An American Airlines ( AAL ) passenger plane collided in midair with a military helicopter as it approached Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night, breaking into parts and landing in the Potomac River.
US President Donald Trump said in a briefing Thursday that there are no survivors among the 64 passengers and crew on the airplane and three soldiers aboard the helicopter.
"This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation's capital and in our nation's history and a tragedy of terrible proportions," Trump said. "As one nation, we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly."
Speaking at a separate press conference earlier Thursday, American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the airline was "heartbroken" by the incident .
A Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet operated by PSA Airlines, a subsidiary of American Airlines, was traveling from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington, D.C., and collided with a Sikorsky H-60 helicopter as it approached the runway around 9 p.m. Wednesday evening, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The Bombardier jet model has not been known to have any malfunctions and is commonly used for short regional flights .
Flight 5342, operated by American's regional unit American Eagle, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, the carrier said in a statement. The plane was carrying figure skaters, their coaches, and family members, multiple outlets reported , citing the US governing body for the sport.
The National Transportation Safety Board will lead an investigation in conjunction with the FAA into the crash. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a post on X that the Department of Defense is also launching its own investigation.
Seemingly ahead of those probes, however, Trump used much of his press briefing Thursday to point the finger at the Biden administration — and what he called an emphasis on the FAA's diversity hiring as a potential reason for the crash. He offered little evidence or specifics, pointing instead to "common sense."
" We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas," Trump said, before launching into his critiques of the FAA.
The FAA did not immediately respond to Yahoo Finance's requests for comment.
People with targeted disabilities — including serious difficulty hearing, blindness, and mobility impairments — made up 2% of the FAA staff in 2024, according to the agency's latest report. In hiring people with those disabilities, the FAA said in its report that "the participants must meet the same qualifications as any other applicants."
The FAA began a program to train people with targeted disabilities to work at the agency in 2019 during Trump's first term. Just last week, Trump issued an executive order aimed at eliminating the FAA's efforts to hire a diverse range of candidates.
Earlier Thursday, D.C. fire and EMS department chief John Donnelly told reporters that as of Thursday morning, the rescue operation had transitioned to a recovery operation.
And speaking at a press briefing Thursday morning, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called the collision "absolutely" preventable.
"[The] flight paths that were being flown from the military and from American [were] not unusual," Duffy added.
The NTSB said it would not speculate on the cause of the incident before releasing its preliminary report, which it aims to complete in the next 30 days.
NTSB board member J. Todd Inman said during a briefing Thursday afternoon : " We will help find out what happened. We will do it factually, and we will do it accurately."
The accident was the first commercial airplane collision since 2009 when a Colgan Air flight crashed on landing near Buffalo, N.Y., killing 50 people. The Wednesday collision was the deadliest plane crash since November 2001, when an American Airlines jet crashed in Charlotte, N.C., after takeoff.
Hegseth said in a video on X that the members of the military on board the helicopter, part of the 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir, were " a fairly experienced crew." Hegseth said the crew members were wearing night vision goggles while " doing a required annual night evaluation" as part of their training.
This is a developing story.