Key events
Two lawyers, Sarah Lee Best and Elizabeth Anne Keys, were among those onboard the American Airlines flight, their lawfirm and families have confirmed in statements reported by CNN and other media. Wilkinson Stekloff, where they were both associated said in a statement:
We are heartbroken by this terrible tragedy. Liz and Sarah were cherished members of our firm – wonderful attorneys, colleagues and friends.
Keys died on what was her 33rd birthday, her family said in a statement to CNN affiliate WXIX. They wrote:
Words cannot express how deeply Elizabeth, my Bitsy, will be missed. We are filled with unbearable sorrow and despair at our loss.
Best, also 33, was a hard worker who always found time for kind gestures, her husband, Daniel Solomon, told the Washington Post.
He said the pair, who were due to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary in February, had finally been planning to take their honeymoon in May. They were planning to go to Hawaii, where Sarah was born. He said:
We are each other’s world. I just can’t honestly imagine going through the rest of my life without her. She really touched the lives of anybody who got to know her.
A Filipino police colonel was also among the fatalities in the deadly mid-are crash, the Philippine National Police (PNP) confirmed on Friday, as reported by the Inquirer.
The Philippine National Police mourns the tragic loss of Police Colonel Pergentino N. Malabed, chief of the Supply Management Division, who was among those on board the American Airlines flight that collided midair with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., and crashed into the Potomac River on Wednesday night,” the PNP said in a statement.
No official list of the victims of the crash in DC have been given, but family and friends have identified three of the four members on the American Airlines flight as pilots Sam Lilley and Jonathan Campos and flight attendant Danasia Elder.
Here is what we know about them, as reported by Associated Press.
Sam Lilley knew he wanted to fly and began training to be a pilot, like his father, right out of college.
“You don’t really expect to meet people that find their purpose so early on in life, and Sam found his in flying,” said Kaitlin Sells, who met Lilley while they were students at Georgia Southern University.
Lilley was the first officer aboard the American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members that collided midair on Wednesday night.
In this photo provided by Kaitlin Marie Sells, Sam Lilley, left, pilots a small airplane that took off from Savannah, Ga., on Aug, 6, 2022, for a flight to reach the 1,500 flight hours required for Lilley to begin training to become an airline pilot. Photograph: Kaitlin Marie Sells/AP
Lilley’s father, Timothy Lilley, told WAGA-TV in Atlanta that he was in Washington waiting for answers.
“This is undoubtedly the worst day of my life,” said Timothy Lilley, who also is a longtime pilot and served as a US Army helicopter pilot for 20 years, noting he flew similar routes in and out of the Pentagon.
“I was so proud when Sam became a pilot,” he wrote on Facebook. “Now it hurts so bad I can’t even cry myself to sleep. I know I’ll see him again but my heart is breaking.”
Timothy Lilley said his son was excelling in his career and personal life at the time of his death and was engaged to be married later this year.
The captain of the American Airlines flight was 34-year-old Jonathan Campos, according to multiple media reports. His aunt, Beverly Lane, told the New York Times that Campos had wanted to be a pilot since the age of 3.
“I think he wanted to be free, and be able to fly and soar like a bird,” Lane said.
She told the newspaper she talked with Campos on Wednesday, just before the fateful flight. He told her he was looking forward to an upcoming Caribbean cruise with family.
Campos was a 2015 graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he studied Aeronautical Science, according to the university.
Danasia Elder was a flight attendant on the commercial flight, WSOC-TV in Charlotte, North Carolina, reported.
Elder’s brother-in-law, Brandon Payne, described her as “full of life,” highlighting her love for God, her kids and travel. She was married with two children, Kayden and Dallas.
“She was a great wife, a great parent, a great friend,” Payne told the news station. “She was very bright, very smart. She was an entrepreneur. This flight attendant thing was kind of like one of her dreams she wanted to do.”
Payne said he is proud of his sister-in-law for pursuing her dream.
“She would want y’all do the same thing she did. Chase your dreams, no matter what. Don’t let nothing scare you, push you away. Just believe in yourself, believe in God, and follow the path,” Payne said.
