By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – Multiple bodies were pulled from the water Wednesday night after an American Airlines passenger plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed into the Potomac River following a midair collision close to Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night, several sources say.
At the White House, U.S. President Donald J. Trump announced he had been briefed and was “closely monitoring the situation” following the disaster near Washington D.C.
The Pentagon also released a statement confirming that the aircraft involved was an Army UH-60 helicopter from Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Following Wednesday’s crash, American Airlines said 60 passengers, two pilots, and two crew members were on board American Airlines Flight 5342.
Officials said three soldiers were on board the helicopter during a training flight.
Witnesses said the passenger plane was seen in pieces in the river while the helicopter was in the water nearby. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said on social media that “we know there are fatalities,” though he did not immediately say how many.
PULLED ALIVE
Yet U.S. broadcaster NBC reported that amid the reported death and destruction, at least four people had been miraculously pulled alive from the Potomac River.
Worthy News reviewed a video from the Kennedy Center showing a helicopter and another aircraft colliding near Reagan National Airport on the evening of January 29. Shortly after the crash, a huge flash of light could be seen above Washington, D.C.
Several sources confirmed that all takeoffs and landings were halted at Reagan National Airport shortly after the disaster.
There has not been a similar U.S. passenger airplane accident since February 2009, but a series of near-miss incidents in recent years have raised serious safety concerns.
Wednesday’s collision raised fresh questions. It happened in perhaps the world’s most monitored airspace since the September 11, 2021, terror attacks when one plane crashed into the nearby Pentagon building.
Two other planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and one in a rural Pennsylvania field during a passenger revolt against the hijackers at the time.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
Mossad Director David Barnea said Tuesday that Israel bears a responsibility to ensure Iran never restarts its nuclear program, six months after Israeli and U.S. strikes severely damaged Tehran’s atomic facilities during a 12-day war.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a proclamation significantly expanding the United States’ travel ban, barring individuals traveling on Palestinian Authority–issued passports from entering the country and imposing full or partial restrictions on dozens of additional nations, the White House announced.
Chilean voters on Sunday delivered a decisive victory to conservative lawmaker José Antonio Kast, electing him president in what is being described as the country’s most sweeping political shift since its return to democracy in 1990. Kast defeated Communist candidate Jeannette Jara by a wide margin, campaigning on restoring public security, enforcing immigration laws, and reviving economic growth.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says proposals negotiated with U.S. officials on a peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine could be finalized within days, after which American envoys would present them to the Kremlin. The announcement came ahead of the establishment of the International Claims Commission for Ukraine in The Hague, which will seek compensation from Russia for Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two.
Residents mourned and counted the cost Tuesday as Moroccan authorities confirmed that at least 37 people were killed after torrential rain and flash floods inundated about 70 homes and businesses in the coastal city of Safi, in what officials described as the deadliest such disaster in Morocco in at least a decade.
With Christmas approaching, thousands of Christians, many of them from Indigenous communities, marched near Mexico’s southern border “to thank God” for decades of relative peace in the Mexican state of Chiapas, despite reported acts of violence in recent years.
Jewish communities worldwide are impacted by one of the deadliest terror attacks against Jews outside Israel in decades, when gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, killing 15 people, Worthy News established Monday.