TRAGIC MID-AIR COLLISION OVER D.C.

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A devastating mid-air collision took place Wednesday, January 29, night near Reagan Washington National Airport, as an American Airlines regional jet carrying 64 people and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided, sending both aircraft crashing into the frigid Potomac River.

Author­i­ties have not pro­vid­ed an offi­cial death toll, but U.S. Sen­a­tor Roger Mar­shall of Kansas, where the flight orig­i­nat­ed, sug­gest­ed that most, if not all, of those on board were killed. CBS News, cit­ing police sources, report­ed that at least 18 bod­ies had been recov­ered, while Reuters sources con­firmed mul­ti­ple bod­ies had been pulled from the water.

Amer­i­can Air­lines con­firmed that the plane had 60 pas­sen­gers and four crew mem­bers on board. The heli­copter, which was on a train­ing flight, car­ried three sol­diers.

Among those on board were for­mer Russ­ian world ice skat­ing cham­pi­ons Yev­ge­nia Shishko­va and Vadim Nau­mov, as well as sev­er­al U.S. fig­ure skaters, fam­i­ly mem­bers, and coach­es return­ing from a camp fol­low­ing the U.S. Fig­ure Skat­ing Cham­pi­onships in Wichi­ta. The skat­ing com­mu­ni­ty is in mourn­ing as news of the tragedy unfolds.

The crash occurred as the jet was approach­ing Rea­gan Air­port for land­ing. Audio record­ings between air traf­fic con­trol and the Black Hawk crew indi­cate that the heli­copter crew was aware of the approach­ing jet. In the final moments before impact, an air traf­fic con­troller instruct­ed the heli­copter, call sign PAT25, to “pass behind the CRJ.” Sec­onds lat­er, anoth­er air­craft radioed in, “Tow­er, did you see that?”

Web­cam footage cap­tured the moment of impact, show­ing an explo­sion light­ing up the night sky.

The Pen­ta­gon has launched an inves­ti­ga­tion into the inci­dent. Mean­while, in a post on Truth Social, Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump ques­tioned the actions of the heli­copter crew and air traf­fic con­trollers, call­ing the sit­u­a­tion “a bad sit­u­a­tion that looks like it should have been pre­vent­ed.”

The recov­ery oper­a­tion remains high­ly com­plex. Wash­ing­ton, D.C. Fire Chief John Don­nel­ly report­ed that over 300 first respon­ders were work­ing under extreme con­di­tions, includ­ing cold tem­per­a­tures and strong winds. Hypother­mia is a major con­cern, with experts warn­ing that exhaus­tion or uncon­scious­ness can occur with­in 15 to 30 min­utes in such frigid waters.

Fam­i­ly mem­bers gath­ered at the air­port overnight, des­per­ate for infor­ma­tion. One man, vis­i­bly dis­traught, stood on the side­walk out­side the ter­mi­nal at 3 a.m., weep­ing.

Rea­gan Air­port remains closed until at least 11 a.m. Thurs­day as emer­gency teams con­tin­ue their search and recov­ery efforts.

This tragedy has sent shock­waves through both the avi­a­tion and sports com­mu­ni­ties. Our thoughts are with the vic­tims, their fam­i­lies, and all those affect­ed by this hor­rif­ic inci­dent.