Everyone on an American Airlines plane accident near DC is feared from death

Arlington, Virginie (AP) – Everyone aboard an American airline of airlines carrying 60 passengers and four crew members who collided with an army helicopter were feared that it is the worst catastrophe From American aviation in almost a quarter of a century, officials announced Thursday on Thursday.

At least 28 bodies were taken from the frozen waters of the Potomac river after The outdoor collision Wednesday evening When the helicopter apparently stolen on the jet path while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, officials said.

The crews were still looking for other victims but did not think there were survivors, which would do it The most deadly American air accident in almost 24 years.

“We are now to the point where we are moving from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” said John Donelly, head of the firefighters in the national capital. “We don’t think there are survivors.”

The body of the plane was found upside down in three sections in water to the waist. The helicopter wreck has also been found. Donelly said that the first speakers were rummaging Thursday in an area of ​​the Potomac river to the south that the Woodrow Wilson bridge, about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) south of the airport.

There was no immediate word on the cause of The collisionBut the officials said that the flight conditions were clear because the jet coming from Wichita, Kansas, with us and the Russian artistic skaters and others on board, made a routine landing when the helicopter flew on Its path.

“On a final approach in Reagan National, he collided with a military plane on a differently normal approach,” said the CEO of American Airlines, Robert Iso. “Right now, we don’t know why the military plane has entered the way to … plane.”

Three soldiers were on the helicopter during a training flight, said an army official.

Images of the river showed boats around the partially submerged wing and the mutilated wreckage of the plane fuselage.

Investigators will try to reconstruct the last moments of planes before their collision, including contact with air controllers as well as loss of altitude by jet of passengers.

“I would simply say that all those who fly in the American sky expect that we are flying safely,” said Sean Duffy, transport secretary. “That when you leave an airport, you arrive at your destination. It did not happen last night and I know that President Trump, his administration, the FAA, the point, we will not rest until we have answers to families and to the flying public. You must be assured that when you fly, you are safe.

Reagan airport will reopen at 11 a.m. on Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced. The FAA previously said that it would be closed until 5 am on Friday.

Duffy, Just sworn earlier this weekHe was asked if he could reassure the Americans that the United States is always the safest airspace.

“Can I guarantee the American flying public that the United States has the safest and most secure airspace in the world? And the answer to this is, absolutely yes, we do it, “he said. “We have the first indicators of what happened here. And I will tell you with total confidence that we have the safest airspace in the world. »»

Probably the deadliest plane crash since November 2001

If everyone aboard the plane has been killed, he will make it the most deadly airline crash since November 12, 2001, when an American flight of airlines just after takeoff rushed in a Belle Harbor residential area, New York, killing the 260 people on board.

The last major fatal accident involving an American commercial airline took place in 2009 near Buffalo, New York. Everyone aboard the Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane was killed, including 45 passengers, two pilots and two on-board agents. Another person on the ground is also died, bringing the total number of deaths to 50. An investigation determined that the captain had accidentally caused the plane to drop out while he was approaching Buffalo airport.

Wednesday flight passengers Included a group of artistic skatersTheir coaches and family members returning from a development camp that followed the American figure skating championships in Wichita.

“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and closely hold the families of the victims in our hearts,” American figure skating in a statement.

Two of these coaches were identified by the Kremlin as the Russian artistic skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won the title of pairs at the 1994 World Championships and participated twice in the Olympic Games. The Boston skating club lists them as coaches and their son, Maxim Naumov, is a competitive artistic skater for the United States

What happened

The FAA said that the air accident had taken place before 9 p.m. in some of the most closely controlled and monitored air areas in the world, just over 3 miles south of the White House and Capitol.

Flight 5342 of American Airlines was incoming on national Reagan at an altitude of approximately 400 feet (122 meters) and a speed of around 140 mPh (225 km / h) when it has suffered a rapid loss of altitude On the Potomac river, according to data from its transponder radio. The CRJ-701 bombardier of Canadian manufacturing CRJ-701, manufactured in 2004, can be configured to transport up to 70 passengers.

A few minutes before landing, air traffic controllers asked the commercial jet arriving if he could land on the shorter track 33 in Reagan national and the pilots said they could. The controllers then released the plane to land on track 33. The flight tracking sites showed that the plane adjusts its approach to the new track.

Less than 30 seconds before the accident, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if he had the plane arriving in sight. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter a few moments later: “Pat 25 passing behind the CRJ.” A few seconds after that, the two planes collided.

The plane radio transponder stopped transmitting about 2,400 feet (732 meters) more from the track, roughly in the middle of the river.

The video of an nearby Kennedy Center observation camera has shown two series of lights consistent with planes that seem to join a fireball.

The American army described the helicopter as a black UH-60 Blackhawk based in Belvoir in Virginia. The helicopter was on a training flight. Military planes frequently carry out training flights in and around the congested and strongly restricted airspace in the national capital for familiarization and continuity of government planning.

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The editors of the Associated Press Zeke Miller, Meg Kinnard, Chris Megerian and Michael Biesecker in Washington and Brian Melley in London contributed to this report.