believe from the vantage point that we have now, again, we believe that that area to the right is where is at least near where the accident occurred. >> it certainly seems like they have large lights that are peering into the water to that area, to the to your right. that seems to be where they are searching, right? brian. >> that's correct. abby. yes, that does seem to be the area where they're searching. you know, it's still kind of a relatively long way away from where we are, but we do. we do have a better vantage point than we did before. what we also can tell you is that the we're told by some of our weather colleagues that the water temperature is 50 degrees. and of course, you know, once you know, if a person is in the water at that temperature for, you know, a significant length of time, that is, that is just becomes much more

so again, they've really deployed as many assets as they could to the scene here. again, a law enforcement source telling us that they have deployed just about every available agency, law enforcement, search and rescue, fire agency that they can to the scene over here. >> brian todd, thank you very much for that reporting. we continue to follow this incredibly important breaking news story. a commercial airline colliding mid-air with a military helicopter. we have much more of cnn's special live coverage tonight with kaitlan collins and laura coates right now. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> good evening, everyone. i'm laura coates on what appears to be the scene of a tragic plane accident, where we've learned that a blackhawk helicopter carrying military personnel,

three of them has struck in the air, a regional aircraft flying planes on behalf of american airlines. we're told there were 60 people on board. at least 3 or 4 crew members as well. we are across from the location where there is a swarm of activity tonight at a cold day right here in this area with frigid temperatures in the water, we are waiting desperately to learn about the fate of the passengers, of the members of the helicopter and all the team involved. we are here watching as you see nothing but lights that are flashing behind me. across the water. we have video of the moment of impact, of what appears to be the collision in air of a blackhawk helicopter and an aircraft carrying passengers right outside of the nation's capital. here at dca, ronald reagan national airport, we are on the cusp here we are on the side and the banks of the potomac river right behind me is

the capitol, the washington monument, overlooking what appears to be a dire scene as crews are desperate to try to figure out if they can save any lives of those who may have been in that water. right now, we have the entire crew on board looking to figure out who might have been impacted and whether there are survivors and souls on board. you are live with us here on cnn, and we've got our team in studio. kaitlan collins, along with pete muntean and our entire aviation team ready, waiting to give you the answers that we are all so desperate to learn what has happened tonight. why has it happened tonight? and who will survive what appears to be an unbelievable tragedy? >> yeah, laura, all of this is just breaking. and i should note, we have learned president trump has just been briefed on this. he says he is praying for everyone who is involved. we are waiting to learn more as we are getting in information from the pentagon about this black hawk helicopter that collided with this plane. but laura, just

given the response that you're seeing there as you're on the ground outside of reagan national airport, which has been completely shut down, obviously, as this has been going on, can you just describe what it looks like there and how large the response is, as this frantic search is very much still underway right now. >> imagine, if you will, multiple motorcades racing to the scene, trying to block off areas to also avoid people from entering the area, but also desperate to figure out what vantage point could be the ideal location for rescue operations to begin. the water behind me, a dark night. there is not a light in the sky. aside from all of the multiple sirens and flashing lights of law enforcement, of first responders racing to this very area, hoping to get some semblance of context of what has happened here. as you can see behind me, this is a night sky. the what normally is a sky lit

up by planes at one of the nation's busiest airports is dark tonight. no planes overhead. the entire airport shut down. everyone's attention is focused on this extraordinary moment, hoping to understand what could have caused a collision mid-air between a military helicopter and a regional airline that does flights on behalf of american. we are not not close to not that far away from the pentagon here in the united states. and not more than 10 to 20 miles away from fort belvoir, where many of the blackhawk helicopters often train and are housed. black hawk helicopters often are the type that are carrying vips here tonight. every person on board that aircraft, the helicopter, a very important person as we learn and wait to learn their fate. tonight. caitlin. >> yeah, we are told it was three members of the u.s. army who were on board that helicopter. and of course, many more passengers on that plane. laura coates will continue to check in with you outside of reagan national airport. cnn's aviation correspondent, pete

muntean is here with me. pete, i know you've been checking in with your sources. what is the latest that you've heard as just i mean, this is undeniably a tragedy that we are all watching unfold. >> tragic that it was even able to happen. and the question now is, when will this turn from a rescue mission and turn into a recovery mission on what is a moonless night in the nation's capital and an incredibly difficult scene for crews there on the banks of the potomac river, you can see the incredible response at reagan national airport, where this flight was slated to land from wichita, kansas, at about 850 eastern time. so we're talking less than three hours ago, this canadair regional jet, a crj 700 with 60 passengers on board and four crew, a nearly full flight as it was on its way into reagan national airport, lined up to land from the south, which is the typical approach path called the mount vernon approach international airport. the busiest runway in the national airspace system runway one, and then swung out to the right.

maneuver typically used by air traffic controllers to try and make the flow of planes go a little bit faster and get another airplane in a very crammed system, and swung out to the right to try and land on a northwesterly runway called runway three three. that is apparently when this collision happened, when this flight was about only a few hundred feet above the ground. and this is the video that investigators will, of course, be looking at. you can see the fireball take place there. what appears to be the helicopter coming from the left side of your screen, the flight on approach into runway three three there in the center. that is the explosion and of course parts falling to the ground there. >> and it's sickening to see that video. >> the big thing here, and this is something investigators will also want to look at, is whether or not there was any warning in the cockpit. and so there are so many blind spots in an airplane and a crew on approach. this is not the same type of airplane. this is slightly different, but a crew on approach into a runway. they're typically looking at the runway. i can tell you as a pilot, as a flight instructor, you are intensely

