On Wednesday night, a horrific aviation accident occurred at Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C.
As Townhall covered, a regional American Airlines jet collided with an Army helicopter mid-air as it was going in for landing. The jet was coming in from Wichita, Kansas with over 60 people onboard.
After they collided, the jet and the helicopter plunged into the Potomac River. Immediately, authorities stated that this would be a mass casualty event. Hundreds of first responders began a rescue mission.
Throughout the night, reports broke that only deceased victims were found and pulled from the wreckage.
HORROR: Webcam at the Kennedy Center catches explosion mid-air across the Potomac as D.C. helicopter and an inbound flight from Wichita, KS collide. Unknown number of people on board both aircraft. pic.twitter.com/yMnS28i7yX
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 30, 2025
Another angle of the collision, appears to be from a CCTV pic.twitter.com/pj2CpbY4NM
— TJ Cooney 🚀 (@TJ_Cooney) January 30, 2025
Reports released Thursday morning indicate that there are no survivors. The rescue mission has turned into a recovery mission.
The day before the crash, Sean Duffy was sworn in as secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation. He was selected by President Donald Trump.
On Truth Social, Trump said that “This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented.”
“The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane,” he added.
Duffy backed up Trump's remarks.
"To back up with the president said, what I've seen so far -- do I think this was preventable? Absolutely,” he said to reporters, according to ABC News, adding that "everything was standard in the lead up to the crash."
"It is not standard to have aircraft collide. Want to be clear on that, but prior to the collision, the flight paths that were being flown from the military and from American that was not unusual for what happens in the D.C. airspace," Duffy added.
Duffy asserted that there was no breakdown of communication.
"I don't want to say too much on the communication between the helicopter and the tower and the airline and the tower, but I will say this: There was communication," Duffy said. "It was, I would say, standard communication, so there was not a breakdown" in communication.
"The helicopter was aware that there was a plane in the area," he said.
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