What is known about the fatal crash of a plane and Army chopper
American Airlines Flight 5342 hit an Army helicopter near Washington D.C.'s Reagan National Wednesday night, sending the two aircraft into the Potomac River and killing all 67 aboard in the deadliest U.S. air crash in more than two decades.
The crash around 9 p.m. threw one of the world's most tightly controlled airspaces into chaos, 3 miles (5 kilometers) south of the White House and U.S. Capitol. Officials were probing the cause Friday as they searched the river.
By Friday afternoon, crews had recovered 41 bodies and 28 had been positively identified, D.C. Fire Chief John Donnelly Sr. said at a news conference. He said 18 families have been told loved ones died.
The regional jet out of Wichita, Kansas with 60 passengers and four crew was preparing to land. The UH-60 Black Hawk based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia was on a training exercise carrying three soldiers, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Skies were clear.
A few minutes before the Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-700 series twin-engine jet was to land, air traffic controllers asked Flight 5342 if it could use a shorter runway. The pilots agreed. Controllers cleared the landing. Flight-tracking sites show the plane adjusted its approach to the new runway.
Less than 30 seconds before the collision an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it had the plane in sight. The military pilot responded yes.
Moments later the controller made another call to the helicopter, apparently telling the copter to wait for the jet to pass.
There was no reply and the aircraft collided.
The plane’s radio transponder stopped transmitting about 2,400 feet (732 meters) short of the runway, roughly over the middle of the Potomac, and the plane was found upside-down in three sections in waist-deep water. The helicopter's wreckage was also found in the river.
NTSB investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the plane.
Federal investigators will try to piece together any communication between the two aircraft and air traffic controllers, other pilot actions and the aircraft altitudes.
A key question early in the investigation is how high the helicopter was flying, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday on Fox News. Its maximum altitude allowed was 200 feet (about 60 meters), said Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation.
It wasn't immediately clear if it went higher: Koziol said investigators need to analyze flight data before making conclusions about altitude.
Hegseth said the army also wants to know if the helicopter crew was using night vision goggles.
Air crash investigations normally take 12-18 months, and investigators told reporters Thursday they would not speculate on the cause.
But at a news conference Thursday, President Donald Trump cast blame on the helicopter pilots without evidence and baselessly alleged that diversity initiatives had undermined air safety. Trump doubled down in a Friday morning post on his Truth Social platform that said the helicopter was “flying too high” at the time of the crash.
“It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???” Trump said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked Friday afternoon how Trump knew that that helicopter was flying too high. She said Trump was being briefed by investigators.
It was the deadliest U.S. air crash since 2001.
Among the passengers were members of the Skating Club of Boston who were returning from a development camp that followed the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.
Victims included teenage figure skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, the teens' mothers and two Russian-born coaches, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won a 1994 world championship in pairs skating.
The victims also included a group of hunters returning from a guided trip in Kansas, nine students and parents from Fairfax County, Virginia, schools and four steamfitters members of a steamfitters' local in suburban Maryland and two Chinese nationals.
The plane captain was Jonathan Campos, 34, according to multiple media reports.
Koziol said the helicopter crew was “very experienced” and familiar with the congested flying around Washington.
The Army on Friday identified two of the three soldiers on the helicopter — Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland. The third soldier's name was not being released at the family's request, the Army said. Only O'Hara's remains had been found by Friday, officials said.
Located along the Potomac just southwest of Washington, Reagan National requires pilots to navigate hundreds of commercial planes, military aircraft, and restricted areas.
After the crash, authorities restricted some of the airspace near the airport. Later the Federal Aviation Administration indefinitely barred most helicopters from using routes that run under or parallel to flight paths, an official told the AP on Friday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
Two of Reagan National's runways were closed Friday afternoon because recovery efforts caused flight cancellations and delays, airport manager Terry Liercke said.
Federal authorities, aviation experts and pilots have long worried about an increase in close calls. In May, an American Airlines plane canceled its takeoff from Reagan to avoid a plane that was landing on an intersecting runway. It was the second close call in six weeks.
A little more than 24 hours before Wednesday’s collision, a different regional jet descending to land at Reagan executed a go-around maneuver because of a military helicopter in the same area. Flight tracking sites and air-traffic control logs show the Embraer E-175 was cleared to land and advised about a helicopter in its vicinity when its automated collision avoidance system pushed it out of proper alignment for landing. It landed safely minutes later.
___
Associated Press writer Zeke Miller and Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington and reporters from throughout the U.S. contributed.
© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
