Washington DC Plane Crash: A major plane crash has occurred in the US capital Washington DC. A passenger plane near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airplane Terminal collided with a helicopter and entered the Potomac waterway. A video of the plane colliding with the helicopter has also surfaced. It was a small passenger plane, carrying about 60 people. Security vessels are conducting security operations in the Potomac stream. According to a CNN report, the Reagan National Airplane Terminal has been closed after the accident. So far 19 bodies have been recovered.
The US Government Aviation Organization (FAA) said in a statement that the passenger plane that collided in the Potomac waterway near the Reagan National Airplane Terminal outside Washington DC collided with a Sikorsky H-60 helicopter while coming on the runway. The plane that caused the accident belonged to American Aircraft. It departed from Wichita, Kansas on Wednesday (local time).
Collision with military helicopter
According to CNN report, US Representative Roger Marshall from Kansas said that the helicopter which collided with the passenger plane belonged to the US Army. He has also said that there were 60 people on board the plane. Marshall wrote on Twitter, ‘Today we got such devastating news which can be nothing less than a nightmare. A plane going to the country’s capital Wichita, Kansas, carrying about 60 passengers, collided with a military helicopter.’
Earlier, the DC Police had also issued a clarification saying that the helicopter of the Metropolitan Police Division was not involved in this accident. MPD said that its ‘helicopter is not involved in this incident and is currently helping in the multi-agency response.’
Eyewitness described the scene of the accident
An observer told CNN that he saw the plane fall when he was going home. He told that while driving, ‘When I first saw the plane, it looked fine. It was heading towards the ground, maybe 120 feet above the water. It looked like a very small but normal-sized passenger jet.’ He further said that ‘after three seconds the plane tilted completely to the right … more than 90 degrees. It was burning very bright yellow and sparks were shooting out from underneath it.’ After this everything went blurry.
