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usa figure skating team confirming several athletes and coaches were onboard the airplane that crashed near reagan natioal overnight. there have been no survivors confirmed at this point. >> 60 passengers and four crew members and three soldiers on the military chopper. terrifying audio describing that crash as it happened. >> did you see that? all around. 3000. blackjack three, can you proceed, i need to to land, land immediately. can you go to dulles for a few minutes? can you go to baltimore? >> todd: massive search and rescue operation on the potomac river battling dangerous conditions as they desperately try to find any survivors. president trump has been briefed and agencies are working to

figure out how this happened. you are watching "fox and friends first," i'm todd piro. >> and i'm ashley strohmier. lucas, what do you have this morning? >> lucas: good morning. search and rescue efforts continue inside the potomac river. approximately 9:00 p.m. last night american airlines flight 342 collided with u.s. army black hawk helicopter as that plane was attempting to land on runway 33 at reagan natioal airport. it was a regional jet. 64 people onboard that jet, 60 passengers and four crew members. the u.s. army said there were three individuals, two pilots andic looly a crew chief aboard

the helicopter. the army said we can confirm the aircraft was army uh six from bravo company 12th aviation battalion out of davidson during a training flight. we are working with local officials and will provide additional information when it is available. this is located 14 miles south of here and flies vip's around the washington area. i am told no vip's were onboiar. there is an air corridor above 395, interstate 395, over the potomac river and the pentagon is on the other side. anxious family members are awaiting words. right now no report of survivors. water temperatures are near freezing. it was warmer day yesterday in the nation's capital, 60

degrees, we've seen arctic temperatures and there was ice on the potomac a few days ago. usa figure skating team says some members were on board, here is a statement, u.s. figure skating can confirm several members were sadly aboard flight 5432, which collided with the helicopter yesterday evening in washington, d.c. athletes, coaches and family members were returning from wichita, kansas. we are devastated and hold victims families closely in our hearts. we'll monitor the situation and release more information as it becomes available. new transportation secretary sean duffy had just been confirmed on tuesday and he spoke earlier and what fox just learned moments ago, on a different american airlines flight, former dhs secretary

alejandro mayorkas was on a flight coming from new york's laguardia airport. that plane turned around 20 minutes before landing and mayorkas and member of his team were seen exiting that irka. that is what we know from outside reagan national airport. right now no reports of any survivors. 64 people aboard, three army soldiers aboard the black hawk. >> todd: lucas, based upon your significant years covering military, when you hear the word training, does that mean routine training for people well versed in this type of activity just keeping their skills up? or are they training a newbie, for lack of a better word, that

has never done this before like new driver training? is it very experienced person or not experienced person? >> lucas: likely the former. any time u.s. military conducting flight operations, they call it a training flight. it is not clear who was piloting the black hawk or the experience onboard. any time u.s. military aircraft is flying, they will call that a training flight. to go back to the air corridor. i live a mile and a half away from reagan national airport and it is very routine, for people watching, to see black hawk helicopters and other military aircraft flying overhead, typically there are air corridors above 395, helicopters flying from fort belfore. that appears to be where this

helicopter was coming from. army helicopter flying south and american airlines flight landing on 33, which corresponds with the compass, 330 runway. having been on a plane landing at reagan, that plane would have been banking left, coming from south flying north banking over maryland to land on that runway. those pilots would have been focused on landing their aircraft and straightening out to land on the runway. it appears this was a tragedy. it is uncertain why the black hawk helicopter did not see the american flight. landing lights should have been engaged on nose of aircraft, it wouldn't be flying dark with standard running lights red and green. it is not clear right now, any time u.s. military flies

aircraft they call it a training flight. to set the scene, the pentagon is located just outside of reagan national airport. it is not uncommon to have multiple black hawks land at the pentagon to take officials around this region for different reasons, meetings and what have you. fort bellforetypically flies vip's. pilots keep up certifications, certain amount of hours per month. >> ashley: why would they be doing a training in such a congested air space in this is a busy area, they could have gone anywhere else. >> jonathan: good point, ashley. this is what the u.s. military does. reason it is congestion, u.s. military are flying aircraft around here, not just civilian

aircraft taking off from reagan national airport, military and park police, marine one fly up routinely, not just to fly president trump, they do routine training flights. they have been testing vh-92, this black hawk is different than uh-60. this is restricted air space, there is going to be u.s. military helicopters flying temperature is restricted air space. besides civilian flights landing at reagan, military aircraft are doing business of u.s. military and pentagon is home to 20,000 people, heartbeat of u.s. military, center of power, where new defense secretary pete hegseth is and chairman joint chief of staffs and all brass at the pentagon routinely flying around attending various meetings. cia is in northern virginia,

