How American Airlines flight crashed into US army helicopter mid-air: What we know so far

In 1982, an Air Florida flight plunged into the frozen Potomac River in Washington, DC. Now, 43 years later, on Wednesday night (January 29), an American Airlines jet crashed into the Potomac once again after suffering a mid-air collision with a helicopter near Reagan National Airport.

The tragedy in the skies has led the Reagan National Airport to remain closed until 11 am (local time), said president and CEO of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump, who has been briefed on the deadly mid-air collision, said: “May God Bless their souls. Thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders.”

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But what happened? What caused the collision? What do eyewitnesses have to say? What has been the impact of the crash? We get you everything we know so far.

What we know of American Airlines Flight 5342

Around 9 pm (local time), American Airlines flight 5342 was travelling towards Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia at an altitude of about 400 feet and a speed of about 140 miles an hour when it suffered a rapid loss of altitude over the Potomac River. The flight, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, had departed from Wichita, Kansas earlier.

Minutes before the plane was scheduled to land at Reagan National Airport, air traffic controllers asked the arriving commercial jet if it could land on the shorter runway 33 at Reagan National and the pilots said they were able.

Minutes later, the plane plunged into the Potomac River with law enforcement and the Federal Aviation Administration confirming the same around 9.30 pm local time.

A mid-air collision with US army helicopter

The crash into the Potomac River occurred when the American Airlines flight collided in mid-air with a Sikorsky H-60 helicopter – also known as a Black Hawk – while on approach to the runway at Reagan.

The Black Hawk, carrying a crew of three, was on a training flight at the time of the crash, Joint Task Force-National Capital Region media chief Heather Chairez told CNN. It was later revealed that the copter came out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

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It is now emerging that the helicopter gave no audio response when informed of the plane. Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asks the helicopter if it has the arriving plane in sight: “PAT25, do you have the CRJ in sight?”

The controller makes another radio call to PAT25 moments later: “PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ.”

The two aircraft collide seconds later.

The audio from flight tracking sites doesn’t record any response from the helicopter, if any, to the warnings from air traffic control.

Seconds after the collision, another pilot is heard calling, “Tower, did you see that”, an apparent reference to the two planes bumping into each other in the air.

Eyewitnesses recount the horror

As the American Airlines plane crashed into the US army helicopter, eyewitnesses looked on with horror. Ari Schulman, who was driving home near the airport, told NBC News, “You can always see these planes lined up to land. I always look at them when I’m driving home because it’s just a really interesting, kind of an elegant sight.”

However, this time it was anything but that. He said he saw what looked like a plane roughly 120 to 150 feet in the air preparing to land but then looked back moments later and saw that “it looked very, very wrong.”

“It looked to me like a giant Roman candle, sparks shooting from the head of the plane down to the tail. I saw that for about two seconds,” Schulman said, adding that he initially wondered whether he had hallucinated the crash, but then he began seeing emergency vehicles.

Another local, identified as Jimmy Mazeo, said he saw the crash while having dinner with his girlfriend at a park near the airport. He told the BBC he saw something similar to a “white flare” in the sky. He said planes flying into Ronald Reagan Airport appeared to have been flying in “irregular patterns”. Mazeo said he did not think much of what he saw until emergency services started arriving at the scene.

Casualties as search-and-rescue operations begin

Minutes after the collision occurred and both — the American Airlines plane and the helicopter — crashed into the Potomac, search-and-rescue operations began, with around 300 responders being at the scene. The plane is reported to be in roughly seven feet of water, and the helicopter is upside down in the water.

However, DC Fire and EMS Chief John A Donnelly Sr has pointed out that the situation looks grim as the conditions are cold, dark, and windy. In a press conference, he said, “The challenges are access. The water that we’re operating in is about eight feet deep. There is wind, there are pieces of ice out there. So, it’s just dangerous and hard to work in.”

“And because there’s not a lot of lights, you’re out there searching every square inch of space to see if you can find anybody,” he said.

A law enforcement source also told CNN that it was hard to make out what they were seeing. The plane, they said, was in several pieces.

As of now, there’s no official count on the casualties in the crash. AP quoting a source said that there were multiple fatalities. However, CBS News reported that 18 bodies have been pulled from the water so far.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) dive team has also arrived at the crash site at the Potomac River and will assist in locating victims in the waters.

Meanwhile, an investigation has also been launched to ascertain what exactly caused the crash. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on X that the Pentagon and the Army are investigating the crash. Hegseth wrote that the investigation was “launched immediately.”

A separate probe will also be carried out by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), with the latter leading it.

Official Speak

Following the collision, Donald Trump said he was monitoring the situation and expressed his condolences for the lives lost.

Later, he said that the mid-air collision was a “bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented.” On his own social media platform, Truth Social, the US president wrote, “The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane.

“This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!” he added.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has assured that his department would provide all the assistance possible to the rescue operations as well as the investigation. “I have spoken with Washington DC Mayor Bowser, Virginia Governor Youngkin, Kansas Governor Kelly and NTSB Chair Homendy to offer our agency’s complete assistance,” he added. “Thank you to all first responders who are on the scene and conducting the search and rescue operations.”

Meanwhile, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom has expressed deep sorrow over the incident. He added the airline is coordinating with local, state and federal authorities and “cooperating fully” with the National Transportation Safety Board investigation. “Anything we can do, we are doing,” Isom stated.

With inputs from agencies