airport. that's the end of the runway at reagan national airport. staging boats and other craft to go, i guess, across the river and elsewhere. but we do 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

that's called the mount vernon approach into reagan national airport, landing on runway one at reaganational airport, which is to the north. that's the busiest single runway in the national airspace system. a lot of folks still finding out about this. we have calls out to the federal aviation administration, the national transportation safety board, american airlines and beyond. right now, we're just getting very early preliminary information from the metropolitan washington airports authority itself, which operates reagan national airport. they say there is an incident at the airport right now, but things are still developing all the time, and we're trying to figure out exactly what the circumstances were here. if this was a crash of a commercial airliner. that has not happened in the united states in about 15 years. the last major crash of a commercial airliner in the u.s. was the colgan air crash of 2009, left an indelible mark on on aviation, left sweeping regulatory changes that are still being dealt with in aviation to this day. it is a really, really, really busy slice of airsp

so all of these military installations and the commercial, an extremely busy commercial airport there, reagan national airport, are all right there together now. it is also an extremely restricted airspace, meaning that aircraft that are flying in there are very well monitored. it is not you. you do not see breaches of this without a major response. so again, at this point, we have no indication that this is anything outside of normal air operations and flying in this again, extremely congested airspace and congested area. >> stephanie courtney, i want to share with our audience a statement we got just a few minutes ago from president trump. quote, i have been fully briefed on the terrible accident which took place at reagan national airport. may god bless their souls. thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders. i'm monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise. has the pentagon put out an official statement yet? >> literally, stephanie, as you were reading that and i apologize, i'm going to look down and read this. we just got an on the record

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

rescue effort underway piecing together what's going on and there's so many cameras out here at reagan airport it's a beautiful airport because they have a web camera set up and local media using it for weather reports. it would not surprise me whether there were multiple vehicles coming in and approaching from the south near the national harbor area and a typical approach pattern and from the videos i am seeing there's an indication the aircraft was taking off. and it's happening at the same time it happened just before 9:00 p.m. or around an hour and a half ago. >> trace: mark meredith standby if you will we'll get back to you as the news warrants. this is what we're seeing with an and all hands on deck rescue effort with boats in the water and there were reports as mark was saying there is a potential of a possibility of some survivors and maybe more have been pulled out of the water there. and we don't know if that's accurate but it's a report that we are conveying to you but we don't know if it's accurate and if it is accurate we do not know the condition of those they pulled out or are p

you've got reagan national airport right there. that's the end of the runway at reagan national airport. you can see the flashing lights there. that's one staging area. there's another one over to the north where you see a lot of blue and red flashing lights there. i don't know whether that's across the river in d.c. or maybe at reagan, but then you've got the boats over here. we believe that's where the concentrated rescue effort is going on. and then over to the right, to the south, joint base anacostia-bolling. it is a huge staging area with assets deployed all over this river at this point. and again, they're working against conditions, cold, poor visibility. >> and adding to the tragedy, the proximity of where they are looking for this aircraft and the rescue mission close to the runway at the airport, close to where the destination would have resulted in a safe landing. and we know the tragedy that has occurred. we've got gabe cohen, who is back in the airport with some new reporting. gabe, what have you learned? >> sir? excus

reagan national airport is shut down because of this emergency. al airport. these things are in very close proximity. but as you see here, there's a huge police fire, ems response. we're told that police fire boats are are part of this operation, but they are they are trying to rescue people out of the potomac. as far as we understand it right now, we have nbc news's tom costello on the phone now, nbc news senior correspondent tom costello. tom, has anything i just said gotten? has the reporting gotten any further beyond what i just said? and is anything that i said inaccurate? >> no. you're absolutely 100%. >> accurate. >> at least as of this moment. no surprise. reagan airport is now shut. >> down as we are dealing with a major emergency. >> here, right on. >> the potomac at reagan national airport. as you mentioned, this is apparently a regional jet coming in from wichita, and a regional jet can carry anywhere from 50 to 100 people, depending on how crowded it is, how busy it is. and then a black hawk helicopter. and anybody who's been to reagan

the plane was headed to reagan national airport in washington, dc from wichita, kansas. a ground stop is now in full effect. inbound flights and outgoing flights into reagan national. senator jerry moran from kansas posted this just just a few minutes ago on twitter. quote, learning that a plane inbound from kansas was involved in a crash at dca. that's reagan national. i am in contact with authorities. again, an apparent collision in the air at reagan national airport. this is just a couple o miles from the white house, one of the primary airports into the washington, dc area. let's bring in retired american airlines pilot and aviation expert doug rice. doug, nice to have your expertise here with us tonight. let's just start with the location of reagan national. i know it's near the white house, but this is one of the airports in that area, correct? that's correct. reagan national is located along the banks of the potomac, on the west side of the river, opposite from the lincoln memorial and the kennedy center. okay. i know you're tracking this as we are here in the news

