s25+ on us with a qualifying trade in. call, click or visit an xfinity store today. >> the premier. >> plan from physicians mutual. >> call or visit send info kit comm for all the details. >> physicians mutual physicians mutual. >> welcome back. >> have i got news for you returns february 15th on cnn. this is cnn breaking news. >> welcome to cnn this morning, where we are tracking the latest out of the nation's capital following a tragic mid-air collision between a passenger plane and an army helicopter. i'm kasie hunt, and i'm here in alexandria, virginia, on the shores of the potomac river, where there is a frantic search and rescue operation underway looking for survivors. a law enforcement official does confirm to cnn

landing at ronald reagan national airport, dca, it sent both aircraft, the american airlines jet and the black hawk helicopter, a training flight plunging into the potomac. there were 60 passengers and four crew members on board that plane. it was arriving from wichita, kansas. there were three crew members on that black hawk helicopter at the time of the collision, and now hundreds of rescuers are battling absolutely frigid conditions. you can see how cold it is out here during these search and rescue operations. >> the challenges are access, um, the water that we're operating in is about eight feet deep. there is wind, there is pieces of ice out there. so it's just dangerous and hard to work in. and because there's not

a lot of lights, you're out there searching every square inch of space to see if you can find anybody. the divers are doing the same thing in the water. the water is dark, it is murky. and that is a very tough condition for them to dive in. >> and law enforcement sources are telling cnn that this rescue operation is becoming more grim by the hour. and again, no survivors have been pulled from that freezing water. and several sources also confirmed to cnn that the plane is in several pieces in the water. officials are bracing for this crash to become the deadliest aviation disaster in dc in decades. >> you know, when one person dies, it's a tragedy. but when many, many, many people die, it's an unbearable sorrow. it's a heartbreak beyond measure. and i know senator moran and i are here just to, um, to to say we care. we wish that there was more we could do

all right. >> joining us now here on the scene, mary schiavo. she is a cnn aviation analyst, former inspector general for the u.s. department of transportation. we also have cedric leighton. he's a cnn military analyst, retired air force colonel. thank you both for being here with us on this morning as we cover this unfolding tragedy. and i do just want to reset for anyone, everyone who's waking up here on the east coast. mary, help us understand what happened here. we know these two planes collided. it's not something. thank the lord that we see very often in this country. what happened last night? >> what happened last night is american airlines being flown by psa airlines. canadair regional jet 700 holds up to a 70 people with 64 on board. it was coming in to land, as you know, happens, you know, every few minutes, all the time. there were several planes in the air. it was a busy airport. i landed here myself at 730. it was very

dark, very cold, a little bit bumpy wind. but weather wasn't really a factor in the accident. also operating in the area were was an army helicopter. it is reported that it was a training mission. there were lots of helicopters in dc ferry around vips and and you know, all sorts of all sorts of folks. but this was a training mission. the air traffic control tower, specifically asked it's reported did ask the helicopter if the helicopter had this flight, this american airlines flight in sight. that's very important. that's very telling. it's a key piece of evidence because the aircraft, the commercial passenger service aircraft are always under full air traffic control. and what's called instrument air traffic direction. so that was flying exactly as the tower should have been flying exactly as the tower instructed. there's no indication it was not. so the

helicopter was doing what's called see and avoid the tower said, do you have this aircraft and get in line or fly in behind it? so it was supposed to find this aircraft in the air, see it, and then fall in behind it. >> and of course we can hear the helicopters overhead right now. and just to give everyone a sense of of where we're standing, we can also see the lights from the boats that are part of this search and rescue operation. at this hour. officials have not updated. we're still waiting to see at what point this may become a search and recovery operation, because again, we know that no survivors have been pulled from the water. but cedric leighton, this, this, this river, it's it's an incredibly beautiful stretch, right? i mean, behind us also. i doubt the viewers can see it, but we can see the washington monument, the united states capitol. at the other end of the mall is the lincoln memorial. and this is a beautiful approach. if you're