focused on what is unfolding in front of you. not a lot of times you're looking left and right for other airplanes, or in this case, helicopters. this is a very, very congested piece of airspace. so as the flight was descending, it's possible that they may have not been able to see a helicopter apparently coming from their right. and it's possible also that the the systems on board in the cockpit of a commercial airliner, tcas traffic collision avoidance system may have not been able to even warn them of an impending collision happening right in front. >> of them. i think that's the question a lot of people have right now is one, how does this happen? and as that plane is on approach, and if that black hawk helicopter was approaching and getting closer to the plane, i mean, air traffic control is obviously having conversations with all of these people, wouldn't that be something that they would be able to to notify them about. >> helicopters in the airspace at reagan national airport are sort of allowed to coexist with commercial flights taking off and landing because they're at such a low altitude and and they

are able they have a sort of a carved out corridor through the airspace that is typically used and typically designated for an airport like this. so of course, they're going to want to know how and what the route the helicopter was flying on and the route that this airplane was flying on. but very clearly, two things in the wrong place at the wrong time. and the warnings, by the way, have been flashing in red for years now, since the start of 2023, there have been numerous near collisions on the runways of commercial airports in the u.s. >> what about the d.c. airport? it's obviously such a busy runway. this has been something we've seen some lawmakers try to get more flight paths added into this. that has been. >> they were successful at doing. >> that and it's been a big argument. so what about this airport in particular? if you are a pilot and you're landing here, how busy is it compared to a to a typical average airport somewhere else in the united states? >> the main runway that bisects the airport, runway one that runs north south, is the busiest single runway in the national airspace system. we're talking the busiest runway in the united states. so this is. >> out of any. >> airport, out of any airport,

period. so this is an incredibly busy piece of airspace. the controllers are some of the best in the country, likely in the world. but you can see there on the map, national airport is on the west bank of the potomac, on the virginia side in arlington, virginia, on the east side of the potomac. that is where there is joint base anacostia-bolling, that is the home of the presidential helicopter fleet. there is a lot of military traffic over there. over dc 295. you can see the highway there and then going up to d.c. to the north and the banks of the anacostia. so this is incredibly jammed and incredibly busy. and the airspace right now, very sadly, is jammed. even still, with rescue helicopters shining spotlights, trying to find survivors in the water, it is a race against time. >> you mentioned that that system that you talked about how helicopters can kind of, you know, coexist with these planes because of how they're flying at the low altitude. if you live in washington, you know this. there are helicopters constantly flying up and down the potomac. that's their flight path. do. does that system work when they were at a lower altitude, either

for the planes or for the helicopters? >> tcas, the traffic collision avoidance system is not super reliable at a very low altitude, but it came about because of incidents like this, an airliner versus a small airplane back in san diego decades ago. and so the rules in aviation are often written in blood, and pilots get an aural warning in the cockpit when there is an impending collision. in front of them is a voice that comes through. it says, climb, climb, now, descend, descend. now. the big thing that investigators will want to know is, was that system actually in place? and they will, of course, not only be looking for survivors here, but they will also be looking for the cockpit voice recorder. what was happening in the cockpit of that commercial flight, that psa flight, american airlines flight, but also the flight data recorder, and they will be able to see in the thousands of points of data there, whether or not there was a warning in the cockpit. and frankly, even if they don't have the flight data recorder, they'll be able to hear if there was the aural warning in the cockpit voice recorder, it is going to be so critical.

>> okay, pete muntean, i know you're continuing to check in with your sources. we'll check back in with you. i want to go back to laura coates, who is live outside the reagan national airport, where, as pete just mentioned, the people here. this search is very much still underway for survivors. laura. >> it absolutely is. and just imagine the people who were on the plane, they were so close to the runway that they would likely have been able to see that they were about to land when this collision would have occurred. i want to go to gabe cohen, who's actually inside of the airport. gabe, what do we know about the latest in the rescue operation? >> yeah, laura, i've just learned from a law enforcement source in the last couple of minutes that there are now divers, dive teams, divers at the scene in the water, still searching for any survivors. we know at least part of the plane. the plane is in the potomac. at least part of it is underwater right now. beyond that, i don't know much more about what the scene looks like, except that what we have been able to see

from this vantage point. we are at reagan national. we're at the airport right now just driving around the maryland side, the virginia side, we could see dozens, if not hundreds of law enforcement vehicles, officers with flashlights pointed at the water. i can tell you, a law enforcement source has told me that just about every agency in the region is responding to this right now. but that same source painted a very grim picture. who's at the scene about what it looks like? it's something pete talked about before. when this goes from being a search and rescue operation to a recovery effort, the more sources i speak with tonight, there is a really somber tone. but right now there is certainly a search operation that is well underway, and they are hopeful that they're going to potentially be able to find people in the water. but time is running out. as we have said, we are at the airport hoping to get some sort of update here in the next little while. we don't know exactly when that's going to happen, but again, we are continuing to talk to our sources in law enforcement who are at the scene as it all

develops. >> as you say, the night is pitch black out here, but for the lights of the runway where this plane ought to have landed a little more than an hour and a half ago, carrying about 60 passengers, four crew members, and colliding with a blackhawk carrying military personnel just a less than a few miles away from our nation's pentagon. we are not far from mount vernon, the home of our first president of the united states and now the potomac river. that we're looking over pitch black tonight has divers inside hoping to rescue those who were on board and get some semblance of information. the water is cold. it is now a race against time, not only for hypothermia, but also to ensure that people have not. they have the requisite amount of oxygen in the water to try to salvage any life they possibly can. behind me, we have got so many flashing lights, desperately trying to guide these divers. we have an

