In widely circulated footage, two aircraft can be seen colliding, resulting in a fire erupting in the sky. Following this, the plane is shown falling into the Potomac River.
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A passenger jet collided midair with a black hawk helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River in a mass casualty event in Washington DC.
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The aircraft, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, was on a flight from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington. It collided in the sky with a military helicopter carrying three service members while approaching Reagan Airport.
The Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan, Alibek Bakaev, reported in the Senate corridors that he currently has no information on whether there were any citizens of Kazakhstan on the American Airlines flight.
It is known that there were 14 figure skaters from Russia on board. According to a report from the RIA Novosti source, among them were the 1994 World Figure Skating Champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.
U.S. authorities have launched a rescue operation. There is currently no precise information on the number of survivors. According to information from CBS News, rescuers have retrieved 18 bodies from the water. Meanwhile, NBC reported that divers had previously rescued four survivors.
The Chief of the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services John A. Donnelly Sr. stated to CNN that search and rescue operations will continue for several days. The challenge is that there are ice chunks in the river, and the water is “dark and murky.”
“If you can imagine, at night the river looks like a big black spot with no lights except for a few on the buoys,” he said.
Due to the rescue operations, Reagan Airport has been temporarily closed.