The plane crash between the American Airlines plane which crashed into a Black Hawk helicopter over Washington DC on January 29 has been a heartbreaking event for the nation.
Now more details are coming out about the people who lost their lives in the tragedy.
Keep reading to learn more.
Officials are fearing that the death toll from the American Airlines crash with the Black Hawk helicopter is now more than 60 people. The crash happened on the 29th of January over Washington D.C.
The incident occurred when Flight 5342 was preparing to land at the Ronald Reagan National Airport, which is now halted all take-offs and landings as investigations begin and the search for survivors begins.
The crash has resulted in a major search and rescue effort with authorities searching the Potomac River for bodies as both aircraft involved in the crash landed in the body of water. So far 28 bodies have been recovered and the number is expected to increase.
One of the people confirmed to have been on the flight was 26-year-old Spencer Lane, who was a member of the US’ figure skating team.
Before the collision, he made a post on social media before taking off from Wichita Airport in Kansas. The post is incredibly heartbreaking considering that young Spencer was involved in the crash.
He uploaded a picture around 7 pm ET on Wednesday of the wing of the plane that ultimately crashed. He captioned the picture, ‘ICT -> DCA’, which are the codes for Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
It is believed that other members of the American figure skating team were also on the plane. They were expected to participate in the next winter Olympics. They were coming back from the DC area after attending a National Development Camp for young skaters in Wichita, Kansas.
The update on the incident has not been good. DC Fire and EMS Chief John during a conference shared some news. Donnelly said, “We are now at a point where we’re switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation”.
He uttered the words everyone was dreading, “At this point, we don’t believe there are any survivors from this accident.”
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy shared that the plane is in three parts and that the search will continue for the American people.
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Duffy shared that both aircraft has been on a ‘standard flightpaths’ before the collision and that it is ‘not unusual with a military aircraft flying the river and aircraft landing at DCA’.
The black boxes from the helicopter and plane are vital to establish what went wrong and caused the fatal collision. The commercial plane and the military helicopter collided as the plane approached Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport’s Runaway 33 to land.
The CEO of American Airlines, Robert Isom has issued a response and announced that he would be travelling to DC with a special team to carry out an investigation.
He said, “This is a difficult day for all of us at American Airlines and our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of our passengers, crew members, partners, first responders, along with their families and loved ones.
“I know that there are many questions. At this early stage, I’ll not be able to answer all of them, but I do want to share the information I have at this time.”
President Donald Trump also addressed the situation. He said it was a ‘bad situation’ and ‘should have been prevented’.
“The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“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,” he wrote.
“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!!! What a terrible night this has been. God bless you all!” He went on.
We are sending our condolences and prayers to the families experiencing this heartbreaking loss.
