ARLINGTON :
Passenger jet with 64 aboard collides with Army helicopter carrying 3 soldiers while landing at Reagan Airport
ALL 64 people aboard an
American Airlines jet that collided with an Army helicopter
were feared dead in what was
likely to be the worst US aviation disaster in almost a quarter century, officials said on
Thursday.
At least 28 bodies were pulled
from the icy waters of the
Potomac River after the midair
collision on Wednesday night
when the helicopter apparently flew in the path of the jet as
it was landing at Ronald Reagan
National Airport near
Washington, officials said.
Rescuers were still searching
for any sign of the 60 passengers and four crew members, but
they did not believe there were
any survivors, which would
make it the deadliest US air crash
in nearly 24 years.
“We are now at the point
where we are switching from a
rescue operation to a recovery
operation,” said John Donnelly,
the fire chief in the nation’s capital. “We don’t believe there are
any survivors.”
The body of the plane was
found upside-down in three sections in waist-deep water.
The
wreckage of the helicopter was
also found. Donnelly said first
responders on Thursday were
searching an area of the
Potomac River as far south as
the Woodrow Wilson Bridge,
roughly 3 miles (4.8 kilometers)
south of the airport.
There was no immediate word
on the cause of the collision, but
officials said flight conditions
were clear as the jet coming
from Wichita, Kansas, with US
and Russian figure skaters and
others aboard, was making a
routine landing when the helicopter flew into its path.
“On final approach into
Reagan National it collided with
a military aircraft on an otherwise normal approach,”
American Airlines CEO Robert
Isom said.
“At this time, we don’t know
why the military aircraft came
into the path of the ... Aircraft.”
Three soldiers were aboard
the helicopter during a training
flight, an Army official said.
Images from the river showed
boats around the partly submergedwingandthemangled wreckage of the plane’s
fuselage. Investigators will try
to piece togetherthe aircraft’s
final moments before the collision, including its contact
with air traffic controllers as
well as a loss of altitude by the
passenger jet.
What happened: The FAA
saidthemidair crashoccurred
before9pm ESTinsomeofthe
most tightly controlled and
monitored airspace in the
world, just over 3 miles south
of the White House and the
Capitol. American Airlines
Flight 5342 was inbound to
ReaganNational at an altitude
of about 400 feet (122 metres)
and a speed of about 140 mph
(225 kph) when it rapidly lost
altitudeoverthePotomacRiver,
accordingtodatafromitsradio
transponder.
The Canadianmade Bombardier CRJ-701
twin-enginejet,manufactured
in 2004, can be configured to
carry up to 70 passengers.
A few minutes before landing,airtrafficcontrollersasked
the arriving commercial jet if
it could land on the shorter
Runway33atReaganNational
and the pilots said they were
able. Controllers then cleared
the plane to land on Runway
33. Flight-tracking sites
showed the plane adjust its
approach to the new runway.
Less than30 secondsbefore
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 helicoptermoments later:“PAT 25
passbehind theCRJ.” Seconds
afterthat, the two aircraft collided.Theplane’s transponder
stopped transmitting about
2,400 feet (732 metres) short
oftherunway,roughlyoverthe
middle of the river.
Video from an observation
camera at thenearbyKennedy
Centre showed two sets of
lights consistent with aircraft
appearing to join in a fireball.
The US Army described the
helicopter as a UH-60
Blackhawk based at Fort
BelvoirinVirginia.Militaryaircraft frequently conduct such
training flights in and around
the nation’s capital. Reagan
Airport was toreopenat11am
on Thursday, the Federal
Aviation Administration
announced. The FAA previously said it would be closed
until 5 am on Friday.