सिंहदरबार संवाददाता
Kathmandu. A military helicopter and a passenger plane collided in mid-air, killing all 67 people on board, officials said.
At least 28 bodies were pulled from the cold waters of the Potomac River after the helicopter flew into the path of an American Airlines regional jet landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night, officials said. The airport is across the river from Washington. There were 60 passengers and four crew members on the plane, while three soldiers were on the helicopter.
President Donald Trump said at a White House news conference that no one had survived. “We are now transitioning from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” said John Donnelly, the capital’s fire chief. The crash occurred just before 9 p.m. in one of the world’s most tightly controlled and monitored airspaces, more than three miles (about 4.8 kilometers) south of the White House and the Capitol. The investigation into the crash could take months, and federal investigators told reporters they would not speculate on the cause.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the Bombardier CRJ700, agency spokesman Peter Knudson said. They are in the agency’s lab for evaluation. The plane was found upside down in three pieces in waist-deep water, Donnelly said, and first responders are searching miles of the Potomac.
Wreckage from a helicopter has also been found. Images from the river show boats circling the partially submerged wing and the damaged fuselage. American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the jet was preparing for a normal landing when a “military aircraft came in its way.” An air traffic controller was responsible for coordinating helicopter traffic and incoming and outgoing aircraft at the time of the accident, according to a Federal Aviation Administration report obtained by The Associated Press.
These responsibilities are usually split between two people, but the airport combines the roles around 9:30 p.m. as traffic begins to ease. On Wednesday, the tower supervisor instructed him to combine them early. “The position assignment was not typical for the time of day and the volume of traffic,” the report said.
However, a person familiar with the matter said that the tower was staffed at a normal level that night. “These positions are routinely integrated when controllers need to step away from the console for breaks, when shifts change or when air traffic is light,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures. The Federal Aviation Administration has long struggled with a shortage of air traffic controllers.
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