Two new videos obtained by CNN are the most detailed yet in showing the horrifying crash between an American Airlines plane and a Black Hawk helicopter. In one clip released on Friday morning, the helicopter can be seen flying over the Potomac River from the left side as the passenger jet descends from the right side. After an explosion, both aircrafts are seen falling into the water. The second video appears to be shot from Ronald Reagan National Airport and shows the two aircrafts colliding head-on from a distance across the runways, and spinning into the river.

NBC News has confirmed that an air traffic control supervisor at Reagan Airport let a controller leave their shift early before a plane crash killed 67 people. It comes after US media obtained an initial report from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which found staffing levels were ‘not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic’ before the fatal plane and helicopter collision. Two roles – coordinating helicopter traffic and coordinating arriving and departing planes – had been combined into one. Two people were reportedly handling the jobs of four inside the control tower at Reagan National Airport.

However, the two jobs are usually combined when controllers need a break or are doing a shift change – so the ‘not normal’ staffing levels could be attributed to a shift change or work break. Authorities are still searching for answers to what caused the most deadly air disaster in America since 2001. There were no survivors when the American Airlines flight collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport late last night.

Even in peak conditions, pilots must navigate notoriously busy skies filled with hundreds of other commercial planes, military aircraft and restricted areas around sensitive sites, with the White House just five miles away. The National Transportation Safety Board has recovered black boxes from the American Airlines plane and is processing the recorders, CNN reported. At 4pm local time, the board will hold a press conference at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

It is unclear if officials will have details on the contents of the black box by then. American Airlines will retire flight number 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington, DC, after a plane on that route crashed. The airline told CNN that it will resume flights on the route on Friday night as AA 5567. Service for the itinerary had been halted after the Wednesday night collision. The three crew members aboard the Black Hawk helicopter that collided with the American Airlines plane were conducting an exercise in the event of an attack on the Capitol.

It was part of a response plan that involves with an evacuation and relocation of federal agencies and the White House. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video. Up Next. President Donald Trump responded sarcastically when asked by a reporter if he has plans to visit the site of the American Airlines plane and Black Hawk helicopter crash.

The aircrafts dropped into the Potomac River, where recovery operations are still underway. ‘You tell me, what’s the site, the water? You want me to go swimming?’ said Trump. When the reporter asked if he would visit first responders there, Trump said he would not, but plans to meet with some of the families of the victims. Two videos from CNN show new angles of the crash between the American Airlines plane the Black Hawk helicopter.

Warning: sensitive content. In a post on X, Reagan Airport wrote: ‘The airport is open and operating normally today, January 31. Passengers are encouraged to check with their airlines for delays or cancellations.’. The most recent mass casulaty plane crash in the US was on November 12, 2001, when an American Airlines flight slammed into a residential area of Belle Harbour, New York, just after take-off from Kennedy Airport, killing all 260 people aboard and five people on the ground.

The National Safety Council estimates that Americans have a 1-in-93 chance of dying in a motor vehicle crash, while deaths on airplanes are too rare to calculate the odds. Fox News is reporting that six minutes before the fatal collision last night, the American Airlines flight was told to switch runways from 01 to 33. This could be for a number of reasons – inclement weather, high winds, etc. Nick Daniels, the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, told CBS: ‘It doesn’t matter their race, color, religion , you can know you are in the best hands that take that responsibility very seriously everyday.’.