Trump says there are no survivors after plane and Army helicopter collide near D.C.
![A helicopter uses its searchlight as it flies above the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Alex Brandon]](https://www.whec.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Aircraft_Down_98524.webp)
A helicopter uses its searchlight as it flies above the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Alex Brandon]
What we know:
- American Eagle Flight 5342, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, collided midair with an Army helicopter near Reagan Washington National Airport last night.
- President Donald Trump confirmed today there are no survivors in the collision.
- The two aircraft crashed into the Potomac River, where a rescue operation has become a major recovery effort, with dozens of bodies pulled from the frigid waters so far.
- The regional plane was arriving from Wichita, Kansas, its parent company, American Airlines, said.
- The U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter was carrying three people, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said.
- American figure skaters, coaches and family members who had been at a camp in Wichita, Kansas, were among those aboard the passenger jet, according to U.S. Figure Skating.
- Russian state media confirmed that Russian figure skaters and coaches were also on board.
Live updates:
Unions announce that several of their members were on downed plane
The Communication Workers of America (CWA) posted on X that two members of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA were on board the America Eagle plane that collided last night with an Army helicopter over the Potomac River.
“Our union is grieving along with all those affected,” the post read.
Additionally, there were four members of Plumbers, Pipefitters and Steamfitters Local 602 on board.
“Our focus now is on providing support and care to the families of our Brothers as we continue to gather more information in the coming days,” Union Association General President Mark McManus and UA Steamfitters Local 602 Business Manager Chris Madello said in a joint statement.
Trump questions helicopter movements: ‘You had a pilot problem’
During his remarks, President Donald Trump questioned the movements of the Black Hawk helicopter before it crashed into the American Eagle jet.
“You had a pilot problem, from the standpoint of the helicopter. I mean, because it was visual, it was very clear night. It was cold, but clear and clear as you could be,” Trump said.
The president went on to say the helicopter “had the ability to go up or down, had the ability to turn.”
“You could have gone up, you could have gone down. You could have gone straight up, straight down. You could have turned, you could have done a million different maneuvers,” Trump said.
Trump added that “all of this is going to be studied, but it just seems to me from a couple of words that I like to use, the words common sense, some really bad things happened, and some things happened that shouldn’t have happened.”
When taking questions later on, Trump seemed to backtrack and say, “I’m not blaming the controller.”
“I’m saying there are things that you could question, like the height of the helicopter, the height of the plane being at the same level, going in opposite directions,” the president said before ending the news conference.
Vance, Duffy and Hegseth say plane crash was ‘unacceptable,’ repeat Trump’s DEI attacks
Vice President JD Vance, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth added to Trump’s criticisms of DEI, saying “we can only have the best and the brightest.”
“We want to hire the best people, because we want the best people at air traffic control, and we want to make sure we have enough people at air traffic control who are actually competent to do the job,” Vance said.
“If you go back to just some of the headlines over the past 10 years, you have many hundreds of people suing the government because they would like to be air traffic controllers, but they were turned away because of the color of their skin,” the vice president continued, without providing evidence of the claim.
Hegseth said that federal agencies should only “have the best and brightest in every position possible.”
“As you said in your inaugural, it is colorblind and merit based, the best leaders possible, whether it’s flying Black Hawks, flying airplanes, leading platoons or in government, the era of DEI is gone at the Defense Department, and we need the best and brightest, whether it’s in our air traffic control or whether it’s in our generals, or whether it’s throughout government,” Hegseth said.
Duffy also referred to having the “best and the brightest,” saying the crash was “unacceptable.”
“We are going to take responsibility at the Department of Transportation and the FAA to make sure we have the reforms that have been dictated by President Trump in place to make sure that these mistakes do not happen again and again,” Duffy said.
Trump attacks Obama, Biden and DEI efforts
President Donald Trump targeted former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in his remarks on the deadly D.C. plane crash, saying Biden’s “policy was horrible.”
“We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system. I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary,” Trump said, without providing evidence or citing specific policy.
“And then when I left office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before. I put safety first, Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen because this was the lowest level,” he continued, adding, “their policy was horrible, and their politics was even worse.”
Trump went on to blame a “FAA diversity push” that “includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities that is amazing.”
The president then turned to Buttigieg, saying, “Do you know how badly everything’s run since he’s run the Department of Transportation?”
Trump confirms there are no survivors: ‘A dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capitol’
President Donald Trump called the deadly collision a “a tragedy of terrible proportions” and confirmed there were no survivors as he addressed reporters in the White House briefing room this morning.
“The work has now shifted to a recovery mission. Sadly there are no survivors,” he said.
