On January 29, 2025, there was a tragic collision between an American Airlines Regional jet and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter just over Washington D.C.. The aircraft had been carrying 64 people, and as of the time of this article being written, 28 bodies have been recovered. The head of the nation’s air traffic controls said that it is “too soon to speculate on a cause.” Several of the people who lost their lives on board were competitive figure skaters, returning from a developmental camp. Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, the 1994 world pairs champions, were present on the flight, as well as many other known figure skaters. Among the Russian figure skaters on board, there were several other Russian citizens, making the passengers a mix of Russian and American.
The planes collided in midair and crashed into the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport. Patrol has concluded that there are no survivors, and the operation has switched from rescue to recovery. The helicopter that collided into the jet had been on a training flight, and had three soldiers on board. The plane broke into several pieces that were sitting in 5-8 feet of water, making recovery operations very treacherous.
President Donald Trump spoke on the matter, saying that the DEI could have been to blame for the collision. While addressing the tragedy of the loss of life for our country, he also pointed the blame towards Democratic policies and the Biden administration without providing much evidence in his initial statement. His first post about the issue read: “This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”
Overall, the loss of life in this collision is heartbreaking. Recovery remains ongoing and the investigation into the cause of the crash continues.