D.C. plane crash live updates as search for victims continues in Potomac River; no survivors from disaster

Flight data recorders from the plane and military helicopter have not yet been recovered, National Transportation Safety Board officials said in a news briefing on Thursday. 

“We know they’re there, they are underwater,” NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said. “This is not unusual for the NTSB. We have many times recovered flight data recorders in water.” 

Homendy said the NTSB’s lab, which is located about a mile from the crash site, would be able to read the plane’s flight data recorder. Board member J. Todd Inman, who will be serving as a spokesperson for the investigation, said that the helicopter’s data recorder will be recovered and read by either the NTSB or the Department of Defense. He indicated there was an agreement between the two agencies to share the information on the recorder. 

“Once we get those, we’ll be able to get those read, and information from them, to be able to provide further information to you,” Homendy said.

In a briefing on Thursday afternoon, the National Transportation Safety Board said that its goal is to publish a preliminary report about the deadly crash in 30 days. 

J. Todd Inman, a member of the board who will be serving as a spokesperson for the investigation, said that an investigative team will be on the scene “as long as it takes to obtain all of the perishable evidence and all of the fact-finding that is needed to bring this to a conclusion of probable cause.” 

All aspects of the crash will be investigated, he said, with working groups tackling specific aspects of the incident. One group will review and reconstruct air control activities. Another group will look at all of the plane’s systems and functions. A third will investigate the activities of crew members of both flights in the days leading up to the crash. 

A final report will be issued once all fact-finding and investigation is done, Inman said. He did not indicate when this might be completed. 

“We don’t have a lot of information now. We will continue to gather that. We will try to release it as we can, but we will only talk about the facts of the case that we know right now,” Inman said.

Jonathan Koziol, the chief of staff at the Headquarters Department of the Army Aviation Directorate, told reporters that the crew of the military helicopter was “very experienced” and would have been familiar with the route they were flying. 

One of the pilots had 1,000 flying hours, Koziol said, and the other had 500 hours. The flight pattern is flown on a daily basis, he said. 

“This should not have been a problem,” he said.

Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board are briefing reporters on its investigation into the collision. Watch the briefing in the player above.

CBS News has learned the crew chief on the helicopter was 29-year-old Ryan O’Hara. He is survived by a wife and 1-year-old son.

Asra Hussain Raza, 26, was among the victims of the crash, her father-in-law, Hashim Raza, told CBS News. A graduate of the University of Indiana and Columbia University, Raza had recently relocated to Washington, D.C., with her husband for a consulting position. She was traveling back to Washington from a work trip to Wichita when the crash occurred.

During the confirmation hearing for President Trump’s pick for FBI director, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley offered prayers to those who died in the crash. 

“This is a horrible, hard-to-understand disaster that demands answers,” he said.

Read more here.

Four members of a Maryland-based labor union were on board the flight, union leaders said in a social media post.

They belonged to Steamfitters United Association Local 602, which represents workers in the heating, air conditioning, refrigeration and process piping industries in the D.C. Metro area.

Read more here.

Retired Lt. Col. Darin Gaub, a former Black Hawk helicopter pilot, spoke on “CBS Mornings” about what questions could be raised during the investigation into the deadly midair collision. 

“They had one crew chief and not two. That could be a factor that needs to be accounted for in the investigation … but the visibility in the Black Hawk is good,” Gaub said.

Gaub also said the National Transportation Safety Board will have to analyze congestion as part of its investigation.

“It is very dense. It is high risk because of that,” he said. “There are specific corridors and air space restrictions that are extremely effective as a result as well when they are followed.”

Pete Buttigieg, who served as secretary of transportation during the Biden administration, lambasted President Trump for his comments blaming the crash in part on the FAA’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices. The president also took aim at Buttigieg specifically, claiming he was a “disaster” as leader of the Transportation Department.

“Despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying,” Buttigieg wrote on social media. “We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch.”

Buttigieg criticized Mr. Trump for eliminating the membership of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee when he came into office and said he needs to tell the American people how his administration will prevent a similar disaster in the future.

“President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe,” Buttigieg wrote. “Time for the president to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.”

President Trump said Americans shouldn’t be nervous about flying in the wake of the crash.

“It’s been many years since something like this has happened, and the collision is something we don’t expect to happen ever again,” he said, adding that he would not hesitate to fly himself. 

He also pointed to the nation’s safety record. 

