close
close

What to know about passengers

play

Officials believe that nobody survived a disaster involving the American Airlines passenger aircraft with a military helicopter.

On Wednesday, just before 21:00 ET, American Airlines Flight 5342 was involved in a collision in the air near the National Washington airport in Washington, said American Airlines in a statement. There were 60 passengers and four crew members on board.

The helicopter, the Black Hawk helicopter, wore three passengers, according to the previous US reporting. The disaster occurred on the Potomac River.

According to American Airlines, the plane traveled from Wichita, Kansas to Washington when an accident took place.

Who was on board?

Information on passengers of the aircraft is still published, but it was confirmed that many figure skaters, their families, friends and trainers were on board the American Airlines flight, in accordance with the statement with International skating union.

“We are devastated by this unspoken tragedy and we keep the families of victims strictly in our hearts,” said American figure skating.

Russian skaters of figures, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov and other Russian citizens were also on board the aircraft, according to the spokesman of the Kremlin Dmitry Peskova.

“Unfortunately, we see that this sad information has been confirmed,” said Peskov, according to Russian state media, which published his comments. “Our other compatriots were there too. Bad news from Washington. “

In 1994, Shishkova and Naumov won the World Championships in Figure Skating Steam.

Why many figure skaters on board the flight?

The American Figure Skating Championships took place in Wichita, where the plane took off, from January 21 to January 26.

No survivors of the recovered dozens of bodies

According to DC Police, the authorities raced to find survivors after the accident. On Wednesday evening, the search and rescue operation is involved in the search.

Officials believe that none of the people on board of involved aircraft survived the disaster, said the head of Fire and EMS, John Donnelly during a press message on Thursday morning. Search efforts and rescuers have now changed to recovery.

According to Donnelly, officials recovered 27 bodies from the plane and one of the helicopter.

Anyone who thinks that their beloved person was on board the 5342 flight can call American Airlines free of charge at 800-679-8215, as the airline said in a statement. Everyone outside the USA can visit News.aa.com Additional phone numbers.

Contribution: John BaconIN Christopher Cann; USA Today

Julia is a popular reporter for USA Today. You can connect with it LinkedInFollow her X, previously known as Twitter, Instagram AND Thicket: @Juliamariegz or write to it at [email protected]

Gerres