Washington DC plane crash: What we know so far about the mid-air collision near Reagan Airport

More than 60 people are presumed dead after an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army helicopter crashed midair near Washington, D.C, Wednesday evening, officials have said.

Flight 5342 from Kansas was on the final approach to Ronald Reagan National Airport when it collided with the Black Hawk helicopter before exploding a huge fireball. There were 67 people aboard the two flights when they crashed.

Both aircraft plunged into the icy Potomac River sparking a massive search-and-rescue operation amid strong winds and chilly 42-degree water.

Speaking at a White House press briefing on Thursday, President Donald Trump confirmed that there were “no survivors” on board both aircraft as the operation went from a rescue to a recovery. His press conference then went off the rails as he appeared to blame DEI for the crash.

Crews have recovered and identified 55 of the 67 people presumed dead after the fatal crash, Washington, D.C fire chief John Donnelly said Sunday. A group of figure skaters and coaches competing in the National Figure Skating championships were among those on board.

The crew operating the helicopter was “fairly experienced,” defense secretary Pete Hegseth said. They have all been positively identified.

Officials have tried to assure commuters that the U.S. skies are safe.

"Do I think this was preventable? Absolutely,” Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said, adding that passengers should be "assured" that flying is safe.

Follow the latest updates on the plane crash in our live blog

Here is everything we know about the first commercial airline crash in the U.S. since 2009:

What has happened?

An American Airlines plane from Kansas collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport at 8:47 p.m. Wednesday.

Horrified eyewitnesses described an explosion lighting up the night sky. “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,” bystander Ari Schulman told NBC Washington.

A number of videos from various nearby positions show the collision.

Only one controller, rather than the usual two, was handling the local plane and helicopter traffic on Wednesday night. This is deemed “not normal” but considered adequate for lower volumes of air traffic, a person briefed on the matter told Reuters.

A supervisor had allowed one of the two controllers to leave early, the New York Times reported. Transport secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News he would "take the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) at their word” that the staffing level “wasn’t normal”.

The tower at Reagan airport has been understaffed for years amid a staffing crisis across the industry, according to the NYT. There were only 19 fully certified controllers at Reagan airport as of September 2023, according to a Congress report, nearly one third below the target of 30 controllers per tower.

Air traffic control watched as the passenger jet and helicopter collided before plunging into the river. An emergency dispatcher said on police radios that "the accident happened in the river. Both the helicopter and the plane crashed in the river."

The American Airlines plane's cockpit voice recorder captured sound moments before the crash, chief investigator Brice Banning said. "The crew had a verbal reaction," he said, adding that the flight data recorder showed "the airplane beginning to increase its pitch. Sounds of impact were audible about one second later, followed by the end of the recording.”

Helicopters from law enforcement agencies flew over the scene in search of survivors. Inflatable rescue boats were launched into the Potomac River in a desperate attempt to locate survivors.

Authorities are focussing their investigation on why the helicopter was flying near the runway. Duffy said in a Thursday morning press conference that the flight patterns taken by both aircraft were “not unusual.”

But data now appears to show that the helicopter may have been flying too high. Black box data shows the plane was at 325 feet, plus or minus 25 feet, at the time of impact, National Transportation Safety Board investigators have determined.

This suggests the army helicopter was flying above 200 feet - which was the maximum altitude for the route that it was using.

Preliminary data from the control tower's radar showed the helicopter at 200 feet at the time of the accident, though officials said the information has not been confirmed. NTSB board member Todd Inman told reporters their job is to “figure out” the discrepancy.

The helicopter was aware that there was a plane in the area, Duffy said, adding that there had not been a breakdown in communications between two aircraft.

Who was on the American Airlines flight?

Sixty passengers and four crew members were aboard the American Airlines flight before the disaster.

The pilots of the commercial flight have been named as Sam Lilley and Jonathan Campos, while Ian Epstein and Danasia Elder have been named as two of the flight attendants.

Russian news agencies have said that there were multiple passengers on board who were Russian immigrants or the children of one. A group of figure skaters and coaches who were in Wichita to compete in the National Figure Skating championships were among those onboard.

Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, the 1994 World Figure Skating Championship pairs winners, have been named as part of the group along with fellow figure skater Inna Volyanskaya.

Naumov and Shishkova were coaches at the Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, Massachusetts, and perished along with two teenage members of the club and their moms.

Doug Zeghibe, the club’s executive director, confirmed that 16-year-old Spencer Lane and Jinna Han died in the crash, along with their moms - Molly Lane and Jin Han, respectively.

“Spencer, in the best way possible, was a crazy kid,” Zeghibe told a press conference on Thursday morning. “Highly talented, has not been skating that long and has been rocketing to the top of the sport. Very fun, very cerebral.”

“Jinna, just a wonderful kid. A great athlete, great competitor. Loved by all,” he said.

Zeghibe said their moms were “dedicated” and always “made sacrifices.”

Cedarville University, in Ohio, later confirmed that Grace Maxwell, a junior at the school, was another of the passengers on board.

“As you can imagine, the past 24 hours have been very difficult for the Maxwell family and the Cedarville University community. As a university, we do not desire to turn this tragic event into anything more than a way to honor Grace, her family, and Jesus,” a statement from the school read.

The family of Kiah Duggins, 30, worked as an attorney for the Civil Rights Corps, confirmed she had been onboard the flight on Thursday. She had been returning to Washington D.C after being in Wichita to be with her mother during a surgical procedure, according to KMUW.

