A commercial plane with about 60 passengers and four crew collided Wednesday in Washington with a military helicopter on the Potomac River when it carried out the Ronald Reagan Airport Maneuver. The wrecked plane (American Eagle 5342), operated by PSA Airlines, a subsidiary of American Airlines, was a Bombardier CRJ-700 that had left Wichita (Kansas) on an inner flight, as indicated by the air authority (FAA, for its acronym in English). The accident occurred at 20.48, local time (2.48 in peninsular Spain), when the device crashed in full flight with a Sikorsky H-60 (Black Hawk) helicopter that performed training maneuvers. The helicopter wore three military on board.
The rescue teams recovered about twenty water bodies, but no living person, according to local media. It is not expected that there are survivors, given the nature of the accident. The helicopter approached the plane until he crashed with him. The devices exploded in the air, illuminating the sky of the capital, as seen in a video that circulates through social networks, taken with the Kennedy Center webcam. The FlightTAware flight data shows that it was in full approach to the airport. After the clash, the remains sank into the dark and icy waters of the Potomac River.
American Airlines confirmed the known information of the accident in a statement, including the number of passengers and crew. ”Our concern focuses on passengers and the crew on board the aircraft. We are in contact with the authorities and collaborating in the emergency response, ”said the company, which opened family assistance lines.
Robert Isom, CEO of the company, indicated in a video that the airline was cooperating with the federal, state and local authorities investigating the accident. “We want to find out everything we can about today’s events,” he said, expressing his pain to the victims and adding that he will soon go to Washington with members of his team.
“I have been fully informed of the terrible accident that has just taken place at the Reagan National Airport. God bless your souls. Thanks for the incredible work that our first intervenings are doing, ”said the president of the United States, Donald Trump, in a statement distributed by the White House.
Trump: “It should have been avoided”
The president, however, did not settle for that and then wrote his comments on Truth, his social network. “The plane was in a perfect and routine approach line to the airport. The helicopter was directly to the plane for a long period of time. It was a clear night the lights of the plane were lit, why did the helicopter go up or down, or turned? Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what he had to do instead of asking if he had seen the plane? It is a bad situation that seems to have been avoided. It’s not good !!!, ”he said.
“Confirmed small plane fallen on the Potomac River near the Reagan National Airport. Fire ships on stage, ”the Fire Service had tweeted before knowing the tragedy scale. Then there was a strong deployment of emergency vehicles next to the river and in the center of the city the sirens of firefighters and policemen who were heading to the area sounded. Some 300 people from emergency services participated in rescue tasks, according to Washington’s fire chief in a press conference at the airport towards one in the morning.
“All take -offs and landings in DCA have been interrupted. Emergency personnel are responding to an air incident in the airfield. The terminal remains open, ”said the Ronald Reagan Airport account (DCA), which suspended operations until Thursday. The airport is already in the state of Virginia, on the riverbank of the Potomac River. The flights to this airport were diverted to the airports of Dulles (Virginia) and Baltimore (Maryland), which also serve the capital.
“Tonight, we have received devastating news of what can only be described as nothing less than a nightmare. A plane traveling to the capital of the nation from Wichita, Kansas, with about 60 passengers, collided with a military helicopter. My prayer is for God to wrap each and every victims with his arms and continue to be with their families, ”he wrote, on the other hand, the senator for the state of Kansas Roger Marshall.
The 1982 accident
In Washington, the Air Florida flight accident is still remembered that left on January 13, 1982 from the Ronald Reagan National Airport, heading to Fort Lauderdale (Florida) airport that had to make stop in Tampa (Florida). The Boeing 737 of 12 years and 9 months crashed on the 14th street bridge over the Potomac River, died 74 people on board. There were five survivors who were on the plane.
The plane transported 74 passengers and 5 cabin crew at the time of the accident, when the takeoff failed. 70 passengers and 4 crew members died, in addition to four passers -by on land. The accident occurred near the White House, the Pentagon and the monument to Jefferson. On the day of the accident, the Ronald Reagan airport had been closed by a strong snowstorm, then opened its operations at noon at limited conditions, when the snowfall began to cease. The weather conditions and the poor defrosting of the plane were pointed as causes of that tragedy.
The last fatal accident of an American commercial airline was that of flight 3407 of Collan His part, the most recent American Airlines accident occurred in November 2001, when an plane crashed into Queens, killing the 260 people on board.