Before American Eagle’s flight 5342 departed from Wichita, Kansas, on Wednesday night, on his way to the US capital, Spencer Spencer Lane took a photograph of the wing of the extended plane over the asphalt towards the horizon.
A nubed blue-graded sky was a sparkling curtain over the Sun Student in the image the young man published in the ‘Stories’ of his Instagram account. The rising skater wrote “ICT-> DCA”, referring to the airport codes of the cities of departure and destination.
Lane, her mother and other scale stars, her families and US and Russia coaches were waiting for their departure after participating in the US Art Skating Championship and a training camp for young athletes.
In all, 60 passengers and four crew members were aboard the commercial plane when it took place at 17:39.
The trip of two hours and 35 minutes would lead them to one of the country’s most congested and most complicated flight approximations-the Reagan National Airport track, south of the capital’s monuments.
It turned out to be the most deadly aviation disaster in the US in almost a quarter of a century.
On a clear night, the almost full Bombardier CRJ700 jet approached the 33 track around 20:48 as he collided with an air with an American Army Black Hawk helicopter carrying a three-person crew on a training flight. The videos captured a gigantic red-orange fire ball, followed by a strange trail of smoke and burning wreckage. The two aircraft dived into the dark and icy potomac river. No one survived.
The list of deadly victims includes professionals from the most varied branches, including a biology teacher and popular soldiers, longtime airline riders and onboard assistants, people returning from a hunting trip, a lawyer and a pair of young people associates , along with aspiring artistic stars, their families and coaches.
Timothy Lilley, whose son, Sam Lilley, was American Airlines’ first 5342 flight officer, was for 20 years helicopter pilot in the army. Both he and his son shared the passion for flying. Now Lilley has advanced to Fox 5 Atlanta that he has to learn to live by reconciling this passion with the cause of his son’s death.
“It hurts me because it’s my brothers,” lamented Timothy Lilley, referring to the crew of the army helicopter. “Now my son is dead.”
A passenger sent a message to her husband to warn that “the flight is about to land”
The wreckage of the commercial plane on the Potomac River (Brandon Giles/US Coast Guard/Getty Images)
At Reagan National Airport, Hamad Raza received a text message from his wife: the flight was about 20 minutes to land. He later showed the message to a Wusa reporter, affiliated with CNN.
While flight 5342 made its descent a few kilometers south of the White House, the UH-60 Black Hawk flew at low altitude along what is known as route 4. Flight trajectory embraces the eastern margin of Potomac and is reserved as a special corridor for helicopters of military, emergency and governmental forces. Helicopters must be 200 feet or less above sea level.
The military helicopter could be flying outside its approved flight route, at an altitude higher than recommended, and at least half a mile from the approved route, according to an advanced report by the New York Times.
Members of the Bravo Company of the 12th US Army Aviation Battalion – headquartered in Fort Belvoir, Virginia – on board soldiers had experience in crowded and rigidly controlled airspace on Washington DC.
The helicopter pilot and co -pilot had at least 1,500 hours of flight – a significant amount, according to an Army Higher Officer, considering that the average flight is about two hours. Jonathan Kozol, Air Force’s Chief of Staff, described the military as “a fantastic team.” “Very experienced in what they were doing,” he said.
The two riders who were in the commands of flight 5342 were also experienced. The commander flying with PSA Airlines – which operated the flight to the mother company, American Airlines – almost six years ago, according to the company’s executive director, Robert Isom. The first officer was almost two years old at the airline.
At about 20:43 on Wednesday, a Reagan National air traffic controller contacted the commercial plane.
“Can you go to the 33 track?” The controller asked, directing the commercial plane to a shorter track perpendicular to the bustling main track.
“Yes, we can go to 33,” replied the pilot.
“I can confirm the track 33, track 33 authorized to land …”
Soldiers at Black Hawk were doing what the defense secretary Pete Hegseth described as an annual night training in a “government continuity mission.” These missions are routine: In the case of a catastrophe, helicopters are often used to take government officials to a safe place. The crew members had night vision glasses, the defense secretary said.
Black Hawk passed the Memorial Lincoln and fell over Tidal Basin. While the black and dark Potomac stretched under the helicopter, an air traffic controller at Reagan National contacted the military pilot.
“Is the CRJ in sight?” Asked the air traffic controller, referring to the regional plane. The controller gave the military plane to look for the aircraft.
Before the pilot responds, the controller gave instructions to the helicopter to “pass behind the CRJ”, according to
The helicopter pilot responded with his call sign: “PAT-23 has the aircraft in sight.” He asked for “visual separation”, which means he would visually maintain a safe distance from the commercial plane. The tower confirmed and allowed the pilot to navigate visually and avoid flight 5342.
This final communication followed more than 10 seconds of silence before the gigantic fireball breaks over the Potomac. The audio captured audible sighs. “Oh, my God!” You hear someone say deep into the radio broadcasts. The air traffic controllers are heard trying to divert aircraft to nearby airports.
“Tower, did you see that?” He hears the pilot of a plane questioning the control tower.
“It looks like there were rockets in the air,” says a pilot to the tower at one point.
“We are dealing with this right now,” replied the controller.
Another pilot told the tower that he saw “on the opposite side of Potomac.”
“Apparently, the two planes involved fell into the river,” the controller later said.
Managing both local traffic and helicopters, a source of air traffic control to CNN told. The same source ensures that this situation is not unusual. An internal preliminary report of the Federal Aviation Administration, however, concluded that the staff “was not normal for the time of day and traffic volume,” according to the New York Times.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the collision, has recovered the flight data and the cockpit voice recorders – from the jet. Flight data and helicopter voice recorder – gathered in a single black box – were also recovered.
‘Crash! Crash! Crash!’
After weeks of cold temperatures in the region, Wednesday night was comparatively mild. Jimmy Mazel, 17, and his girlfriend decided to dinner at the Gravelly Point Park in Arlington, Virginia. Located north of Reagan National, the park is a popular destination for observing the arrival and departing planes. Dinner was interrupted by “a white light falling from the sky,” Mazel described.
Nearby, Roy Best, was on the roof of his building when he heard a strong noise and saw a bright light shine in the distance. “I turned to the side and saw a great spark,” he recalls. “And then, just something to fall.”
Initially, Best admits that he thought it could have been firefight. A little later, he discovered the truth.
When he received a direct call from Reagan National Airport that night, David Hoagland, president of Washington DC Firefighters 36, said first responders expected a flying routine report. Instead, they heard: “Crash! Crash! Crash! ”He recalls.
When they ran to a pier to board a boat of the firefighters, they rained fly wreckage over the Potomac River. The first rescuers arrived and found submerged wreckage in shallow waters and almost immediately began to find victims, Hoagland said. Some plane passengers were still tied to their seats and it was difficult to remove them, he recalled.
The plane was found upside down, divided into three fractions, into low waters – including partially submerged wing and damaged fuselage. The divers also recovered the wreckage of the helicopter.
Gravely Point Park, the destination of the plane’s observers, is now the site of a makeshift morgue.
At least 41 bodies – 28 of which have already been identified – have been recovered from the deep depths of Potomac, with almost null visibility in water and other difficult conditions to make search operations difficult. The fuselage of the plane will have to be removed so that the remaining bodies can be recovered, the head of the Firefighters and emergency services of Washington DC, John Donnelly, said.
The clouds and the cold rain that was felt on Friday – while the flights landed and took off and the search teams continued their work – increased the sadness that the tragedy launched over the city and the nation.