Her father, Maurice Duggins, said in a statement: “We are coming to terms with the grief associated with the loss of our beautiful and accomplished firstborn. Please respect our family’s privacy at this time.”

Worried family members gathered near the site waiting for information about their loved ones. Hamaad Raza, whose wife was on board, said she had texted him 20 minutes before the incident telling him they were about to land.

When his responses stopped being delivered, “That's when I knew something could be up,” he told CNN.

Two Chinese citizens were killed in the crash, China’s foreign ministry revealed on its website, in a post offering deep condolences over the disaster. Casualties also included people from the Phillipines and Germany, senator Maria Cantwell said.

The Association of Flight Attendants, which represents cabin crews at PSA Airlines, said in a statement that there were two flight attendants on board the plane.

Ian Epstein was identified as one of the two attendants leaving behind a devastated wife of 23 years, Debi Epstein. The other was identified as Danasia Elder, who had been fulfilling her dream to become a flight attendant, according to brother-in-law Brandon Payne.

Sam Lilley, 28, was one of two people piloting the flight from Wichita, Kansas, his father Timothy Lilley told Fox 5 Atlanta.

The young pilot was also engaged, according to his father, whose worst fears were confirmed when his son never checked in after the flight as usual.

“This is undoubtedly the worst day of my life,” Lilley told Fox 5.

Jonathan Campos, 34, the captain of the AA flight according to reports, had dreamt of being a pilot since he was 13, his aunt told the NYT.

"I think he wanted to be free, and be able to fly and soar like a bird," Beverly Lane said.

Lane said she had spoken with Campos on Wednesday just before the flight, when he told her he was looking forward to an upcoming Caribbean cruise with family.

Who was on the Black Hawk military helicopter?

Three U.S. Army soldiers were onboard the Black Hawk helicopter involved in the collision, a U.S. official confirmed. All three have now been identified.

Another official said the Army UH-60 helicopter involved in the crash was based out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia. It was later confirmed that the aircraft and its crew were on a training flight.

The crew chief of the helicopter was later identified as Ryan O’Hara.

"Ryan is fondly remembered as a guy who would fix things around the ROTC gym as well as a vital member of the Rifle Team. Ryan leaves behind a wife and 1-year-old son," the Parkview High School JROTC in Georgia wrote on Facebook.

In a statement shared on X, Georgia governor Brian Kemp paid tribute to both Lilley and O’Hara and sent his “deepest condolences” to their families and friends.

Andrew Eaves was also on the army helicopter, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said on X.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Eaves’ wife, Carrie Eaves said: "We ask that you pray for our family and friends and for all the other families that are suffering today. We ask for peace while we grieve," the post read.

"These families' children do not need to suffer more pain," she wrote.

On Saturday the Army released the name of the third crew member. Captain Rebecca Lobach, 28 was from Durham, North Carolina.

She was a distinguished military graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and commissioned in 2019 as an active-duty aviation officer.

What has President Donald Trump said about the tragedy?

Trump claimed that DEI “could have been” to blame for the fatal collision.

Trump suggested that the Federal Aviation Administration's diversity efforts have made air travel less safe.

"The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency's website," Trump said at a Thursday briefing.

Trump was then asked by a reporter: “Are you saying this crash was somehow caused and the result of diversity hiring and what evidence have you seen to support these claims?”

The president replied: “It just could have been.”

“We have a high standard, we’ve had a much higher standard than anybody else and there are things where you have to go by brain power, you have to go by psychological quality,” he said.

He also appeared to lay responsibility for the crash on the helicopter crew, writing in a Truth Social post on Friday: “The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit.”

Trump later said he would be meeting with some of the families of the victims from the DC collision, but did not specify when.

“I will be meeting with some people that were very badly hurt with their family member, obviously, but I’ll be meeting with some of the families, yeah,” he told reporters.

Trump said he did not have plans currently to visit first responders at the site of the collision. “I have a plan to visit, not the site. Because you tell me, what’s the site? The water? You want me to go swimming?” he said.

Who is leading the investigation?

The National Transportation Safety Board is heading up the investigation and is being assisted by the military and the Federal Aviation Administration.

A preliminary report by the FAA, reviewed by The New York Times on Thursday, found that staffing at the DCA air traffic control tower was “not normal” at the time of the deadly crash.

The internal report said the controller who was handling helicopters in the airport’s vicinity on Wednesday night was also instructing planes that were landing and departing from its runways.

These jobs are typically assigned to two different controllers.

Later on Thursday, NTSB announced it had recovered two so-called “black boxes” from the plane, a cockpit voice recorder and a flight data recorder. The devices have taken them for lab analysis, said NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss.

What has the airline said about the tragedy?

The CEO of American Airlines, Robert Isom, said American Eagle Flight 5342 “collided with a military aircraft on an otherwise normal approach.”

“At this time, we don’t know why the military aircraft came into the path of the aircraft,” Isom said at a press conference on Thursday morning.

“We’re absolutely heartbroken for the family and loved ones of the passengers and crew members and also for those that were on the military aircraft,” he added. “Our focus right now is doing everything that we can to support all of those involved and also the PSA Airlines team. This is devastating.”

Isom said that he couldn’t answer the “many questions” people might have during the early stages of the investigation, but would provide information “as it comes.”

The airline advises people to call 800-679-8215 if they believe they have lost loved ones on the flight.