white house, there is fort belfore. a lot of activity around here. think about driving in a are ca, how many near collisions have we been in on the road. the sky is a big sky, you think a black hawk helicopter would look and see incoming airliner. if you're pilot of that civilian airliner, you're focused on landing thatten pla. that plane was seconds from landing at reagan on final. this runway is going from southeast to northwest, that plane is banking over maryland and focused on landing. if you're a helicopter, you would think pilots would see commercial airliner landing with bright lights and light above landing gear engaged and it would be very big, not flying in the dark. the black hawk would have running lights, red and green on

left and right side of the aircraft. in terms of the airliner, pilots are focused on landing and black hawk tasked with avoiding that airliner. everything is visual, both helicopter and airliner talking to the tower at reagan. everything is visual at that moment of flight. >> todd: likely resuscitates argument that reagan should have been closed following 9/11 because of so much air traffic. it is extremely convenient in comparison to dulles for people in the d.c. area. that said, an incident like this happening a few hours ago will certainly raise the topic once again. i want to talk about the response you are seeing right now. if you listen to fox's coverage throughout the night, as each hour passed by, all reporters on scene from chad pergram to mark

meredith communicated the fact that the activity was growing less and less, you heard fewer sirens, saw fewer responders on scene. paint a picture for us right now, how active is the scene? again, takeaway, the conclusion we might make from this is that if there is limited activity that does not bode well for finding survivors. >> jonathan: that is right. driving in this morning, all roads are blocked going into reagan national airport and i expect to see a few more sirens and lights, search and rescue activities behind me. perhaps you can push in a little bit. it is earily quiet, the potomac is still. it is still nighttime. you can see the washington monument panning to the north

here. you see some search and rescue efforts from 14 th street bridg, lights there, the capitol to the north, washington monument, it is quiet, we do not see anybody in the water. we hear a helicopter orbiting overhead at 3 to 400 feet. we are not seeing activity inside the river here. certainly around the crash site, there will be people there. it is eerily quiet. water temperatures are near freezing, todd, and no report of survivors right not not expecting good news out of the crash. >> ashley: unfortunately not. when i started watching on hannity, the response was exact same live shot and there was a much bigger response, especially

at 9:30 or 10:00 last night. for whatever that means, i hope there are survivors, we have not had word of that yet. thank you. now we're going to bring in national security and military analyst dr. rebecca grant. thank you for getting up to talk about this. the biggest question, how in the world does something like this happen in 2025 and what is supposed to be one of the safest areas and most monitored areas in the united states? is this the military fault, air traffic controllers fault, what are your thoughts on this? >> it is heart wrenching. my first thought is a few feet either way, few seconds difference in the two flight paths and it does not happen. instead, we have thissige tra. it is highly controlled air

space, helicopters there all the t time. i've seen 22 ospreys there. approach to reagan national is unique and different. planes come down toward south flying down the river, twisting through seeing the monuments and the pentagon or last night, they are landing to north. too early to say, it is hard to speculate. i think one possible scenario is these two aircrafts simply did not see each other. how can that happen if you have rj, airliner descending? pilots are focused on the runway, checking air speed and altitude at all times. there are blind spots if an aircraft is descending over top of a helicopter, that airliner will not see it. equally with the black hawk, hard to believe, there are blind spots there, as well. if they are coming up, i have

heard they were 400 feet, that could be off 50 feet either way. if they are coming up, that is one possible scenario. one thing for sure and morning light will show this, the data is there and will be studied. it will take time, we will have answers. i think we may see procedures change around the airport and big question to me as others have pointed out is was the helicopter on the same local radio frequency with the airliner? in the past that was sometimes not the case around reagan, that is the big question, were aircraft in radio contact with one another or on the same frequencies? >> todd: dr. grant, let's focus on number of eyeballs on the helicopter. the black hawk uh 60 can carry double digit personnel onboard from 11 to 14 to upward of 20 in certain circumstances.

