Many feared dead after commercial jet collides in midair with a US army helicopter

Many people were feared dead after a commercial jet carrying 64 people collided in midair with a US army helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River on Wednesday night near Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C.

The authorities have not given an official count of casualties or bodies recovered. But some of those aboard the plane were figure skaters flying from Wichita, Kansas. Russian figure skaters were also among the passengers, the Kremlin said.

“When one person dies, it’s a tragedy, but when many, many, many people die, it’s an unbearable sorrow,” Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas said at a news conference.

About 300 emergency responders were working in dangerous conditions, said John Donnelly, the chief of Washington’s fire department. He added that the Potomac’s cold and murky water was complicating divers’ search and rescue efforts. Temperatures were expected to fall below freezing in the Washington area overnight.

The plane, which was being operated for American Airlines as Flight 5342 and had departed from Wichita, crashed into the river, Washington’s fire emergency department said. Images of the wreckage showed what appeared to be a wing and part of the fuselage sticking out of the river.

An Army official said that the helicopter, a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, was flying with three crew members, whose condition he could not confirm. American Airlines said in a statement that 60 passengers and four crew members had been onboard its plane, a Bombardier CRJ700.

Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, said on social media that the Army and the Department of Defense would investigate the crash. He posted an email from Heather Chairez, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military’s Joint Task Force-National Capital Region, stating that the helicopter, operating out of Davison Army Airfield in Fort Belvoir, Va., had been on a training flight.