“Flying is very safe. We have the safest flying anywhere in the world, and we’ll keep it that way,” he said.

During his press briefing Thursday morning, President Trump criticized the Biden administration and attacked diversity initiatives, claiming that he had increased standards for those who work within aviation.

Read more here.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that an investigation into the deadly crash will be conducted “as quickly as possible.”

The National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Department of Transportation will be part of the investigation, he said. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Department of Defense and the U.S. military will also be part of the investigation.

“What happened yesterday shouldn’t have happened,” Duffy said. “It should not have happened. When Americans take off in airplanes, they should expect to land at their destination. That didn’t happen yesterday. That’s not acceptable. We will not accept excuses. We will not accept passing the buck.”

President Trump said there are no survivors in the deadly airline crash.

“This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital and in our nation’s history,” Mr. Trump said.

President Trump appointed an acting administrator for the Federal Aviation Administration, which does not have a Senate-approved leader. Trump appointee Chris Rocheleau, a 22-year veteran of the agency who was serving as the deputy administrator, will be the acting head.

Mr. Trump said that multiple authorities, including the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board, are working “tirelessly” to investigate the crash. He emphasized safety goals, saying that his administration “will set the highest possible bar for aviation safety.”

President Trump spoke from the White House briefing room at around 11:20 a.m. on Thursday, referring to the morning as an “hour of anguish” for the United States.

“As one nation we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly. We are in mourning,” he said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy are joining President Trump as he speaks from the White House briefing room.

Flights resumed at Reagan National Airport just hours after the deadly crash. Planes could be seen moving on the airport’s runway. 

A Southwest Airlines flight flying in from Nashville was the first to land at the airport Thursday, according to the airport’s online arrivals board. Another Southwest flight, from Milwaukee, was expected to arrive around 11:20 a.m.

A Southwest flight to Nashville took off shortly after 11 a.m., according to the airport’s online departure board. A Delta Air Lines flight to New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport was set to depart around 11:35 a.m.

Officials have recommended that people with travel plans check with their airline to see if any changes have been made.

Six members of the Boston figure skating community, including two coaches, two teenage skaters and the skaters’ mothers, were on the American flight.

The Skating Club of Boston identified the coaches as Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova. The skaters were identified as Spencer Lane and Jinna Han, and their mothers as Christine Lane and Jin Han.

Governing body U.S. Figure Skating told CBS News it could not share more information at this time.

Wichita, Kansas, is home to a prestigious training camp for novice and intermediate skaters.

Read more here.

Officials say the plane was following a standard flight path as it approached for a landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The map below shows the plane’s path in blue and the path of the Army Black Hawk helicopter in orange, as well as the approximate site of their collision and crash over the Potomac River.

In a video clip released online, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Army unit involved in the crash will be on a 48-hour operational pause as an investigation moves forward.

Hegseth said the helicopter crew was performing an annual proficiency training flight, and said it was being carried out by a “fairly experienced crew” who was doing its required annual night evaluation. The crew was wearing night goggles, he said.

There is no Senate-approved administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration right now, CBS News’ Caitlin Huey-Burns reported. The former administrator, Michael Whitaker, stepped down from his position on Inauguration Day last week.

In September 2024, Trump ally Elon Musk called for Whitaker’s resignation after the FAA imposed licensing violation fines on SpaceX. Whitaker announced his resignation in December, but did not publicly attribute his decision to Musk or the Trump administration. 

Mr. Trump can appoint an acting FAA chief. Trump appointee Chris Rocheleau, a 22-year FAA veteran, is currently serving as the agency’s deputy administrator. Another Trump appointee, Liam McKenna, is the agency’s current chief counsel.

President Trump will speak from the White House press briefing room at 11 a.m. ET., the White House announced.

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said “there’s a lot of questions” following the deadly midair collision.

“You can’t tell a lot from video footage taken at night, but the footage raises a lot of questions about how this happened,” Kaine said on “CBS Mornings” following a news conference with officials at Reagan National.

Kaine noted that military flights and commercial flights are pretty common in the area, saying Reagan is a “very congested airport.”

On the congestion issue, Kaine said he anticipates the National Transportation Safety Board will look into it, while acknowledging that congestion is a concern he has raised “for years.” He added that it’s “not a good time to speculate.”

