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At least 28 bodies, including all three soldiers who were on the helicopter, have been pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River as recovery operations continue.
Here’s what to know:
- The cause of the collision is unclear: The National Transportation Safety Board said it was too soon to speculate and pledged to release a preliminary report within 30 days. Officials said flight conditions were clear and that the jet coming from Wichita, Kansas, was making a routine landing when the helicopter flew into its path.
- Air traffic control communications: Less than 30 seconds before the crash, air traffic control made contact with the helicopter, which said it had the aircraft “in sight.” It appears air traffic control had no communication with the jet.
- Identities of the victims are starting to emerge: Passengers on the flight included a group of figure skaters, their coaches, and family members who were returning from a development camp that followed the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.
- Trump blames DEI: President Donald Trump blamed the crash on federal diversity initiatives but provided no evidence for the claim and later acknowledged there was none. He later signed an executive order to stop “woke policies” in federal aviation.
The victims of a crash between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter included teen figure skaters returning from a national meet with their mothers and coaches, an Ohio college student coming from her grandfather’s funeral, two Chinese nationals and a group of hunters headed back from a guided trip in Kansas.
They were among 60 travelers and four crew members on board the commercial flight late Wednesday when it collided with the Black Hawk helicopter, which was carrying three soldiers. Officials say there were no survivors.
As the search for remains continued Thursday, communities grieved. Faith leaders held a vigil Thursday in the city council chambers.
“The only way we will get through this is together,” said the Rev. Pamela Hughes Mason of Wichita’s St. Paul AME Church.
American Airlines set up a hotline as well as centers in Washington and Wichita for people searching for information about family members who may have been aboard the downed flight. The hotline can be reached at 1-800 679 8215.
Here’s what we know about some of the people killed in Wednesday night’s crash:
From the Skating Club of Boston
Skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane were among those killed, according to Doug Zeghibe, CEO of the Skating Club of Boston. Their mothers, Jin Han and Christine Lane, as well as their coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov also died.
Han and Lane, who was about 16, were returning from the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
“We watched Jinna just grow up here from just a tiny little tyke into this amazingly mature 13-year-old,” he said. “A great performer, a great competitor, and off the ice, a great kid.”
Spencer Lane, who was from Barrington, Rhode Island, took part in his first professional show in December with Elin Schran’s company, Joy Skate Productions.
“He started to discover this connection with the audience and that joy that he was giving to other people through his gift,” Schran said.
In a statement, the Lane family recalled Christine Lane for her singular talents and her dedication to parenting.
“Christine exuded creativity throughout her life, using her formal graphic design training as a jumping-off point for seemingly endless creative pursuits across areas such as photography, quilting, knitting, and more. She brought even greater passion to her role as a mother to Spencer and his brother Milo,” the family said.
Their coaches, Shishkova and Naumov, won the pairs title at the 1994 World Championships in Chiba, Japan. The Russia-born pair also competed twice in the Olympics.
More young athletes and coaches
Skating organizations in Philadelphia and the Washington area also said some of their young athletes had been aboard the plane.
Several athletes on the flight had attended a development camp held after the U.S. Figure Skating Championships ended Sunday in Wichita, Kansas.
Wichita Skating Center manager Sean O’Reilly said the championships brought a “groundswell of positivity,” drawing enthusiastic parents and young athletes from across the U.S. He was “gutted” to learn some of those skaters had been killed.
In Virginia’s Loudoun County, a coach at a skating club was also identified as among the passengers, Virginia Rep. Suhas Subramanyam confirmed. The club, Ashburn Ice House, said that its “figure skating community has been directly affected,” but did not give further details.
Student victims and others
Cedarville University in Ohio said one of the passengers on the plane was Grace Maxwell, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering.
Maxwell’s father, Dean Maxwell, said she was returning to campus from her home in Wichita, Kansas, after attending her grandfather’s funeral, The Wichita Eagle reported.
Grace Maxwell had been working on a project this semester to create a hand-stabilizing device to help a boy in the area feed himself instead of relying on others, the university said in a statement.
“Grace was a quiet person with a keen interest in helping others through engineering,” said Tim Norman, who served as her secondary advisor.
Three other students from schools in Fairfax County, Virginia, and six parents from the district were also on board the plane, superintendent Michelle Reid said in a letter to families. She did not identify them, but she said the students were from different schools and that two of the parents were current or former district staffers.
The Chinese embassy in the U.S. said two Chinese nationals were also among the victims of the crash. It did not offer further details.
Hunters who were headed home from a trip
Seven people returning from a guided hunting trip in Kansas were killed, according to a Facebook post by Fowl Plains, the guide service.
