Reports of 60 passengers and 5 crew on the jet.
Survival time in the Potomac this time of year, even if they could get out, would be measured in minutes.
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First domestic commercial air travel crash in the USA in 16 years.
Maybe they shouldnât have fired the head of the TSA, the Coast Guard, and disbanded the Aviation Security Advisory CommitteeâŚ
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ATC is chronically understaffed too, Trump just put a hiring freeze there too, and no doubt some of those that remain will take out their buy-out options and it will get worse.
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audio from ATC asks if it has the CRJ in sight, and when it replies in the affirmative, is told to maintain visual separation
Looks like they misidentified the aircraft, if you look at the video thereâs two + the helo.
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US ATC has always been the absolute worst. Some absolute horror stories over the years and lots of very near misses
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The US Army Black Hawk that collided with a passenger plane on Wednesday was on a training flight at the time of the incident, Joint Task Force-National Capital Region media chief Heather Chairez tells CNN.
The 12th Aviation Battalion, based out of Fort Belvoir, provides helicopter transportation and âtechnical rescue supportâ to the National Capital Region.
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Bracing myself for the inevitable âyou are politicising a tragedyâ posts that are coming.
Yeah, well, itâs political⌠itâs life and death and the deregulation and gutting of important departments that, well, are supposed to help prevent this sort of thing.
National is a congested airport in a small footprint with very complex traffic patterns that require well-trained individuals at all posts, due to the proximity of the White House, the Capitol and other federal government and military installations; much of this airspace is restricted and there is a constant dance of commercial and military traffic going in and around that must be sorted.
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Probably on the money. Chopper doesnât change course at all going by the video.
Apparently the AA aircraft is in two pieces in water 7FT deep and the Blackhawk is upside down.
Water is just above freezing.
CBS reporting 18 bodies have been recovered so far. Not looking good if theyâre recovering bodies and not people.
https://www.kansascity.com/news/statâŚ299420529.html
Several coaches and skaters with the United States figure skating team were on the flight from Wichita to Washington, D.C., that crashed Wednesday night, according to athletes. The skaters were part of the National Development Team, a training program for top juvenile figure skaters.
The U.S. Figure Skating Championships were held in Wichita from Jan. 20 to Jan. 26. Some young athletes stayed in the city until Jan. 28, for National Development Camp, an advanced training program.
Team USA pair skater Luke â â â â told McClatchy News that skaters who qualified for the elite division stayed an extra day, after which â â â â said several boarded American Airlines Flight 5342.
â â â â and others were notified by U.S. Figure Skating via text after the crash. âPraying for all those on the flight from wichita to dc,â â â â â wrote on X on Wednesday night. âamong the passengers were skaters and coaches. absolutely heartbreaking.â
Another skater, Team USA ice dancer, Ethan Peal tweeted, âI am in shock. Praying for families and my skating community,â in response to the news.
McClatchy News has reached out to U.S. Figure Skating to confirm whether the skaters were on the flight but has yet to hear ba
This became a recovery mission the second it went down.
Potomac is 1 degree Celsius atm.
Survival time in plane clothes is about sub-60mins, but time to exhaustion or loss of consciousness is more like 15 minutes.
I doubt rescue teams had even left HQ in 15 minutes let alone gotten onto the water.
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The water is only 3-6 foot in depth, though, if anybody survived the impact, and could actually move, they would have a moderate chance of survival.
Sadly it appears most were killed on impact.
Former world champion Russian figure skating couple on board flight
By Liana Walker
Former world champion Russian figure skaters Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were two of the passengers on the American Airlines flight, according to Russian State media.
(Reuters: Mike Blake)
Their son Maxim, who competed for the United States in singles, was also feared to have been on board the plane, Russiaâs TASS and RIA news agencies reported.
He had been competing at the US figure skating championships in Wichita, Kansas
A number of figure skaters and coaches were believed to have been on the flight.
Shishkova and Naumov competed in pair skating for the USSR and Russian national teams. In 1994, they became world champions.