American Airlines jet found upside down and in three pieces after mid-air collision in Washington DC
An American Airlines plane was found upside down and in three sections after colliding mid-air with a military helicopter over a major river in Washington DC.
A total of 28 bodies – 27 from the passenger plane and one from the helicopter – have been recovered from the Potomac River after the two aircraft fell into the icy waters around 9pm local time (2am UK time) on Wednesday night.
The American Airlines flight 5342, which had 60 passengers and four crew on board, was flying into the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport from Wichita in Kansas, when the collision took place.
Washington crash latest: Follow live updates
The US army Black Hawk helicopter, which had three soldiers on board, was on a training flight at the time.
Authorities in the Potomac River. Pic: AP
An initial search and rescue mission to look for survivors has now become a recovery operation, Washington DC fire chief John Donnelly said in an update.
“We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” he said.
“We don’t believe there are any survivors.”
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CCTV captures moment of mid-air collision
US Figure Skating, the national governing body for the sport in the US, said in a statement that several members of its skating community were on the passenger plane.
It said the athletes and coaches were returning home from a training camp in Kansas.
Doug Zeghibe, chief executive of The Skating Club of Boston, said he believes 14 skaters who were returning home from the National development Camp in Kansas were “lost” in the plane crash.
“Of those 14 skaters, six were from the Skating Club of Boston. Two coaches and two teenage athletes, and two of the athletes’ mums,” he said.
Championship figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov have been named by the Kremlin and Russian state media as two people who were on the plane.
Read more:
What we know so far about the collision
World champion skaters ‘on board’ – who were the passengers?
The married couple from Russia won the world championship in pairs figure skating in 1994.
Pic: Andrew Harnik/Getty
Pic: Andrew Harnik/Getty
The Kremlin said in a statement on Thursday morning: “Bad news from Washington today. We regret and offer condolences to the families and friends who lost those of our fellow citizens who died in this plane crash.”
In a statement late on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump thanked first responders for their “incredible work”, and said he was “monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise”.
Championship figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. Pic: Colorsport/Shutterstock
He added: “May God Bless their souls.”
Vice president JD Vance also encouraged followers on social media to “say a prayer for everyone involved”.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy also sent their condolences to the families of those on board and the emergency responders.
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‘I need you to land’ – audio from crash
The Reagan Washington National Airport will remain closed until at least 11am today local time (4pm UK time).
Crash ‘absolutely preventable’
The collision occurred in some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world, just over three miles south of the White House and the US Capitol.
Officials are yet to say what they believe caused the collision, with American Airlines chief executive Robert Isom saying they do not know why the military aircraft came into the path of the plane.
Transport secretary Sean Duffy said the wreckage of the plane was found upside down in three sections in waist-deep water. The wreckage of the helicopter was also found.
Pic: AP
Pic: Reuters
Mr Duffy added he believes the crash was “absolutely preventable” and both aircraft were on “standard flight patterns” and had “standard communication” before the crash.
A few minutes before landing, air traffic controllers asked the American Airlines flight if it could land on the shorter Runway 33 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the pilots said they were able.
Controllers then cleared the plane to land on Runway 33.
Flight tracking sites showed the plane circled round to approach the new runway from the south, while the helicopter was approaching from the north.
The US army and the defence department has begun an investigation into the crash.
Pete Hegseth, who was sworn in as defence secretary only days ago, said it had been started “immediately”.
A Spanish military jet with a defence minister on board suffered a GPS “disturbance” while on the way to Lithuania, according to Spanish officials.
The military aircraft was flying near Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave on Wednesday morning when the incident is reported to have happened.
Margarita Robles was the minister on the flight, according to Spanish officials.
A commander onboard the Spanish plane said such incidents are common when flying near Kaliningrad, both for civil and military aircraft – and military satellites could also be used to navigate.
A Spanish defence ministry spokesperson said: “There has been an attempt to disrupt the GPS signal, but as our aircraft has an encrypted system, it was not affected.
“It must be common on this route and also with commercial flights. It is not because it is our aircraft.”
Read more: Who is messing with GPS signals – and why?
Ms Robles was due to have a bilateral meeting with her Lithuanian counterpart Dovile Sakaliene during a visit to the Siauliai airbase on Wednesday, according to the Spanish government’s agenda.
The plane was also carrying relatives of Spanish airmen forming part of the new NATO air defence mission on Europe’s eastern flank.
It was launched earlier this month after Poland shot down drones that had violated its airspace.
The Spanish contingent last week intercepted eight Russian aircraft operating over the Baltic Sea, Spain’s defence ministry added in a statement.
Ms Robles, 68, has been Spain’s defence minister since 2018.
In June, she said Spain was “absolutely committed” to NATO and the European Union.
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Ursula von der Leyen speaks in Lithuania on 1 September. Pic: AP
Then in August, the minister said Spain would work to “invigorate” the European fighter jet project, known as FCAS.
It came after Spain revealed it was no longer considering the option of buying US-made F-35 fighter jets and would refocus its defence spending on buying European-made equipment.
At the end of August, a plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suffered GPS jamming as a result of suspected Russian interference, an EU spokesperson told Sky News.
Estonia and neighbouring Finland have also previously blamed Russia for jamming GPS navigation devices in the region’s airspace.
Russia has denied interfering with communication and satellite networks.
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At least 14 people have been killed in an area of Taiwan popular with tourists after Super Typhoon Ragasa lashed the island nation, with Hong Kong and mainland China braced for impact.
The powerful storm – the strongest in years – has forced thousands to flee their homes, with flights cancelled and schools and businesses shuttered as about 70cm (28 inches) of rain has fallen on eastern areas.
At least four more people were reported to have been killed in the Philippines, where nearly 700,000 people were affected by the super typhoon in the main northern region of Luzon.
The deaths in Taiwan were reported in the eastern Taiwanese county of Hualien, which is popular with tourists.
At least 129 people are missing after a town, Guangfu, was flooded by a deluge from a barrier lake which burst its banks on Tuesday afternoon.
Around 60 million tonnes of water was released, the Taiwanese government said, the equivalent of a major reservoir in southern Taiwan.
A man stands near a military vehicle on a road filled with mud brought by flooding in Hualien, Taiwan. Pic: Reuters
Taiwan’s fire department said all the fatalities and missing people are from Guangfu.
One resident, a postman who gave his family name as Hsieh, told Reuters news agency the water hit like a “tsunami” which swept his car into his living room.
Late on Wednesday morning, a new flood warning sounded in Guangfu, where shouts were heard from residents and rescuers of “the flood waters are coming, run fast”.
Elsewhere, Dama, a village of around 1,000 people, has been completely flooded.
Its chieftain, Wang Tse-an, told Reuters many locals are still stranded there, adding: “It’s chaotic now. There are mud and rocks everywhere.”
Regions across Taiwan have sent at least 340 soldiers to Hualien to help rescue efforts.
In Guangfu, troops operating from an armoured personnel carrier to avoid the thick mud on the streets went door-to-door
handing out water and instant noodles.
Ragasa is set to hit China’s Guangdong province, where more than 370,000 residents have been evacuated, on Wednesday.
Hong Kong’s storm level is at its highest level of 10 as people reported being woken by fierce winds in the early hours.
Parts of a pedestrian bridge’s roof were blown away, hundreds of trees were knocked down across the city and more than 30 injured people were treated at hospitals.
A video that showed waves of water crashing through the doors of a hotel and flooding its interiors went viral in the financial hub, where warnings of hurricane-force winds of well over 120mph have been issued.
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