>> i sure moments ago we have learned that the ffa has issued a ground stop for reagan airport until at least 5:00 a.m., there is no aircraft that were leaving out of this airport in the middle of the night, that is the indication here that there can be a ripple effect from this crash not only for those people who were on board vote for anybody that is trying to get into d.c. or out of d.c. tomorrow. as you mention moments ago american airlines on behalf of their regional carrier put out their first formal statement about this crash confirming there was 60 passengers on board to see rj 700 as well as four crew, believed to be two pilots and two members of the cabin crew, they've also set up a 1-800 number so families that are looking for information, maybe either on the kansas side or here, that number reading here 1-800-679-8215, that is the number for american airlines if you are trying to get information about the specific flight. you were asking moments ago about the search and rescue effort underway, we are here on the virginia side just south of the runway here, and the indicati

reagan national airport.ere is what we know. 06 passengers and four crew members on board the passenger cigarette wichita. three soldiers on the black hawk which was on a training flight from fort bell car. as of now, despite earlier reports. there are no signs of survivors. >> ainsley: the mid-air collision happened as the plane was approaching the runway just before 9:00 last night. it was caught on camera. we have a warning the footage of this crash that we are about to show you is very hard to watch. >> brian: the plane is circled in red. after a few moments, you can clearly see the mid-air explosion. we learned passengers on the flight had just left the u.s. figure skating championships in kansas. u.s. figure skating saying this, quote: we are devastated by unspeakable tragedy and hold the victim's families closely in our hearts. >> this is what we know. president trump has been fully briefed on the situation. saying may god bless the victims' souls and in roughly an hour and a half, d.c. mayor, muriel b

we are, you know, just less than a mile from the pentagon at reagan national airport. ry aircraft are going in and out of the pentagon all day. you have coast guard helicopters that are based at reagan national airport, and they are, you know, bringing vips all over the national capital region. you don't see many private aircraft in the dca airport airspace, because it is because it is the most restricted airspace in the entire country. and this is a heavily congested airport. reagan national has the busiest runway in the country. there are planes one after another. these are highly trained air traffic controllers that handle this congested airspace. this is going to reverberate throughout the industry. we have been in the safest period in aviation history in the united states ever. and now that ended tonight. >> sam sweeney from our bureau in washington. sam, thank you so very much. we know this will be a long night for you and our colleagues there. thank you. >> thank you. >> when we come back, the latest on the crash outside washington. on the crash outside washingto

more evidence of air traffic in and around reagan airport. the planes that come into runway 33, planes that come into runway 33 generally must fly between 400 0 and 500 feet off the ground. helicopter traffic must be usually below 200 feet. i just talked to john cox about this a short time ago, our aviation analyst, a veteran pilot who has come into reagan airport many times and he makes the point it's not unusual to have a chopper below you as you are coming in or going out. now they're supposed to stay below 200 feet. you are at 400 and 500 feet until you make your final landing at runway 33. this is a choreographed ballet that they do every day and have done for many many years. as you know we have reported over the course of the years a potential close calls but those have been between planes, rarely do we hear about a close call involving a chopper. this is a very busy airspace, very congested and made more comp located because of course planes cannot fly over washington d.c. and essentially they come in and approach the runway up and do

we are hearing to land at flight supposed to land at airport are now reagan national airport are nowlfiifijfiéilfi firét filféfiffgg mitee 7 we are the away we are hearing the dc metro washington. dc metro system stay open late to will stay open late to run extra trains to transport any will stay open late to run extra trains disembarking ny will stay open late to run extra trains disembarking into 7t7h7at777777 77 7th7ati7s77777 77 7t7hati7s7acc7o7rdi7ng washington. that is according to the transport general manager, the transom system is sending warming buses to the rescue seen for those working in the cold, some of the in the eeter eeme'ef'the” ' ways in which they interesting ways in which they moving as interesting ways in which they as ring as interesting ways in which they as trying as interesting ways in which they as trying to as interesting ways in which they as trying to accommodate well as trying to accommodate the very extensive search and operation you can see rescue operation you can see there. we are hearing about warming buses sent to the warming busestueingsent to the so t