“Our hearts break for the families who lost loved ones in the tragic plane and helicopter crash at DCA,” former president Barack Obama, wrote in a post on X.
“Michelle and I send our prayers and condolences to everyone who is mourning today, and we’re grateful to the first responders who are doing everything they can to help under extremely difficult circumstances.”
Among those grief-stricken in the wake of the deadly crash in DC was Nancy Kerrigan, a former US women’s champion and two-time Olympic and world medalist based in Boston, where the World Figure Skating Championships will be held in March.
“Not sure how to process it,” she said, breaking down in tears. “When you find out you know some of the people on the plane, it’s an even bigger blow.”
As many as 14 skaters and coaches, including two 16-year-olds and a married pair of world champions, were onboard the American Airlines plane.
The Skating Club of Boston said Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, both aged 16, were on the plane.
The club also said the Russian-born ice skating coaches and former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who were husband and wife, were onboard. Other victims included ice-skating coach Alexandr Kirsanov, and two of his young students Angela Yang and Sean Kay.
China on Friday expressed “deep condolences” over a midair crash in Washington in which two of its nationals died, extending “sincere sympathies” to affected families.
“China has requested the US side to promptly update it on the progress of the search and rescue operations, swiftly clarify the cause of the accident and properly handle follow-up matters,” a spokesperson for Beijing’s foreign ministry said, as reported by Agence France Presse.
What we know so far:
If you are looking for a quick recap of the latest developments, here is a helpful explainer of what we know so far about the fatal aviation incident in Washington DC.
Reagan national’s main runway is the busiest in the United States, with more than 800 daily takeoffs and landings.
The National Transportation Safety Board has investigated nine accidents or incidents at the airport this century, including two that were fatal, records showed.
Air traffic control recordings appear to capture the final attempted communications with the helicopter, call sign PAT25, before it collided with the jet.
“PAT25, do you have a CRJ in sight? PAT25, pass behind the CRJ,” an air traffic controller says at 8:47 pm ET (0147 GMT) on Wednesday, according to a recording on liveatc.net, Reuters news reported.
Seconds later, another aircraft calls in to air traffic control, saying, “Tower, did you see that?” – apparently referring to the crash.
An air traffic controller then redirects planes heading to runway 33 to go around.
“I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven’t seen anything since they hit the river,” an air traffic controller says.
Webcam video of the crash showed the collision and an explosion lighting up the night sky.
An Army helicopter may have deviated from its approved flight path before its deadly collision with an American Airlines jet over the Potomac River, the New York Times has reported.
According to the Times, details about the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter’s final location indicated that it was not on its approved route and was flying higher above the ground as it traversed the busy airspace just outside the nation’s capital, according to four people briefed on the matter but not authorised to speak publicly.
The Guardian was not able to immediately and independently verify the report.
The airspace around Washington, D.C., is congested and complex — a combination aviation experts have long worried could lead to catastrophe, reports the Associated Press.
Those fears materialised on Wednesday night when an American Airlines plane collided with a military helicopter, taking the lives of 67 people, including three soldiers and more than a dozen figure skaters.
Even in peak flying conditions, experts said, the airspace around Reagan Washington National Airport can challenge the most experienced pilots, who must navigate hundreds of other commercial planes, military aircraft and restricted areas around sensitive sites.
“This was a disaster waiting to happen,” Ross Aimer, a retired United Airlines captain and chief executive officer of Aero Consulting Experts, told the Associated Press.
“Those of us who have been around a long time have been yelling into a vacuum that something like this would happen because our systems are stretched to extremes.”
How did this crash happen?
As we await answers from the investigation here is a visual guide of how this tragic event unfolded:
Among the confirmed victims of the American Airlines jet carrying 64 people that collided in midair with an army Black Hawk helicopter carrying three soldiers were young figure skaters returning from the US figure skating championships, along with their parents and coaches, and a North Carolina-based flight attendant.
The Skating Club of Boston said in a statement on Thursday that Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, along with their parents Jin Han and Christine Lane and coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were aboard the plane on Wednesday night.
