Friday, January 31, 2025 - An American Airlines regional jet crashed the Potomac River near Washington, D.C.'s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after colliding with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night, with no survivors expected amid the extremely cold and windy conditions.
Sixty-four people were on board the plane, which departed
from Wichita, Kansas.
The collision happened around 9 p.m. when the PSA Airlines
Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet was on approach to the airport.
Authorities say they are moving from a rescue mission to a
recovery mission following a midair collision between a military
helicopter and a passenger jet near Ronald Reagan National Airport.
Sixty passengers and four crew members were on American
Airlines flight 5342 when it collided with a military Black Hawk helicopter
carrying three service members.
After working all night to rescue people from the river,
authorities are now say no survivors are expected.
The plane was headed to Ronald Reagan Washington National
Airport (DCA) from Wichita, Kansas, and was preparing to land when it hit the
military helicopter just over Southwest D.C., sending it crashing into the
Potomac River. The helicopter was on a training exercise and was based out of
Fort Belvoir, the U.S. Army confirmed.
Twenty-eight bodies have been recovered from the river, DC
Fire Chief John Donnelly said. Twenty-seven were passengers on the flight, and
one was on the helicopter. Temperatures in the river were only 42 degrees
overnight, impacting rescue efforts, according to WUSA9 Chief Meteorologist
Topper Shutt. With such cold water, people in the river would only have between
30 and 40 minutes to survive. Divers are a part of more than 300 emergency
crews responding at the river early Thursday morning.
Aboard flight 5342 were several members of the U.S. Figure
Skating community, the organization confirmed to WUSA9 early Thursday morning.
The organization said athletes, coaches, and family members were returning home
from the 2025 National Development Team Camp that was held alongside the U.S.
Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.
Two Russian figure skaters and former world champions,
Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, were coaches at the camp and were on the
flight, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Shishkova and Naumov won the pairs title at the 1994 world
championships. The two, who are also married, competed at the Winter Olympics
twice. They were professional pairs coaches at the Skating Club of Boston,
according to the organization’s website.
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