tower and reagan airport tower and reagan airport radar. 0nce airport tower and reagan airport radarhis together a little bit more. having looked at flight path, having tracked where the black hawk was going and having looked at what the aircraft movement was just prior to the collision, i think that starts to give us some pieces of the jigsaw and i think there is a slide we can look at which is a graphic to help me explain this a little bit. ~ . help me explain this a little bit. . . ., ., ~ help me explain this a little bit. ~ . . . bit. we are looking at that imminently, _ bit. we are looking at that imminently, there - bit. we are looking at that imminently, there we - bit. we are looking at that imminently, there we go, | bit. we are looking at that i imminently, there we go, we bit. we are looking at that - imminently, there we go, we are looking at it now.— looking at it now. great, this is a really — looking at it now. great, this is a really good _ looking at it now. great, this is a really good graphic - looking at it now. great, this is a really good graphic to i looking a

combine those jobs adequate staffing to run the airport safely, but in this case, you had one controller doing two jobs. >> maurice: okay, kris van cleave at reaganl airport tonight, thank you. >> john: black hawk helicopters are a common sight in the sky along the potomac. >> maurice: they are billed by sikorsky in connecticut, and charlie d'agata at the pentagon tells us they have been a workhorse for the army for almost 50 years. >> reporter: the black hawk was on a training flight, a mission similar to those flown every day by army helicopters in the tight air corridors around the nation's capital. >> no excuses, we are going to get to the bottom of this. >> reporter: defense secretary pete hegseth said there was nothing unusual about the flight, which took off from nearby fort belvoir. >> routine annual retraining, of night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity of government mission. the military does dangerous things. it does routine things on the regular basis. tragically, last night, a mistake was made. >> reporter: the pilot, copilot, and crew chief, ryan o'hara, who leaves behind a wife and a 1-year-old son, were killed. the a

reagan airport is off towards the south.iver flows right through there, and the potomac river is right next to the reagan airport. and what we're hearing from our sister station in washington, d.c, is a lot of the debris is on the eastern side of the potomac river, where temperatures right now are5 degrees. you'd maybe be able to survive that if you're in that water for half an hour or less. but of course, that search and rescue effort continues right now. currently, 43 degrees winds out of the south 5 to 10mph gusts tonight. tomorrow we're looking at 44. so a very, very tragic situation out here. raj. and that water temperature again only 35 right now that is ominous for people in the thank you jeff, for people in the d.c. area and here at home, this crash triggers memories of previous plane crashes. back in 1982, air florida flight 90 slammed into the 14th street bridge over the potomac river just moments after takeoff. the cae of that crash? too much ice on the wings. 78 people were killed. tonight's crash marks the first

a plane has crashed near reagan national airport in washington, d.c., bringing flights to a halt. these are live pictures as it's happening now. the faa is now saying it was a passenger jet that collided midair with a helicopter while landing. so all flights at reagan national are under a ground stop as emergency crews respond and work to find victims of the plane. we want to show you this screen shot from flightradar24. this shows reagan national airport and you should see actually a busy screen with planes lining up to land. you can see a few there. they're trying to take off as well. instead, no planes on the runway as we speak. what you do see are helicopters circling near the crash scene, one from the u.s. park police, part of the emergency response. let's get back to live pictures. you can see emergency personnel, video from an observation camera at the nearby kennedy center showing two sets of lights consistent with aircraft appearing to join in a fireball. again, emergency crews, including fireboats, are responding right now. we will keep following this and bring you any u

reagan national airport there. reagan national airport in washington, d.c., wi excitedg with the comcast business 5-year price lock guarantee. five years? -five years. and he's not alone. -high five. it's five years of reliable gig speed internet. five years of advanced securit. five years of a great rate that won't change. it's back. but only for a limited time. high five. five years? -nope. comcast business 5-year price lock guarantee. powering five years of savings. powering possibilities. comcast business. ♪♪ ♪♪ dreams begin here. welcome to the goodnight club. >> some 14 right now and we want to give you the very latest about the mid-air collision that has killed 67 people over reagan national airport. it was between an american airlines passenger jet and an army black hawk helicopter. they collided in the dark. >> neither apparently having time or notice. we don't know what they're investigating, how they wound up. >> crashing into the same flight path. but now you can see they are pulling bodies from the poto

is the pentagon, reagan airport is the pentagon, a lot of transit helicopter so, you can see a the river and so. you can see a co—ordinated good co—ordinated effort between traffic control and the that all the traffic that surrounded airport. all the traffic that surrounded airort. . �* all the traffic that surrounded airort. ., �* , 215" .;;":: e 215" .;;":: h m received a statement from president trump, i will read that, he said, i've been on the 7 on the terrible 7 briefed on the terrible accident which tookjust briefed on the terrible accident which took just took at reagan national place at reagan national airport, may god bless our souls, thank you for the work being done by incredible work being done by our first incredible work being done by ourfirst responders, i am monitoring the situation and provide details as they provide more details as they arise, the statement from trump that brief7ed7on the just 7777 7 77 7 at just at reagan just at reagan national maybless 7 7 7777n71a7y7 7777b7les7s7t7hose7 airport, may god bless those souls. and incredible

