A passenger jet carrying 64 people crashed into the Potomac River late Wednesday night after colliding midair with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter, triggering a large-scale search and rescue operation. Authorities have confirmed multiple fatalities, with divers braving near-freezing waters to recover victims.
Emergency crews, totaling around 300 responders, worked under extreme conditions as they searched for survivors, though officials gave little hope of finding anyone alive. “We’re going to be out there as long as it takes,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters.
CBS News, citing local sources, reported at least 19 bodies recovered, while NBC placed the toll at more than a dozen. Among the victims were several figure skating athletes, coaches, and officials, according to U.S. Figure Skating. Russian officials confirmed that Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, former world pairs champions, were on board the doomed flight.
Collision Over the Nation’s Capital
The aircraft, a Bombardier jet operated by an American Airlines subsidiary, was on approach to Reagan National Airport after departing Wichita, Kansas, when it collided with the Black Hawk helicopter, which was conducting a training mission with three soldiers on board.
Eyewitness Ari Schulman described the horrifying moment of impact. “I saw a stream of sparks,” he told CNN. “The plane was banking hard to the right… It looked like a Roman candle.”
President Donald Trump issued a statement saying he had been “fully briefed”, adding, “May God bless their souls.” However, he quickly took to Truth Social, questioning why air traffic control had not taken preventive action. “Why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn?” he wrote. “This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. ‘Not good’!!!”
Airport Shutdown and Investigation
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) immediately grounded all flights at Reagan National, with operations not expected to resume until Thursday at 11:00 a.m. Meanwhile, investigators are working to determine how a modern passenger jet, equipped with collision-avoidance systems, could crash into a military aircraft over one of the most heavily monitored airspaces in the country.
Experts warn that survival chances in the freezing Potomac waters are slim. According to the National Weather Service, the water temperature at the time of the crash was 2.2 degrees Celsius (36°F)—cold enough to cause hypothermia within 20-30 minutes.
Echoes of Past Tragedies
The crash brings back memories of the 1982 Air Florida Flight 90 disaster, when a Boeing 737 failed to properly de-ice before takeoff and plunged into the Potomac River, killing 78 people.
The last major fatal U.S. air crash occurred in 2009, when Continental Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board.
As the nation reels from yet another aviation disaster, questions remain over what went wrong—and whether this tragedy could have been avoided.