eyewitness, ishmael. what did you see? the body? ishmael. what did you see? >> hi, guys. so somewhere around 8:50 p.m. where i live here at buzzard point. and i have an advantage view that you can see. i have a great view of the reagan airport, and i have a great view of the air force base. the joint base anacostia-bolling. and the view is unlike anything. so somewhere around 8:50 p.m., i hear two bombs. it's not like any bombs i've heard before, something i've never heard before in my life. and they were like seconds apart. immediately i looked up the window and they were like some smoke at the south side of. reagan airport. by by there is a marina right over there, washington sailing marina. so they were like smokes. that's when i really took the video. like, you know, five minutes after, because at that point i

turned into x. i tried to look for any sort of news just to see what's happening. i couldn't find any, any substantial news. so i, i am the news now. i took that video and shortly after i got, you know, calls and calls and there was like some reports that a helicopter crashed into a commercial airplane. and you can see in the videos the river, the potomac river merged with the anacostia river. it's it's frozen like the water is frozen for most of the part since the inauguration day, the water has been frozen. and we're talking about a 4039 degree water temperature. we check the water temperature along with the d.c. boating community, just to see how the, you know, just you see the james creek marina in the in the photo. this is where all of the activities have happened. so what you see, d.c. police. the d.c. parks. i, d.c. parks, i can

see arlington police. i can see firefighters. i can see on both sides of the river. i can see them at the reagan airport and the military base. uh, i have friends that are working right now from the d.c. park, and they can confirm if the d.c. fire as well. the u.s. park police, they can see this is not a search and rescue mission anymore. this is a recovery mission based on what they see, based on what they what they're looking at the river. and if i, if i take you out in a second where i show you the advantage view, i only see about 7 to 8 boats. i can their hands full only, uh, and they're all on the east side of the river by the military base. and that's what it tells me. like that's where the site of the crash is. where? possibly the part of the plane is still floating on the river. uh, it's unusual. i mean, it's crazy what we see right now.

>> what you describe is just devastating. the shock of seeing that collision, of wondering how this could possibly be. and i want to remind the audience, we are just about a week after the inauguration, which, of course, led it to be inside because of the frigid temperatures, not the normal parade outside. it was that cold, but a mere week ago. and here we are in front of a body of water where divers are now desperately searching to see if they can recover anyone or rescue anyone. right now we're in this very difficult and stressful time for everyone who is desperate, desperate to understand caitlin, how could this have happened? how could it have happened in one of the nation's busiest airports? just yards from where they would have ultimately landed safely? passengers on a regional aircraft that is doing flights for american airlines, colliding with a black hawk helicopter less than a mile or two away from our nation's pentagon. this

is a surreal moment in the the pitch black the water to match and divers desperate for some flicker of hope, hoping that there is life that is on that plane after we have seen this devastating explosion in this water just outside our nation's capital. caitlin. >> yeah, obviously, that that effort underway right now and i should note, this is a whole of government approach that we are seeing. the transportation secretary, who was just sworn in a few hours ago, says he is at the faa headquarters here in washington monitoring this. the new dhs secretary, kristi noem, says they have deployed the coast guard to help in that response that you saw there behind laura. and this is also being monitored from the pentagon, given the fact that it was a black hawk helicopter involved here in this crash. joining me on the phone right now is congressman eric swalwell, democrat of california. and, congressman, i know that you were at the airport just minutes before the crash. tell us what you what you

saw. >> yeah. thanks, caitlin. i was flying from houston to dc. i've been visiting my parents and landed at 842. and by the time i was in the car was seen on twitter and social media, you know what had happened. but like many of your witnesses, i didn't see or hear it at first. and so, you know, my thoughts are with those on board and their families and hoping that the police and fire are successful. but, you know, many of us who, you know, commute to the dc area, you know, we know that flight path, it's so rote and you take it for granted and you don't really look around as you're on approach. but yes, there are so many aircraft in the area every single day, not just black hawk helicopters, but also the national parks have helicopters that are flying through. of course, the marine

one fleet is coming through and it's a crowded airspace, but they usually can deconflict that. >> yeah, anyone who has flown into dc, i mean, i've been on many regional planes flying into this airport and landing here, and you said you landed at about 842. it was about 848 when this plane, i should note, was scheduled to land at reagan airport before this crash happened. and we're seeing just the response right now as as this search for survivors is still underway. but, congressman, i understand you are on the homeland security committee. what are the questions as the investigation is obviously going to get into way underway into how this happened? >> well, we want to make sure a crowded airspace is still safe, you know, to operate for the military, for commercial flights, for civilian flights. we also know that, you know, this doesn't happen a lot in america. and the reason it doesn't happen a lot is because the national transportation safety board is really good at

learning from these incidents. you can go back about 15 years to the last incident. and, you know, i'm a child of, you know, the 90s and the 2000 where you had the twa crash and the rockaway, queens, american airlines crash. and we learned a lot about that. and what we learned always makes us better and safer. and so because we haven't had an incident like this, it's going to be so important that we understand, you know, what caused this? what can we learn from this? and how do we continue to have so much traffic in this crowded capital that people can be safe? >> yeah. and the faa has just said that that reagan airport is going to be closed until at least 5 a.m. tomorrow morning as this massive response is underway. right now, as we're looking into this and this is a blackhawk helicopter, obviously, you know, you talked about the many different types of helicopter that fly on this path right over the potomac. if you live in washington, you hear

them all the time. it's not even surprising to to see a helicopter fly by. we are hearing from the pentagon that no senior officials were on board. three u.s. army service members were on board. that blackhawk helicopter. what questions do you have for for the pentagon right now? >> yeah, i mean, and to me, like, i don't care, you know, what the rank was? uh, we lost. we likely lost, you know, military lives in that helicopter. and that's a tragedy. but what i want to know is, you know, what do we need to do so that they can operate safely, do the business and reconnaissance and training they need to do, but also not interfere with civilian aircraft? you know, they're not flying at the nap of the earth, which is as low as you would fly in training to avoid detection. but they do fly pretty low. and that, as i said, is a crowded airspace. and you have traffic not just from d.c., but you have dulles, bwi, andrews air force