when i was still in high school, but 1982, an air florida crash here in washington came off of reagan airport, at the time known as national airport, and hit the bridge in the winter. it was just loaded down with ice. 74 people died in that crash. since then, this has been a relatively safe airport, but we have had problems with very close calls between planes. that has been the focus of faa investigations and ntsb investigations, trying to determine if there's any sort of an issue with air traffic control. but as for what happened tonight, all we know is confirmation that we do have a regional plane and a military military helicopter that hit each other over the potomac river. both aircraft in the water. >> tom, i want to go back over the most important thing you said in all of that, and that is that local reporting that four people have been pulled from the water. >> yeah, that is the initial reporting that our affiliate here in washington has, and i don't have any more detail on it than that. i can tell you that. nbc meteorologist bill karins is messaging me that, in fact, the current wate

as i said earlier, our airport here at ronald reagan national airport will be closed until 11:00. obviously, that will be fluid. we'll learn more. but we wanted to advise passengers who might be coming to the airport in the morning that we will be closed until at least 11:00. >> secretary duffey, a question for secretary duffey. yeah. >> one second. you're next. >> hi, mayor. thank you so much. so just other than the current situations, like, you know, the water is extremely cold and it's very dark outside. although the senator is saying that there are numerous boats in the water, but what's the still, you know, the biggest challenges for the rescue team and what best scenario we can expect in the coming few hours till morning. >> so the challenges are access. 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 wat

this crash happened at dca, also known as the reagan airport. t at the national airport. that's why it makes a lot more sense that a plane carrying about 60 passengers would be landing there. and there are a number of flights scheduled to fly there directly from sfo this morning. as of right now, the airport is shut down. it could reopen as early as 8:00 our time this morning at the earliest. but we heard from those officials who say that is still part of the plan. we also heard from east bay congressman eric swalwell. he tells us over the phone what the priorities in congress will be today. >> we have to understand whether the congested air traffic in this region was a part of the cause. we also need to understand, you know, whether we have enough air traffic controllers to deconflict congested areas. and so there's a lot we have to do. >> swalwell tells us he was at the airport coming home from houston moments before the crash happened. he says he did not see it or hear it at the time. but this morning we also heard from the transportation secr

we want to get to. >> reagan national airport live with our dc correspondent trevor shirley. as he walks us through what we know so far, trevor. hey there. good morning to both of you. again at this point operations here at reagan national. >> have basically gotten back to normal. we've seen planes taking off and landing passengers heading to their flights. the only thing that is not normal is this crash investigation that's happening in the potomac river itself just south of the airfield here in washington. let's go ahead and take a look at some of the video from last night. just to give you a sense of what rescuers were dealing with when they got to that horrible scene, those 2 aircraft colliding as that american airlines flight 5, 3, 4, 2, was on its final approach to land here at washington national airport. we know that crash happening around 09:00pm local time last night. there were 60 passengers and 4 crew member on that american airlines jet along with 3 people on board that army black hawk helicopter at this point, at least 28 bodies have been recovered. and we are ex

reagan airport is right there. dulles airport is about 30 minutes. and then you have. baltimore. um, airport. so a very heavy, heavy, dense traffic. and just based on my experience, when i look at the tv, uh, or when i look at the traffic, most of the planes fly north, going south, north of the potomac, going south to the potomac, uh, toward the reagan airport. so this is how i've been witnessing all of the planes. >> can you tell me what you are seeing right now? because you have these this incredible view of the potomac, and you talked about the fact that you heard this crash before you saw the result of the sound that you heard. so you're that close. what are you seeing right now, this morning, as you talk about how there are frozen patches all over the potomac and how cold that water is, that rescuers are trying to navigate this morning that is correct. >> so i see, uh, at least two gigantic commercial, uh uh, vessels, uh, at the crash sites. i see handful of rescue boats. also, we're talking about eight boats on the crash sites on the east side of the river. besides the mili

nicole sganga at reagan airport. thank you. >>> let's bring in jarred hill with more on the investigation. midair collisions are extremely rare. we haven't had a major crash in the u.s. in 16 years. what safeguards are in place to prevent this from happening? >> there are so many safeguards put in place to try and stop this from happening. one is a tcas, mandated since 1989 in all airline cockpits. it would sign an alert, provide some kind of auditory messaging there to try and make sure that folks know that if there is someone nearby, they can try to avoid each other. there's also what you're looking at, the radar system that air traffic controllers have access to. this is something that would -- we're seeing here showing the helicopter, it seems, approaching that jet -- that commercial jet there before that collision happens. they're in constant communication with each other. one of the questions here is with that tcas system. what we know from robert sumwalt, a cbs news transportation safety analyst and a former c

