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Tragedy unfolded in the United States on Wednesday, January 29, as an American Airlines jet carrying 64 people on board collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter mid-air and plunged into the Potomac River in Washington D.C.
According to the latest updates, Knewz.com has learned that the incident has reportedly left no survivors.
American Airlines flight 5342, a CRJ700 Bombardier, took off from Wichita, Kansas, with 60 passengers and four crew members and was bound for the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The mid-air collision happened during the flight's final descent to the airport at around 9 p.m. ET.
According to reports, air traffic controllers asked the arriving flight if it could land on the shorter Runway 33 at the airport, to which the pilots replied that they could.
"Controllers then cleared the plane to land on Runway 33 and flight tracking sites showed the plane duly adjusted its approach to the new runway. At the same time, a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk US Army helicopter that had departed from Fort Belvoir in Virginia entered the airspace around Reagan National Airport," reports have mentioned.
The Black Hawk helicopter was undergoing a training sortie, meaning a flight undertaken by an aircraft or group of soldiers for training purposes, at the time, and the two aircraft crashed into each other 400 ft above the Potomac River.
It has been revealed from audio correspondence captured before the tragic accident that air traffic controllers warned the U.S. Army helicopter that it was on course to collide with the passenger jet.
"Pat 2-5 do you have the CRJ in sight?" an air traffic controller asked the Black Hawk helicopter using its call sign.
"Pat 2-5, pass behind the CRJ," the controller then requested.
Gasps were heard moments later, as one voice asked, "Tower, did you see that?"
"I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven't seen anything since they hit the river. But it was a CRJ and a helicopter that hit," another traffic controller replied after the crash.
According to reports, over 300 first responders were dispatched to the Potomac River on inflatable boats in a "desperate" search for survivors.
It has also been reported that this is the first fatal crash involving a U.S. commercial flight since 2009—when 50 people died in New York in a Bombardier DHC-C propeller aircraft crash.
President Donald Trump called the air crash a "tragedy of terrible proportions."
"Our hearts are shattered... Our prayers are with you now and in the days to come," the President was quoted as saying during a White House press briefing, where he added, "We are all searching for answers... We do not know what led to this crash [but we have] some pretty good ideas."
It is worth noting that President Trump claimed that the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring initiatives at the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration were "factors" in the crash.
He further claimed that Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary in the Biden administration, has "run [the Department of Transportation] right into the ground with his diversity."
Buttigieg has responded on social media, calling Trump' and his claims "despicable."
"As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying... We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch. President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again," he said in his statement.