Kehinde Fajobi
At least 60 people are feared dead after an American Airlines commercial plane and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter collided and crashed into the icy Potomac River near Washington, DC, on Wednesday night.
Authorities have not confirmed the exact number of casualties, but Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas, where the flight originated, suggested no one survived.
“It’s really hard when you lose probably over 60 Kansans simultaneously. When one person dies, it’s a tragedy, but when many, many, many people die, it’s unbearable sorrow,” Marshall said at a news conference on Thursday.
Despite reports of bodies being recovered, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority CEO Jack Potter stressed that first responders were still in “rescue mode.”
CBS News, citing police sources, reported that at least 18 bodies had been retrieved, while Reuters quoted two sources confirming multiple recoveries from the water.
According to American Airlines, the PSA Airlines Bombardier regional jet was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members on a flight from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington, DC.
The US Army confirmed that three soldiers aboard the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter were conducting a training flight from Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Heather Chairez, a spokesperson for the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region, said the helicopter was engaged in a routine training mission at the time of the crash.
The incident is among the deadliest aviation disasters in the US in over 15 years.
Search and rescue operations continue along the Potomac River as authorities work to determine the cause of the collision.