UPDATE 11AM: More than 60 feared dead after jet hits helicopter, crashes into Washington river . . . More than 60 people were feared dead after an American Airlines regional passenger jet collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday and crashed into the frigid Potomac River near Reagan Washington National Airport.
"At this point we do not believe there were any survivors," District of Columbia fire chief John Donnelly said at a Thursday press conference. Donnelly said 28 bodies had been recovered from the river so far, in what was shaping up to be the deadliest U.S. air disaster in more than a decade.
Russian ice skating coaches and former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on board the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Potomac River in Washington on Wednesday night, Russian state media reported.
Shishkova and Naumov, who were married to each other, won the world championships in pairs figure skating in 1994 and had reportedly lived in the United States since at least 1998, where they trained young ice skaters.
Two Boston teenage skaters, their mothers, and two coaches from the Skating Club of Boston were among the 64 killed in Wednesday’s mid-air collision between an American Airlines flight and a US Army helicopter in Washington D.C.
Doug Zeghibe, executive director of the Skating Club of Boston, identified the dead during a briefing Thursday: Skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, who were accompanied by their mothers, Jin Han and Christine Lane, respectively.
Earlier Story...
At least 27 bodies have been pulled so far from the frigid and icy Potomac River after a Black Hawk helicopter collided mid-air with a commercial plane, splitting it in half, near Reagan National Airport in Virginia Wednesday night.
Flight 5342, a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet operating for American Airlines and traveling from Wichita, Kan., collided with the military chopper while approaching Runway 33 at the Washington airport around 9 p.m., according to the NY Post citing statement from the Federal Aviation Administration.
US figure skaters were aboard the American Airlines flight that collided with a military helicopter Wednesday night, according to a report. Several coaches and parents of the skaters were also on the flight from Wichita to Reagan National Airport, USA Figure Skating said.
"US Figure Skating can confirm that several members of our skating community were sadly aboard American Airlines Flight 5342, which collided with a helicopter yesterday evening in Washington, D.C.," the organization told The Post.
"We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts. We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available"
The skaters were a part of the National Development Team and had competed at the US Figure Skating Championships.
Rescue crews and divers are actively searching the Potomac River — which was a perilous 35 degrees — for the 60 passengers and four crew members aboard the American Airlines flight and the three soldiers traveling in the military chopper, with first responders recovering the remains of at least 27 people, according to CBS News.
No survivors have been found, the outlet added.
The Army UH-60 helicopter involved in the crash was based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, according to the Army and Pentagon, with the flight reportedly a training exercise, Fox News reported.
The military chopper, which can carry 15 people, was not believed to have been transporting any VIPs, a defense official told CNN.
Chilling audio from Air Traffic Control captured the moment the flight safety agency reported the horrific mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and a Blackhawk military helicopter.
On Wednesday night, American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with an Army Blackhawk helicopter exploding in a fiery impact as it approached Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC.
In a recording of air tower communications at the time of the horror collision, captured by LiveATC.net, an aircraft can be heard calling the tower just seconds after the CRJ700 Bombardier jet carrying 64 passengers and crew got in touch.
“Tower, did you see that?” one air traffic controller asked, referring to the collision.
Another air traffic controller then redirected all aircraft heading to runway 33 at Ronald Reagan Washington National airport to go around.
“Crash, crash, crash, this is an alert three,” one of the air traffic controllers can be heard saying in the audio.
“I have been fully briefed on the terrible accident which just took place at Reagan National Airport. May God Bless their souls,” President Trump said in a statement.
“Thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders. I am monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise.”
This is the first major passenger plane crash in the US since 2009. The D.C. area is home to some of the most tightly controlled airspace in the country, and Reagan National Airport has one of the busiest runways in the US. Last year, there was a near-miss at Reagan Airport, when an American Airlines jet came within 1,300 feet of another plane on the runway, prompting an FAA investigation.
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