A US passenger plane carrying 64 people crashed into Washington DC's frigid Potomac River after colliding midair with a military helicopter during a nighttime training exercise on Wednesday, triggering a major emergency response and the grounding of all flights.

Four people pulled from water after collision near Washington's Reagan Airport 🇺🇸

Webcam at the Kennedy Center caught an explosion mid-air across the Potomac 👇🏻

Also, a friendly reminder from JAN 22, 2025

Trump Guts Key Aviation Safety Committee, Fires Heads Of TSA, Coast… https://t.co/BGuE5zqayv pic.twitter.com/HJmKNmf6Yp

— Saad Abedine (@SaadAbedine) January 30, 2025

The aircraft was preparing to land at nearby Reagan National Airport following a flight from Kansas.

American Airlines, whose subsidiary operated the PSA America Airlines Flight 5342, confirmed that "there were 60 passengers and four crew members on board the aircraft."

Photos appear to show a plane wing and part of the fuselage in the Potomac River.

Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images pic.twitter.com/fKn8znVmQY

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 30, 2025

A surfaced photo showed the wreckage of PSA America Airlines Flight 5342, which plunged into the Potomac River earlier tonight while attempting to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in DC.

🚨#BREAKING: A newly surfaced photo shows the wreckage of PSA America Airlines Flight 5342, which plunged into the Potomac River earlier tonight while attempting to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in D.C pic.twitter.com/idq5zekNQh

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) January 30, 2025

Reuters reported that Russia's state-run TASS news agency, citing a source, said Russian figure skaters and coaches Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on the plane.

They won the world championship in pairs figure skating in 1994, Reuters noted, and got married the following year.

Several members of the US figure skating community were also on board, according to Reuters. 

A US Army official stated that the helicopter involved was a Black Hawk model carrying three soldiers, whose status remains unknown. A separate military spokesperson said they were conducting a "training flight" at the time of the incident.

Washington police reported that "there is no confirmed information on casualties at this time." However, a large-scale search and rescue operation was underway, with divers seen plunging into the snow-lined Potomac.

AP reported that a recording of air tower communications at the time of the crash had been captured by LiveATC.net, which the agency described as “a respected source for in-flight recording.”

In the recording, seconds after the last message from the American Airlines flight, another plane called the tower and said, “Tower, did you see that?”

An air traffic controller then redirected planes heading to runway 33 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to go around.

“Crash, crash, crash, this is an alert three,” one of the air traffic controllers can be heard saying in the audio.

Another controller remarked “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.”

The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, reported that police had begun recovering multiple bodies from the water.

CBS News reported that at least 19 bodies had been recovered so far and that no survivors had been found so far, citing a police official.

"We don't know if there are survivors," Washington DC Fire Chief John Donnelly said.

US President Donald Trump said in an official statement that he had been "fully briefed" and extended his condolences to potential victims, stating, "May God bless their souls."

However, less than four hours after the disaster—while officials emphasized that investigations were still ongoing—Trump took to social media to criticize air traffic control.

"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," Trump wrote on his app Truth Social.

"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!!!"

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) subsequently ordered the grounding of all flights at Reagan National Airport. Washington police announced on X that "multiple agencies" were involved in the emergency response at the crash site in the Potomac.

Kristi Noem, the newly appointed Secretary of Homeland Security, stated on X that she was "deploying every available US Coast Guard resource for search and rescue efforts in this horrific incident at DCA."

Authorities said fireboats had joined the rescue operation in the river, where efforts were complicated by darkness and near-freezing temperatures. Dozens of fire trucks were seen heading toward the airport.

The FAA confirmed that a Bombardier regional jet operated by American Airlines subsidiary PSA Airlines "collided in midair" with a Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter as it approached Reagan National Airport at approximately 9:00 p.m. (0200 GMT). The flight had originated from Wichita, Kansas.

American Airlines' CEO issued a video statement expressing "deep sorrow" over the incident.

Crash history

The last major US commercial air crash occurred in February 2009 when a Continental Airlines flight out of Newark, New Jersey, operated by Colgan Air, crashed into a house as it was approaching the airport in Buffalo, New York.

That plane was a Bombardier Q400. Forty-nine people died in the tragedy. Continental merged with United Airlines in 2010. 

The last major American Airlines crash occurred in November 2001 near John F. Kennedy International Airport. American Airlines Flight No. 587, an Airbus A300, crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 265 people. It was bound for Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. The plane crashed in the Belle Harbor area of the Rockaways in the New York City borough of Queens.