oftentimes these small planes will take this absolutely beautiful approach down the river, past all of these gorgeous d.c. landmarks. the other thing we also know, cedric, if you live here, is that there is constant helicopter traffic over this segment of the river. it's often extraordinarily low. i know when i sometimes have visitors in town, many of them are taken aback by how loud the helicopter noise is, how many there are, how low they fly. tell us a little bit more about what this specific helicopter does, what the unit that was flying it does, what they may have been training for and how this could have happened. >> yeah. casey, this is a helicopter, the, uh, 60, which is a blackhawk helicopter, belongs to the 12th aviation battalion, which is at located at fort belvoir. davidson army airfield, to be specific. and what the unit's mission is, is to fly vips and other necessary things around the various posts and bases here in the dc area. they fly a lot of people in and out of the pentagon. they fly a

lot of special missions for various entities in and around the national capital region, and they also provide a service, a logistical service for the pentagon and for other military units. so it's a critical unit, and it has had a very good safety record up up until this particular incident. they've done a lot of training. there have been a lot of there's been a lot of aerial activity in the last week to ten days out of davidson army airfield and several other installations. so there's been a lot of practicing going on for these these pilots. we don't know exactly. you know, what the nature of this mission was. it, you know, almost certainly was some kind of a training mission. we don't know whether the pilots were familiar with this area, if they had just been newly assigned to the unit or if they were experienced pilots in this particular area. so these are things that are going to have to come out. but it is one of the premier units that

ferries vips around. luckily, no vips on board the aircraft. the helicopter that crashed but that is always a big risk. and you mentioned a lot of helicopters around here. go down any of the interstates in this area and you will see the helicopters come in and out of some of the locations here, and we get used to it by being here. but there's always a danger in aviation, and that's something that we're seeing right now, unfortunately. >> and let's not forget that for the family members of those crew members, they are vips, these these deaths, every single one of them, an enormous, enormous tragedy. again, we should say there have been no survivors pulled out yet so far. but we are waiting on word of the the condition of all of the people who were on both of these planes. cedric, you mentioned something to me earlier last hour about what it's like and how you focus when you're flying a helicopter and why that might have impacted things, because, as mary noted, the pilots were asked, do you have visual confirmation? can you see this plane? where are helicopter

pilots normally focused as they're flying a mission like this? >> normally they're focused, and this may not be something that's logical to people who don't fly, but they're normally normally focused on the ground. because one of the things that a lot of helicopter pilots do, especially in the military, is they fly what's called nap of the earth. they fly right along the surface of the earth, very at very low altitude. so they're used to looking down, not necessarily looking either sideways or up. and that that is one of the key things that is really important, you know, to note that they may not have seen the right aircraft if when they were told by air traffic control, did you see this particular aircraft? did you see it? they said yes. they replied affirmatively, but they may not have seen the correct aircraft. >> right. and for people who don't live in this area, or perhaps don't fly into this airport, it is worth noting that the traffic is pretty constant. it's an incredibly busy airport, and even for these, this particular type of jet,

this crash, there's a number of them that fly because of the nature of this airport services. a lot of it's honestly here because members of congress want to be able to fly. there's all these small flights coming from small cities across the country that use these jets. i mean, as a political campaign reporter, i've flown to, you know, all over the country to all sorts of small cities on these planes and taking this exact approach myself many times, mary, i want to play what we heard, what we have from the the air control tower from the faa, the interaction between them. and then we'll talk about it. let's watch that. >> pat 2-5 james risch pat 2-5 pam bondi dahiyeh q 31 seven. i don't know if he caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approach and the three three. >> so there you could hear the air traffic controller instruct the helicopter pilot to fly behind the plane, and then you could hear him react when he

figured out what happened. what did you learn when you listened to that? >> well, i learned, you know, several things. you know, one, that they were flying with at least communication with air traffic control, the air traffic controller was certainly trying to keep all the traffic separated, as is the job of an air traffic controller. the the aircraft. uh, from the transmission clearly had priority was going into land. it would it would have priority. and under total air traffic control and um, you know, given maybe, perhaps even just a second or more of time, they might have realized, you know, the plane is right there. and taking evasive measures. and the helicopter would have been much more maneuverable. and of course, the aircraft could have taken evasive maneuvers if they saw it. they probably didn't remember. the aircraft is a low wing or the wings are below. there's, as i always remind people, there's no rear view mirror on the on the airplane. and there actually have been

