Chicago: The devastating mid-air collision between an American Airlines plane and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter near Washington D.C. has left all 67 people on board feared dead.
The incident occurred on Wednesday evening as the commercial jet attempted to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport.
At least 28 bodies have been recovered so far from the Potomac River, where both aircraft crashed after the collision. The search for additional victims and wreckage is ongoing.
According to Washington’s fire chief, John Donnelly, “We are now at a point where we’re switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation. At this point, we don’t believe there are any survivors from this accident.”
The collision is believed to have occurred shortly after 9 pm (IST) and involved a passenger jet departing from Wichita, Kansas, and a military helicopter engaged in a training exercise. The crash site is located just over three miles from the White House and the Capitol.
Images from the river show rescue boats surrounding a partially submerged wing and the twisted wreckage of the aircraft’s fuselage.
President Donald Trump has been briefed on the accident and offered his condolences, saying, “May God Bless their souls.”
Among the passengers on the American Airlines flight were a group of figure skaters, their coaches, and family members returning from a development camp that followed the US Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are investigating the cause of the collision.