base in the vicinity. and so it's a lot for us to look at. but right now, as i, you know, see these emergency response vehicles and their lights in the water, i'm just hoping that they can pull some lives out and give us some hope here yeah. >> and we know at least 67 people from 60 people being on that plane for flight attendants and for crew and three u.s. army soldiers on that helicopter. congressman, thank you for for joining us. glad you're safe. and of course, our prayers are. >> with every. >> every family involved here. i should note american airlines has just put out an 800 number for anyone who believes that their loved ones were on this flight for people to call in to to seek more information. cnn's aviation correspondent pete muntean is back here with me. and pete, when was the last time we had a fatal airline crash like this? a commercial airline in the united states. >> the colgan air crash of 2009, which was a sea change in aviation that really changed the way pilots are required to be

qualified and also just had a sweeping effect of regulatory change in the u.s. that was an incident that was primarily compounded not only by the experience of the pilots, but also the improper response to to to indications in the cockpit and an improper response to flying the airplane and went down in buffalo in a very tragic incident. this could likely be also a very tragic incident, very tragic on its face that it was even able to happen. and the warnings have been lighting up in red for years that there could be a collision on or near the runways of a commercial airport, and the ntsb investigated incident after incident involving commercial flights coming into too close of contact. we're talking hundreds of feet. um, at on the runways of u.s. airports. this is

essentially the lining up of the swiss cheese that aviation experts have warned of, that the holes have lined up just so in a way that there could be an awful incident like we have seen here. a midair collision is something that is incredibly rare and really has not, uh, included a commercial flight in decades. >> and pete, we've been talking about the air traffic control sound and what that what we are hearing here. we do have that moment here. i want everyone to listen to it, and we're all going to listen to it. and i want you to explain what we are hearing in this audio from air traffic control. >> i don't know if you caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approach to 33. now we're going to be shutting down operations for the indefinite future. if you want to go back to the gate, highly suggest you guys coordinate with company. let me know what you want to do. all right. we'll let. >> the company, uh, talking to them right now. yeah, we we witnessed the whole thing as. you need any information from us.

>> this is key, because, of course, investigators will want to talk to any sort of witness and informed witnesses are much better than off the street witnesses. pilots who have seen this may be able to shed incredible light for investigators. they will have many points of information to go through, not only the statement from a pilot like that communicating with apparently air traffic controllers at reagan national airport. they said that this was on the approach to runway 33. that flight, initially, the flight from wichita to reagan national airport, set to arrive around 850 eastern time, initially was lined up on runway one that's to the north, swung out to the east a little bit and then lined up with runway three three. that's to the northwest. >> is that typical? >> that's a maneuver typically used for controllers to sort of keep up the pace of airplanes going into national airport. so they use this sort of lesser used runway three three to try and sort of shim in another airplane here and another airplane there. there are systems on board commercial

flights to try and avoid collisions. the big question now is, was that even able to be used in a situation like this? because it seems like primarily the resolution of that kind of system is not very good at low altitude, and it really depends. plane to plane. how good of a warning you can get from that system on board these commercial airliners. >> is a military helicopter typically listening to air traffic control at an airport there. >> they do have to talk to air traffic control to transit the airspace there through. that's the towers control. it's the area that is controlled by the tower there at reagan national airport. but there is a bit of a rub here. oftentimes military flights are using a different band of radio, different radio band, a different type of frequency than are used in civilian flights. so sometimes and i know this as a pilot, you hear controllers speaking to a military flight, but essentially if you're a civilian pilot like

i am, you don't hear the military flight respond on the other end and there is some air traffic control audio surfacing. now where the controllers and the tower at reagan national airport essentially tried to communicate to the pilots in the black hawk, saying that there was a commercial flight near them. do you see it? and so we are sort of ingesting that now and trying to go through it and parse it out. but that will be really critical for investigators here to not only do they have the recordings from on board the flight on board this, this psa flight operating on behalf of american airlines, but also the recordings and the tapes from the control tower and what was taking place there. and so they have so much now to compile and cull through this investigation, of course, will take months, if not years, to reach a final conclusion of exactly where the major screw ups were. and this was one of colossal proportions. >> yeah. and again, we are

watching the live rescue underway outside reagan national airport over the potomac, where a plane crashed mid-air with a black hawk helicopter. i want to go back to laura coates, who is live on the scene for us. >> what? pete was just describing the agony of waiting to figure out what has happened here through an investigation or otherwise. the 67 people who are waiting to find out whether their loved ones were on board this aircraft, whether they are safe tonight, whether they can in fact be rescued right behind me on this potomac river, where you see all of the different lights flashing, desperate with divers to figure out if they can salvage anything, get any information. i want to go right to oren lieberman, who is a hop, skip and a jump away at our nation's pentagon tonight. oren, what are you learning tonight about the investigation so far? and what about this black hawk helicopter? >> we've learned just a bit more information about the source of the u.s. army black hawk helicopter, a, uh, 60 black hawk

helicopter that was on a routine training. according to a spokeswoman for the joint task force national capital region. so a standard flight, at least a fairly standard flight for the black hawks we see flying all the time up and down the potomac and through the national capital region, through the airspace that black hawks in this area would have been very familiar with. there was a crew of three on board the black hawk helicopter. we have learned that already. so the information here is that the flight was, according to a spokeswoman for a joint task force, national capital region, out of davidson army airfield, fort belvoir, which is about ten 1112 miles south southwest, really almost due south, of reagan national airport and had been flying in this region. it is unclear at this point how long the army black hawk had been in the air. but again, the military at this point, the army and the joint task force that's in charge of this flight and this area says the flight was on a routine training flight and was operating in this area. the

