A passenger jet and a Black Hawk helicopter collided in midair on Wednesday evening and crashed into the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. President Trump confirmed Thursday that there were no survivors.
The jet, American Eagle Flight No. 5342, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, while the helicopter had three soldiers on board. Following the crash, emergency responders transitioned from a rescue to a recovery operation, with 27 bodies recovered from the plane and one from the helicopter.
The collision occurred as the jet, which had departed from Wichita, Kansas, was approaching the airport. The helicopter was on a training mission and belonged to the U.S. Army’s 12th Aviation Battalion from Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Among the victims were top figure skaters, including Jinna Han, Spencer Lane, and their families, as well as skating coaches Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova. Both Naumov and Shishkova were world champion figure skaters from Russia. Investigators recovered human remains and debris from the crash site, with divers finding one of the plane’s black boxes, though it’s unclear which one.
Trump addressed the incident in a briefing, confirming no survivors and offering his condolences, while also criticizing the Biden administration and its diversity initiatives without providing evidence linking those policies to the crash. He also announced the appointment of Christopher Rocheleau as the acting FAA commissioner, though the investigation is still ongoing. This marks the first major U.S. commercial aviation crash in nearly 16 years.