discussions over the years to put cameras that you can see a 360 around the plane. um. >> we have that in our cars. you'd think that that would be something that would be standard for pilots. >> yeah. no, there was a lot of discussion on that after 911, actually. but and then that lets us know that the air traffic controller was, you know, reminding the helicopter, do you have it in sight because the helicopter was doing, you know, old fashioned flying, at least at that part of see and avoid, avoid. >> let's take a we have a little bit of new information from a witness to this midair collision. let's listen to that watch. >> i looked back again just to see if i could maybe see it land. and this was three seconds later, and at that point it was banked all the way to the right. i would say maybe past the right, past 90 degrees. um, i could see the underside of it. it was lit up a very bright yellow, and there was a stream of sparks underneath it. it looked like a roman candle.

>> it looked like a roman candle, he says. >> well, and that gives us more clues. just so many of these earwitness eyewitness and recordings give so many clues. but the fact that it was a roman candle means that there was a fire. the fuel tanks, you know, and they were in the wings were perhaps pierced. but whatever happened, happened at that point, and other witnesses in the video show the flash point and the fire. but since it was a roman candle, it was on fire. and probably at that point a lot of damage had been done and it was not controllable. >> cedric, um, a helicopter like this give us a sense of i mean, how big is it compared to the plane? this particular type of bird. >> so it's smaller, generally speaking, than than the. aircraft. and it you know, it may have been difficult. i think it was absolutely difficult for the pilot of the airplane to see the helicopter. i don't think the pilot of the airplane was

focused on the helicopter at all. the helicopter pilot should have been able to see the airplane, but we don't know what else was going on. and like we mentioned earlier, was there something else that attracted his attention, his or her attention at that, at that particular point in time? >> all right. cedric leighton, mary schiavo, thank you both very much for being with us this morning. do stand by for us. we're obviously going to be covering this breaking news throughout the morning and into the rest of today. coming up next here, there are some tragic ties between this crash and u.s. figure skating. and that community. coming up next, we'll tell you what they're saying. at this hour. we're going to be covering this breaking news all morning. stay with us right here on cnn. >> it's a highly complex operation. the conditions out there are extremely rough for the responders. the wind is hard out on the river, so they're out there working. we're keeping doing everything we can to keep them safe.

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rescue effort underway as ronald reagan national airport, where that american airlines plane was trying to land, is at a standstill this morning. there are no flights coming in or out of dca. it's the area's busiest airport. it's going to be that way until at least 11 a.m. this morning, according to officials. and of course, hundreds of flights have been canceled or delayed as a result, the emergency responders are frantically searching the potomac river. we can actually see the lights on those boats just behind me. here we are across the river from washington, d.c., on the same side as ronald reagan national airport. as, of course, we continue to cover this crash. >> we're watching the planes land, and they're all lined up in a row perfectly. you know, and then we sort of saw these white flares start flying out of the sky. so we were kind of concerned. and then shortly after we saw all the planes disperse and go their own ways.

they all, like, went around. >> and cnn's arlette saenz joins us live now from reagan national airport with more on what we are set to learn from officials this morning. arlette, what can we, the public and what can the families of those who were on these two aircraft expect to learn as this morning goes on? >> 30s. >> well, casey, still so many questions for these families as they are waiting to learn more about what exactly happened in this plane crash. in a little over an hour, we are expecting to hear once again from local officials on the latest updates on these operations at the search and rescue operations that have been carried out overnight, to try to see if they can pull any survivors out of the water. now, last or early this morning, we did receive an update saying that there were about 301st responders who activated to try to mobilize in this search and rescue operation, but the dc fire chief

saying that they are operating in very dangerous conditions, these waters are very dark. it is very cold. temperatures out there. and pretty soon in the coming hours, they will start to break here in the nation's capital, perhaps giving some assistance as they continue this operation that's been underway overnight. now, we are still also waiting to hear more about the ntsb investigation that will be playing out over a considerable amount of time to see if they have any other details as to how exactly this collision between that passenger aircraft with american airlines traveling from wichita, kansas, here to reagan national airport collided with that army helicopter. so a lot of questions for local officials as people are still trying to get a handle of this very fluid situation, trying to determine what exactly happened here and whether there are any survivors from this crash. >> arlette, we should underscore for people who aren't as

