American Airlines Flight 5342 with 60 passengers and four crew hit an Army helicopter near Washington D.C.'s Reagan National Wednesday night, sending the two aircraft into the Potomac River and killing all aboard in the deadliest U.S. air crash in more than two decades.
The crash around 9 p.m. threw one of the world's most tightly controlled airspaces into chaos 3 miles (5 kilometers) south of the White House and U.S. Capitol. Officials are probing the cause Friday as they search the river.
More than 40 bodies have been pulled from the river, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press on Friday. The officials were not authorized to discuss details of the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The crash
The regional jet out of Wichita, Kansas, was preparing to land and the UH-60 Black Hawk based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, carrying three soldiers, was on a training exercise, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Skies were clear.
A few minutes before the Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-700 series twin-engine jet was to land, air traffic controllers asked Flight 5342 if it could use a shorter runway. The pilots agreed. Controllers cleared the jet to land. Flight-tracking sites show the plane adjusted its approach to the new runway.
Less than 30 seconds before the collision, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it had the plane in sight. The military pilot responded yes.
The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later, apparently telling the copter to wait for the jet to pass.
There was no reply and the aircraft collided.
The plane’s radio transponder stopped transmitting about 2,400 feet (732 meters) short of the runway, roughly over the middle of the Potomac, and the plane was found upside-down in three sections in waist-deep water. The helicopter's wreckage was also found in the river.
NTSB investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the plane.
The plane was manufactured in 2004 and can carry up to 70 passengers.
The investigation
Federal investigators will try to piece together any communication between the two aircraft and air traffic controllers, other pilot actions and the aircraft altitudes.
One air traffic controller was responsible for coordinating helicopter and plane traffic, according to a report by the Federal Aviation Administration obtained by The Associated Press. The work is normally assigned to two people so the configuration was “not normal,” the report said. But a person familiar with the matter said staffing Wednesday night was routine.
The positions are regularly combined when controllers need to step away from the console for breaks, during a shift change or when air traffic is slow, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures.
At a news conference Thursday, President Donald Trump — without evidence — cast blame on the helicopter pilots and baselessly alleged that diversity initiatives had undermined air safety.
The victims
It was the deadliest U.S. air crash since 2001.
Among the passengers were members of the Skating Club of Boston who were returning from a development camp that followed the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.
Victims included teenage figure skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, the teens' mothers and two Russian-born coaches, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won a 1994 world championship in pairs skating.
The victims also included a group of hunters returning from a guided trip in Kansas, nine students and parents from Fairfax County, Virginia, schools and four steamfitters members of a steamfitters' local in suburban Maryland and two Chinese nationals.
The plane captain was Jonathan Campos, 34, according to multiple media reports. Chief of staff for Army aviation Jonathan Koziol said the helicopter crew was “very experienced” and familiar with the congested flying around Washington.
DC’s crowded airspace
Located along the Potomac just southwest of Washington, Reagan National requires pilots to navigate hundreds of commercial planes, military aircraft, and restricted areas.
Federal authorities, aviation experts and pilots have long worried about an increase in close calls. In May, an American Airlines plane canceled its takeoff from Reagan to avoid a plane that was landing on an intersecting runway. It was the second close call in six weeks.
A little more than 24 hours before Wednesday’s collision, a different regional jet descending to land at Reagan executed a go-around maneuver because of a military helicopter in the same area. Flight tracking sites and air-traffic control logs show the Embraer E-175 was cleared to land and advised about a helicopter in its vicinity when its automated collision avoidance system pushed it out of proper alignment for landing. It landed safely minutes later.
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Associated Press writer Zeke Miller and Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington and reporters from throughout the U.S. contributed.
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