Summary
An American Airlines regional jet carrying 64 people collided midair with a Sikorsky H-60 military helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night.
The PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 was on approach from Wichita when the crash occurred around 9 p.m. ET. At least one aircraft ended up in the Potomac River, prompting a major emergency response.
The FAA closed the airport, and the NTSB is leading the investigation.
This is terrible tragedy. It’s been few hours since the accident and no words on survivors so it’s looking grim. NTSB has lot of work to do to figure out what happened so it won’t happen again.
Edit: Just watching the press conference at 1am and they won’t talk about survivors or fatalities. It’s a bad sign.
2nd Edit: blancolirio video Juan Browne does excellent analysis on aircraft incidents.
3rd Edit: 2nd blancolirio video This update is tough to watch.
The Potomac is not a gentle river. Even if people survived to get into the water it would be very difficult to survive. And the water is freezing too.