The Fowl Plains team said they had grown close to the hunters on board the flight over the years and considered them to be family members. The post doesn’t identify the hunters by name, but it says they had spent the past week on a guided hunt, “laughing, talking about our families and sharing memories.”
“Heartbroken is an understatement,” the company said.
Members of a Maryland union
Those killed also included four steamfitters, all members of a United Association union local in suburban Maryland, union leaders said in a social media post-Thursday.
“Our focus now is on providing support and care to the families of our Brothers as we continue to gather more information in the coming days,” said the post by UA General President Mark McManus and Chris Madello, the business manager of Local 602.
From the military
The victims also included three soldiers who were aboard the helicopter.
Officials said their remains will be at Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. That office coordinates the dignified transfer of fallen service members.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet announced. No identities of the crew have been released.
But the wife of one of the helicopter pilots said on Facebook that her husband, Andrew Eaves of Noxubee County Mississippi, was killed. In a phone call, Carrie Eaves confirmed the post was hers.
“We ask that you pray for our family and friends and for all the other families that are suffering today. We ask for peace while we grieve,” her post read.
The three soldiers were doing an annual night proficiency training flight, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, adding they were a “fairly experienced crew.” Officials were notifying relatives, he said.
Two teenage figure skaters, their mothers, and two former world champions who were coaching at a historic Boston club were among the 14 members of the skating community killed when an American Airlines flight collided with an Army helicopter Wednesday night and crashed into the frigid waters of the Potomac River.
Skating Club of Boston CEO Doug Zeghibe said Thursday that skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane and their mothers were among those killed, along with 1994 pairs world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov of Russia.
In all, 14 of the victims were coming back from a national development camp for promising young skaters following the U.S. Championships in Wichita, Kansas, Zeghibe said. Clubs in Philadelphia and the Washington area also expressed condolences for members of their community.
“We came here because we needed to be together,” 1956 Olympic champion Tenley Albright said while standing in a rink outside Boston that is named for her. “We’re family, and it’s a community, and the skaters — the people who were on that plane — they’re our family, too.
“I certainly don’t have any answers. I really can’t believe that it happened, because I picture them right here,” Albright said, breaking into tears. “It’s just terrible, and it’s sad. And we just feel we need to be together. And that’s why you see so many hugs today.”
The Kremlin also confirmed that Shishkova and Naumov were aboard. Among their students was their 23-year-old son, Maxim, a former U.S. junior champion who has finished fourth at senior nationals the past three years and narrowly missed the podium again on Sunday while his parents watched at INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita.
Maxim Naumov flew home Monday. “He had no reason to stay at the national development camp,” Zeghibe said.
“Both of his parents were with him while he was competing. It’s well-known Mom was always too nervous to watch him skate,” the club official said, pausing to contain his emotions. “But his dad was with him, and Dad was in the ‘kiss-and-cry’ sharing his great performance.”
Sixty passengers and four crew members on the American Airlines plane and three soldiers aboard a training flight on the Black Hawk helicopter are presumed dead after the collision in Washington on Wednesday night. There was no immediate cause identified, but officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet coming from Wichita was making a routine landing when the helicopter flew into its path.
Washington Fire Chief John Donnelly said officials do not believe anyone survived.
“We are heartbroken to learn that figure skaters, along with their families, friends, and coaches, are understood to be among those on board,” U.S. Figure Skating said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragedy.
“Figure skating is more than a sport — it’s a close-knit family — and we stand together.”
One of the most prestigious training grounds in figure skating, the Skating Club of Boston produced Olympic and world champions Dick Button — who died Thursday at age 95 — and Albright, Olympic medalists Nancy Kerrigan and Paul Wylie, and scores of U.S. champions — including Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, who won the pairs in Wichita last week. The club, which is getting ready to host this spring’s world championships, sent 18 skaters to nationals in all.
The U.S. Figure Skating and Massachusetts flags were lowered to half-staff outside the century-old club’s newly built rink on Thursday. Flower deliveries arrived at the reception desk, while visitors were greeted with long and tearful hugs.
“We’ve been through tragedies before — as Americans, as people — and we are strong. And I guess it’s how we respond to it,” said Kerrigan, a two-time Olympic medalist and Skating Club of Boston alum. “And so my response is to be with people I care about, I love and need. I needed support, so that’s why I’m here.”
On the club’s two practice rinks, young skaters practiced their routines in silence.
“Skaters are resilient, and they want to skate,” Zeghibe said. “I think also they come to the club and will come to the club as an opportunity to come together and to grieve together.”
