WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Scores of people were feared dead after an American Airlines regional passenger jet with 64 people on board and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided and crashed into the frigid Potomac River near Reagan Washington National Airport.
Officials provided no death toll from Wednesday night’s collision but U.S. Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas, from where the flight was traveling, suggested most if not all those on board had been killed.
“It’s really hard when you lose probably over 60 Kansans simultaneously,” he told a press conference at Reagan airport in the U.S. capital early on Thursday.
“When one person dies, it’s a tragedy, but when many, many, many people die, it’s an unbearable sorrow. It’s a heartbreak beyond measure.”
American Airlines confirmed 60 passengers and four crew members were aboard the jet. The helicopter, on a training flight, was carrying three soldiers, a U.S. official said.
Because when you’re whole job is flying vip’s around DC at night, it helps to actually fly the route you’re being trained to fly at some point.
As for why the heavily used helicopter route goes right beneath the approach path, that’s because people mapped out all the routes helicopters can fly without going through restricted airspace, and along the river is one of the most useful of them, same reason as the runway’s approach path follows the river.