“We are actually at a degree the place we’re switching from a rescue operation to a restoration operation,” Washington Hearth Chief John Donnelly stated. Twenty-eight our bodies had already been discovered.
The collision – the primary main crash in the US since 2009 when 49 individuals had been killed close to Buffalo, New York – occurred late night on Wednesday because the airliner got here into land at Reagan Nationwide Airport after a routine flight from Wichita, Kansas.
Reagan Nationwide is a significant airport positioned solely a brief distance from downtown Washington, the Pentagon and different main websites within the capital. The airspace is extraordinarily busy, with civilian and army plane a relentless presence.
Dramatic audio from air site visitors controllers confirmed them repeatedly asking the helicopter if it had the passenger jet “in sight,” after which simply earlier than the crash telling it to “move behind” the aircraft.