familiar with this airport and this area as as you and i are, i'm sure you have taken dozens, if not hundreds of flights. perhaps on some of these small jets to some of these smaller cities across the country. it's a unique airport. members of congress use it. it's part of why it's here. and many of these direct routes are because members of congress wanted them to be there. wichita, of course, one of those routes we learned from the states from kansas senator jerry moran. he talked to reporters last night a little bit about what this particular route means to him and what it means for his personal connection, the personal connections of many kansans to people who may have been on that plane. let's watch what he said. >> i know that flight. i've flown it many times myself. i lobbied american airlines to begin having a direct nonstop flight service to dca. that flight has been in existence

about a year, and it is certainly true that in kansas and in wichita in particular, we're going to know people who are on this flight, know their family members, know somebody. so this is a very personal circumstance. >> a very personal circumstance, he said. arlette, what are we learning at this point about who was on that plane? >> well, that's the big question going forward. there are many family members who had come here to reagan national airport, a different area of the airport where the airline had set up an area for them to come and try to get some answers. there's also set up a hotline for them to call in to. now. last night, d.c. mayor muriel bowser would not detail any of the specifics of who might have been recovered from the search and rescue operations that were underway, but we are learning some details overnight about some of the people who were on board the u.s. figure skating, the national governing body of

that sport, actually said that several members of the skating community were on that flight from wichita, kansas, here to reagan national airport. they had been participating in skating events in conjunction with the u.s. figure skating championship in kansas. russian state media has also said that two world champion russian figure skaters were also on board that plane. that's just a little bit of the picture of who was on this american airlines flight. so far, we know that there were 64 people aboard that passenger aircraft, and then three people aboard that army blackhawk helicopter. so we are still waiting to hear more details about who these people might be, who, whether there are any survivors and of course, what kind of answers their families are getting in this very tragic moment. >> all right. arlette saenz for us at ronald reagan national airport. arlette, thank you very much for that reporting. and coming up next here on cnn, we are going to speak live to a witness of that midair collision between a black hawk helicopter

with three on board and that american airlines commercial jet with 60 passengers and four crew aboard. we're also going to learn a little bit more about what we're hearing from the u.s. figure skating community, all that and more as we continue to cover this breaking news right here on cnn. >> welcome back. >> have i got news for you returns february 15th on cnn. >> unnecessary action heroes. >> missing. >> punches, unnecessary. >> check reversals, unnecessary time sheet corrections, unnecessary unanswered sick time. get paycom and make the unnecessary unnecessary. >> do you want a ding to your credit? i don't want a ding. so when i need a new credit card, i went to experian. see these cards with no ding decline. your credit won't take a ding if you're declined, so you can apply with confidence. get the experian app now. >> doping for hair with the

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free trial today at stamps.com. >> i'm david colbert in guatemala city, and this is cnn. >> closed captioning is brought to you by uqora. help maintain a healthy urinary tract with uqora. >> i've been having utis for ten years. at uqora, we make uti relief products. we also make proactive urinary tract health products. uqora is a lifesaver. try it today at uqora. com. >> welcome back to cnn's breaking news coverage. overnight we have been covering the collision between an american airlines commercial jet and a black hawk helicopter on a training mission, and there are nearly freezing temperatures here in washington, dc this morning. as you can see here and as search and rescue efforts are continuing. search still a

search and rescue effort at this hour. although we have been told here at cnn by officials that no survivors at this hour have been pulled from the water, and you may be able to see in this video why some of the conditions have been so difficult for these first responders. over 301st responders involved, because of the ice in the river. this is absolutely freezing. we should note the potomac river. oftentimes, the winters here in washington, d.c., relatively mild. that has not been the case this winter. and until just the last few days, much of the potomac was covered completely or almost completely in ice. we've had some warmer temperatures the past couple of days that start to break it up a little bit, but it really does underscore just how difficult the conditions were facing these first responders overnight. >> the conditions out there are extremely rough for the responders. it's cold. they're

