Washington, D.C
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Orlando Pride lineup: Anna Moorhouse, Cori Dyke, Emily Sams, Kylie Strom, Kerry Abello, Angelina, Haley McCutcheon, Adriana, Marta (C), Ally Watt, Barbra Banda
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Washington, D.C
Washington DC plane crash live: flight data and cockpit voice recorders recovered, officials say
Key events
What caused this tragic aviation disaster is not yet known, but the National Transportation Safety Board investigators has said it will have a preliminary report within 30 days.
Despite the lack of clarity, newly inaugurated US president Donald Trump has accused his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden of lowering hiring standards and suggested the Federal Aviation Administration’s diversity push could have weakened its capabilities.
The comments come as president Trump has pushed back against what he has described as the “woke policies” of his predecessor.
Asked if the crash was caused by diversity hiring, he said: “It just could have been.”
The Trump administration has not provided any proof to back these assertions, and there is no evidence that efforts to make the federal workforce more diverse have compromised air safety.
Following the crash, Trump signed an executive order on aviation safety that rolls back diversity initiatives and repeated claims without evidence that those initiatives contributed to Wednesday’s fatal collision.
Satellite images of earlier recovery efforts
A closer view below:
It’s almost 10pm in Washington DC, and almost 24 hrs since a fatal mid-air collision between a regional passenger jet and a US Black Hawk military helicopter – a tragedy that has been described as one of the worst aviation disasters in the US in decades.
There were 67 people on board both aircraft, and there are no survivors.
Washington’s fire and emergency department said its divers had searched all accessible areas and would conduct additional searches to locate aircraft components on Friday.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Wednesday’s night’s collision between a regional passenger jet and a military helicopter near Washington DC’s Reagan airport.
The flight data and cockpit voice recorders have been recovered from the American Airlines flight, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has announced, and they are now at the NTSB’s labs for evaluation.
The NTSB said earlier on Thursday that it was too soon to determine the causes of the disaster and pledged to release a preliminary report within 30 days.
Early scrutiny focused on an initial Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report on the incident which called the staffing levels at a DC air control tower “not normal,” since one controller was reportedly handling both helicopters and planes.
But the Associated Press and CNN have both reported that sources told them this level of staffing was, in fact, “normal” or “not uncommon.” The FAA has long struggled with a shortage of air traffic controllers and identified fatigue as a factor that might lead to mistakes, the Associated Press noted.
Here’s a summary of other developments:
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With the 67 people aboard both the American Airlines flight and the army Black Hawk helicopter all presumed dead, the collision is being called “the deadliest aviation disaster” in the US since 2001. At least 28 bodies have been recovered from the Potomac River, with recovery operations ongoing.
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A day before Wednesday night’s midair collision near Reagan airport, a different jet there had to abort its landing and make a second approach after a helicopter appeared near its flight path, the Washington Post reported.
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The US army saw an increase in very serious aviation incidents during the last fiscal year, with 15 flight and two ground incidents that resulted in deaths of service members, destruction of aircraft, or more than $2.5m in damage to the airframe, the Associated Press reported,
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Donald Trump and members of his administration claimed, without evidence, that diversity efforts at the FAA under the Biden and Obama administration could be to blame for the crash, with Trump specifically claiming that the FAA had been accused of being “too white,” and suggesting efforts to hire Americans with disabilities were irresponsible.
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Trump signed an executive order that rolls back diversity initiatives to stop “woke policies” in federal aviation.
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The Trump administration’s choice to draw an unfounded connection between a deadly tragedy and diversity initiatives at a press conference sparked broad condemnation from Democratic politicians. They called the comments “disgusting,” “despicable,” and “racist,” with Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries saying that Trump was “blaming women and people of color for the deadly plane crash.”
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As many as 14 skaters and coaches, including two 16-year-olds and a married pair of world champions, were onboard the American Airlines plane. The Skating Club of Boston said Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, both aged 16, and the Russian-born ice skating coaches and former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who were husband and wife, were on the flight.
Washington, D.C
Video DC plane crash 'is truly devastating,' says Wichita mayor
DC plane crash ‘is truly devastating,’ says Wichita mayor
Wichita, Kansas mayor Lily Wu discusses the American Airlines jet that went down in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after departing from Wichita, Kansas.
January 30, 2025
Washington, D.C
Multiple fatalities as aircraft collide over Washington DC and crash into river
Multiple people have been killed in a mid-air collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an army helicopter in Washington DC.
The aircraft crashed over the Potomac River and there is now a massive search and rescue effort involving multiple agencies at the scene.
Local media is reporting several bodies have been pulled from the freezing water.
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said on social media that “we know there are fatalities,” though he did not say how many.
American Airlines said 60 passengers and four crew were on board at the time of the crash.
An official from the US Army has confirmed three soldiers were on board the helicopter.
Webcams captured the moment with the vision appearing to show two small aircraft nearing each other before erupting into a ball of flames.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the midair crash occurred about 9pm, local time, when Flight 5342, that had departed from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a military Black Hawk helicopter while on approach to a runway at to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
It occurred in some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world, almost 5 kilometres south of the White House and the Capitol.
Investigators will try to piece together the moments before the collision, including contact with air traffic controllers as well as a loss of altitude by the passenger jet.
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A few minutes before landing, air traffic controllers asked the arriving commercial jet if it could land on the shorter Runway 33 at the airport, and the pilots said they were able.
Controllers then cleared the plane to land. Flight tracking sites showed the plane adjust its approach to the new runway.
Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asks the helicopter if it has the arriving plane in sight.
The controller makes another radio call to the helicopter moments later: “PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ.” Seconds after that the two aircraft collide.
Police said multiple agencies were involved in a search and rescue operation in the Potomac River, which borders the airport.
The temperature in Washington DC on Wednesday night, local time, is expected to drop to a low of 2 degrees Celsius.
The airport said that all take-offs and landings had been halted as emergency personnel responded to an aircraft incident.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was gathering more information on the incident.
There has not been a fatal US passenger airplane accident since February 2009, but a series of near-miss incidents in recent years have raised serious safety concerns.
American Airlines said it would provide more information as it became available to the company.
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