rescue operation in the nearby Potomac River.
All take-offs and landings from the airport near Washington were halted as helicopters from law enforcement agencies across the region flew over the scene in search of survivors.
Inflatable rescue boats were launched into the Potomac River from a point near the airport along the George Washington Parkway, just north of the airport.
A total of 64 people, four crew and 60 passengers, were onboard the jet with a number of young Russian ice skaters feared to be among the dead.
Three soldiers were aboard the helicopter which was on a training exercise.
President Donald Trump was briefed, his press secretary said, and Vice President JD Vance encouraged followers on the social media platform X to “say a prayer for everyone involved”.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the mid-air collision occurred around 9pm local time when a regional jet that had departed from Wichita, Kansas, crashed into a military Blackhawk helicopter while on approach to an airport runway.
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A helicopter uses its searchlight as it flies above the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) |
In audio from the air traffic control tower around the time of the crash, a controller is heard asking the helicopter: “PAT25 do you have the CRJ in sight,” in reference to the passenger aircraft.
“Tower did you see that?” another pilot is heard calling seconds after the apparent collision.
The tower immediately began diverting other aircraft from Reagan.
In a post on social media, American Airlines said it was aware of reports that one of its flights was involved in the incident and said it would provide more information once available.
Video from an observation camera at the nearby Kennedy Centre shows two sets of lights consistent with aircraft appearing to join in a fireball.
The airport said emergency personnel were responding to “an aircraft incident on the airfield”.
The incident recalled the crash of an Air Florida flight that plummeted into the Potomac on January 13 1982, that killed 78 people. That crash was attributed to bad weather.
No other details were immediately available.
- Lolita C Baldor and Eric Tucker, Associated Press
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