reagan national airport is closed. ack with more live coverage of this breaking story. >> thanks for calling. >> consumer cellular ranked number one in network coverage and customer satisfaction. >> hi. my friend linda has you guys and gets way better. >> coverage than i do. >> sounds like linda. >> has you beat. >> not at bowling. >> you're breaking up a little. >> are you really ranked number one in coverage? >> yep. >> and plans start. >> at just $20. >> oh, we could afford lessons for linda. you're embarrassing yourself. >> at least my. >> phone works. switch to the carrier. >> ranked number one in network. >> coverage satisfaction. >> and right now, get. >> your second month free. call consumer cellular today. >> lumify. >> it's kind of amazing. wow. >> my go to is lumify eye drops. >> lumify dramatically reduces redness. >> in one minute. and look at the difference. >> my eyes look brighter and whiter. whiter. >> for up to. dexcom g7 sends your glucose numbers to your phone and watch, so you can always see where y

there's a stop for planes right now at reagan national airport.id, the early indication is that they were trying to pinpoint the two locations of where the aircraft crash. i'm seeing it looks like emergency units. looks like they were coming down the edge of the runway now and maybe making a turn to go onto the runway. there's a couple more emergency units there and there's a helicopter up above me as well. so this is a very unfortunate situation and they had something like this happen before. this happened with the florida crash in the early 1980s at the national airport. >> sean: i was in d.c. today with the vice president who was certainly warmer today than the bone chilling weather that we had during inauguration week. that would mean if there is any incident with any aircraft in the river that the water is got to be absolutely freezing. it's a little chilly. i will ask the same question i asked kevin corke after 9/11. the rules changed dramatically in terms of commercial aircraft only being allowed to take off and landed there and personal ai

airports. we have reagan national, we have dulles and baltimore, washington international. ese airports rather than have such congestion into reagan national. the other thing about reagan national is when you are right there there is a lot of military flights. it is a very complicated and congested airspace more complicated after 9/11 with certain security details. so, yes, last march we had a bill before the senate there was an effort to add more flights into an already overburdened runway that we fought very hard against and we brought up our concern that an event like this would happen and, you know, when i got the news last night. i -- i don't know. i haven't been as angry as i have been in a very long time we don't know that as the factor. the faa suggests that shortages in air traffic control, which is not just at reagan national but they have been national level shortages may have contributed. normally they would have one person in the tower monitoring hilos. another person working more than one person working on planes. the person that was doing the hilo monitoring l

potomac river after the midair collision of a passenger plane and military helicopter near reagan national airportts away. can neuriva support your brain health? mary. janet. hey! eddie. no! fraser. frank. frank. fred. how are you? support up to seven brain health indicators, including memory. when you need to remember, remember neuriva. if you have heart failure or chronic kidney disease, farxiga can help you keep living life, because there are places you'd like to be. (♪♪) serious side effects include increased ketones in blood or urine and bacterial infection between the anus and genitals, both which may be fatal, severe allergic reactions, dehydration, urinary tract or genital yeast infections, and low blood sugar. stop taking and tell your doctor right away if you have nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, tiredness, rash, swelling, trouble breathing or swallowing. tell your doctor about lightheadedness, weakness, fever, pain, tenderness, redness or swelling between the anus and genitals. ask your doctor about farxiga today. ♪ far-xi-ga ♪ (♪♪) would you recommend? >> do you like brown? >> hay? >> y

reagan, one of three airports serving the d.c. area, bwi and dulles being the other two. t ground stop at reagan national airport for the time being. we'll bring you an update on this breaking news as we learn more information. >> for now, we want to tell you about a new clinic opening at ucsf in san frano that's blending cutting edge treatments from around the world, all with one goal to help children overcome their pain. >> abc seven news anchor karina nova has a look inside. >> seeing all the activities 14 year old chloe has enjoyed over the years, you might understand the impact of a condition that changed everything. it's known as complex regional pain syndrome, chloe says it came on suddenly, leaving her struggling to regain her normal life. >> for me it was really hard. it was really hard to get into, like a more positive mindset. >> chloe's journey mirrors the inspiration behind a newly opened clinic at ucsf's mission bay campus. walking into the center for pediatric pain, the first thing you might notice is the lava lamp in the lobby. it sets the tone for an innov

