A plane carrying 64 passengers and crew crashed with a US Army helicopter above Ronald Reagan International Airport in Washington DC late Wednesday, killing at least 19 people with many more feared dead.
The American Airlines 5342 flight had departed from Wichita, Kansas, and was attempting to land at 9:00pm local time when it collided with the helicopter, sending the passenger plane falling into the Potomac River.
Rescuers are now fighting dangerous and freezing conditions in the hope of rescuing survivors and recovering the deceased, with 19 bodies retrieved so far.
President Donald Trump commenting on the matter on his X page, touted the accident as an avoidable one and called for immediate investigations into the matter. “It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane.” Trump criticized.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the military has begun a probe into the cause of a deadly midair collision between the passenger jet and the Black Hawk military helicopter.
