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What Happened to the Passengers on American Airlines Flight 5342?

On the evening of Jan. 29, American Airlines flight 5342 traveling from Witchita, Kan., to Washington, D.C. collided with a United States Army Black Hawk helicopter near the Reagan Washington National Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed on X, formerly known as Twitter. The plane carrying 60 passengers and four crew members and the helicopter, which had three people aboard, crashed into the Potomac River. 

The passenger jet, a Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-700 series twin-engine jet, was operated by American Airlines’ subsidiary airline, PSA Airlines.

What was first a rescue mission has become a recovery operation, with 28 bodies being recovered from the river as of publishing time, District of Columbia fire chief John Donnelly confirmed.

“At this point, we do not believe there were any survivors,” the official said at a Jan. 30 press conference. “We will work to find all the bodies and reunite them with their loved ones.”

As officials put the pieces together surrounding the horrific incident, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy shared that the helicopter was in a “standard flight pattern” during the collision and was aware of the plane in the vicinity.

“Last night, the helicopter was in a standard pattern,” he explained at the press conference. “If you live in the D.C. area, you’ll see helicopters up and down the river, this flight pattern is seen oftentimes when you live in D.C.”