an american airlines regional jet colliding with an army black hawk helicopter near reagan national airport. the crash sending the plane plunging into the icy waters of the potomac river. a rescue effort now under way for the 64 passengers and crew members aboard the jet. that effort complicated by darkness, wind and cold temperatures. many feared dead. the very latest just ahead, as "early today" starts right now. >>> glad you're up early with me. i'm frances rivera. and we begin with that breaking news i in washington, d.c. an american airlines flight colliding with a black hawk helicopter over the potomac river. here are the latest details we know at this hour. a military official tells nbc news the helicopter was on a routine training flight. the faa says the collision happened while the commercial plane was approaching a runway at reagan national airport around 9:00 p.m. local time. it was arriving from wichita, kansas. american airlines confirming that there were 60 passengers and four crew members on board the commercial flight. president trump says he has been fully briefed on the a

that plane, on its final approach to reagan national airport.aircraft plunged into the frigid potomac river. authorities this morning are no longer calling this a rescue mission, but a recovery effort. no one has been pulled alive from the waters. good morning to you. 530 right now. thanks for joining us. i'm laura garcia. and i'm marcus washington. we do begin with that breaking news out of our nation's capital. that's where an american airlines flight with 64 people on board crashed mid-air with a black hawk military helicopter carrying three people. here is a live look at that scene this morning. this is where the recovery operations continue. now, we know at least 28 bodies have been discovered, and authorities say everything was fairly standard protocol before that crash, with the helicopter conducting a training mission. you just saw it there. cameras caught the tragedy as it happened. the american airlines jet was just about to land. we've also learned members of the u.s. and russian figure skating teams were on board, returning from a ca

i'm at reagan national airport. i am joined by united states transportation secretary sean. >> duffy. >> united states senator jim moran, senator roger marshall, jack potter, the ceo of the metropolitan washington airports authority. we are here to brief you on the very tragic events of this evening where we know a passenger plane coming to the airport here collided with a military helicopter. our fire department, dc fire and ems, supported by fire departments and police departments from across the washington metropolitan region, are executing a rescue operation in the potomac river. they are working diligently and very dark and cold conditions. cold water to execute this rescue operation, we have had the opportunity to be briefed by american airlines officials. i'm told that american airlines leadership is on the way to washington as well, and officials are in the airport talking to families. now, we do have a18 hundred number where families should contact us. excuse me, should contact american airlines for more in

reagan airport.t coming from new york, alejandro mayorkas was on board in first class, that plane was diverted and returned to new york and mayorkas was seen getting off with his security detail. taking you back to the scene, active search and rescue in the potomac river. there are no sign of survivors. >> ashley: in reference to russian skaters, apparently the russian coach and the ice skater, they were married and then you talk about the ice skaters, the u.s. figure skaters, preteen and teenage age. it is horrific to think about. i want to ask you a question, whenever these pilots of the black hawk take this route, how long are they training before they do something like this? >> lucas: army helicopter pilots have to stay current, certain number of flight hours per month. part of training is to fly at night. these flights are very routine here in the nation's capitol ital. it is not uncommon for a black hawk to come overhead 100, 200 feet. with the pentagon on the other side of the airport black ha

airport in washington. we want to bring you some live pictures. search and rescue boats have been deployed to the area. department posted at 9:09 local time, saying: "vicinity reagan national airport. "fireboats on scene." minutes later, aircraft incident on the airfield. the terminal remains open. will update. we are speaking to our in washington. correspondence in washington. is obviously a correspondence in washington. developing the 77 story, writer saying the white house press secretary has said appears . is? ’;:i’ £5555: ...... ..... . appears a .. 7555.5: ...... ..... appears a military it appears a military helicopter with a helicopter collided with a regionaljet, we're hearing regionaliet, we're hearing cvs what is the latest from cvs what is the latest you can tell us? news has emerged in the last hour as you said it appears a regional plane from rfiélfifiél eléfifi efifi'fié flfifi kansas into the wichita, kansas into the reagan airport collided with a helicopter and crashed the helicopter and crashed into the pro two bar and there is a big em; turn; bar and thy-5 is; his ""*"""'*'**”"’ emergency operation just beginning now to search for survivors. news is just =

airport. the air traffic is very congested. reagan national averaged 390 flights a day last november, according to the metropolitan washington airports authority. its main runway is the busiest runway in the united states, and that's not even considering nearby helicopter traffic. let's go to cnn's tom foreman at the magic wall for us. and, tom, what do we know about the flight paths that ended in disaster last night? how could this have happened? we're joined by jeff huddleston, who is a commercial airline pilot for a major carrier, former navy aviator familiar with flying commercial aircraft and helicopters. one of the things, jeff, that we were talking about is the simple fact that this really. >> is a convergence point. >> point. there is a route called route one, basically which helicopters fly all the time down the river here, right through here, maybe 100 helicopters a day here. and in fact, our investigative team found that in the past three years, twice there have been very similar incidents where it did not result in. >> a c