question, of course, and this is what we've been talking about here, what went wrong that made this such a catastrophic event for what was a routine training flight? but the the, uh, 60 black hawk helicopter itself was part of bravo company for the 12th aviation battalion out of davidson army airfield, which is at fort belvoir again. that's just, as you point out, a hop, skip and a jump away from reagan national airport and the pentagon here. so close we see them flying in and out of the. we see black hawks that is flying in and out of the pentagon all the time and flying around the area on training flights, on exercise flights. and this was a routine training flight until the catastrophic events of this evening. >> uh, oren, the devastation of just thinking about what could have gone wrong and why. thank you and keep us posted, because we are desperate to learn more information about how this could have possibly happened, particularly on a routine training flight in an area that was so close already to the reagan national airport, where

they presumably would have gone before. we're learning more information about this. i want to go to brian todd, who is also on the scene tonight. brian, what are you learning? what are you seeing? tell us. give us your eyes. >> well, laura, we can show you what we believe are new assets being deployed here. we're going to i'm going to step out of the frame of the camera and let our photojournalist, david brooks, go straight ahead past me in the water, just slightly to our right. this is the first time we've actually been able to get a decent view of boats in the water. we can see at least four where you see those kind of spaced apart flashing lights straight ahead. david's going to go in as close as he can there. that's our first look at actual boats in the water that we can discern from the vantage point where we are, which is daingerfield marina, just south of reagan national airport on the virginia side. also, you know, again, they are pouring every possible asset into this area for search and rescue. over to the right of these boats is one of the main staging areas

near joint base. joint base anacostia-bolling, which is an air force base in southeast washington, d.c. that's a staging area. but again, our first look at boats in the water over here to the center. now, again, we don't know if that is the location of the downed plane and helicopter. we you know, we just we do know that according to maryland governor wes moore, that the maryland state police have deployed divers in the water, virginia governor glenn youngkin has told cnn that several search and rescue assets from the state of virginia have joined in the search and rescue effort. uh, a little bit more information. what we can tell you is that according to d.c. police and fire, the calls started coming in about this accident at 8:53 p.m. and again, to recap, this was american airlines flight 5342, operated by psa airlines, coming from wichita, kansas, to this area, about to land at reagan national airport. american airlines saying 60 passengers were on

board, four crew members. there were three crew members aboard the army blackhawk helicopter, which was operating out of fort belvoir, virginia, which is near george washington's home, mount vernon. we have no word on casualties yet at this hour, but again, assets being deployed all over the place. you see david's training his camera there on these helicopters. that was the first glimpse we had actually got. we had seen helicopters in the air a short time ago, but this was the first glimpse we got of of a helicopter actually training its spotlight on the water. and you can see he's kind of well, he's kind of banking there and he's coming back. and again, we'll take you back over to where the boats we can see are being deployed again. we do know the vessels in the water. we do not know if that is the actual location of where the plane is in the water at this time. so that's what we can tell you. just more and more assets being deployed here. and again, i heard you and your guests and some of the experts talking about the air traffic that is constantly operating in

this area. and, you know, it is true that military aircraft are always flying at low altitude north, south, east and west all around reagan airport because there are so many military bases, so many airstrips, so many helicopter pads at the pentagon, fort belvoir and elsewhere, you constantly see helicopter traffic flying low over the water on training missions and other other flights. and you know, that combined with the air traffic that comes in to reagan national airport, minute by minute by minute, it is a very, very busy. and as you can now see, potentially very dangerous situation when so many aircraft are in the air all at once in a concentrated area like this one. >> six seven. >> brian, to have that spotlight or area trained, the black water, we don't know anything about the exact location of this downed aircraft and aircrafts, but to have the concentration of resources as you described, this whole of government, this dmv as

it's known, washington, d.c., maryland, virginia, this is at the intersection. caitlin, of these three different areas, this potomac river, the concentration of all of these resources trained on what is behind us, desperate on this cold evening to try to rescue any of the 67 people collectively between the aircraft and the black hawk helicopter close to our nation's pentagon right here behind me. remember, we are just a week removed, caitlin, from the frigid temperatures that prevented the inauguration from even being outside the water, remaining cold. and here we are tonight, waiting desperately to see if the divers who are in a race against time, can they save the lives the families are desperate to learn what has happened. i know you mentioned, caitlin, that american airlines has a number. for those who believe that their loved ones may be affected to call, they are desperate for information.

these divers, desperate to save. >> yeah. american airlines has has posted that number on their website. and as this search is still very much underway, it did get warmer here in washington. it was about 50 degrees today. but the national weather service warns that water that you're looking at here in the potomac is still very cold. right now it's about 30 degrees from our latest update from them. and so obviously that is part of the factor into this search and rescue effort that is underway right now. joining us is tim taylor, the ceo of tiburon subsea. it's an underwater exploration company. and he's here to help us understand what this search and rescue effort looks like right now. and thank you so much, tim, for for joining me. first off, just i think the question and as pete muntean was saying earlier, when an airport is this close to the water, they have a plan in case something like this happens, a tragedy like this does strike and unfold. but can you tell us where something like this starts? especially when the water is about 30 degrees?

