A number of questions remain after an American Airlines passenger plane carrying 64 passengers and crew collided with a Black Hawk US Army helicopter in Washington, DC.
Flight 5342, consisting of a Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine jet, had left from Wichita, Kansas, en route for the US capital when it collided with the helicopter as it prepared to land at Ronald Reagan National airport shortly before 9pm local time (2am UK).
Both aircraft crashed in the Potomac River, with video footage showing an explosion during the mid-air collision, as the passenger plane was said to be at a height of 400 feet.
The flight was operated by PSA Airlines, a regional airline based in Ohio.
Details are still emerging over how the incident unfolded. Here, The i Paper takes a look at some of the key questions.
What was the helicopter doing?
The US army said the helicopter was a UH-60 Black Hawk based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia.
A crew of three soldiers were aboard the helicopter, an army official said.
The helicopter was on a routine training flight.
Ronald Reagan airport is famous for the amount of air traffic it sees, with people heading in and out of the capital.
The airport has been ordered to be closed until 5am on Friday.
Did anyone survive the collision?
There has been no official statement about fatalities but also no reports of any survivors, meaning the incident could be one of DC’s deadliest such incidents in decades.
At a press conference held in the early hours of Thursday, DC Fire and EMS chief John Donnelly said boats were quick to find one of the aircraft in the river.
But when asked about survivors he said it was unclear if there are any but that emergency workers are working to find the victims.
“We don’t know if there are survivors,” he said.
He added that while emergency workers’ first priority is to look for survivors, they will also be working with the National Transportation Safety Board to help preserve evidence.
“We will re-evaluate where we are with a rescue operation in the morning, when we get a better sense of it,” he says.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser also told reporters she was “extremely sorry for the families who are experiencing a loss tonight”.
US media reports have quoted local officials to say there have been fatalities.
Were any warning givens to the aircraft?
Audio recordings from the air traffic control tower around the time of the crash appear to capture the final attempted communications with the helicopter, call sign PAT25, before it collides with the plane, described as CRJ.
A controller is heard asking the helicopter, “PAT25 do you have the CRJ in sight”, in reference to the passenger aircraft.
“PAT25, pass behind the CRJ,” an air traffic controller says at 8.47pm (1.47am GMT), according to a recording on liveatc.net.
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.
Gasps are heard in the recording at the moment of the crash, CNN reported.
President Donald Trump has also raised questions over how the incident unfolded.
In a post on Truth Social he wrote: “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. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD.”
How challenging are the rescue conditions?
Rescue teams from the states of Virginia and Maryland as well as Washington, DC, launched a huge rescue operation involving specialist divers, numerous boats and several helicopters.
High-powered lights were set up on the sides of the Potomac River to help the rescue effort.
The river is said to have a temperature of around 35°F (1.7°C), leading many to express concern as to the challenges for people to survive in such cold conditions.
Donnelly, the DC fire chief, said at least 300 emergency workers were continuing to work on the “highly complex” rescue operation.
“Conditions out there are extremely rough for the [first] responders,” Donnelly said.
“It’s cold. They’re dealing with windy conditions.”
When was the last time something like this happened?
Mid-air collisions are incredibly rare, and perhaps the closest thing previously experienced by residents of Washington, DC was a January 1982 incident when a passenger jet due to fly for Florida hit a bridge after taking off from Washington National airport.
At the time there was a snowstorm.
The plane, Air Florida Flight 90, struck several cars before breaking into pieces and tumbling into the Potomac River. A total of 78 people were killed.
翻译：