At 8:47 PM Eastern near Reagan National. Both aircraft went into the Potomac River.
American Airlines flight 5342 from Wichita, KS to Reagan National collided with a U.S. Army helicopter as the airplane was coming into land.
Airplane was a CRJ700 operated by PSA Airlines (a subsidiary of American) and the helicopter was a Blackhawk from Ft. Belvoir.
60 passengers, including members of USA Figure Skating, on board the airplane and 4 crew members.
3 soldiers on board the Blackhawk.
Early reports were that “at least four” survivors were rescued from the water and rushed to the hospital, but the same source (the local NBC affiliate) now says that more than a dozen bodies were recovered with no mention of survivors.
Water is roughly 35 degrees.
Yeah latest update I’ve seen is 19 bodies recovered and no survivors yet. Chances of finding survivors now is extremely slim… unless someone managed to get themselves out of the river rather than wait to be rescued and the media just doesn’t know about it yet.
Very sad. I’m guessing it’s complicated having commercial airlines and military helicopters occupying the same airspace.
Any major airport is complicated, but the Blackhawk & the CRJ should have been using the same Air Traffic Control tower. So one being military & one civilian doesn’t necessarily complicate things.
On aviation forums, I’m seeing that the military aircraft frequently don’t have their ads-b transponders on and so civilian aircraft may not be able to see them.
Not hearing much about the Blackhawk. I assume it did not crash?
There was a significant mid-air explosion. Pretty sure the Blackhawk crashed.
Initial reports were that BOTH aircraft went into the Potomac.
From the 3:47 AM update:
“The helicopter is upside down but appears to be mostly intact”
Two Russian figure skaters, Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who were living in the U.S. were on board. They too were at the skating event in Wichita.
I hate thinking it, but I wonder if there’s any chance of foul play. It’s not falling off a balcony but maybe close. Like had they been critical of Putin?
They won the Pairs world championship in 1994 and got married the next year. They were coaches for USA Figure Skating.
The conspiracy types are claiming it has something to do with Pfizer being sued by Kansas.
I’d want to check out the Russian figure skaters’ social media posts. If they were openly critical of the war in Ukraine…
Yeah there is footage (shown on tv) of a fireball. Anyone near the point of impact was probably killed instantly. If they survived the mid-air collision they next got treated to a 400 ft fall accelerating at 32 ft/s^2 and then the 35 degree water in the Potomac.
While there is some slim chance that someone survived and got themselves out of the river … based on the fact that no such information is yet known, it’s extremely unlikely that there are any survivors.
28 bodies recovered so far… 27 from the CRJ and 1 from the Blackhawk.
Given the altitude at the time of impact, that CRJ had to be seconds before touching down on the runway. Have to wonder wtf a blackhawk would be doing just off the end of a major airport runway.
ETA: weird, some elements from the picture above did not get copied. The brown path is the Blackhawk. The blue path is the CRJ. Where they meet right off the runway is the collision point. The picture with the graphics is in this article:
The TAA recording has been released (at least to the press) and transcripts I’ve seen have the air traffic controller asking the helicopter if it sees the plane, and asking it to pass behind the plane. Then expressions of shock. The plane appears to have been on a straight path to the runway it was told to land on. So any foul play would have to have been on the part of the army helicopter. That seems far-fetched?
I’m guessing the helicopter pilot passed out for some reason. Or the helicopter malfunctioned.
Correct
I’m told that type of helicopter is used to transport VIPs, and news articles say it was on a training run, with no VIPs on board. I have to wonder why training runs are that close to a major airport. But i suppose we’ll learn more in a few days.
Really tragic accident.
The fireball of the impact was picked up by some random video camera quite a long way away. It must have been pretty big.
There were three on board so either all three passed out or someone would have at least taken the radio controls, surely, if not attempting to take control of the airplane. Or the pilot passed out seconds before the collision and no one else had time to react.
If the pilot wasn’t feeling up to snuff, flying through that airspace was a really risky call. It was a training flight.
A malfunction seems more likely. Kind of late in the day for a bird strike.
I’m assuming it wasn’t training like teaching an inexperienced pilot how to fly.
My understanding is that pretty much any military flight that’s not carrying out some purposeful mission (whether bombing a target or delivering mail) is classified as a “training flight”. Including when they do stadium flyovers before sporting events. It’s often just to maintain the pilot’s skills so he/she doesn’t get rusty.
Also certainly an Army helicopter pilot who will be carrying VIPs will need to be familiar with taking off and landing at Reagan.