dealing with. relatively windy conditions. the wind is hard out on the river. so they're out there working. we're keeping doing everything we can to keep them safe. >> all right. joining us now is cnn meteorologist derek van dam with more on this. and derek, these lights behind me are actually from some of the boats that are involved in this search and rescue operation. we're of course waiting to see when or if that becomes a search and recovery operation, as this does seem to be getting more grim. in the words of one official who talked to us by the hour. what have they been facing out there? >> well, there's. >> ice on the water. that just gives you an. >> indication of. >> how cold it's been. in fact, just last week, i was in d.c. covering the inauguration for the pure fact that it was so cold, welcoming in the president for his term. now, this is the conditions at the time of the crash, there were no visibility issues. however, you heard the

fire chief just a moment ago in that soundbite played directly before me that there were and continue to deal with some winds gusting around 25mph. and that indeed was the case when this plane crashed just shortly before 9 p.m. yesterday evening. so right now, temperatures 40 degrees, generally clear conditions. but look what's coming. a storm system that will impact the search and recovery efforts for tomorrow. let's get into some more specifics about the water temperature and what the rescue operation operators and personnel are having to contend with. here's a reagan national airport. there's the collision site. there's a weather sensor that we've been investigating the time of the crash. water temperatures were roughly 35 degrees. they maintain those temperatures. it is frigid cold. and unfortunately, when the human body is encountering those types of water temperatures, we're talking about survival rates here. a grim statistic 30 to 90 minutes for survival rate. with those types of water temperatures, air time

temperatures or air temperatures for the course of the day will warm into the middle 40s. and then the winds start to pick up ahead of our next storm system. casey. >> all right, derek van dam for us this morning. derek, thank you very much for that. all right. now let's turn to this. and ntsb go team. that's the kind of team that the national transportation safety board mobilizes in the wake of a tragic incident like this one has been launched to investigate just how this possibly could have happened. and our pete muntean, who, of course, covers aviation for us, walked through and explained how it is that the pilots of both of these aircraft may not have been able to see each other in the dark. let's watch. >> a midair collision like this is incredibly rare and really has not happened. involving a commercial flight in decades.

1978 was about the same time, and perhaps a grim piece of irony involving a psa flight. it's important to note, as we continue to hear about psa, this airline that was operating this flight on behalf of american airlines, that is a company that is owned wholly by american airlines, this is the flight path that you can see here. the yellow line is of the helicopter. this is the flight tracking data. the orange line is of that american airlines psa flight coming in to land on runway 33 at reagan national airport. this is a common and routine approach typically utilized by air traffic controllers to try and squeeze planes in a little bit faster. this is the image of the fireball that ensued of the helicopter coming right to left, toward the bright light there. that is, that psa american airlines flight and then smash. that is the midair collision and the parts falling to the icy potomac river below water temperature about 35 degrees

tonight. i've pointed this out a couple times prior, and i have a few models here to demonstrate just how hard it can be for a pilot of a pilots of a commercial airliner. two pilots in that airplane and the pilots of helicopters to see one another. the blind spot in a commercial airliner is really anything that the pilots are not focused on. when you're descending, you can't see super well below and in front of you. so it is said that pilots doing a typical approach in a commercial airliner. their their brains are lighting off with the same frequency as a doctor doing cardiovascular surgery. the blind spots in a helicopter. helicopter pilots typically are looking at the ground, and the altitude here was only at about 300ft. so you can see here as the collision sort of is ensuing. helicopter pilots aren't looking up a lot because of where the rotors are. the pilots are probably locked in on the runway in front of them, and you can see how this sort of disaster is in the making. so it is it is really so important to

underscore how infrequent mid-air collisions are, but how quickly the recipe, the bad recipe can can be concocted and, and disaster can take place. >> that was our pete muntean clearly explaining how something like this possibly could have happened. all right. coming up next here on cnn, we are expecting a news conference from officials here in washington, d.c. coming up in the next hour to try to learn more about this ongoing search and rescue effort. we're also going to speak live to a witness of that fiery crash, that midair collision between an american airlines commercial jet and a blackhawk blackhawk helicopter on a training mission. stay right here on stanton. >> when one. >> person dies, it's a tragedy. but when many, many, many people die, it's an unbearable sorrow. >> i want the folks back home to just know that we care, that we

