‘We don’t believe there are survivors’: Dozens dead after helicopter and passenger jet collide
The aeroplane had been carrying US and Russian figure skaters, among others. At least two former world champion skaters were believed to be among the casualties.
Images from the river showed boats around the partly submerged wing and the mangled wreckage of the plane’s fuselage.
Investigators will try to piece together the aircrafts’ final moments before their collision, including contact with air traffic controllers.
“I would just say that everyone who flies in American skies expects that we fly safely,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. “That when you depart an airport, you get to your destination. That didn’t happen last night.”
He said the Trump administration, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transport would work towards finding answers. “You should be assured that when you fly, you’re safe,” he said.
“Can I guarantee the American flying public that the United States has the most safe and secure airspace in the world? And the answer to that is, absolutely yes, we do.”
The night was clear, the plane and helicopter were both in standard flight patterns and there was standard communication between the aircraft and the tower, Duffy said.
“We have early indicators of what happened here,” he said, declining to elaborate.
It was not unusual to have a military aircraft flying the river and an aircraft landing at the airport, he said. Asked if the plane was aware that there was a helicopter in the area, Duffy said he would say that the helicopter was aware that there was a plane in the area.
Asked about President Donald Trump suggesting in a social media post that the collision could have been prevented, Duffy said, “From what I’ve seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely.”
Deadliest plane crash since 2001
If the worst predictions of rescuers come to fruition and everyone on board the plane was killed, it would make it the deadliest US airline incident since November 2001, when an American Airlines flight crashed into a residential area of New York, killing all 260 people aboard.
The last major fatal crash involving a US commercial airline occurred in 2009 near Buffalo, New York. Everyone aboard the Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane was killed, including 45 passengers, two pilots and two flight attendants. Another person on the ground also died, bringing the total death toll to 50. An investigation determined that the captain accidentally caused the plane to stall as it approached the airport in Buffalo.
Passengers on Wednesday’s flight included a group of figure skaters, their coaches and family members, who were returning from a development camp that followed the US Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.
Two of those coaches were identified by the Kremlin as Russian figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won the pairs title at the 1994 World Championships and competed twice in the Olympics. The Skating Club of Boston lists them as coaches. Their son, Maxim Naumov, is a competitive figure skater for the US.
AP, Reuters
