American Airlines plane crash: What were final communications between Air traffic control and pilot? Read message here
Budget with ET
Fraught juggling act draws near for Nirmala Sitharaman. What will Feb 1 bring?
Budget 2025 needs to pull off a big growth trick for the untapped half of its firepower
2 key events coming up for India as world readjusts to Trump 2.0
Both aircraft crashed into the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport, and crews searching the icy waters had pulled 27 bodies from the plane and one from the helicopter, officials told a news conference Thursday morning. Emergency responders were switching from a rescue to a recovery operation, said John Donnelly, Washington's fire chief.
American Airlines said in a statement that 60 passengers and four crew members had been onboard Flight 5342, which had departed from Wichita about 6:20 p.m. Eastern time. It collided in midair with the helicopter around 9 pm (ET) while on approach to Runway 33 at Reagan National, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The plane was a Bombardier CRJ700. According to FAA records, it was built about 20 years ago. Army officials said the helicopter, a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, was on a training flight operating out of Davison Army Airfield in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
As federal investigators began examining the collision, officials said initial information indicated little unusual about the moments leading up to the crash. The night was clear and both the plane and the helicopter were on standard flight patterns, according to Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, who said there had been no breakdown in communications between
