Details are beginning to trickle in as we learn more about the horrific air disaster that saw a commercial plane collide with a helicopter.
Authorities fear that more than 60 people have died after an American Airlines plane crashed into a Black Hawk helicopter over Washington DC on January 29.
The incident occurred while Flight 5342 was preparing to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport, which has halted all take-offs and landings as law enforcement agencies across the region flew over the scene in search of survivors.
The crash resulted in a large search and rescue effort with authorities searching the Potomac River for bodies, as both aircrafts landed in the body of water after the crash.
28 bodies have been recovered from the river so far, however this number is expected to rise.
One of the people confirmed to have been on the flight was 26-year-old Spencer Lane, who was a member of the US figure skating team.
Ahead of the collision, and before taking off from Wichita Airport in Kansas, he made a post to social media that has proven to be particularly haunting.
He uploaded an image around 7pm ET on Wednesday of the wing of the doomed aircraft from his seat by the window. He captioned it ICT -> DCA the codes for Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Other elite members of the American figure skating team are also believed to have been onboard the plane. They were also expected to compete at the next winter Olympics.
After attending a National Development Camp for young skaters in Wichita, Kansas, they were heading back to the Washington, DC, area.
Authorities provided a sobering update on the incident today, January 30.
“We are now at a point where we’re switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” stated John Donnelly, the chief of fire and emergency medical services in Washington, DC, at a press conference.
“We don’t think there are any survivors from this accident as of yet.”
For the benefit of the American people, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy has stated that the plane is in three parts and that the search will continue today.
Duffy added that it’s “not unusual with a military aircraft flying the river and aircraft landing at DCA” and that both planes were on “standard flightpaths” prior to the collision.
