JET AND HELICOPTER COLLIDE AND CRASH INTO WASHINGTON RIVER – Fatalities reported but numbers not confirmed
A number of people have possibly lost their lives after an American Airlines regional passenger jet with 64 people on board and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided and crashed into the frigid Potomac River near Reagan Washington National Airport.
Officials did not provide a death toll from Wednesday night’s collision but U.S. Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas, where the flight originated, suggested most if not all those on board had been killed.
“It’s really hard when you lose probably over 60 Kansans simultaneously,” he told a press conference at Reagan airport in the nation’s capital early on Thursday.
Jack Potter, the president and CEO of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, said first responders were in “rescue mode.”
American Airlines confirmed 60 passengers and four crew members were aboard the jet. The helicopter, on a training flight, was carrying three soldiers, a U.S. official said.