The president began his remarks with a moment of silence for the victims and their families, telling reporters, “I speak to you this morning in an hour of anguish for our nation.”
He added that a “massive search-and-rescue mission was underway throughout the night, leveraging every asset at our disposal, and I have to say, the local, state, federal military, including the United States Coast Guard in particular, they’ve done a phenomenal job.”
“This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital and in our nation’s history and a tragedy of terrible proportions as one nation, we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly,” Trump said.
‘We have lost family’: Boston skating club CEO
Doug Zeghibe, CEO of The Skating Club of Boston, said 14 skaters returning home from the national development camp in Wichita, Kansas, were killed in the crash.
Of those, six were from the Skating Club of Boston — two coaches, two teenage athletes and the athletes’ mothers.
Those six were identified as athlete Jinna Han; Jinna’s mother, Jin Han; athlete Spencer Lane; Spencer’s mother, Christine Lane; and coaches Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova.
“Skating is a very close and tight-knit community,” he told NBC Boston, tearing up. “I think for all of us, we have lost family.”
He called Shishkova and Naumov “top coaches — they were the 1994 world pair champions and they came to us in 2017 and were very much a part of our building the competitive skating program.”
He said this wasn’t the first plane tragedy for the club.
“In 1961, the entire world team of U.S. figure skating en route to the world championships in Prague was lost in a plane crash in Belgium. Almost half of everybody on board that plane were from this club. It had long reaching implications for this skating club and for the sport in this country because when you lose coaches like this, you lose the future of the sport as well.”
Hegseth says Army helicopter crew was ‘fairly experienced,’ had night vision goggles
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the helicopter crew involved in the crash was “fairly experienced” and was doing an “annual proficiency training flight” at the time of the collision.
Hegseth said the three crewmembers were from the Bravo Company 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir, an army base in Virginia that’s about 14 miles away from the airport.
“It was a fairly experienced crew that was doing a required annual night evaluation. They did have night vision goggles,” Hegseth said in a post on X. He did not identify the crew members, because their families are still being notified.
Hegseth said the collision is already being reviewed by “an investigative team from our aviation safety center.”
“We anticipate the investigation will quickly be able to determine whether the aircraft was in the corridor and at the right altitude at the time of the incident,” he said.
14 figure skaters feared dead in plane crash
As many as 14 figure skaters are feared dead in the midair collision over the Potomac River, Skating Club of Boston CEO Doug Zeghibe said.
“It’s a major loss for our skating community,” Zeghibe told reporters in Norwood, Massachusetts.
Six victims of last night’s tragedy were affiliated with Skating Club of Boston: two coaches, two skaters and their two mothers, according to Zeghibe.
The two Massachusetts-based skaters were identified as Spencer Lane and Jinna Han and their moms, Molly Lane and Jin Han.
Responders switch from rescue operation to a recovery operation
Despite a mammoth search-and-rescue operation, Fire and EMS Chief John A. Donnelly said during a press conference early today that there were not believed to be any survivors from the midair collision over the Potomac River.
“We are now at a point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” Donnelly said. “At this point, we don’t believe there are any survivors from this accident.”
At least 28 bodies have been pulled from the water, he said. Of those, 27 were from the American Eagle civilian jet and one from the U.S. Black Hawk helicopter, Donnelly said. Multiple medical examiner offices are working on identifying the victims, with the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner leading the efforts to reunite the bodies with loved ones.
“We will continue to work to find all the bodies and collect them and reunite them with their loved ones,” Donnelly said.
Nearly two dozen local, state and federal rescue teams have been deployed for the search-and-rescue operation. Donnelly said earlier that about 300 responders were working on the ground as police and fire boats were deployed throughout the region. A mutual aid agreement between the city of Washington and the National Capital Region, as well as the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, is also in place.
Earlier, the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington said it was working directly with the Arlington and Metropolitan Police Department, Fire and EMS teams. “VHC Health is prepared to assist and support first responders as these agencies continue their emergency response,” it said, adding that it had not received any patients at this time.
Air traffic controllers had directed helicopter to pass behind civilian jet
Audio from the air traffic control tower may provide clues as to what happened just before last night’s disaster.
“Pat 25, do you have the CRJ in sight,” the DCA Tower had asked the chopper, then directed it to pass behind it. Shortly after, audio then captured reactions of shock from the tower.
The two collided and the plane broke into two pieces upon impact and both plunged into the Potomac River.
“It was probably out in the middle of the river. I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone,” audio from DCA ground said.
No survivors expected from Potomac crash disaster — operation is now recovery, not rescue, fire chief says
The huge operation to rescue 64 people from the wreck of a passenger jet and a military helicopter in the Potomac River is now a recovery operation and no survivors are expected, officials have said.
