No survivors in Washington plane crash: Why recovering bodies from Potomac River is challenging

At least 28 people are confirmed dead after an American Airlines jet collided midair with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter while trying to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington at about 9 pm local time (7.30 am IST) last evening. No survivors are expected as both aircraft crashed into the freezing waters of the Potomac River, officials said on Thursday.

Fire and EMS Chief Fire John Donnelly said in a news conference that the search and rescue operation involving 300 first responders is now being turned into a recovery operation.

“We are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation. At this point I don’t believe we are going to find any survivors,” he said.

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Donnelly confirmed that his teams have recovered 27 bodies from the passenger jet and one from the military helicopter.

The multi-agency rescue efforts that continued throughout the night were daunting as teams faced dark, icy waters and cold temperatures.

Let’s take a closer look.

What happened?

On Wednesday evening, an American Airlines flight, operated by PSA Airlines as American Eagle Flight 5342, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided with a US Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC.

According to the US Federal Aviation Administration, the passenger jet that had departed from Wichita, Kansas, crashed midair as it collided with the military helicopter on a training flight, reported Associated Press (AP).

Three soldiers were in the Army helicopter at the time of the incident.

Passengers on the American Airlines flight included several figure skaters, their coaches and family members who were returning from the National Development Camp that followed the US Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.

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“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” US Figure Skating said in a statement, as per AP.

Two Russian figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were among the passengers on the doomed plane, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

The Wednesday collision was the deadliest aviation disaster in the US since November 2001, when an American Airlines flight crashed in New York, killing all 260 people on board.

Freezing cold makes rescue efforts hard

About two dozen local, state and federal rescue teams were deployed for the rescue and search operation. Police and fire boats were also stationed as divers searched the Potomac River.

The plane broke into two, while both the passenger jet and the helicopter were lying upside down in around two metres of water, reported Sky News.

Donnelly told media Thursday that first responders found “extremely frigid conditions. They found heavy wind. They found ice on the water, and they’ve operated all night in those conditions.”

The frigid temperature around the crash site made rescue efforts further challenging.

As per NBC News, Washington’s fire chief said there are pieces of ice in the Potomac River.

“The challenges are access. The water that we’re operating in is about 8 feet deep,” Donnelly said. “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.

“Divers are doing the same thing in the water. The water is dark, it is murky, and that is a very tough condition for them to dive in,” the fire chief said.

‘Preventable’ tragedy

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Thursday that the midair collision was “preventable”.

“We are going to wait for all the information to come in from this vantage point, but … what I’ve seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely,” he said.

Duffy’s remarks came after US President Donald Trump’s post on social media Wednesday that the collision “should have been prevented.”

The Transportation Secretary said that both the American Airlines jet and the military helicopter were on a “standard” flight path last night.

“This was a clear night last night; the helicopter was in the standard pattern. If you live in the DC area, you will see helicopters up and down the river,” he said during a news conference. “This was a standard flight pattern last night as well.”

“The American Airlines flight coming in to land was in a standard flight pattern as it was coming into DCA, so this was not unusual with a military aircraft flying the river and aircraft landing at DCA,” Duffy said.

The Reagan National Airport, which is set to open at 11 am EST (9.30 pm IST) Thursday, is one of the most complicated airports for commercial pilots flying in the US.

“Not only is it (one of) the busiest, it’s the most complex airport,” David Soucie, CNN Safety Analyst said. “There’s military and commercial together. There’s flight restrictions on where you can fly, what kind of approaches you have to make, and there’s demands on how quickly those airplanes have to come in and out.”

The airport is nestled across an interstate from the Pentagon and the Potomac River from Washington, DC. The airspace is highly restricted due to the presence of several monuments, a former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator told NBC News.

Meanwhile, DC Fire and EMS Chief Donnelly said that the next phase of the operation will be led by the NTSB. He also expressed confidence they will recover all bodies.

“I’m confident that we will do that, and that will take us a little bit of time, though. It may involve some more equipment,” the fire chief said.

With input from agencies