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joining us. emergency crews are battling choppy waters and frigid temperatures. there is a massive search and rescue operation continuing this morning in the potomac river near washington, dc. we are here in alexandria, virginia, actually just across the river from washington. the boats involved in that search and rescue operation just behind us. of course, ronald reagan national airport, just off to the side here, because last night an american airlines jet. it was coming from wichita, kansas, colliding in mid-air with a military blackhawk helicopter just as that plane was trying to land at reagan national aircraft. both of those aircrafts, the plane and the helicopter crashing into the frigid water. >> crash, crash, crash. >> this is a layer three crash, crash, crash. this is a layer three. this is operations.

>> was at a little. >> uh, that is an affirmative. uh. llc or j. patricia janiot 33. >> the jet had 64 people on board. the helicopter was carrying three crew members. that military aircraft was taking part in a training flight. just as this commercial aircraft was landing at dca. a law enforcement source tells cnn that no survivors have been found yet, and we are, of course, expecting to hear more from officials coming up in less than an hour. now here. the american airlines ceo, he says he's going to travel here to dc to try and support his employees. >> i'd like. >> to express our deep sorrow. >> about these events. >> this is a difficult day for all of us at american airlines, and our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of our passengers, crew members, partners, first responders along with their families and loved

ones. we're cooperating fully with the national transportation safety board in its investigation, and will continue to provide all the information we can. our cooperation is without pause, and we want to learn everything we can about today's events. that work will take time, but anything we can do now, we're doing. and right now, that means focusing on taking care of all passengers and crew involved, as well as their families. >> and of course, you may be able to hear the helicopters overhead here involved in this operation. as we stand here. and it's still dark out, of course, but there is orange light on the horizon here. sunrise. officially. not until 7:16 a.m. this morning here in the washington, dc area, but you can see some of that light starting to hit the water. that, of course, is going to change the game for the search and recovery. search and rescue

effort. here again, we are waiting to hear is this still a recovery or a rescue effort? have they decided that this is instead a recovery effort? because of course, we do know that an official told cnn that this is becoming more grim as time has gone by and we have not. no survivors have yet been pulled from the frigid, icy water behind me here. let's bring in rene marsh, cnn correspondent, who has been covering this investigation for us. and, rene, i know you used to cover aviation for cnn as part of your regular assignment. what have we learned so far as this effort is underway? and what do we expect to hear from officials this morning? i think you bring up such a good point about sunrise, because remember, this all happened last night. 8:48 p.m. the cover of darkness. so this is really the first daylight that investigators will be able to kind of examine and see a full picture potential.

how big this debris field may be. pieces of potentially the wreckage all going to be critical in this investigation. and when we talk about who is involved here, we're seeing multiple agencies, the army department of defense, ntsb, the faa all launching their own investigations into all of this. and what's really going to be critical at this point is finding those black boxes. that is going to be a treasure trove of information for these investigators. i see we do have these live pictures here. it's hard to make out. are you able to see what that is? yeah. we just to give our viewers a little bit of a sense here. it's hard. it's a little bit hard for us to actually see what's live on our on our air as we are talking over it. but what you are looking at, it's a live shot from wjla. it's a local affiliate here in washington, d.c. what we were just looking at a second ago appeared to be some of the potential wreckage from the plane. we do know, we do

understand from our sources that the plane is in a number of pieces. and you and i standing here, we can see some of the the lights, the red lights that are coming from the boats that are doing this search out in the river. if to our my right, your right as well is actually the runway and what reagan national airport is on the side of the river that we're standing on, washington, dc. in the distance we can see the washington monument and the capitol. but renee, continue. >> yeah. >> i mean. >> and also, as you point out, the runway is right behind us, but this is busy and complicated airspace because you have military aircraft, you have police aircraft, and then you have commercial airliners all coming in, converging on this airspace. so again, back to the investigation and what they're going to want to learn on is what happened here. because there is equipment on board commercial airliners to essentially warn when an aircraft is too close and within

