Over 60 dead in US helicopter, jet crash

Washington – Scores of people were feared dead after an American Airlines regional passenger jet carrying 64 people collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the frigid Potomac River near Reagan Washington National Airport.

NBC’s Washington affiliate News4 reported that more than 30 bodies had been recovered from the river. U.S. Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas, from where the flight was travelling, suggested most if not all those on board had been killed.

“It’s really hard when you lose probably over 60 Kansans simultaneously,” he told a press conference at Reagan airport in the U.S. capital early on Thursday. “When one person dies, it’s a tragedy, but when many, many, many people die, it’s an unbearable sorrow. It’s a heartbreak beyond measure.” American Airlines confirmed 60 passengers and four crew members were aboard the jet. The helicopter, on a training flight, was carrying three soldiers, a U.S. official said.

Passengers on the flight included ice skaters, family and coaches returning from events in Wichita, including Russian-born former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.

CBS News reported that a dive team had recovered one of the two data recorders, the so-called black boxes, from the plane.The midair collision occurred as the passenger jet was approaching to land at Reagan. Radio communications between the air traffic control tower and the Black Hawk showed the helicopter crew knew the plane was in the vicinity.

The Pentagon said it was launching an investigation. In a post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump questioned the actions of the helicopter crew and air traffic controllers on what he described as a clear night.

“This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. Not Good!!!,” he wrote.

American Eagle Flight 5342 was operated by PSA Airlines, an Ohio-based regional subsidiary of American Airlines.

The plane was a CRJ-700, the airline said, from a line of regional jets made by Canada’s Bombardier, later sold to Mitsubishi.

Air traffic control recordings appear to capture the final attempted communications with the helicopter, call sign PAT25, before it collides with the CRJ jet.

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