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 experi

airport. and so and that's been the issue about adding flights here at reagan national airport. so that plane was coming in on this side onto that short runway. and that's where the collision happened with the with the army helicopter from fort belvoir. fort belvoir is a military base just to the south. it's close to mount vernon, george washington's home just to the south of washington, dc, also along the banks of the potomac river. the thing that has struck me in the past bit, and it's gone quiet here in about the past 30 minutes. for quite a while, we had helicopters up in the air with their big searchlights scanning their beams of light down on the water. they started to get very close to the shoreline here for quite a while, and then they had several different police and fire and rescue boats. and on these piers immediately behind me, that's where some police, police officers came down and started looking in the water with their flashlights, just to see if they could pick up any debris or wreckage or, god forbid, bodies or even body parts. i was told at one point. here are

airport. you can see there it's reagan national airport now, top right. you can see some of the wreckage of the aircraft. the main screen is are first responders and rescue workers who are trying to search those waters. we do know that at least one dozen bodies have been recovered. unfortunately, we have no reports of people being transported to local hospitals as of yet. the incident here was took place at about 8:48 p.m. eastern time. an american airlines jet being operated by psa airlines cr 400. as it's referred to as a 700. i'm sorry about a 70 seater jet. it had 60 passengers and four crew collided with a blackhawk, a 60 sikorsky helicopter with three crew on board its military chopper. we're not sure what happened. we've heard some air traffic control conversation that suggests that the helicopter had the fixed wing aircraft in its sight and was told to avoid it. i want to go back to you about this, captain, because there's some talk, including from the president, about this being an air traffic control error. we don't know that. we won't know that

is airport for being an airline special nj washington reagan is a special qualifications have to airport meaning that before you can e certain amount of iave to airport meaning that before you can e certain amount of time o have certai n, a mod nt of time you' re hauecertainamed nt of time you're qualified to land before you'reqaatified to itahd is so, the pilot... there is so, the pilot... you certain _ time, - there is so, the pilot... you. certain _ time, once certain amount of time, once the involved when to land? approaching to land? in terms 5 qualified _ approaching to land? in terms 5 quaiierd to — approaching to land? in terms 5 qualified to actually . of been qualified to actually pilot the aircraft into that airport either certain amount of hours or so amount of of hodra'orao amount of in airlines have landings in airlines that have worked in 100 flight fiight in the hours flight time in the aircraft that you are operating you're allowed to land airport. so you need some that airport. so you need some as a additional experience as a pilot before you're allowed

lliltilfi’llplfl around reagan airport. reagan natianal alrpart? around reagan natianal alrpart? a it's 7:2: of our fate —— few airports i!!! one of our fate —— few airnarts , up more one of our fate —— few aifdqfts— ' up more ft; , t° one of our fate —— few airnorts , to up more jg’:; , to one of our fate —— few airnorts . to up airport 2:2 , to one of our fate —— few airnorts . to up airport thatl; , to gs; ts; thil airpert that thl ' ' m ' '* handle so 5a ta thia airaart that thl ' ' m ' '* handle so it's busy airport can handle so it's busy the time. all business all the time. all the business i day from 6am —= it's as as can to 10pm it's as busy as it can possibly with that in mind, possibly be.—with—that in mind. �*than busy possibly be.—with—that in mind. �* than busy airspace other than busy airspace are short. runways are relatively short. this was a which this was a smaller plane which can handle a short runway. i was slightly -h and it a challenge land on these short runways. ta ta n’d'an’ thla-l ahart fa nwaya. w

reagan airport is set to open at 11:00 this morning. abc seven reporter lena howland is live in studio this morning with the details. and i know, lena, that you've been on this all morning long. >> yeah, that's right. gloria. officials are saying while their search continues, they do not believe there were any survivors. and they have now transitioned into recovery mode so far. according to numbers provided by the medical examiner, 27 bodies from that american airlines flight and one body from the helicopter have been recovered so far. that means search crews are still in the water right now looking for more than 30 people. officials did not have any answers on what went wrong here, but say both the plane and the helicopter were in a standard flight pattern and the helicopter was there for a training operation. crews worked through frigid conditions through the night looking for any survivors. >> a lot of effort was brought to bear. unfortunately, we were unable to rescue anyone, but we are in the recovery mode right now to back up what