“We are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation. At this point I don’t believe we are going to find any survivors,” Fire and EMS Chief Fire John Donnelly said in a news conference this morning.
At least 28 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage of last night’s crash, he confirmed.
Of those, 27 were from the American Eagle civilian jet and one from the U.S. Black Hawk helicopter. The D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is leading reuniting the bodies with loved ones, and multiple medical examiner offices are working on identifying the victims.
“We will continue to work to find all the bodies and collect them and reunite them with their loved ones,” Donnelly said.
He said authorities are now switching from rescue operation to a recovery operation.
Black Hawk helicopter was on a training mission at time of crash
The U.S. Black Hawk helicopter that collided with American Eagle Flight 5342 was performing a training mission at the time, according to Ron McLendon II, the Public Affairs Deputy Director for Joint Task Force-National Capital Region/Military District of Washington.
The helicopter was from Bravo Company, 12th Aviation Battalion out of Davison Army Airfield in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation. The probe will be done by the NTSB, the U.S. Army and Federal Aviation Administration.
Special Report: Search and rescue operations underway after deadly plane crash in D.C.
Search and rescue operations are underway after an American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided with an Army helicopter in midair near D.C.’s Reagan Washington National Airport. The U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter involved was carrying three people.
Dozens of bodies have now been pulled out from the Potomac river, NBC Washington reports
More than 30 bodies have been recovered from the Potomac River where American Eagle Flight 5342 and a military helicopters both lie in ruin, two sources familiar with the rescue efforts told NBC Washington.
A multi-agency rescue operation continues through the night in challenging conditions.
Local man heard collision that ‘sounded like a war zone’
A man who lives alongside the Potomac River heard the moment American Eagle Flight 5342 collided with a U.S. military helicopter late last night and described the sound as like something from a movie or a war zone.
“I was getting ready to go to bed, laying down, when I hear the ‘bang bang,’ a very unusual sound, something you don’t hear on a daily basis,” said 38-year-old Abadi Ismail.
“It’s more like on a war zone, something you hear on the movies action. So that caught my attention,” he added.
Ismail looked out of his apartment window, which has views of the river, and saw smoke from the south of Regan Airport and began to film the unfolding rescue operation.
“Between ice, between frozen water, strong currents, it’s very challenging mission at the moment,” he said.
Flight that crashed was carrying figure skaters home from a training camp
Elite American figure skaters were onboard the flight that suffered a midair collision with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River on Wednesday, the official American body for the sport said early Thursday.
Two Russian world champions were also among the passengers on the American Eagle flight, Russian state media reported.
U.S. Figure Skating said the athletes were returning from a training camp in Wichita, Kansas.
Search and rescue efforts continue through the night
Emergency workers search the waters of the Potomac river close to the scene of the wreckage near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport this morning, in a desperate search for survivors.
American skater Anton Spiridonov says he is safe, was not on board
American-Russian figure skater Anton Spiridonov has confirmed that he was not among the casualties in Wednesday’s crash, despite reports to the contrary.
“Russian news outlets have included me on a list of presumed people on the flight from Wichita to Washington D.C,” Spiridonov, who won a silver medal for the United States at the 2023 Winter World University Games, posted to Instagram overnight.
“I was NOT on this flight, thank you for everyone’s concern for my safety. My heart goes out to all the families affected by this tragedy,” he added.
Two Russian figure skating champions were onboard the plane, Russian state media says
World figure skating champions, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were aboard the American Airlines plane, Russian state media outlets have reported.
Russian news agency TASS reported and RIA Novosti both carried the news, each citing an unnamed source.
Shishkova, 52, and Naumov, 55, are 1994 World Championship winners in pairs figure skating and were working as national team coaches for Russia.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Russian nationals were onboard but did not specify the duo. “Bad news from Washington today,” he told reporters in his daily news conference. “We grieve and console with the families and friends who lost those of our fellow citizens who died in this plane crash.”
“Sad news is being confirmed,” he said.
Former NTSB investigator: ‘Very limited room for error’ in the area
A former NTSB investigator who worked on the another crash in the area in 1982, said the airspace is highly restricted due to the presence of several monuments.
“It’s very tight airspace,” Alan Diehl told NBC’s “Early Today”.
“You really have to be on to your game. The pilots and the controllers that fly in and out of there are well trained and well aware of these restrictions,” he said.
Based on public information, Diehl said the tight airspace is even more complicated to fly in at night due to the presence of large number of lights, including those on the ground and at the airport.
“Very limited room for error,” he added.