A table that had been filled with messages wishing all of the skater's luck in Wichita was replaced midday by one with framed pictures of Lane, Ha,n and the coaches. In front of the photos were lit candles; behind them, six white roses stood in six simple vases.
“I’m heartbroken by the tragic loss of my fellow skaters in this devastating accident,” said reigning world champion Ilia Malinin, who won his third consecutive national title in Wichita. “The figure skating community is a family, and this loss is beyond words.”
Lane, 16, was a sectionals champion who had become popular among the skating community on social media, where he has thousands of TikTok followers. On Wednesday, he posted a video showing him doing a triple-toe loop to wrap up the development camp.
“I am so happy to have qualified for national development camp,” Lane said in an Instagram post-Wednesday. “It has been my goal almost ever since I became aware that it was a thing. I learned so much new information that I can apply to my everyday life, and met so many amazing people.”
He later posted a photo of him aboard the plane just before it departed from Wichita.
Lane’s father said Spencer had an infectious personality.
“In his home club in Boston, he was just loved by everyone from the adults running the club to the smallest skaters to the people that are competing for a shot at the Olympics,” Douglas Lane told WPRI in Providence, Rhode Island. “They just adored him.”
Naumov and Shishkova moved to the U.S. and became coaches, first at the International Skating Center of Connecticut and since 2017 at the Boston club that has trained world-class skaters since 1912. They competed together in pairs events at two Olympics, in 1992 and 1994.
“We were at the Olympics together. But in ’94, I was kind of busy myself and sort of separated from a lot of what was going on,” said Kerrigan, whose attack by cronies of rival Tonya Harding dominated the news at the Lillehammer Games.
“Everything you’ve heard about them being a little tough — but with a smile on their face,” she said. “To walk in here and not see that would be very strange for everybody that comes here, especially those that are here day in and day out. And it’s it’s going to be hard.”
Han was only 13, but already showing Olympic potential, Zeghibe said.
“We watched Jinna just grow up here, from just a tiny little tyke into this amazingly mature 13-year-old,” Zeghibe said. “A great performer, a great competitor. And off the ice, a great kid — as we would say ‘raised right.’”
For the Boston club, the accident was an eerie reminder of a 1961 plane crash that killed the entire U.S. delegation en route to the world championships in Prague. The world championships were canceled that year out of respect for the American team.
Albright said she would have gone to Europe to cheer the team on if she hadn’t been in medical school at the time. She lost her coach and 22 friends on that flight.
“The day the music stopped, very much like this,” said former USOC vice president Paul George, who was the American pairs champion the following year. “It took time, but we came back — I think stronger, better.”
The club will proceed with plans to host the world championships at the TD Garden in Boston from March 25-30. Zeghibe said the plans are to have a “super, amazing event.”
“We’re pretty busy and we can’t take a break,” he said. “We need to keep moving.”
The European championships are taking place this week in Tallinn, Estonia. They continued Thursday as scheduled and there was a moment of silence during the competition for the victims.
“Today, the world of figure skating is heartbroken,” International Skating Union President Jae Youl Kim said. “We share our deepest, most sincere condolences with the families and friends of all those who lost their lives in this terrible crash. To lose so many members of our community in this way brings sadness beyond words.”
A midair collision between an Army helicopter and a jetliner killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft, officials said Thursday, as they scrutinized the actions of the military pilot in the country’s deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter century.
At least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River after the helicopter apparently flew into the path of the American Airlines regional jet late Wednesday while it was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport, just across the river from Washington, officials said. The plane carried 60 passengers and four crew members, and three soldiers were aboard the helicopter.
President Donald Trump told a White House news conference that no one survived.
“We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” said John Donnelly, the fire chief in the nation’s capital.
The crash occurred before 9 p.m. in some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world, just over 3 miles (about 4.8 kilometers) south of the White House and the Capitol.
Air crash investigations can take months, and federal investigators told reporters they would not speculate on the cause.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators recovered the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder from the Bombardier CRJ700 airplane, agency spokesperson Peter Knudson said. They were at the agency’s labs for evaluation.
The plane was found upside-down in three sections in waist-deep water, and first responders were searching miles of the Potomac, Donnelly said. The helicopter wreckage was also found. Images from the river showed boats around the partly submerged wing and the mangled wreckage of the plane’s fuselage.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the plane was making a normal approach when “the military aircraft came into the path” of the jet.
One air traffic controller was responsible for coordinating helicopter traffic and arriving and departing planes when the collision happened, according to a report by the Federal Aviation Administration that was obtained by The Associated Press. Those duties are often divided between two people, but the airport typically combines the roles at 9:30 p.m, once traffic begins to slow down. On Wednesday the tower supervisor directed that they be combined earlier.