an unsafe distance. we also know from air traffic control audio that the pilots within that army black hawk helicopter gave verbal confirmation that they had eyes locked on this commercial airliner. they saw it. and we know that just 13 seconds later, that mid-air collision occurred and you actually hear an audible gasp from those air traffic controllers. so what happened within those seconds after the pilots of that army black hawk helicopter said that they saw the aircraft and and between that time and the actual crash, that is the key question for investigators. and i can't stress enough how just crucial and critical these black boxes will be in this investigation. we know that black boxes, obviously the the site of the crash is the potomac river. the good news is those boxes are designed to be water resistant, heat resistant, can endure high

temperatures. so the hope is they can retrieve them, take them to their labs for analysis. and then we start to get this tick tock of events. and it looks like there's more activity there. yeah, renee, i mean, i think that anyone can see we don't we don't want to speculate too much, but our viewers, of course, this is a live shot of the river and the rescue operations and what appears to be either a piece of a plane, a piece of a helicopter, perhaps the helicopter in the water. and again, you can start to see this, the light. you can see the light on the river that is coming from the sun. there's some bright artificial light kind of in the background. but again, this is the most that we have been able to see of the surface of the water since this happened in the 9 p.m. hour last night. as dawn is starting to break here in washington, d.c., we're just about 25 minutes or so from the actual sunrise here

in washington. renee, stand by for me for a second, because we do have with us this morning, an eyewitness to this collision, roy bessent. roy, if you're with me, thank you very much for spending some time with us this morning. this must have been a very difficult evening to have seen this unfold. and of course, so many families are just anxiously waiting for news of their loved ones now. but, roy, can you tell us what you saw last night? >> yes. >> i was standing on the rooftop of my building with some neighbors, and we have a direct sight going down to the airport so we can see everything clearly. we were just talking. next thing you know, i heard a loud explosion. i looked to the left, saw a big, just a big ball of fire, and then wreckage just falling down towards the river. and my neighbor hollered out, oh, my god, that's a plane! >> roy, can you give us a sense? not necessarily to exactly, but

are you on the virginia side of the river or the washington side of the river? how close approximately do you live to the airport? >> yes, i'm in arlington, crystal city, so i'm literally right next to the airport. >> yeah. so, roy, can you describe i mean, the video that we're seeing, i mean, it's one person we talked to described it like seeing a roman candle. another called it a fireball. i mean, what did you see? i heard you describe the sound. what did you see in the air? >> yes, definitely a fireball in the air. a fireball, and then wreckage just went straight down. um, again, it was dark outside, so the visibility, you know, was kind of hard to see. everything, you know, clear. but you definitely saw the fireball and wreckage going down to the river. >> have you ever seen anything like this before in your life? >> uh, not. not with an airplane. no, i haven't no.

>> um, can you talk a little bit about, since you live so close to the airport? one of the things we've been talking about this morning is just how many planes, how many aircraft there are in the airspace here in washington. i mean, i've lived here going on 20 years now, and i'm continually amazed by it. you must see so much of it living so close. >> yes. uh, we're on a rooftop all the time. so we see the planes taking off and landing daily. um, there's a lot of things going on. it's a busy area of the nation's capital. uh, we see the police helicopters, we see the military helicopters going back and forth to the bases. the pentagon and different areas. um, you also got coast guard helicopters. so it's a pretty busy airspace. >> yeah, it it really is quite remarkable. and, roy, just before i let you go here, can you describe how your friends and others that you were with

reacted when you you heard when you saw what happened last night yes. >> we were in shock. we were in shock. um, probably the last few months and over the summer, um, they actually had a couple of incidents where things were some near on collisions with planes. but, you know, you don't figure you never think it's going to actually happen. and not just happen, that you were going to witness it. so, um, we were just in shock. and i'm still in shock this morning areas where there are flashing lights. >> all right, roy best, i can't imagine. thank you very much for spending some time with us this morning as we continue to cover this breaking news. roy best, who saw this crash from the roof of his building here in the washington, dc area last night. and we do, of course, want to tell you what you're looking at right now. these are live pictures of the search and rescue efforts that are still underway at this hour for the 60 passengers and four crew members

