By Thomas Stevenson – The Post Millennial
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz confirmed on Thursday that at least 30 bodies have been pulled from the Potomac River after a Black Hawk helicopter collided with a commercial Bombardier airplane on Wednesday night over Reagan International Airport (DCA) in Washington, DC. The search and rescue mission turned to a recovery mission at 4 am on Thursday morning as no survivors were found. Passengers were found under water still strapped to their seats.
US figure skaters, including two world champions, were on the flight which was coming in from Wichita, Kansas after participating in the US Figure Skating Championships. Russian figure skaters were also onboard, having been in attendance at a juvenile training session, per the New York Times.
Waltz spoke to a reporter, saying that 30 bodies were recovered. He confirmed that the Black Hawk was on a training flight. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem deployed all available Coast Guard to help with the search and recovery efforts.
“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts. We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available,” US Figure Skating said in a statement.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that the flight patterns from the aircraft were standard leading up to the crash: “It was, I would say, standard communication, so there was not a breakdown, if that’s your question, in communication between the military helicopter and the American Airlines flight. There was communication between the aircraft and the tower.”
The commercial plane was believed to be carrying 60 passengers and four crew members when it was struck by a Black Hawk helicopter on a training mission which was manned by three personnel. The Black Hawk helicopter was directly in the flight path of the plane and was instructed by Air Traffic Control to get out of the way and go behind it. Instead, it collided with it, resulting in a shocking explosion. Both aircraft went down.