Everyone on board a North -American Jet -American who collided with the army’s helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, feared on Thursday, a fire chief said on Thursday.
Wednesday’s crash caused a great search and rescue operation on the nearby Potomac River. The JET carried 60 passengers and four crew members.
Among the passengers of the flight there were a couple of skaters in the figure of the Russian World Champion who worked as coaches on Boston skating, according to Russian media.
Three soldiers were aboard the helicopter, said an army official.
During a Thursday morning press conference, Washington’s head, DC Fire and EMS chief John A. Donnelly, said that 27 bodies of the plane had been recovered and that a body recovered of the helicopter.
There was no immediate word about the cause of The collision on WednesdayBut all the takeoffs and landings of the airport stopped as the diving equipment searched the site and helicopters of police agencies throughout the region flew on the scene in a methodical search for bodies.
The images of the river showed ships around the partially submerged wing and what seemed to be the shipwreck of the fuselage of the plane.
“We are going to recover our fellow citizens,” said Columbia district mayor Muriel Bowser at a press conference Shadowing the airport.
Senator Roger Marshall, of Kansas, said: “When a person dies it is a tragedy, but when many, many people die is an unbearable sentence.”
President Donald Trump said he had been “completely informed about this terrible accident” and, referring to passengers, added: “May God bless his souls.”
Flight passengers included a group of figures skaters, their coaches and family members returning from a development camp that followed the United States Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.
“We are devastated by this indisputable tragedy and closely maintain the families of the victims in our hearts,” said the skating of the North -American figure in a statement.
The federal aviation administration said that the interior accident occurred before 9pm east when a regional plane that had taken away Wichita, Kansas, collided with a military helicopter on a flight d ‘Training while approaching an airport runway. It took place in some of the most controlled and controlled aerial spaces in the world, just over three kilometers south of the White House and the Capitol.
Researchers will try to combine the final moments of the planes before their collision, including contact with air traffic controllers, as well as a loss of altitude by the passenger ray.
Flight 5342 American Airlines was entered to Reagan National at an altitude of about 400 feet and a speed of about 140 miles per hour when it suffered a rapid loss of altitude over the Potomac River, according to its data from its transpondor of Radio. The Jet de Besson Bombardier of Canadian Bombardier CRJ-701, manufactured in 2004, can be configured to transport up to 70 passengers.
A few minutes before the landing, airline drivers asked the commercial jet that he arrived if he could land on the shortest 33 in Reagan National and the pilots said they were capable. The drivers then cleared the plane to land on track 33. Flight tracking sites showed that the plane adjusted their focus on the new track.
Less than 30 seconds before the fall, a air traffic controller asked the helicopter if he had the plane that came to sight. The driver made another radio call to the helicopter moments later: “Pat 25 pass behind the CRJ”. Second after that, the two planes collided.
The aircraft’s radio transpassor stopped passing on the track about 2,400 feet, approximately halfway through the river.
The video of an observation camera from the nearby Kennedy Center showed two sets of coherent lamps with which the planes seem to join -in a fireball.
“I know this flight. I just liked it several times, “said Senator Jerry Moran from Kansas. He said he was waiting for many Wichita people to meet people who were on the flight.
“This is a very personal circumstance,” he said.
The collision occurred in a warm winter evening in Washington, with temperatures registered up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, after a section days before cold and intense ice. On Wednesday, the Potomac river was 36 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the national ocean and atmospheric administration. The National Meteorological Service reported that the wind gusts up to 25 mphs were possible in the area throughout the night.
The CEO of American Airlines, Robert Isom, expressed the “deep pain” by the accident and said that the company focused on the needs of passengers, the crew, the first to respond and the families and the loved ones of the involved.
About 300 who responded were on stage. Inflatable rescue vessels were launched on the Potomac River from a point in George Washington Park, north of the airport, and the first to responded established light towers from the coast to illuminate the nearby area. to the collision site. At least half a dozen ships were scanning the water through the streetlights.
“It’s a very complex operation,” said John Donnelly, DC Fire Chief. “The conditions there are extremely harsh for those who respond.”
The United States Army described the helicopter as a UH-60 Blackhawk headquartered in the Fort Belvoir in Virginia. The helicopter was on a training flight. Military aircraft frequently carry out training flights to congested air space and very restricted throughout the capital of the country for the familiarization and continuity of government planning.
The accident serves as an important test for two of the new leaders of the Trump Administration Agency. Pete Hegseth, a jury for days as Secretary of Defense, published on social networks that an investigation has been “launched immediately” by the army and the Department of Defense. The Secretary of Transport, Sean Duffy, just swearing earlier this week, said at a press conference Shadowing at the airport at the beginning of Thursday that his agency would provide all possible resources for research.
It Last important fatal fall The participation of a United States commercial airline took place in 2009 near Buffalo, New York. Everyone aboard the DHC-8 helix propeller plane died, including 45 passengers, 2 riders and 2 flight attendees. Another person on the ground also died, causing the number of total deaths to 50. An investigation determined that the captain caused the plane to stop when approaching the airport in Buffalo.
Reagan Airport will be reopened at 11 am on Thursday, announced the federal aviation administration. The FAA has said it would close until five in the morning.
Located along the Potomac river, south -west of the city. Reagan National is a popular option because it is much closer than the largest Dulles International Airport, which is deeper in Virginia.
Depending on the track used, Reagan flights can offer passengers spectacular views of milestones such as the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the National Mall and the United States Capitol. It is a welcome worthy of postcard for tourists who visit the city.
The collision recalled the fall of a flight of Air Florida that fell to the Potomac on January 13, 1982, which killed 78 people. That shock was attributed to bad weather.