that were aboard the american airlines flight, coming here to washington reagan national airport from wichita, kansas, collided this plane as it was trying to land with a blackhawk helicopter, an army helicopter flying out of fort belvoir with three crew members on board. those three crew members were on a training mission. we did hear the faa air traffic control speaking with the pilot of the helicopter just moments before this crash occurred, asking the pilot if he could see the airplane. the pilot saying yes questions this morning about whether he was looking at something else, looking at a different plane, a different light in the sky, because of course, just moments later, these aircraft colliding, both plunging into the potomac river. and this search, of course, has been ongoing just behind us here. and these pictures that you're seeing now are the first pictures with any daylight of what has been going on here. and we think we can see some of the

wreckage in parts of the river. over 301st responders came to this scene to try and rescue any of the people who were involved in this crash. and of course, officials from d.c. fire and ems talking about just how difficult the conditions have been for those first responders through the night, because, of course, the potomac river has been iced over almost entirely in recent days because of the arctic like temperatures that were here for the week. of course, you may remember last week for the inauguration here in washington just how cold it was. they had to move it inside. those temperatures have come up a little bit in the days since, but so much of that ice still on the river making these efforts just so difficult and complicated. and of course, at this time we are learning more about who was on that plane, as anyone who may if they're if they are learning, if people

have perished, families anxiously awaiting news and our christine brennan is here, she covers sports for us. and she's here because one of the things we do know is that the u.s. ice skating community, the u.s. teams, essentially the program that sends figure skaters to the olympics and other world class sporting competitions has been deeply impacted by this tragedy. christine, can you tell us a little bit more about what we're hearing from u.s. figure skating about this crash this morning yes, casey, this looks like it's a just having a devastating impact on the u.s. >> figure skating community. u.s. figure skating has said several of members of the community were on the plane. i am, of course, working with my sources. i've covered figure skating since 1988, and i talked to an olympic coach who told me she was just devastated. we don't yet have numbers, and of

course we're not going to give any names out at this point, but it looks appearance appears to look like coaches, young skaters, uh, family members. and it could be quite a large number. and for those who are wondering, you know, the u.s. nationals just happened over the weekend in wichita. um, and the skaters will see at the olympics in a year. the olympic games are in winter, winter of 2026, in italy, just a year from now. um, this would not have been those skaters. this is a developmental camp casey, that the skaters stayed after the nationals and the national championships ended on sunday, and then they were working with coaches and top skaters. so this is u.s. figure skating's future. this would be the young teenagers who we would expect to see bubble to the surface, rise up and compete moving forward, even to the 2030

winter olympic games. it is absolutely tragic what i'm hearing. uh, the community is devastated and figure skating. back in 1961, there was a plane crash that killed the entire world team heading to the world championships back in 6160. what, 64 years ago? and so figure skating and tragedies, um, especially air tragedies, are linked. that's such an important part of the u.s. figure skating community. even now. they have memorials. they talk about the 61 plane crash. i just can't get it out of my mind. how now this sport is dealing with another tragedy of this magnitude involving air travel. and again, the young, young kids, with their promise and their hopes and their dreams to represent the united states in international competition and the olympic games. those were those kids who stayed after the national championships in wichita so that they could get coaching and have camaraderie

with the others and work on their skills as they were going to move forward in this sport that they love so much. >> just absolutely devastating. i got chills when you say that this is this was the future of this program. christine brennan, thank you very much for bringing us that update this morning. although i'm very sorry to have heard that update. and again, here we are waiting on a news conference from washington, d.c. officials. it is expected at 7:30 a.m. this morning as we wait to hear the status of this. what has been a search and rescue operation throughout the night, but which we are waiting to find out at what point it may become a search and recovery operation. because, as you can see, they still are desperately searching the river. but at this hour we know that no survivors have been pulled from the frigid, icy potomac river. of course, now the sun coming up