it is normal for it to only fly with three? >> well, i have flown on a black hawk, it is amazing what you can put on the aircraft. it is a fantastic aircraft in service with 23 different countries, more than 5000 have been made. in this case, it is a training flight. we don't know details, we know it was army helicopter from fort belfore. if they needed to do a training qualification flight to refresh qualifications in night operations, any number of possibilities, another thing you see a lot in national capitol region. you will see air force tankers or even air force one flying low around maryland area as pilots refresh and do routine training. it sounds to me likely scenario this was routine training and this was, normal to have the

pilot, co-pilot and crew chief aboard that mission. >> ashley: you talk fw if they were on the same frequency, do you think that has anything to do with no response. at first -- obviously there is more in this investigation, as to why they did not respond to air traffic control. >> again, hard to say. as we know with military aircraft around the national capitol region, a lot of restrictions and procedure and protocols could have affected in the end ability of that helicopter to be aware of airliner and vice versa. there is part that just doesn't add up, which is why it is so tragic. this is a really routine flight path i'm sure for both. i'm sure the black hawk crew was

familiar with the region, so how does this terrible misfortune take place? you are right, there are so many helicopters in this air space that it is not surprising in a way it takes a moment to realize what is going on and don't forget coast guard flies here, even along other side of the river, there are -- you can drive down the freeway and see a number of different helicopters parked there, navy, park police, co coast guard, highly traveled area. >> todd: there are conflicting reports whether this helicopter did or did not communicate with the tower. could have been on a different frequency. so many questions. dr. grant, thank you for your time on this tragic morning, we appreciate it. we have breaking news coverage all morning long as crews frantically search for survivors. >> ashley: next we'll ask a doctor how someone could survive

this horrific incident.

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that we're building devices for. here in the comcast family, we're building an integrated in-home wifi solution for millions of families like my own. in the average household, there are dozens of connected devices. connectivity is a big part of my boys' lives. it brings people together in meaningful ways. >> ashley: a fox news alert. trump administration including new transportation secretary sean duffy is responding to the plane crash involving army helicopter at the nation's capitol last night.

>> todd: madeleine rivera joins us. >> madeleine: transportation secretary sean duffy is dealing with first major crisis 24 hours after he was sworn in. he's directed federal agencies like u.s. department of transportation and faa to help the safety board with the investigation. here he is speaking overnight about the response. >> i spoke with president trump and his team in the situation room, had a conversation with secretary pete hegseth and with kansas delegation and mayor and others in leadership, as well as governor youngkin from virginia and governor kelly from kansas. >> madeleine: kristi noem is pledging resources and says we are deploying every coast guard resource for search and rescue efforts at d.c. a. we are actively monitoring the situation and stand ready to support local responders.

praying for the victims and first responders. there is widespread shock from kansas state and city officials, as well. >> hard when you lose probably over 60 kansans and pilots and flight attendants and military personnel, all the lives are valuable, it is such a tragedy. >> madeleine: this morning we did learn several members of the u.s. figure skating community were on the flight, including athletes, coaches, and family members. passengers were heading home, it is unclear what final destinations were. we are expecting another briefing from officials and first responders in a few hours, 7:30 a.m. eastern time. >> todd: you saw senator roger mar

marshall. jerry moran was talking about how he lobbied american airlines for this particular flight, a flight he's taken multiple times. you can imagine his heartbreak knowing this is a flight he brought to the capitol for people of kansas. >> ashley: a flight that has been going for about a year, has to be heartbreaking. >> todd: thank you. over 300 first responders are involved, they are dealing with ice and freezing temperatures in the potomac. a doctor joins us now. dr. humatti, focus on likely victims first. it is now in the eighth hour approaching, what are the chances anyone is alive after this crash with water temperatures in the 30s? >> yeah, todd, thanks for having me on. i have to say, it is

heartbreaking to think what is happening to all victims of this enormous tragedy and one thing we know is that the human body can withstand temperatures in the 30s for 15 to 20 minutes before hypothermia sets in. people can still survive, but once you have been in it for a matter of hours, it becomes difficult. add traumatic events that occur, explosion and the fall and when you hit water, it is like hitting concrete. all that put together makes it very difficult to survive and seeing pictures of wreckage for the first time makes iter cloo, i don't think there was very in tact fuselage able to float in the water like we were initially hoping it would. >> todd: what is likelihood anyone survived that fall once collision occurred in midair?

you heard reports 200 to 400 feet. 200 is still pretty high up, doctor. >> you know, what is interesting, about 20 years ago, when i was learning trauma surgery at harvard ucla, not far from where i am now. we treated a helicopter pilot that crashed in catalina island. we all assumed he would be dead by time he arrived, he had a broken jaw and broken ribs but otherwise survived. it is possible, there have been many examples like that. another one where i had a very good friend who perished and rest of his family survived crashing in the water in a helicopter. these examples exist. however, longer you get from time of the incident, less likely somebody survived. at this point, if anyone had

survived, they would have been able to swim out. looks like the fuselage is -- it may be a grim situation. >> todd: you don't want to make a bad situation worse under these circumstances, especially if the outcome is as we expect. you don't want to keep first responders out there and endanger their safety if there is not likely to be a positive outcome. dr. hemmati, thank you, we appreciate it. a major pilot union is sending a team to the crash site to help officials figure out how this could have happened. >> ashley: american airlines pilot is here to react to the crash next.

