COUNTDOWN TO DISASTER
Min-by-min rundown of DC jet disaster from ‘dangerous’ Blackhawk flight to horror audio & crash vid before river plunge
WHAT should have been a routine flight for American Airlines ended in disaster when it collided with a helicopter just moments before landing.
Questions are now being asked over how the jet and chopper crashed mid-air before plunging into Washington DC's Potomac River.
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Hopes of finding survivors rapidly fading - with all 64 on board the plane and three on the helicopter believed to be dead.
Horror footage showed the moment the twin-engine Bombardier CRJ700 jet collided with the US Army Black Hawk - with a bright flash lighting up the sky.
Desperate rescue crews are now frantically searching for survivors in the freezing water, with efforts being hampered by dark, cold conditions.
Officials have warned there are "many, many, many" deaths as authorities figure out exactly what caused the tragedy.
This is the minute-by-minute breakdown of how the crash unfolded.
Motion graphic shows how the Washington DC mid-air accident unfolded
5.18pm, Jan 29 - The American Eagle Flight 5342 takes off from Wichita, Kansas.
Several ice skaters are on board, having been at a contest in the city.
USA Figure Skating later confirms athletes, coaches and relatives were travelling back home.
Among those on board are Russian champion figure skaters Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, pictured below.
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8.39pm - A US Army UH-60 helicopter takes off from Fort Beaver, Virginia.
Three people are on board as part of a training exercise.
Around 8.28pm - A woman on board the plane texts her husband to say the flight will be landing soon.
8.40pm - Flight 5342 starts approaching the Ronald Reagan National Airport.
Between 8.43pm and 8.47pm - Air traffic controllers ask the arriving jet if it could land on the shorter Runway 33.
Pilots say they are able to.
8.47pm - An air traffic controller makes a final attempt to communicate with the helicopter, callsign PAT25, regarding the plane, callsign CRJ.
A controller says: "PAT25, do you have a CRJ in sight? PAT25, pass behind the CRJ."
CCTV, shown below, captures a bright flash in the sky - the moment the plane and chopper collide just 400ft above the ground.
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The plane was flying at around 140mph when it crashed.
8.48pm - An alert is sounded after the crash.
Between 8.48pm and 8.53pm - Controllers react after seeing the crash unfold.
One says: "Oh, oh my god! Tower, did you see that?"
"Crash, crash, crash, this is an alert three."
Another can be heard saying: "I don't know if you caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approach into 33.
"We're going to be shutting down operations for the indefinite future."
A third adds: "Both the helicopter and the plane crashed in the river.
"It was probably out in the middle of the river.
"I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven't seen anything since they hit the river. But it was a CRJ and a helicopter that hit."
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8.53pm - Police begin receiving multiple calls about the incident.
8.58pm - The first emergency crews arrive at the scene.
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9.04pm - The first search and rescue boat leaves Capital Cove Marina.
9.11pm - The search boat arrives at the scene. Emergency crews and police divers are scouring the water for survivors.
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Search and rescue recover wreckage after mid-air collision in Washington DC
Midnight - Passenger boat National Elite joins the hunt, as well as fire and rescue boat
00.19am, Jan 30 - Donald Trump says the crash "should have been prevented" in a post on Truth Social.
He writes: "The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport.
"The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time.
"It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn.
"Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane.
"This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!"
12.58am - Officials hold a news conference and confirm 300 responders are involved with the operation.
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Washington DC's mayor Muriel Bowser says firefighters are working "diligently" in the cold.
The capital's emergency chief John Donnelly added: "There is wind. There are pieces of ice in the water.
"And because there is not a lot of light, you are out there searching every square inch of space.
"These are very tough conditions for [rescuers] to dive in."
Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas says: "When one person dies it's a tragedy, but when many, many, many people die it's an unbearable sorrow."
Officials are unable to give a death toll.
3.47am - Law enforcement sources say up to 20 bodies have been pulled from the water.
Rescue crews continue to work at the scene as the sun rises.
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7.30am - Official hold a press conference in terminal 1 at the airport.
Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser thanks emergency crews who have worked tirelessly throughout the night.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy says it was a clear night and both aircraft were following standard flight paths.
He says the fuselage of the plane was found in three different parts inn waist-deep water.
These will be analysed as part of the investigation.
Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly confirms 27 bodies have been recovered from the plane, and one from the helicopter.
Press conference on American Airlines plane, military helicopter collision near DC
He says the rescue mission has turned into a recovery operation, and there are not thought to be any survivors.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom say they "don't know why the military aircraft came into the flight path of the American Airlines plane".
Authorities confirm the airport will reopen at 11am.
How common are domestic flights in the US?
by Georgie English, Foreign News Reporter
EVERY single day the Federal Aviation Administration oversees 45,000 flights with almost three million passengers on board.
This covers a huge 29 million square miles of airspace from all over the US.
At peak times there can even be up to 5,400 aircraft in the sky at any moment - creating a mammoth task for aviation experts and air traffic controllers to maintain safety amongst all of them.
This means that any wrong call or misstep from either flight crew or controllers can result in a fatal tragedy.
A shortage of air traffic controllers in the past has caused delayed flights and raised a number of safety concerns.
Washington DC's airspace in particular is extremely busy at peak times.
There have been several near-miss incidents at Reagan National Airport in recent years including a near-collision in May 2024 between an American Airlines jet and a small plane.
A similar catastrophe almost occurred a month earlier between a Southwest and JetBlue flight.
Reagan National also features a much shorter runway than many others with over 90 per cent of outgoing and in-going flights using the main one.
This makes it the busiest single runway in the US with over 800 takeoffs and landings each day - or one every minute for much of the day.
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