Updates: ‘No survivors’ after US plane, Black Hawk crash near Washington DC

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Here are the key developments from the fatal crash:

• At 9pm local time, an inbound American Airlines aircraft collided with a Black Hawk army helicopter as it approached the Ronald Reagan Airport, southwest of Washington, DC.
• Emergency units began rescue operations immediately after the aircraft plummeted into the Potomac River.
• Washington, DC Fire Chief John Donnelly said he believes no passengers are likely to have survived, and 28 bodies had so far been recovered from the river.
• US and Russian figure skaters, including world champion couple Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, were on board the crashed plane.

You can read our full explainer on the crash here.

This is a very complex situation because there are so many overlapping authorities involved. You have federal figures, you have state figures, and, of course, you have district figures from DC. The military is obviously involved due to the helicopter.

So there are overlapping investigations taking place here.

Now, that is something that is being sorted out, as it were, as we go along. It will be headed by the National Transportation Safety Board, but equally there will be investigations from all the other parties involved who have some claim to jurisdiction.

So we have this as the first challenge for the new Trump administration.

The new Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was only confirmed 24 hours ago and he’s been on the scene here. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the new Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth are involved.

So these are all new figures coming into administration, and they are all involved in the ongoing investigation.

Transportation Secretary Duffy says the collision between the airplane and the army helicopter was “absolutely” preventable.

“Do I think this was preventable? Absolutely,” Duffy said at a news conference.

During the same briefing, authorities said the collision occurred in clear weather and 28 bodies had been recovered so far from the Potomac River.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said they have “early indications” of how the collision occurred without elaborating and emphasising that the US has “the safest airspace in the world”.

Duffy reiterated that, prior to the collision, the plane and helicopter flight paths “were not unusual for what happens in the DC airspace”.

“Everything was standard in the lead-up to the crash. Obviously, there was something that happened here,” Duffy said.

“At this time, we don’t know why the military aircraft came into the path of the PSA aircraft,” CEO of American Airlines Robert Isom says at the ongoing news conference held by Washington, DC, Mayor Bowser.

Meanwhile, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said he believed the crash was preventable, adding that there was not a breakdown in communication.

Hamaad Raza is waiting for news from authorities about the fate of his wife, who he said was among 60 passengers on the American Airlines flight from Wichita.

Raza said he was waiting for the plane when his wife texted that her flight was 20 minutes from landing.

When his messages failed to be delivered he became concerned.

“That’s when I realised something might be up,” Raza told WUSA-TV. His 26-year-old wife, who he didn’t name, had flown to Wichita, Kansas, for work.

“I’m just praying that somebody’s pulling her out of the river as we speak,” Raza said. “That’s all I can pray for.”

Quoting local sources, US broadcaster CBS News says at least 19 bodies have been recovered from the crash site.

Meanwhile, another US news network, NBC, reported more than a dozen. No official death or survivor toll has been announced yet.

Earlier, Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said she would provide another update at 7:30am local time (12:30 GMT).

Earlier, we reported that some 300 responders were at the crash site in the Potomac River, according to Washington, DC Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly.

Navigational data published by Flightradar, a website specialising in aviation tracking, shows intense aerial activity by police rescue and surveillance aircraft at the site of the collision.

Additionally, flight data monitored by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit Sanad indicates the presence of various rescue and surveillance aircraft hovering over the Potomac River in the airport’s vicinity.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz was waiting to catch his flight back to Buffalo, New York, when he saw through the terminal window some emergency vehicles moving out below.

“It didn’t seem anything too strange at that point,” 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, while rumours 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 realised pretty quickly the magnitude of what occurred. The terminal grew pretty quiet. There was a lot of sadness.”

The international governing body for figure skating said the global skating community was “deeply shocked” and heartbroken to learn that figure skaters and those close to them were on board the American Airlines flight.

“Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragedy. Figure skating is more than a sport – it’s a close-knit family – and we stand together,” the International Skating Union said in a statement.

“At these frigid water temperatures, the human body’s core temperature quickly drops, AccuWeather Senior Director of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin told the Reuters news agency.

“Exhaustion or unconsciousness can occur in as little as 15 to 30 minutes,” DePodwin added.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she would be deploying all available resources from the US Coast Guard for search and rescue efforts.

“We are actively monitoring the situation and stand ready to support local responders,” Noem said in a post on X.

Relatives gathered at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport said they were getting little to no information from officials about the incident, adding that they were hearing more about it from news reports.

One woman told an airport official, “I don’t know if she got on there or not,” in apparent reference to a passenger on the crashed jet.

She then collapsed in tears, the Reuters news agency reported.

Air traffic control recordings appear to capture the final attempted communications with the helicopter, call sign PAT25, before it collides with the plane, which is described as CRJ (Canadair Regional Jet). The crashed aircraft was manufactured by Canadian firm Bombardier.

“PAT25, do you have a CRJ in sight? PAT25, pass behind the CRJ,” an air traffic controller says at 8:47pm (01:47 GMT), according to a recording on liveatc.net.

Seconds later, another aircraft calls in to air traffic control, saying, “Tower, did you see that?” – apparently referring to the crash.

“We unfortunately see that these sad reports are being confirmed. Our other fellow citizens were there,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says.

He expressed his “condolences to the families and friends” of the Russians on board.