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>> ashley: hundreds of first responders searching the potomac river after army helicopter crashed into a jet overnight sending both aircraft into the water below. >> todd: lucas tomlinson is live near the scene of the crash. lucas. >> lucas: good morning. we are awaiting another press conference 7:30 a.m. this morning. approximately 9 p.m. american airlines plane flying from wichita, kansas, on reagan national airport collided with a black hawk helicopter flying south along the potomac river. american airlines flight was about to land on runway 33, had 64 people aboard,three u.s.

pilot on the helicopter. this regional jet, 64 people onboard, 60 passengers, four crew, collision over the potomac river behind me. u.s. army saying we can confirm the aircraft involved was an army uh- 60 black hawk from bravo battalion out of davison army air field fort belvoir during a training flight. we are working with officials and will provide additional information when available. fort belvoir unit flies vip's and army brass around washington region. i'm told there were no vip's aboard the army black hawk, it was two pilots and likely a crew chief. black hawks are a frequent sight. there is air car door above the potomac river where helicopters

fly. the pentagon is located just on the other side of the potomac on the other side of reagan international airplane. black hawks land there and fly around this region. right now, there are anxious family members awaiting word. there are no reports of survivors. water temperatures in the potomac are near freezing. yesterday was a warmer day, about 60 degrees, this region has seen arctic temperatures as we saw on inauguration day. potomac had sheets of ice covering it a few days ago and water temperature is near freezing. in a state from u.s. figure skatingy we are told there are members of u.s. figure skating aboard fly 5342. u.s. figure skating can confirm several members were aboard

flight 5342 which collided with the helicopter yesterday in washington, d.c. athletes, coachings and family members were returning home from camp held in conjunction with u.s. figure skating championship in wichita, kansas. we are devastated by this tragedy and hold the victims families closely to our hearts, we'll monitor the situation and release more information as becomes available. new transportation secretary, sean duffy, had just been sworn in on tuesday, had toured his new building. transportation department in washington, d.c. and southwest by national park, he was at a press conference earlier. right now, there are no sign of any survivors, guys. >> todd: thank you. american airlines now has a hot line for those onboard and airline pilot association is sending team to assist probe of

the crash. >> ashley: an american artificial intelligences pilot that just returned last night joins me now. thank you for talking about this. having just come from the airport, i know everyone says flying is safest form of transportation, is this ever anything you worry about as a pilot? >> well, first off, our thoughts and prayers with the passengers, the crew members, the three military crew members and their families go out. and to the first responders risking life and limb to rescue and/or recover in this incident this terrible tragedy. is it something we look for? it is something that we are trained to do, be aware of threats out there. we don't know exactly what happened in this, we are getting more information. ntsb and faa investigate. big picture as secretary duffy

stated and president trump said we have to prevent this happening again, they are looking forward. this time, we will settle in and take on the grief and do all we can to support those impacted by this. it goes far and wide, our union flies main line american airlines, union sent a note to members if they need assistance because this hit close to home. it is human event, we'll get to the technicalities and make sure it never happens again. >> todd: horrible. putting yourself in mindset of the pilot. there are reports the helicopter said it did see the plane. is it possible the helicopter pilot was referring to a different plane than the one it crashed with? >> we don't know all the details and don't want to speculate.

i can tell you coming into reagan national, it is a compact, very crowded air space and it is made further complicated by the fact we have prohibited areas we can't fly through to protect the nation's capitol. that brought together with traffic, it happened at night, there are lights, you don't have to be a pilot to realize it is difficult to see at night. lights, when you look toward the ground, if you are above or laterally, it is difficult to pick up an aircraft, even with the beacon. what the crews all saw hopefully will be able to determine, but the bottom line is that we have to focus on the immediate here. i can tell you every pilot out there is thinking, all right, how did this happen and how do i make sure it does not happen on my aircraft. >> ashley: this flight has been in existence for a year.

