‘No survivors in passenger plane, US jet collision’
There are likely no survivors after an American Airlines commercial plane carrying 64 people collided in midair with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the frigid Potomac River near Washington DC in the United States. This is according to Washington Fire Chief, John Donnelly. The Wednesday night crash prompted a large search-and-rescue […]
The River Potomac where rescue operations are ongoing after two planes collided midair.
Photo credit: People.com
There are likely no survivors after an American Airlines commercial plane carrying 64 people collided in midair with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the frigid Potomac River near Washington DC in the United States.
This is according to Washington Fire Chief, John Donnelly.
The Wednesday night crash prompted a large search-and-rescue operation.
The Bombardier plane operated by an American Airlines subsidiary, with 60 passengers and four crew members on board, was approaching Reagan National Airport at around 9:00 pm (0200 GMT) after flying from Wichita, Kansas, when the collision happened.
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Both aircraft crashed into the Potomac river and the fuselage of the passenger jet was inverted and broken into three sections.
US 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 jet.
Briefing newsmen at Reagan National Airport, Donnelly said: “We are now at a point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation.”
“At this point we don’t believe there are any survivors,” Donnelly said, adding that 28 bodies had been recovered — including one from the helicopter.
He said 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.