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An American Airlines jet carrying 64 people plunged into the Potomac River after colliding in midair with an Army helicopter on Wednesday night.
A crash site involving an American Airlines flight and a U.S. Army helicopter in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, seen from Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. Kenny Holston / The New York Times
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, TARA COPP, BRIAN MELLEY and LEA SKENE, Associated Press
January 30, 2025 | 2:44 PM
6 minutes to read
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — A midair collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight from Kansas killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft, officials said Thursday, as they scrutinized the actions of the military pilot after the country’s worst aviation disaster in a generation.
At least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River after the helicopter apparently flew into the path of the jet late Wednesday while it was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, officials said. The plane carried 60 passengers and four crew. Three soldiers were aboard the helicopter.
President Donald Trump said in a White House news conference that no one had survived.
“We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” said John Donnelly, the fire chief in the nation’s capital.
The plane was found upside-down in three sections in waist-deep water, and first responders were searching an area of the Potomac as far south as the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, roughly 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) south of the airport, Donnelly said. The helicopter wreckage was also found. Images from the river showed boats around the partly submerged wing and the mangled wreckage of the plane’s fuselage.
The collision is the deadliest U.S. air crash since 2001.
There was no immediate word on the cause of the collision, but officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet arrived from Wichita, Kansas, with U.S. and Russian figure skaters and others aboard.
“On final approach into Reagan National, it collided with a military aircraft on an otherwise normal approach,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said.
A top Army aviation official said the Black Hawk crew was “very experienced” and familiar with the congested flying that occurs daily around Washington.
“Both pilots had flown this specific route before, at night. This wasn’t something new to either one of them,” said Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation. “Even the crew chief in the back has been in the unit for a very long time, very familiar with the area, very familiar with the routing structure.”
The helicopter’s maximum allowed altitude at the time of the crash was 200 feet above ground, Koziol said. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that elevation seemed to be a factor in the collision.