while on phone overall to reagan national airport.oth aircraft crashed instantly and were immediately submerged into the icy waters of the potomac. real tragedy. a massive search and rescue mission was underway throughout the night, leveraging every asset at our disposal. and i have to say the local, state, federal, military, including the united states coast guard in particular, they have done a phenomenal job. so quick, so fast. it was mobilized immediately. the work has now shifted to a recovery mission. sadly, there are no survivors. this is a dark and excruciating night in our nation's capital, and our nations history, and a tragedy of terrible proportions. as one nation, we agree for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly. we are a country of -- really we are in morning. this has really shaken a lot of people, including people who are sadly from other nations who were on the flight. for the family members back in wichita, kansas, here in washington, throughout the united states, and in russia, we have a russ

airport yesterday at 05:22pm. central. it was set to land there at reagan national airport about 3 hours later at 8.55. eastern. but as you've heard us reporting there was that collision and tragically that plane never made it. our dc correspondent jessi tenure is at reagan national airport. >> and we're going to have her walk us through this massive recovery mission that is now going on. hundreds of first responders are still here on scene while the airport likely remains closed until later this morning. >> iger on and it was just gone. and american airlines flight carrying 60 passengers and 4 crew members collided with an army helicopter wednesday night while landing at ronald reagan national airport near washington, d.c., all runway that has nobody going to be no one moving at 3 soldiers were on board the helicopter for a training flight. the crash prompted a large search and rescue operation and the potomac river. i want the folks to back home to just do that. we care that we love them. kansas senators roger marshall and jerry moran were on scene since the regional jet departed from wichita. i know that flig

he was at reagan airport this morning. u seeing any family members, any loved ones coming to the airport yet to try to get more information about the crash and their loved ones? >> all right. perfect. >> well, it's really tragic. unfortunately, i haven't seen anybody personally, myself that is here at the airport specifically waiting to hear about loved ones. you know, at this time, i think most of the people have heard that no one is expected to be alive at this point, but we have started to see passengers arrive here at the airport as flights have resumed. >> yeah, we are learning more about some of the people who were on the american airlines flight. the defense secretary says they're not going to release the names of the three people who were on the helicopter until they notified their family. rebecca castor reporting for us live at reagan international. rebecca. thank you. >> last night's crash in washington, dc, is the first deadly airline crash in the united states in years, and the deadliest in decades. the last dea

it was recorded by a security camera at reagan national airport.you can see that giant orange fireball with pieces of the debris falling from the sky. again, a collision between a passenger jet commercial plane and a military blackhawk helicopter. joining me now from washington is cnn military analyst and retired u.s. air force colonel cedric leighton. um, you know, i've lived in dc. i know you have spent a lot of time in dc. for those that live there, it may be commonplace to look up in the sky and you see military aircraft, you see commercial planes, you see all different levels. you might see police helicopters, all different levels. in jurisdictions of aircraft that are in the sky, um, from a military perspective, what types of aircraft are typically in the sky in washington, d.c.? why would a black hawk helicopter be flying potentially this close to reagan national airport? >> yeah, omar, that's a great question. well, one of the key things that these helicopters do is provide transport to officials. and also they ferry, you know, things like

the helicopters ferried e i do want to turn to jack potter, who is the ceo of our airports authority responsible for reagan national airport and dulles international airport to talk to you about how that your report responded and what we're looking what what's going to happen next? >> good evening. as was said, i'm jack potter, president, ceo of the metropolitan washington airports authority. thank you will be at tonight and the under these very, very grim circumstances. first of all, i want to let you know that providing support to all the families who are involved. american established phone number for them to reach out that's been published. but let me repeated it's 1, 8, 100, 679-8215. so families of folks that were on the plane are asked to contact them. we did have folks who are at the airport to pick up loved ones. and so american has set up center and their american in their lounge, the north and to the up what and we've directed the families there and there are folks there to council is there to work with the families. we did have aircraft that were in the they were diverted to dulles airport, som

place at ronald reagan airport.y that 7 will carry that a 7 will carry that a lie. 7 we will carry that a lie. around the world and across the uk, you are watching bbc news. welcome back to bbc news. we will be live in the middle east the next few minutes because in the next few minutes because those buses carrying the palestinians have been released, part of the deal between and between hezbollah and israel. they are expected to in next �*minutes. 7next �* minutes. they are he) to �*minutes. they are he) to talk iinutes. they are he) to talk to jtes. they are he) to talk to us 5. they are he) to talk to us so they are he) to talk to us so we y are waiting to talk to us so we will be back with him as we see we expect them next few minutes —— ham the scene there because as ask. the scene there because as we've been saying, the airport has reopened in the last 15, 20 that is the airport. i be7 be with katrina perry in a will be with katrina perry in a moment but i will �*you the moment but i will show you the potomac