An American Airlines regional jet crashed the Potomac River near Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after colliding with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night, with no survivors expected amid the extremely cold and windy conditions.
Sixty-four people were on board the plane, which departed from Wichita, Kansas.
The collision happened around 9 p.m. when the PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet was on approach to the airport.
Authorities say they are moving from a rescue mission to a recovery mission following a midair collision between a military helicopter and a passenger jet near Ronald Reagan National Airport.
Sixty passengers and four crew members were on American Airlines flight 5342 when it collided with a military Black Hawk helicopter carrying three service members.
After working all night to rescue people from the river, authorities are now say no survivors are expected.
The plane was headed to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) from Wichita, Kansas, and was preparing to land when it hit the military helicopter just over Southwest D.C., sending it crashing into the Potomac River. The helicopter was on a training exercise and was based out of Fort Belvoir, the U.S. Army confirmed.
Twenty-eight bodies have been recovered from the river, DC Fire Chief John Donnelly said. Twenty-seven were passengers on the flight, and one was on the helicopter. Temperatures in the river were only 42 degrees overnight, impacting rescue efforts, according to WUSA9 Chief Meteorologist Topper Shutt. With such cold water, people in the river would only have between 30 and 40 minutes to survive. Divers are a part of more than 300 emergency crews responding at the river early Thursday morning.
Aboard flight 5342 were several members of the U.S. Figure Skating community, the organization confirmed to WUSA9 early Thursday morning. The organization said athletes, coaches, and family members were returning home from the 2025 National Development Team Camp that was held alongside the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.
Two Russian figure skaters and former world champions, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, were coaches at the camp and were on the flight, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Shishkova and Naumov won the pairs title at the 1994 world championships. The two, who are also married, competed at the Winter Olympics twice. They were professional pairs coaches at the Skating Club of Boston, according to the organization’s website.
