Transport Secretary Sean Duffy claims a horror mid-air plane crash over Washington DC was ‘preventable’, while American Airlines appeared to blame the pilot of a military helicopter that strayed into its path.
Sixty passengers, four crew, and three US Army personnel are believed to be dead after the collision 400ft over the Potomac River.
The American Airlines plane smashed into a US Army Black Hawk helicopter as it came into land at Reagan National Airport just before 9pm on Wednesday.
Passengers aboard Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, included members of the US figure skating team who were returning from the US Figure Skating Championships.
The aircraft collided in a huge fireball that was visible on dashcams of cars driving on highways that snake past the airport, and crashed into the Potomac River.
The helicopter was flying a training sortie and cut through the airspace from the opposite direction under cover of darkness, with both aircraft seemingly unaware of the other’s presence.
More than 300 first responders and rescue workers were deployed to the Potomac on inflatable boats while others erected searchlights to illuminate the murky waters in a desperate hunt for survivors.
At least 28 bodies have been pulled from the water as rescuers worked through the night in the vain hope of finding survivors.
Officials now believe no one survived, and the focus of the search is recovering the bodies and notifying families.
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