>> well, i mean, it could happen at pretty much a worse time. uh, nighttime dark cold water, winter time. so they've got everything going against them. but response time is, you know, you have to assess the situation. you have to put people in the water. and as a diver, if you're going in this water, it's pitch black. you're you're it's unknown territory. there's wreckage. there could be anything that's hazardous in there because of the crash itself. and and then trying to access, you know, the plane itself. so there are a lot of factors. it's a river. it's moving water. um, and conditions change by the second down there is things, you know, current flows. um, and assuming, you know, trying to assume a lot here, the plane went down. it's relatively shallow water. so that's a plus. they, they, they're not deep water. but there was an impact. they crashed. so um, in this kind of temperature uh, 35 degrees, you've got about an hour in the best of conditions. if nothing, if not even suffering from

trauma. so the, you know, there's the clock was is active. um. >> and i. >> wanted to be in the plane. could there possibly. so, you know, there's, there's things that could play in people's favor. >> so and tim, this search and rescue effort is very much still underway. but i do want to note that a law enforcement source is telling my colleague gabe cohen, there are confirmed fatalities and that right now, as of this moment, rescuers have not pulled any survivors from the water. i do want to stress and emphasize these rescue efforts are continuing, and this source told gabe cohen the plane is in pieces and the water, and that the helicopter is nearby. it's almost sickening to to say that and to report that as this is underway and can you just when this if you're if you're looking for someone in this water in the dark, in the cold, it's difficult enough, tim. but but when you have a plane that is in multiple pieces in the water, according to what this law enforcement source is telling gabe cohen, how does that affect in terms of also making sure the first responders

are being careful and safe? >> i typically, in today's day and age, most fire departments, emergency emergency response personnel or teams have a small remote operated vehicle, something that would fit in the trunk of your car that has like an extension cord on it. it basically, it can dive to 100ft and, you know, 500ft of line and it's run off a of a laptop or a handheld, you know, remote control like a video game. and you can launch it and run it and send it down and look and it has sonar on it. so you can do a full mapping rather quickly of the area. you can you can scan the area with sonar and actually create a map in almost real time. and so the divers will know what they're going into. so you're not going in totally blind. but but you've got to, you know, underwater at night in, in the dark you can only see what your light can see. so if you had to walk around your house with only a flashlight, you're only seeing what you see with the flashlight at any one given time. and the sonar helps

them see what's there. they're also handheld sonar devices for divers. i'm not sure if they'll be equipped at this. a lot of military personnel are equipped with this kind of gear that can that can actually use sonar and give a display to the diver as he swims through in the middle of the night so he can see much farther ahead of him, not just the 20ft in visibility. sound can shoot through water, for for hundreds of meters. if you got the right frequency and and give you an image of what's in front of you. so you're, you've got you've got eyes down there. so there's some tools that, that are, i'm sure on site and they're utilizing them. but if you're reporting that they haven't recovered anybody at this particular time, i'm it's not a good thing. >> because just to set to remind everyone from the time here, it's 11:41 p.m. eastern right now. this plane was scheduled to land at 8:48 p.m. eastern. obviously, it was a few moments before that when this collision happened. as we started to learn more. i mean, that would put at about three hours since this

crash. first happened. as far as that, looks like, you know, you were talking about the water and the temperature and what that looks like. what other kind of equipment can can these first responders be using? we saw rescue boats being unloaded earlier right outside the airport. what else can they be using right now? >> well, i mean, they're they're limited to what they have. they have the tools, the boats, the divers, the sonar. if they have it, the rovs, if they have them on site. uh, if anybody survived the crash and got out of the plane at the at the moment of crash, they're in a river. and if they're in the river, the river's moving with the current. so every minute goes by, they're they're moving away from the site. so that that would have been the first response would be to to come, come, come in from down river looking for people. as you approach the main site. i'm sure they've done that already. um, but, you know, they can always go right back to the site and start focusing your searches on the main site for survivors. so, um, they're, they're doing what they can do in a situation like

this. it's unfortunate and it's sad. um, and, and, you know, like i said earlier, you guys will they'll be studying this for a long time, but, um, it's a tragic accident. i feel for the families. >> if the plane is in pieces in the water. what? how wide is that? that search site. what does that look like in terms of is there putting these tools in the water that you said can kind of map out using sonar? what does that look like as far as how wide they are going in the water? about three hours in. what does that look like at 11:45 p.m.? do you think. >> i do not? i think the plane is relatively if it's in pieces, it's not that that it's relatively intact. it's not that broken up. it's as wide as a river. it didn't, didn't, didn't spill out of the river. and it's pretty much where it landed or where it went down. so i don't think there's the wreck site is big. i think that it may be treacherous for divers. obviously a lot of broken, um, sharp objects and

things of that nature, uh, torn up clothing, torn up, torn up, baggage torn up. there's all sorts of, you know, electrical wires. a wreck is a dangerous place to, to, to go into at any time. uh, something like this that just happened is, is even more treacherous for divers because you get in there and you're trying to get in and and you catch on things and you get tangled on things, and you, you follow your own gear in, in these, uh, this situation and then put yourself in danger. so everything has to be, you know, they have to be skilled and they have to, you know, they have to go slow and try to make it happen. when, when obviously you need to not go slow in a situation like this and, and get these people, you know. execute the rescue. if you can. >> so yeah, obviously we are praying that they do and that they are able to pull survivors from this right now, our law enforcement sources telling my colleague greg cohen, so far that has not happened. we're continuing to monitor this very closely. tim taylor, thank you for joining. with that

expertise, i want you to stand by. cnn's pete muntean is here. as far as, uh, there's real questions about what this investigation is going to be like. and when we hear from officials, understandably, right now, the ntsb, the faa, they are preoccupied with dealing with this. typically, when would we hear from them for something this major. >> usually straight away from the national transportation safety board and likely tonight from ntsb chair jennifer homendy. we know that newly confirmed transportation secretary sean duffy is at the faa headquarters right now monitoring this. this is something where top to bottom government will be involved not only at the federal level, but also at the state level. the district, maryland and virginia, all lending resources here to this, what is apparently right now a search and rescue operation. although as we just heard, it is a race against time and this could very easily be a search and recovery operation in not too long a period of time, because we know the water temperature today, even though it is a much warmer day here in

