Accident in Washington: A CRJ-700 aircraft capable of carrying up to 70 people collided with a military helicopter and fell into the Potomac River, near Ronald Reagan Airport.
According to an initial reconstruction, American Airlines flight 5342 , which was preparing to land at the US capital's airport, collided in the air with a Sikorsky H-60 army aircraft . On board the plane there were 60 passengers and four crew members. There were no survivors.
Rescuers immediately went into action, busy recovering the victims. The FBI has ruled out an act of terrorism.
President Donald Trump was also informed of the incident: "The plane was on a perfect, routine approach to the airport. The helicopter was heading straight for the plane. The night was clear, the lights were on, why didn't the helicopter go up or down, or why didn't it turn? Why didn't the control tower tell the helicopter what to do? This is a bad situation that should have been avoided ," Trump said on his social Truth.
The president said that "we have an idea of the causes and we are looking for answers". He then attacked his predecessors, speaking of the changes to flight safety standards: "I put safety first, Obama and Biden put politics" . In particular, Trump blamed the so-called "DEI programs", the diversity policies that led to the hiring of people as air traffic controllers who he said were "unqualified" , with mental or physical disabilities. In his opinion, only highly intelligent and psychologically superior people should be hired .
According to reports, several figure skaters were on board the plane that crashed into the Potomac, including Russians Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, world champions in 1994. The husband and wife team worked as coaches in the United States.
(Online Union)