Nationals from Russia, China, the Philippines and Germany were also on board.
What caused this tragic aviation disaster is not yet known, but the National Transportation Safety Board investigators has said it will have a preliminary report within 30 days.
Despite the lack of clarity, newly inaugurated US president Donald Trump has accused his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden of lowering hiring standards and suggested the Federal Aviation Administration’s diversity push could have weakened its capabilities.
The comments come as president Trump has pushed back against what he has described as the “woke policies” of his predecessor.
Asked if the crash was caused by diversity hiring, he said: “It just could have been.”
The Trump administration has not provided any proof to back these assertions, and there is no evidence that efforts to make the federal workforce more diverse have compromised air safety.
Following the crash, Trump signed an executive order on aviation safety that rolls back diversity initiatives and repeated claims without evidence that those initiatives contributed to Wednesday’s fatal collision.
Satellite images of earlier recovery efforts
A closer view below:
A satellite image shows runway 33 and crash recovery operations in progress in the Potomac River after a Black Hawk helicopter struck the American Eagle Flight 5342, an American Airlines passenger jet, near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 30, 2025. Photograph: Maxar Technologies/Reuters
It’s almost 10pm in Washington DC, and almost 24 hrs since a fatal mid-air collision between a regional passenger jet and a US Black Hawk military helicopter – a tragedy that has been described as one of the worst aviation disasters in the US in decades.
There were 67 people on board both aircraft, and there are no survivors.
Washington’s fire and emergency department said its divers had searched all accessible areas and would conduct additional searches to locate aircraft components on Friday.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Wednesday’s night’s collision between a regional passenger jet and a military helicopter near Washington DC’s Reagan airport.
The flight data and cockpit voice recorders have been recovered from the American Airlines flight, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has announced, and they are now at the NTSB’s labs for evaluation.
The NTSB said earlier on Thursday that it was too soon to determine the causes of the disaster and pledged to release a preliminary report within 30 days.
Early scrutiny focused on an initial Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report on the incident which called the staffing levels at a DC air control tower “not normal,” since one controller was reportedly handling both helicopters and planes.
But the Associated Press and CNN have both reported that sources told them this level of staffing was, in fact, “normal” or “not uncommon.” The FAA has long struggled with a shortage of air traffic controllers and identified fatigue as a factor that might lead to mistakes, the Associated Press noted.
Here’s a summary of other developments:
-
With the 67 people aboard both the American Airlines flight and the army Black Hawk helicopter all presumed dead, the collision is being called “the deadliest aviation disaster” in the US since 2001. At least 28 bodies have been recovered from the Potomac River, with recovery operations ongoing.
-
A day before Wednesday night’s midair collision near Reagan airport, a different jet there had to abort its landing and make a second approach after a helicopter appeared near its flight path, the Washington Post reported.
-
The US army saw an increase in very serious aviation incidents during the last fiscal year, with 15 flight and two ground incidents that resulted in deaths of service members, destruction of aircraft, or more than $2.5m in damage to the airframe, the Associated Press reported,
-
Donald Trump and members of his administration claimed, without evidence, that diversity efforts at the FAA under the Biden and Obama administration could be to blame for the crash, with Trump specifically claiming that the FAA had been accused of being “too white,” and suggesting efforts to hire Americans with disabilities were irresponsible.
-
Trump signed an executive order that rolls back diversity initiatives to stop “woke policies” in federal aviation.
-
The Trump administration’s choice to draw an unfounded connection between a deadly tragedy and diversity initiatives at a press conference sparked broad condemnation from Democratic politicians. They called the comments “disgusting,” “despicable,” and “racist,” with Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries saying that Trump was “blaming women and people of color for the deadly plane crash.”
-
As many as 14 skaters and coaches, including two 16-year-olds and a married pair of world champions, were onboard the American Airlines plane. The Skating Club of Boston said Jinna Han and Spencer Lane, both aged 16, and the Russian-born ice skating coaches and former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who were husband and wife, were on the flight.