Plane crash near Washington DC: what we know so far

No survivors are expected after a regional passenger jet with 64 people onboard collided with a military helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River while approaching Ronald Reagan national airport on Wednesday night, officials have said.

27 bodies have been recovered from the plane and one from the helicopter by first responders working in what DC fire and EMS chief John A Donnelly called “extremely frigid conditions”. Donnelly said he is confident they will ultimately be able to recover all of the bodies from the crash.

The American Airlines flight, operated by PSA Airlines as American Eagle Flight 5342, had flown from Wichita, Kansas, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members when it collided with a Black Hawk helicopter that was on a training flight.

The helicopter was believed to be carrying three soldiers, with no senior army officials onboard. The Black Hawk helicopter involved in the crash was based at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

The US figure skating governing body said that athletes, coaches, and family members were on the crashed plane. They were returning home from the national development camp held in conjunction with the US figure skating championships in Wichita, Kansas.

The Kremlin has also confirmed that the figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were onboard. The pair, who were married, won the world championships in pairs figure skating in 1994 and lived in the US.

Temperatures in the area were below freezing, and any length of time spent in the water would be extremely dangerous for anyone who survived the initial incident, with hypothermia setting in quickly.

Inflatable boats and dive teams searched the site, with helicopters circling above, and large floodlights illuminating the scene from the shore. The operations were made more difficult by strong gusts of wind as well as the cold.

The Washington DC fire and emergency medical services chief, John Donnelly, said: “The challenges are access … there is wind, there [are] pieces of ice out there, so it’s just dangerous and hard to work in.”

The helicopter was on a training exercise in some of the most tightly controlled airspace in the world. The weather in DC was clear. There was no immediate indication of any deliberate or terrorist cause.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duff said on Thursday that there was not a breakdown in communication between the plane, the military helicopter, and air traffic control. “Everything was standard in the lead-up to the crash” he said, adding that military helicopters use those flight paths every single day.

The airport will reopen at 11am ET, officials said.

Donald Trump said he had been briefed on the “terrible accident” and praised the “incredible work” done by emergency services. He later said on social media that the crash “should have been prevented”.

Pete Hegseth, sworn in days ago as Trump’s defence secretary, posted on social media that an investigation had been launched by the army and the defence department

Ari Schulman, a witness who was driving home when the incident happened, described a “stream of sparks” overhead. “Initially I saw the plane and it looked fine, normal. It was right about to head over land,” he told CNN. “Three seconds later, and at that point it was banked all the way to the right … I could see the underside of it, it was lit up a very bright yellow, and there was a stream of sparks underneath it. It looked like a Roman candle.”

American Airlines has set up a phone line for relatives who believe they may have lost ones one onboard.