Fire chief: No survivors in plane, U.S. army helicopter crash

Everyone aboard American Airlines plane that collided with the United States Army helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington is feared dead, a fire chief said on Thursday, January 30, 2025.

The Wednesday crash prompted a large search-and-rescue operation in the nearby Potomac River.

The plane was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members.

Washington Fire Chief John Donnelly told a press briefing that emergency crews, totaling about 300 people, were working in “extremely rough” conditions and gave little indication they expected to find anyone alive.

“We’re going to be out there as long as it takes,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters.

At least 28 bodies have so far been recovered from the water, officials said.

U.S. Figure Skating said several athletes, coaches, and officials were aboard the flight, while officials in Moscow confirmed married Russian couple Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov – who won the 1994 world pairs title – were on the plane.

“We unfortunately see that these sad reports are being confirmed. Our other fellow citizens were there,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The Bombadier plane operated by an American Airlines subsidiary was approaching Reagan National Airport at about 9 p.m. (02:00 GMT) after flying from Wichita, Kansas, when the collision happened.

U.S. Army officials said the helicopter involved was a Black Hawk carrying three soldiers on a “training flight”.

Plane collides midair with military helicopter in U.S.

Witness Ari Schulman was driving home when he saw what he described as “a stream of sparks” overhead.

He said: “Initially I saw the plane and it looked fine, normal. It was right about to head over land.

“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.

“It looked like a Roman candle.”

United States President Donald Trump said in an official statement that he had been “fully briefed”, and added of any victims, “may God bless their souls”.

It was unclear how a passenger plane with modern collision-avoidance technology and nearby traffic controllers could collide with a military aircraft over the nation’s capital, AFP reported.

The airspace around Washington is often crowded, with planes coming in low over the city to land at Reagan Airport and helicopters – military, civilian and carrying senior politicians or officials – buzzing about both day and night.

The same airport was the scene of a deadly crash in January 1982 when Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737, took off but quickly plummeted, hitting the 14th Street bridge and crashing through the ice into the Potomac River. 78 people died.

Investigators concluded the pilot had failed to activate sufficient de-icing procedures.

The last major fatal U.S. air accident was in 2009, when Continental Flight 3407 from New Jersey to Buffalo, New York crashed and killed all 49 people aboard.

The Star