“We are now at a point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,“ Washington Fire Chief John Donnelly told a news conference at Reagan National Airport.
As dawn broke over the crash site, emergency vessels with powerful arc lights and inflatables with diving teams could be seen moving back and forth over a wide area of the river.
Plane carrying more than 60 collides with helicopter, crashes in Washington
Donnelly said 300 first responders had been involved in the operation -- most of it conducted in pitch darkness.
There were no details on the cause of the crash, with transport officials saying both aircraft were on standard flight patterns on a clear night with good visibility.
Dramatic audio from air traffic controllers showed them repeatedly asking the helicopter if it had the passenger jet “in sight,“ and then just before the crash telling it to “pass behind” the plane.
Both aircraft crashed into the Potomac river and the fuselage of the passenger jet was inverted and broken into three sections.
The Bombardier plane operated by an American Airlines subsidiary, with 60 passengers and four crew on board, was approaching Reagan National Airport at around 9:00 pm (0200 GMT) after flying from Wichita, Kansas, when the collision happened.
Witness Ari Schulman was driving home when he saw what he described as “a stream of sparks” overhead.
“Three seconds later, and at that point it was banked all the way to the right... I could see the underside of it, it was lit up a very bright yellow, and there was a stream of sparks underneath it,“ Schulman added.
Trump criticizes traffic control
“The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing,“ Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of all planes at Reagan National, with operations set to resume at 11:00 am (1600GMT).
Crowded airspace
The airspace around Washington is often crowded, with planes coming in low over the city to land at Reagan National and helicopters -- military, civilian and carrying senior politicians or officials -- buzzing about both day and night.
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Helicopter that collided with jet was on ‘training flight’: US military spokesperson
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