Kaine expressed “deep sorrow” for the passengers, the crew and the three soldiers, along with their loved ones, many of whom he expected would be from the Virginia and D.C. area. He praised the first responders and the coordinated effort overnight, pointing to the challenging rescue and recovery conditions in the cold waters of the Potomac River.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said both aircraft were on their respective flight paths before the incident, and noted that a crowded airspace is not uncommon in the Washington, D.C., area. 

“Prior to the collision, the flight paths that were being flown, from the military and from American, that was not unusual for what happens in the D.C. airspace,” Duffy said. 

He said that he would not go into too much detail, since the investigation is still ongoing, but said that military helicopters often fly over the river and noted that “everything was standard in the lead-up to the crash.” 

“This happens every day,” Duffy said. “Something went wrong here.” 

He also said investigators have “early indicators of what happened here.” 

District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Chief John Donnelly said at a briefing Thursday morning that about 300 responders reacted to the crash, battling frigid weather and heavy wind. He said that the recovery operation will involve “a lot of touch and feel” as responders search the crash area. 

“The crash area is a little spread out, so we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Donnelly said. He said the high winds overnight caused some debris to move downstream. 

District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Chief John Donnelly told reporters in a news briefing Thursday morning that 27 bodies had been recovered from the plane and one from the helicopter.

Sixty-seven people were on the two aircraft in all — 64 aboard the plane and three on the helicopter.

“We don’t believe there are any survivors,” he said, adding that the efforts at the scene have switched from a rescue operation to a recovery operation.

An Army spokesperson issued a statement Thursday morning confirming the helicopter involved in the collision was on a training mission and said, “The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) and the United States Army will investigate. The NTSB will lead the investigation.

“We are working with local officials and will provide any additional information once it becomes available.”

A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told CBS News at least 30 bodies had been recovered by 6:45 a.m. ET.

The source added: “Investigators are focusing on why the helicopter was flying at that location and altitude at that moment.”

Search efforts continued through the night and into Thursday morning.

The county executive of Erie County, N.Y., which includes Buffalo, told CBS Wichita affiliate KWCH-TV he happened to be waiting to catch a flight back to Buffalo when he saw through a terminal window that some emergency vehicles were moving around outside.

“It didn’t seem anything too strange at that point,” Mark Poloncarz said. “And then about a minute or so after that, there was an announcement of a full-ground stop, that there would be no flights landing and no flights taking off. And then we started to see a lot of emergency vehicles heading towards the river.”

Poloncarz and others soon saw reports on social media of a plane crash even as rumors began to swirl.

“When flights get delayed, people get aggravated and upset. But there was no one getting aggravated or upset because I think we all realized pretty quickly the magnitude of what occurred,” Poloncarz said. “The terminal grew pretty quiet. There was a lot of sadness.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who’s only had the job since Saturday, said in a post on X that the collision between the Army Black Hawk helicopter and American Eagle jet was “absolutely tragic.”

“Search and rescue efforts still ongoing,” he said, adding, “Prayers for all impacted souls, and their families.”

U.S. Figure Skating said in a statement overnight that “several members of our skating community were sadly aboard American Airlines Flight 5342.

” … These athletes, coaches, and family members were returning home from the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas.

“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts.”

Earlier, 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, according to Reuters, which said they “had reportedly lived in the United States since at least 1998, where they trained young ice skaters.”

Read more here.

CBS News senior transportation and national correspondent Kris Van Cleave says the American Eagle jet was only “a few hundred feet off the ground” when it collided with the Army helicopter.

“It was very close to touching down,” Van Cleave said. “It was in the final steps of its final approach. … It is possible, depending upon where the two aircraft struck, that the pilots of the airplane never even saw the helicopter coming.”

CBS News transportation safety expert and analyst Robert Sumwalt agreed. Sumwalt, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said that, in radar data, it appeared the plane “was making a left turn to line up with runway 33. It was below 300 feet when all of a sudden the data from the radar feed just quit. So that tells us that this happened at a relatively low altitude. 

” … (The plane’s pilots) would have already been making the turn to line up with that runway. They’re focused on the runway. I was an airline pilot for 24 years. I’ve landed on that runway many times. You’re in the turn. You’re looking to line up with that runway.”

Turning his head both ways, Sumwalt said, “You’re not looking out here for other traffic at that point. So I think that really is where their focus was. Now the real question is where was the focus of that helicopter crew?”

As the search for bodies and any possible survivors continued overnight, human remains and debris were washing up on the Virginia side of the Potomac River, reports CBS News senior transportation and national correspondent Kris Van Cleave.

