• Footage shows an American Airlines plane colliding with a military helicopter, killing 67 people. 
• The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating, emphasising a careful, fact-based approach. 
• Donald Trump blamed diversity hires and the helicopter’s pilots, contrasting the NTSB’s cautious stance. 

Footage of an air traffic control room screen shows the moment the American Airlines plane collided with a military helicopter in Washington DC. 

The collision occurred yesterday as the airliner came into land at Reagan National Airport after a routine flight from Kansas, and first responders are still working to recover the bodies of the 67 people who were killed. 

US investigators say it will take time to understand the cause of a deadly midair collision between a passenger jet and a military helicopter, a sharp contrast to President Donald Trump’s snap pronouncements on the crash. 

“We conduct an important safety mission where we take a very careful approach,” National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chair Jennifer Homendy told journalists. “We look at facts... and that will take some time.” 

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NTSB board member Todd Inman likewise said there would be no immediate conclusions on the cause of the disaster. 

“We don’t know what we know just yet. We do not know enough facts to be able to rule in or out human factor, mechanical factors, that is part of the NTSB investigative process,” Inman said. 

Emergency response units search the crash site of the American Airlines plane on the Potomac River after the plane crashed on approach to Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia. Photo / Getty Images 

Trump took the opposite approach earlier in the day, blaming the helicopter’s pilots, night-vision goggles and above all diversity hires as he launched an attack on his Democratic predecessors, Barack Obama and Joe Biden for championing diversity practices. 

“Because I have common sense, OK?” Trump replied when asked how he had reached the conclusion that programmes to counter racism and sexism had played a role. 

28 bodies have been recovered so far – including one from the helicopter. Photo / Getty Images 

There were no details on the cause of the crash, with transport officials saying both aircraft were on standard flight patterns on a clear night with good visibility.

“Do I think this was preventable? Absolutely,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told the news conference.

The Bombardier plane operated by an American Airlines subsidiary, with 60 passengers and four crew on board, was approaching the airport when the collision happened. Photo / Getty Images 

Dramatic audio from air traffic controllers showed them repeatedly asking the helicopter if it had the passenger jet “in sight”, and then just before the crash telling it to “pass behind” the plane. 

‘A fireball and it was gone’ 

“I just saw a fireball and it was gone,” one air traffic controller was heard telling another after communication with the helicopter was cut. 

Both aircraft crashed into the Potomac River, and the fuselage of the passenger jet was broken into three sections. 

Married couple Shishkova, 53, and Naumov, 56, were aboard the passenger jet, Russian news agencies report. They won the world championship in pairs figure skating in 1994. Photo / Chris Cole / ALLSPORT 

US Figure Skating said several athletes, coaches and officials were aboard the flight, while officials in Moscow confirmed married Russian couple Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov – who won the 1994 world pairs title – were also on the jet. 

The Bombardier plane operated by an American Airlines subsidiary, with 60 passengers and four crew on board, was approaching the airport at around 9pm (2am GMT) after flying from Wichita, Kansas, when the collision happened. 

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Black Hawk chopper had “a fairly experienced crew that was doing a required annual night evaluation”. 

“They did have night vision goggles,” he added. 

Witness Ari Schulman was driving home when he saw “the plane and it looked fine, normal. It was right about to head over land”. 

“Three seconds later, and at that point it was banked all the way to the right ... I could see the underside of it, it was lit up a very bright yellow,” Schulman told CNN. 

A helicopter assists with search and rescue operations over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington Airport. Photo / Getty Images 

Trump criticises traffic control 

President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak on the matter at 11am (4pm GMT), but in the meantime posted a critical take on social media. 

“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,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. 

“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. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!” 

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the grounding of all planes at Reagan National, with operations set to resume at 11am (4pm GMT). 

American Airlineschief executive Robert Isom expressed “deep sorrow” and said the plane pilot had six years' experience. 

US Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas called the collision “nothing short of a nightmare”. 

Crowded airspace 

It was unclear how a passenger plane with modern collision-avoidance technology and traffic controllers could collide with a military aircraft over the nation’s capital. 

The airspace around Washington is often crowded, with planes coming in low over the city to land at Reagan National and helicopters – military, civilian and carrying senior politicians or officials – buzzing about both day and night. 

The same airport was the scene of a deadly crash in 1982 when a Boeing 737 plummeted after takeoff, hitting a bridge and crashing through the ice into the Potomac. Seventy-eight people died. 

– Agence France-Presse