American Airlines plane crash: Everything we know so far after horror mid-air incident in Washington DC
American Airlines plane crash: Everything we know so far after horror mid-air incident in Washington DC
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A jet with 60 passengers and four crew members aboard collided Wednesday night with an Army helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, prompting a large search-and-rescue operation in the nearby Potomac River. Here is everything we know so far.
Plane crashed into Army helicopter on descent to runway. American Airlines Flight 5342 was inbound to the airport at an altitude of about 400 feet and a speed of about 140 miles per hour when it suffered a rapid loss of altitude over the Potomac River, according to data from its radio transponder.
A few minutes before landing, air traffic controllers asked the arriving commercial jet if it could land on the shorter Runway 33 at Reagan National and the pilots said they were able. Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight.
The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later: "PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ." Seconds after that, the two aircraft collided. Number of fatalities unknown. There were multiple fatalities after the mid-air collision, according to several separate US media outlets that cited anonymous sources.
Officials who held a press conference at Reagan National Airport did not announce any deaths, but they all had a sombre tone. Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas said "when one person dies it's a tragedy, but when many, many, many people die it's an unbearable sorrow".
