An American Airlines plane was found upside down and in three sections after colliding mid-air with a military helicopter over a major river in Washington DC.
A total of 28 bodies – 27 from the passenger plane and one from the helicopter – have been recovered from the Potomac River after the two aircraft fell into the icy waters around 9pm local time (2am UK time) on Wednesday night.
The American Airlines flight 5342, which had 60 passengers and four crew on board, was flying into the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport from Wichita in Kansas, when the collision took place.
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The US army Black Hawk helicopter, which had three soldiers on board, was on a training flight at the time.
An initial search and rescue mission to look for survivors has now become a recovery operation, Washington DC fire chief John Donnelly said in an update.
“We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” he said.
“We don’t believe there are any survivors.”
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US Figure Skating, the national governing body for the sport in the US, said in a statement that several members of its skating community were on the passenger plane.
It said the athletes and coaches were returning home from a training camp in Kansas.
Doug Zeghibe, chief executive of The Skating Club of Boston, said he believes 14 skaters who were returning from Kanas were “lost” in the plane crash.
“Of those 14 skaters, six were from the Skating Club of Boston. Two coaches and two teenage athletes, and two of the athletes’ mums,” he said.
Championship figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov have been named by the Kremlin and Russian state media as two people who were on the plane.
Read more:
What we know so far about the collision
World champion skaters ‘on board’ – who were the passengers?
The married couple from Russia won the world championship in pairs figure skating in 1994.
The Kremlin said in a statement on Thursday morning: “Bad news from Washington today. We regret and offer condolences to the families and friends who lost those of our fellow citizens who died in this plane crash.”
US President Donald Trump thanked first responders for their “incredible work”, and said he was “monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise”, in a statement late on Wednesday.
He added: “May God Bless their souls.”
Vice president JD Vance also encouraged followers on social media to “say a prayer for everyone involved”.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy also sent their condolences to the families of those on board and the emergency responders.
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The Reagan Washington National Airport will remain closed until at least 11am today local time (4pm UK time).
Crash ‘absolutely preventable’
The collision occurred in some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world, just over three miles south of the White House and the US Capitol.
Officials are yet to say what they believe caused the collision, with American Airlines chief executive Robert Isom saying they do not know why the military aircraft came into the path of the plane.
Transport secretary Sean Duffy said the wreckage of the plane was found upside down in three sections in waist-deep water. The wreckage of the helicopter was also found.
Mr Duffy added he believes the crash was “absolutely preventable” and both aircraft were on “standard flight patterns” and had “standard communication” before the crash.
A few minutes before landing, air traffic controllers asked the American Airlines flight if it could land on the shorter Runway 33 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the pilots said they were able.
Controllers then cleared the plane to land on Runway 33.
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Flight tracking sites showed the plane circled round to approach the new runway from the south, while the helicopter was approaching from the north.
The US army and the defence department has begun an investigation into the crash.
Pete Hegseth, who was sworn in as defence secretary only days ago, said it had been started “immediately”.