He said the plane broke into multiple pieces that are sitting in 5-8 feet of water. 

A dive team found what appears to be one of the plane’s two data recorders — the so-called black boxes. It wasn’t clear whether it was the cockpit voice recorder or the one that stores data about the plane’s performance.

Divers have had some access to the aircraft’s cabin.

Luggage is among items divers have recovered. 

The helicopter is upside down but appears to be mostly intact, Van Cleave adds. 

Kansas’ two U.S. senators were among the officials who briefed media members at Reagan National Airport about the crash early Thursday.

Sen. Jerry Moran, a Republican who chairs the aviation subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said he’s “praying that our responders are safe and that the folks who were on that flight are recovered.”

Fellow Sen. Roger Marshall, also a Republican, said, “When one person dies, it’s a tragedy but when many, many, many people die, it’s an unbearable sorrow. It’s a heartbreak beyond major. … I want the folks back home to just know that we care, that we love them and that this is a time when we will have to join arms together and help each other out.

“We’ve been through things like this before — through tornadoes and floods and things, but it’s really hard when you lose probably over 60 Kansans simultaneously. I don’t wan to forget the pilots and the flight attendants who were doing their jobs, and the military personnel we lost. All those lives are so valuable,   and it is such a tragedy that we lost them.” 

The Reuters news agency 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.

The last major U.S. 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 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. 

District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Chief John Donnelly told reporters in a news briefing early Thursday that state and federal agencies were taking part in search and rescue operations, operating under a unified command.

“It’s a highly complex operation, the conditions out there are extremely rough for the responders. It’s cold. They’re dealing with relatively windy conditions,” Donnelly said.  

He later noted the water is dark, “murky,” about 8 feet deep, and contains “pieces of ice.”

“It’s just dangerous and hard to work in. And because there’s not a lot of lights, you’re out there searching every square inch of space.”  

Reagan National Airport will remain closed until at least 11 a.m. Thursday, Jack Potter, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, told reporters early Thursday morning.

“That’s when the first flights will take off,” Potter said, later adding that the time was “fluid” and could change. 

Flights at Reagan National have been grounded since the collision occurred at about 9 p.m. Eastern Time Wednesday. 

Potter said flights at Dulles International Airport and Baltimore/Washington International Airport were not being impacted by the incident. 

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said in a video statement, “First and most importantly, I’d like to express our deep sorrows about these events.”

“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,” Isom said. 

Isom said American Airlines is cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation and that he and members of their “go-team” would be heading to Washington, D.C., shortly.

“We understand and appreciate the people are eager for information, please know that we will continue to share accurate and timely information as soon as we can, but anything we must report, must be accurate,” he said, adding that, “We owe that to everyone involved.”

Isom said the airline has set up a helpline and those who had friends or loved ones on the flight can call 1-800-679-8215.

A law enforcement source told CBS News at least 19 bodies had been recovered as of 2:50 a.m. ET. A police official at the scene told CBS News that no survivors had been found as of 11:30 p.m. ET.

Following the crash, all flights were grounded Wednesday night at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), which is located in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. An announcement at the airport said it will not reopen before 5 a.m. Thursday. All passengers with grounded flights have been directed to rebook.

The White House released a statement from President Trump Wednesday night.

He said: “I have been fully briefed on the terrible accident which just took place at Reagan National Airport. May God Bless their souls. Thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders. I am monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise.”

Later he posted on Truth Social: “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!!!”

The Army said the Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk helicopter involved in the crash was based out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

The helicopter was on a training flight at the time of the accident, a spokesperson for the Joint Task Force-National Capitol Region, Heather Chairez, told CBS News. Chairez said the chopper belonged to the B Company, 12th Aviation Battalion.

A Defense Department official told CBS News that three soldiers were aboard the helicopter, with no senior officials on board.   

Search and rescue efforts were underway in the Potomac River following the crash. A police official at the scene told CBS News there were three debris fields in the water.

“The accident happened in the river,” a dispatcher said in scanner audio obtained from air traffic control. “Both the helicopter and the plane crashed in the river.” 

American Eagle flight 5342, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter carrying three soldiers Wednesday night while trying to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport outside Washington, D.C. 

“A PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet collided in midair with a Sikorsky H-60 helicopter while on approach to Runway 33 at Reagan Washington National Airport around 9 p.m. local time,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. 

The plane, operated by American Airlines, had taken off from Wichita, Kansas, the FAA said.