Passenger Plane and Military Helicopter Collide and Crash Near Washington, US... "Search and Rescue Underway" (Update)

No Confirmation of Survival for 67 Passengers on the Plane
Full-Scale Rescue Efforts Underway, No Survivors Found Four Hours After the Accident

An American Airlines passenger plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided midair over the Potomac River near Washington D.C., resulting in a crash into the river.

Emergency response teams are searching for debris from the crashed plane in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia. Photo by AFP via Yonhap

On the 29th (local time), CBS News reported that the collision was captured by a livestream camera installed at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and an explosion was confirmed around 8:47 PM in the Potomac River area shortly after the accident.

The passenger plane involved was American Airlines Flight 5342, operated by PSA Airlines, a Bombardier CRJ700 jet. It had departed from Wichita, Kansas, and was attempting to land on runway 33 at Reagan National Airport. There were 60 passengers and 4 crew members on board.

Heather Charez, spokesperson for the Joint Force Headquarters Capitol, stated in an interview with CBS that the helicopter involved was a U.S. Army Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk, belonging to the 12th Aviation Battalion of the Joint Force Headquarters Capitol. The helicopter was on a training flight at the time. CBS reported that no senior Department of Defense officials or military generals were on board the helicopter, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is not treating the incident as a criminal case.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that Ronald Reagan National Airport will be closed at least until 5 AM on the 31st due to this accident.

Immediately after the accident, a large-scale rescue team including local police, fire departments, and the Coast Guard began search and rescue operations. Maryland police diver teams are searching the river, and search helicopters are moving south from the collision site to Alexandria Old Town, looking for debris traces.

Rescue workers are searching the site near the Potomac River close to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in the United States. Photo by AP Yonhap News

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi L. Noem announced via X (formerly Twitter) that additional Coast Guard units have been deployed, and Maryland Governor Wes Moore also stated that police are cooperating to support the search efforts.

However, CNN reported that as of 1 AM on the 30th (local time), four hours after the accident, no survivors had been rescued.

This accident is likely to be recorded as the first fatal passenger plane accident in 16 years since Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed in Buffalo, New York, in 2009. At that time, the Colgan Air DHC8-Q400 passenger plane crashed into a residential area while en route from Newark Airport, New Jersey, to Buffalo Airport, killing 50 people.

The last fatal aviation accident in the U.S. was in 2018, when a Southwest Airlines passenger was sucked out of a window due to cabin pressure issues and died.

U.S. President Donald Trump expressed condolences regarding the collision, stating, “I have been briefed on the terrible accident at Reagan National Airport,” and “May God bless the souls of the victims.”