washington, that we have seen it broken the cold streak of what we saw last week about 50 degrees outside air temperature today. but the water temperature about 35 degrees right now. hypothermia can set in truly in a matter of minutes, maybe in an hour at the best case scenario. so this is something where investigation investigators will also have their work cut out for them. but really the focus right now will be finding this airplane and finding any possible survivors and getting them to shore. we have essentially the golden hour really has come and gone. if we're putting it bluntly, and this is truly a tragedy that we're watching unfold on the potomac river right. >> now. >> we're hitting the three hour mark since this crash happened, that american airlines plane was scheduled to land at 8:48 p.m. eastern. it is now 11:46 p.m. eastern. pete, you are aviation correspondent, but but for people. and we can see a helicopter right now. >> with. >> a searchlight on that water, as we are seeing here. and gabe cohen noted that the plane is in

multiple pieces in the water. you are a pilot yourself. you know what it is like to land a plane on a runway, a busy runway at that, with air traffic control telling you the latest updates. obviously, the pilots do their best to to make sure they are following all of the updates they are getting. >> yeah. and it's possible here and we don't want to speculate, but it's possible here that that just nobody saw the collision. that was clearly about to unfold here. >> there are blind spots. >> when you're explain. >> that to me again. you know. >> i have a couple models here and, you know, in an airplane you can't see everything. it's not a 360 degree view. so especially and we've seen this in other incidents and other notable mid-air collisions where pilots of an airplane, especially on approach, are looking forward or maybe in the cockpit, pilots of a helicopter are often looking down, uh, primarily flying in reference to the ground. and so this could be a situation where they never saw it coming, that they may have sort of descended into this. the crew of the plane may have sort of descended into this

helicopter. um, it's possible that the helicopter never saw it coming, and it's possible that air traffic control didn't see it coming either. you know, they the controllers in the tower have an incredible view. um, but they are not able to see everything. and even at night, that makes things even more complicated. >> so what. >> does it say to you that it was what we heard from our colleagues at the pentagon that this black hawk helicopter, obviously primarily a military helicopter, was being flown by three members of the united states army on board. it was a training flight that was underway. i know i was talking to someone from the pentagon earlier today was saying, a lot of these training flights happen late at night in the evening hours. it's not atypical for them to be out just before. >> 9 p.m. >> so much helicopter traffic in the d.c. area, especially at night. they are often trying to to train their acuity of flying at night. that is a time when a lot of military operations are sort of take place. in general, they may be doing night vision goggle training, they may be doing takeoffs and landings. they may just be out ferrying an airplane from a helicopter from one place to another. so a night

is a totally different bailiwick when it comes to flying. and it is really something that is much more complicated than flying, especially in the daytime when you can see things, you have so much more visibility. but i just flew at night the other night, coming back from new hampshire in a bonanza, and you can see airplanes much more clearly. and my fiance in the right seat even commented, you know, you can you can see so much more at night because you can you can see the lights of airplanes and helicopters from a much further distance away. sometimes it can be harder to find that, find the thing that you're looking for in the daytime. >> and obviously we are just thinking of all the families and people who are in limbo right now waiting for news about their loved ones. as we are watching this, at least 60 people on board that plane, passengers, four crew members and three u.s. members of the army on board that helicopter, that black hawk helicopter. cnn's gabe cohen is at reagan national airport, where he's been reporting. gabe, the airport has obviously been shut down until 5 a.m. at least tomorrow morning. what is the latest that you're seeing

there? >> yeah, caitlin. that's right. there's an emergency alert up on the screens around us that says due to an emergency situation, all flights are being held on the airfield. we are expecting a press conference here at least by 1230. although we could see officials arrive even before then. and, look, you went through some of our new reporting just a couple of minutes ago. but i have spoken to law enforcement sources who are there at the scene, who paint a really grim picture of what they're seeing. as you mentioned, the plane as they described it, is in pieces. the helicopter is in the water nearby. i have learned that that helicopter is moving around in the water a little bit. it's bobbing up and down, and that's making the search and rescue operation extremely difficult and unstable for divers who are there trying to search for any survivors. we have confirmed there are fatalities at the scene, and at this point, no survivors have been pulled out of the water. but look, the search and rescue operation is still well underway. we can see

the lights even from our vantage point here at the airport. they're still in that water, still searching, still hopeful that they might be able to pull somebody out. but again, at this hour, we have confirmed there are fatalities in the water at the scene as they begin to pull those people from the potomac. and we're hoping to get a little more information from officials. caitlin, again, the first press conference, and we'll see many more after that is scheduled for 1230. but we're waiting to see if maybe officials, some of dc's top officials potentially end up coming here to the airport to brief the community and the country on what's happened here. >> and obviously, we will take that press conference live as soon as we do hear from officials. we'll see if they come earlier. you can see still underway this search very much. they are using spotlights over the potomac right now, trying desperately to find people who were on board, either that plane or that black hawk helicopter. laura coates is live on the scene for cnn. laura, i want to go back to you.