“The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” the report said. A person familiar with the matter, however, said the tower staffing that night was at a normal level.
The positions are regularly combined when controllers need to step away from the console for breaks, during shift changes, or when air traffic is slow, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures.
The Federal Aviation Administration has long struggled with a shortage of air traffic controllers.
Officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet arrived from Wichita, Kansas, carrying, among others, a group of elite young figure skaters, their parents and coaches, and four union steamfitters from the Washington area.
A top Army aviation official said the crew of the helicopter, a Black Hawk, was “very experienced” and familiar with the congested flying that occurs daily around the city.
“Both pilots had flown this specific route before, at night. This wasn’t something new to either one of them,” said Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation.
The helicopter’s maximum allowed altitude at the time was 200 feet (about 60 meters), Koziol said. It was not immediately clear whether it exceeded that limit, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said altitude seemed to be a factor in the collision.
Koziol said investigators need to analyze the flight data before making conclusions about altitude.
Trump opened the news conference with a moment of silence honoring the crash victims, calling it an “hour of anguish” for the country.
But he spent most of his time casting political blame, lashing out at former President Joe Biden’s administration and diversity efforts at the Federal Aviation Administration, saying they had led to slipping standards — even as he acknowledged that the cause of the crash was unknown.
Without evidence, Trump blamed air traffic controllers, the helicopter pilots and Democratic policies at federal agencies. He claimed that the FAA was “actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative.”
Inside Reagan National, the mood was somber Thursday as stranded passengers waited for flights to resume, sidestepping camera crews and staring out the windows at the Potomac, where recovery efforts were barely visible in the distance.
Aster Andemicael had been there since the previous evening with her older adult father, who was flying to Indiana to visit relatives. She spent much of the long night thinking about the victims and their families.
“I’ve been crying since yesterday,” Andemicael said, her voice cracking. “This is devastating.”
Flights resumed around midday.
The deadliest plane crash since November 2001
Wednesday’s crash was the deadliest in the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, when an American Airlines flight slammed into a residential area of Belle Harbor, New York, just after takeoff from Kennedy Airport, killing all 260 people aboard and five people on the ground.
The last major fatal crash involving a U.S. commercial airline occurred in 2009 near Buffalo, New York. Everyone aboard the Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane was killed, along with one person on the ground, bringing the total death toll to 50.
Experts often highlight that plane travel is overwhelmingly safe, however. The National Safety Council estimates that Americans have a 1-in-93 chance of dying in a motor vehicle crash, while deaths on airplanes are too rare to calculate the odds. Figures from the Department of Transportation tell a similar story.
But the airspace around Reagan National can challenge even the most experienced pilots no matter how ideal the conditions. They must navigate hundreds of other commercial planes, military aircraft, and restricted areas around sensitive sites.
Just over 24 hours before the fatal collision, a different regional jet had to go around for a second chance at landing at Reagan National after it was advised about a military helicopter nearby, according to flight tracking sites and control logs. It landed safely minutes later.
Tragedy stuns Wichita
The crash devastated Kansas city, which prides itself on being in America’s heartland. Wichita hosted the U.S. Figure Skating Championships this year for the first time, along with training camps for top young skaters.
The city has been a major hub for the aircraft industry since the early days of commercial flight, and it is home to the U.S. headquarters for Bombardier, which manufactured the jetliner. So many regional workers have jobs tied to the industry that the area’s economy slumps when sales dip.
Several hundred people gathered in the city council chambers for a prayer vigil.
“We will get through this, but the only way we will get through this is together,” said the Rev. Pamela Hughes Mason of St. Paul AME Church.
The collision happened in tightly controlled airspace
Flight 5342 was inbound to Reagan National at an altitude of about 400 feet (122 meters) and a speed of about 140 mph (225 kph) when it rapidly lost altitude over the Potomac, according to data from its radio transponder. The Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-700 twin-engine jet, manufactured in 2004, can be configured to carry up to 70 passengers.
A few minutes before the crash, air traffic controllers directed the jet to a shorter runway, and flight-tracking sites showed that it adjusted its approach.
Less than 30 seconds before the collision, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight.
A crewmember said the aircraft was in sight and requested “visual separation” — allowing it to fly closer than otherwise might be allowed if pilots did not see the plane. Controllers approved the request.
Seconds later, the two aircraft collided.
Two sources confirm to CBS News that one air traffic control worker was managing the helicopters and planes, a job normally done by two people when an American Airlines plane collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., and crashed… pic.twitter.com/LOHIz83Ehn
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 30, 2025