Audio released from air traffic control when a military helicopter collided with an American Airlines commercial plane unveils harrowing details about the incident. US authorities believe that there are ‘no survivors’ after a commercial flight carrying 64 people and a Black Hawk helicopter ferrying three military staff collided mid-air on Wednesday.
The American Airlines flight 5342, a CRJ700 Bombardier, had departed from Kansas and was making its descent into Washington DC at the time. According to reports, the American Airlines plane was actually just moments away from landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington when the incident happened.
Audio recordings from the air traffic control tower suggests that controllers attempted to alert the military helicopter to the position of the incoming plane. “PAT25, do you have the CRJ in sight?” a voice can be heard saying. The ground team then instructed the helicopter: “PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ.”.
Seconds later, a fiery globe lit up the dark sky as the two aircraft collided and then plummeted into an icy river. “Tower, did you see that?” another radio message says. It’s unclear whether this came from another pilot in the vicinity or another air traffic controller.
The team then quickly starts redirecting flights as they await to learn about what just happened. “Crash, crash, crash, this is an alert three,” one controller can be heard saying, as another then said: “'I don't know if you caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approach into 33. We're going to be shutting down operations for the indefinite future.”.
