By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-30 14:36:50 | Updated at 2025-01-30 22:53:45
8 hours ago
A mid-air collision of a commercial airliner and a US Army helicopter, which sent both aircraft into the freezing waters of Washington DC’s Potomac River Wednesday night, has likely left all of the jet’s 64 passengers and crew members dead, according to local officials.
“We are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” Washington’s Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly told reporters on Thursday, explaining that rescue efforts in waters just a few hundred metres from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, were hampered by “extremely frigid conditions,” as well as “heavy wind” and “ice on the water”.
“We don’t believe there are any survivors from this accident, and we have recovered twenty seven people from the plane and one from the helicopter,” Donnelly said. “The district office of the medical examiner has leaned on reuniting these bodies, and these people, with their loved ones, and we will continue to work to find all the bodies and collect them.”
The collision occurred during the final approach of a CRJ700 jet operated by PSA Airlines, a subsidiary of American Airlines, and a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter operating out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
The jet’s fuselage was left in three pieces in waist-deep water.
American Flight 5342, carrying 60 passengers and four crew from Wichita, Kansas had approval to land on runway 33 just before 9pm local time when it struck the military helicopter, which was on a “training flight” with three personnel on board.