>> i'm here with brian todd, and as we have just discussed, there are some new assets being deployed. they are not giving up. there are 67 lives at stake here. these divers diving in frigid water a week after frigid temperatures here in washington, d.c. we're outside in the potomac river. tell us what you're seeing here about these deployed assets. >> right, laura? so if you and i can kind of split apart a little bit, and our photojournalist nick can train his camera in more toward the center here and in the center, you can see what we believe are boats in the water straight ahead. we i i'm making out maybe four, but it may it could be more. it's just very hard to see the numbers there. but but boats in the water straight ahead of us also in the air. there have been two helicopters circling kind of an oval formations, uh, fairly consistently over the water. one of them, at least one of them, has had his spotlight trained on the water as they try to pull people out there. you guys talked about the weather. we've heard that the water temperature is about 35 degrees. very, very

tough to survive more than a couple of minutes in that water. and i just heard gabe's reporting about there are confirmed fatalities. they have not yet pulled survivors. the chances of them doing that at this point, with the water temperatures like this and visibility to you got to talk about visibility. we know that the state of maryland, according to governor wes moore, has deployed its state police divers in there. the state of virginia has brought many assets, search and rescue assets to join in. so, you know, they've got divers in the water. they're working constantly to try to pull those people out. but it is a pretty grim picture, even with all these assets. and we can see, as you said, laura, we can see staging areas at reagan national to the left over at joint base anacostia-bolling to the right. and again, there's a chopper there. so they're just working tirelessly tonight. >> and they're covering a pretty wide area as they're going around trying to circulate around this particular area. they've got choppers that are going lower to the water. this spotlight has been trained on an increasingly wide area.

presumably. obviously, there is a current in the water. they are seeing to expand the scope of the search even in this fixed area. but you have this clear night, but this black water, but a spotlight to actually guide their way. divers also have to guard against the risk of hypothermia, even with their wet suits and beyond. they cannot stay in the water for long periods of time. and we're talking about 67 lives. >> that's right. uh, interesting that you mentioned the currents. the potomac river is a tidal river, but there are a lot of undercurrents in this river that go every which way. that's got to be complicating things as well. we're on a very wide section of the river. it comes, you know, it's very narrow just north of us. it widens out right, right about where we are at reagan national airport really widens out. but the undercurrents and the tides that's got to be working against them, as well as the temperatures and the lack of visibility tonight. >> absolutely. and not more than a week ago, you had about a mile down the road, a truck going over a bridge. it took them more than a day to even be able to try to recover them from the river as well. the water is

frigid. still, we are not more than a week or so removed from frigid temperatures of the inauguration, forcing it to even go inside. we are close to the pentagon as well. this was a training exercise, we're told, with the black hawk helicopter and a commercial airline. the idea that this would happen so close in this extremely busy area. >> yes. i mean, you and i were talking about this. we both lived not far away from here. constant air traffic, helicopters, military helipads, and all of them flying low over the over the potomac in every direction. you know, the controllers have to be so well coordinated just to get all this traffic around safely. and tonight, clearly, something went wrong. the communication probably broke down at some point. and you had this horrible accident. yeah. >> caitlin, the silence here of waiting is agonizing for the families and everyone waiting to know what has happened. >> yeah, i mean, you just have to feel for them right now, in this moment, as everyone is just hoping for good news here as we are watching this play out, this

search and rescue effort still underway, you can see the boats still in the water there. you're looking live at where laura is standing outside of reagan national airport. that is right by the potomac, where this collision between this american airlines flight and this black hawk helicopter carrying three members of the u.s. military happened. i want to bring in cnn's tom foreman for an aerial look at the reagan airport and what we are seeing here. tom, can you just kind of walk us through the flight paths and what we are looking at as to where this flight occurred just about three hours ago? >> yeah. it's helpful to have an idea of how this all lays out. if you've been to d.c., the capitol, the white house, all of that's up here, the pentagon's up here. so to give you a little lay of the land that's north up there. pete's been talking all evening about the runway. they were originally headed for. that's this one right through here. they did not go that way. they diverted off to come in on this one over here, which is a different runway. that's the direction they were coming in from to land at this very busy airport. if you look at flight radar 24, you can also see the

tracking on this plane of where it was coming in over this way. we've had witnesses over here talk about seeing the plane and seeing it turn so they can see the whole belly of the plane. at one point. we have witnesses up here who have told us on air about seeing the accident. so this is the area we're talking about. the river is not terribly wide here. this this plane was actually truly within seconds of touching down when all this happened. the type of plane this is not the plane, but it's the type of plane typically has two by two seating inside. this is a configuration when it comes in to land, it's going to be at maybe 150 miles an hour. to put it in road terms. pete can check on that for us. i'm sure he probably knows right off the top, the black hawk helicopter we're talking about also capable of speeds like that and more. we have no idea, though, because the helicopter can also be moving quite slowly. this is a 12 to 13,000 pound vehicle. so the collision, the kinetic energy of that absolutely

immense. and we've talked an awful lot about the notion of the water down here. when we talk about the current, the current is flowing this way. the potomac and the anacostia river coming together. so fairly strong current pushing down this way. and as brian noted, a lot of countercurrents. but the water temperature. yeah, that's a that's a huge issue here. the coast guard would put survival. we talk about your ability to do anything swimming or anything like that. that's usually limited to ten 15 minutes before your muscles. your brain really struggles to function well in that kind of cold. and the coast guard puts survival overall at maybe an hour and a half. so we're past twice that amount of time already. so that's just a little bit of a sense of where this was all happening. and the target area being right in here, that's that's where a lot of the searching will happen. how wide caitlin you're smart to notice. it could be very tight. it could be considerably wider. and with every hour as we know from accidents like this, it

gets further because of those currents and the other concerns. so just a little sense of the lay of the land, of what they're dealing with out in the dark and out in the cold. >> yeah. and tom foreman, we're looking at that view. we're waiting to hear from officials with an update for us. thank you. tom. >> you're welcome. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> i'm laura coates on the scene of what is a crash between a black hawk helicopter and a regional aircraft operating flights on behalf of american airlines. with 60 passengers on board, four members of the crew colliding with the black hawk aircraft that had three members of the military. right now, caitlin, they are racing against time and the cold, both being enemies of the >> it was a flha