Devastating air traffic control radar footage captured the moment the doomed American Airlines flight collided with a US Army helicopter, killing everyone on board.
All 60 passengers and four crew members aboard the American Airlines jet coming from Wichita, Kansas, and the three soldiers on the Army training flight are presumed dead Thursday morning.
More than 30 bodies had been recovered from the icy waters of the Potomac River after the midair collision when the helicopter apparently flew in the path of the jet as it was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC, officials said.
The Black Hawk helicopter cut through the airspace from the opposite direction under cover of darkness, with both aircraft seemingly unaware of the other's presence.
They slammed into one another just 400ft above ground, erupting in a violent explosion before plunging into the freezing Potomac River below.
Air Traffic Control radar footage showed the fateful moment the two aircraft crossed paths.
The American Airlines flight, labeled JIA5342, and the Army Black Hawk helicopter, labeled PAT25, appeared to be facing each other head-on leading up to the crash.
The helicopter's path remained relatively straight while the American Airlines flight veered to make its landing, and the two collided.
Air Traffic Control radar footage showed the fateful moment the two aircraft crossed paths
The helicopter's path remained relatively straight while the American Airlines flight veered, and the two collided
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.
But no one is thought to have survived the brutal mid-air collision that ended with the wreckage of both aircraft sinking to the bottom of the gushing river.
The body of the plane was found upside down in three sections in waist-deep water. The wreckage of the helicopter was also found.
Images from the river showed boats around the partly submerged wing and the mangled wreckage of the plane's fuselage.
There was no immediate word on the cause of the deadly crash. Still, officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet coming from Wichita, with US and Russian figure skaters and others aboard, was making a routine landing when the helicopter flew into its path.
Elite American figure skating team members who were expected at the next Winter Olympics were also onboard the plane.
US figure skating team member Spencer Lane, 26, posted a photo from the flight, showing the jet taxiing on the runway at Wichita Airport in Kansas before it took off for its final flight.
Russian figure skaters Yevgenia Skhiskhkova and Vadim Naumov, who mentored Lane, are also believed to have been on the plane.
They slammed into one another just 400ft above ground, erupting in a violent explosion before plunging into the freezing Potomac River below
No one is thought to have survived the brutal mid-air collision that ended with the wreckage of both aircraft sinking to the bottom of the gushing river
American Airlines chief executive Robert Isom said the pilots of Flight 5342 were experienced.
'I know that the captain had… almost six years with PSA [Airlines], and the first officer almost two years,' he said.
PSA Airlines is a regional subsidiary of AA that flies small planes on lesser-used routes.
The three soldiers aboard the Black Hawk helicopter were fairly experienced, had night vision goggles and were carrying out an annual training mission at the time of the incident, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a video message, said a special team of investigators were already on the ground and that he expected answers shortly about whether the helicopter was flying in its assigned air corridor and at the right altitude at the time of the collision near Reagan Washington National Airport.
Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said just because the military helicopter was on a training mission didn't mean the pilots were learning to fly.
'We call these missions that are flown in the DC area as our pilots are getting hours and experience training missions,' he said.
'So don’t read into that how many hours the pilots on the military aircraft had.'
Spencer Lane, 26, shared this photo from inside the doomed American Airlines plane as it took off from Wichita Airport in Kansas on Wednesday evening
Spencer Lane and his mentors Yevgenia Skhiskhkova and Vadim Naumov are pictured on the podium during a previous tournament
Russian figure skaters Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov are reported to have been on board the American Airlines plane that crashed into a Black Hawk helicopter
President Donald Trump has raised harrowing questions about the crash overnight.
He said he believes the crash between an American Airlines regional passenger jet and a military helicopter 'should have been prevented.'
American Airlines chief executive Robert Isom appeared to blame the US Army Black Hawk pilot for being in the wrong place.
'At this time, we don’t know why the military aircraft came into the path of the PSA aircraft,' he said.
Duffy agreed with President Donald Trump that the crash was preventable.
'It was, I would say, standard communication, so there was not a breakdown, if that's your question, in communication between the military helicopter and the American airline flight. There was communication between the aircraft and the tower,' he said.
'I would say that the helicopter was aware that the plane was in the area.
'We are going to wait for all the information to come in from this vantage point, but… what I’ve seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely.'
Duffy said both the military helicopter and the airliner were flying a 'standard fight pattern' like hundreds of flights before.
'This was a clear night last night; the helicopter was in the standard pattern. If you live in the DC area, you will see helicopters up and down the river,' he said.
'The American Airline flight coming in to land was in a standard flight pattern as it was coming into DCA, so this was not unusual with a military aircraft flying the river and aircraft landing at DCA.'