in 2023, the question was brought up, is this airport at capacity? do you think this will change what goes on from here on out? >> we'll find out. yes, dca is slot control, amount of aircraft, this is not news, not related to this tragedy today. we've seen air traffic controllers testify just how overworked they are, shifts they go on, i couldn't fly an airplane with that type of schedule, let alone they are controlling aircraft. it is symphony, we have to have everybody on their a game at all times and dca, and other air space, it is evermore important. we'll eventually find out what happened, again, we've got to not rush to find out what the mystery is of how this occurred and give it the respect it

deserves and that is to take a moment and more than a moment and rededicate ourselves to people who need us most and it is those impacted by this terrible event. >> ashley: 64 people on the plane and three military personnel on that helicopter and all their families and friends, this impacts a lot of people. thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you. >> ashley: we'll bring in initial association of firefighters president edward kelly. thank you for getting up with us this morning. todd and i were talking with lucas tomlinson and when you watch this live shot you are seeing on the screen right now, we had the same shot last night 11:30, there is significantly fewer amount of responders on the scene, is that any indication this is turning from a rescue mission to a recovery

soon? >> yeah, i don't know if the incident commanders on scene have declared that yet, but obviously in a position where we know that there is very difficult extracations that need to take place. they have some of the victims of the crash are still in the fuselage of the plane. the search and rescue efforts were monumental, extremely dangerous, with the sediment of the river being kicked up, diving in the dark and middle of the night, sharp, jagged edges and confined spaces, so it is extremely dangerous dive and rescue operation. but i do think at this point we're far more likely to see recovery than rescue, unfortunately. but we know that it is just as

important for us to be able to deliver solace to loved ones and those lost as to try to affect rescue. >> ashley: you can only train, i know they train firefighters and first responders all the time, i feel you can only train for it so many times until you are put in the real situation, under the circumstances with cold temperatures knowing there are 70 people in freezing cold water begging you and their families are begging you to rescue their loved one. what kind of stress does that put on these first responders? i can only imagine. >> it is extremely high stress situation, but as you mention, we train for this. this is what we prepare for and have firefighters from counties and dive teams and metro washington airport th

authority firefighters are assisting. we have been in contact with secretary kristi noem and full resources are engaged and coast guard is assisting, as well. multi agency response from all levels, federal, state and local. it is certainly stressful, but we want to make sure that we're doing everything we can to help these people and their families and we're going to remain on scene and do everything we need to do to deliver those people home to their loved ones. >> ashley: you'll stay on the scene and do what you can to help and rescue or recovery, whatever it turns into, we hope and pray there would be survivors, you never know, we are coming up on eight hours from this happening and with temperatures, it is not looking good, you can only hope and pray

to god there will be something beneficial coming out of this. >> it would take an act of god at this point for us to find survivors. >> ashley: it really would, thank you, edward kelly, i appreciate it. army confirmed three service members were onboard black hawk helicopter that collided into american airlines flight. a former army special services soldier will tell us how this could have happened on a training flight. stay with us.

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powering five years of savings. powering possibilities. comcast business. >> todd: army confirmed three servicemembers were on board the black hawk helicopter that collided into an american airlines flight. no word on their condition, however, it does not look good. jim hanson joins us now. jim, quickly describe what the response in the area was like following the crash, living so close to it? >> it was shocking. the thing about d.c., it's a company town, government is a business. when there is disaster, everyone goes to worst case scenario, terrorism or anything like that. this does not appear to have any terrorism implication, but it

shut down major artery, reagan and all roads around it. it is a shock. >> todd: as somebody with army background, do you wonder why there are army missions this close to an airport or is this customary? >> it appears this mission might have been to practice flying vip's and others in this crowded traffic pattern. they would have been working on procedure and mission profile that let's them deal with the fact there is a lot of air traffic, there is a narrow corridor, there are no fly zones for the pentagon for white house and capitol and everything else. it would not be surprising to be happening. they do generally have a great idea where everyone is supposed to be and it seems some point, that was lost last night. >> todd: 45 seconds left with you. is this a situation where locals like yourself have been warning

this could happen. there was talk about shutting down reagan following 9/11. your thoughts, jim? >> they did talk about shutting it down, more from terrorist threat perspective than inability to control air traffic and there has not been another incident like this and timing of it, look at 9:00 at night, not the highest traffic part of the evening, there were smaller number of flights than the rest of the day. if they do shut it down, that will impact way people get in and out of the city. it is 45 minutes to dulles. >> todd: jim hanson, thank you, we appreciate it. breaking news coverage continues next. oubreaking news coverage continues next. rbreaking news c continues next. breaking news c continues next.

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insurance. >> todd: fox news alert. hundreds of first responders desperately searching