Arlington, va. – At least 28 dead bodies after Jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members carrying an American airline jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington. Was drawn.
Officials said they were still looking for other casualties, but did not believe that there were no other survivors, which would make the US air accident the most deadly in about 24 years.
The body of the aircraft was found upside down in three sections in the back water. Helicopter debris was also found.
This is a braking news update. The earlier story of AP is below.
Jet, who took 60 passengers and four crew members, collided with an army helicopter at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, who collided with an army helicopter, who collided with a large discovery and-rescue operation in the nearby Potomac River near Washington. Inspires. According to a person familiar with the case, many were fatal, but the exact number of the victims was not clear because rescue teams were hunted for any remaining people.
An army official said that three soldiers were in the helicopter.
There was no immediate word due to Wednesday’s collision, but all the takeoff and landing were stopped from the airport as the dive teams scattered the site and helicopter on the site from the law enforcement agencies in the field, which the bodies of the bodies. A method of discovery was taken on the scene in a methodical search.
Images from the river showed boats around partially submerged wing and appeared as the rubble of the aircraft torso.
Columbia Mayor Muril Boser district said at a Sobber News Conference at the airport, “We are going to fix our fellow citizens, in which they refused to say how many bodies were recovered.
The person who told the Associated Press that many deaths had occurred, publicly not authorized to discuss the details of the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Sena Roger Marshal of Kansas said, “When a person dies, it is a tragedy, but when many, many, many people die, it is an unbearable grief.”
President Donald Trump said he was “given full information on this terrible accident” and referring to the passengers, “God can bless his souls.”
Flight passengers included figure skates, their coaches and a group of family members, returning from a development camp, who followed the US Figure Skating Championship in Wichita.
“We have been destroyed by this inexplicable tragedy and closely hold the families of the victims in our hearts,” US Figure Skating said in a statement.
Two of the coaches were identified by Kremlin as Russian Figure Skaters Evagenia Sheeshkova and Vadim Namov, who won the couple’s title in the 1994 World Championship and competed twice in the Olympics. Boston’s Skating Club listed him as a coach and is a competitive figure skater for his son, Maxim Naomov, America
The Federal Aviation Administration said that the midar accident occurred before EST when a regional jet which left Wichita, Kansas, collided with a military helicopter on a training flight on the approach of an airport runway. It occurred in some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airs in the world, at a distance of three miles south of the White House and Capital.
Investigators will try to do the last moments of the aircraft together before their collision, including contact with air traffic controllers as well as loss of height by passenger jets.
American Airlines flight 5342 Reagan National was at an altitude of about 400 feet and at a speed of about 140 mph, when it suffered a rapid height damage on the Pottomac River, according to its radio transponder data. Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-701 Twin-Inzon Jet, built in 2004, can be configured to carry 70 passengers.
A few minutes before the landing, the air traffic controllers asked the upcoming commercial jet if it could land on the small runway 33 in Reagan National and the pilots said they were capable. The controllers approved the aircraft to land on runway 33. Flight tracking sites showed that the aircraft adjusts its approach to the new runway.
Less than 30 seconds before the accident, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it was an aircraft. The controller later made another radio call in the moments of the helicopter: “PAT 25 CRJ.” After that, both aircraft collided with seconds.
The radio transponder of the aircraft stopped transmitting about 2,400 feet less than the runway, about 2,400 feet in the middle of the river.
Two sets of illumination were shown to suit the aircraft that appeared to appear in a fireball in an observation camera video at a nearby Kennedy Center.
“I know flying. I have blowed it many times, ”Sen Jerry Moran said Kansas’s Sen. He said that he hoped that many people in Wichita would know those who were in flight.
“This is a very personal situation,” he said.
The collision occurred on a warm winter evening in Washington, with the temperature more registered as 60 degrees Fahrenheit, a day before acute cold and snow. According to the National Ocean and atmospheric administration, the Potomac River was 36 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday. The National Weather Service said that air gusts were possible at a speed of 25 mph in the evening.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom expressed “deep grief” for the accident and said the company focused on the needs of passengers, crews, first respondents and families and loved ones of those involved.
Some 300 earlier were on the responsible scene. Inflatable rescue boats were launched in the Potomac River from a point along the George Washington Parkway to the north of the airport, and the first respondents installed light towers from the shore to illuminate the area near the collision site. At least half a dozen boats were scanning water using searchlight.
“This is a highly complex operation,” said DC Fire chief John Donley. “Conditions are extremely fat for respondents.”
The US Army described the helicopter as the UH-60 Blackhawk located on Fort Belvioer, Virginia. The helicopter was on a training flight. Military aircraft often conduct training flights in congestion around the country’s capital for familiar and continuity of government schemes.
The accident is serving as a major test for two latest agency leaders of Trump administration. Pete Hegseth was sworn in as the Defense Secretary in the days, posted on social media that an inquiry has been “launched” by the Army and Defense Department. Transport Secretary Sean Dafi administered the oath earlier this week, at a Somaras News Conference at the early hours of Thursday, that his agency would provide all possible resources for investigation.
The final major fatal accident involving an American commercial airline took place in 2009 near Buffalo, New York. Everyone was killed in the Bombardier DHC -8 propeller aircraft, including 45 passengers, 2 pilots and 2 flight attendants. Another person also died on the ground, causing the total death to become 50. An investigation determined that the captain accidentally stall the aircraft as it had reached the airport in Buffalo.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced that the Reagan Airport would open again on Thursday at 11 am. The FAA has earlier said that it will be closed by 5 pm on Friday.
Located along the Potomac River, in the south -west of the city. Reagan National is a popular option as it is much close to the large dual international airport, which is deep in Virginia.
Based on the runway being used, flights in Reagan may offer spectacular views to the Washington Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, National Mall and US Capital. The city is a postcard-worthy reception for tourists visiting the city.
The collision recalled an Air Florida flight accident on January 13, 1982, killing 78 people. The accident was attributed to bad weather.