A tragic midair collision involving an American Eagle plane and a military helicopter over the Potomac River has claimed the lives of at least 14 figure skaters, including coaches and family members returning from a camp in Wichita, Kansas. President Donald Trump addressed the nation, calling the incident a 'tragedy of terrible proportions' and praising the efforts of the rescue teams. The investigation into the cause of the collision is underway.
President Donald Trump confirmed today there are no survivors in the collision. The two aircraft crashed into the Potomac River , where a rescue operation has become a major recovery effort, with dozens of bodies pulled from the frigid waters so far.American figure skaters , coaches and family members who had been at a camp in Wichita, Kansas, were among those aboard the passenger jet, according to U.S. Figure Skating.
President Donald Trump called the deadly collision a 'tragedy of terrible proportions' and confirmed there were no survivors as he addressed reporters in the White House briefing room this morning.The president began his remarks with a moment of silence for the victims and their families, telling reporters, 'I speak to you this morning in an hour of anguish for our nation.' He added that a 'massive search-and-rescue mission was underway throughout the night, leveraging every asset at our disposal, and I have to say, the local, state, federal military, including the United States Coast Guard in particular, they've done a phenomenal job.' 'This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation's capital and in our nation's history and a tragedy of terrible proportions as one nation, we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly,' Trump said.Doug Zeghibe, CEO of The Skating Club of Boston, said 14 skaters returning home from the national development camp in Wichita, Kansas, were killed in the crash.as athlete Jinna Han; Jinna’s mother, Jin Han; athlete Spencer Lane; Spencer’s mother, Christine Lane; and coaches Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova. “Skating is a very close and tight-knit community,” he told NBC Boston, tearing up. “I think for all of us, we have lost family.” He called Shishkova and Naumov 'top coaches — they were the 1994 world pair champions and they came to us in 2017 and were very much a part of our building the competitive skating program.”“In 1961, the entire world team of U.S. figure skating en route to the world championships in Prague was lost in a plane crash in Belgium. Almost half of everybody on board that plane were from this club. It had long reaching implications for this skating club and for the sport in this country because when you lose coaches like this, you lose the future of the sport as well.”The American Eagle plane (N709PS) involved in a collision with a Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River last night taxis on the tarmac in Allentown, Pa., in 2021.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the helicopter crew involved in the crash was 'fairly experienced' and was doing an 'annual proficiency training flight' at the time of the collision. Hegseth said the three crewmembers were from the Bravo Company 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir, an army base in Virginia that's about 14 miles away from the airport. 'It was a fairly experienced crew that was doing a required annual night evaluation. They did have night vision goggles,' Hegseth said in aHegseth said the collision is already being reviewed by 'an investigative team from our aviation safety center.' 'We anticipate the investigation will quickly be able to determine whether the aircraft was in the corridor and at the right altitude at the time of the incident,' he said.President Donald Trump will address the deadly plane collision in a press briefing at 11 a.m. ET, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saidThe midair collision of the American Eagle plane and a military helicopter last night is the first fatal disaster involving a U.S. commercial aircraft in years. The tragedy comes 16 years after a Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane crashed into a house near Buffalo, New York, on Feb. 12, 2009. All 45 passengers, including four crew members, were killed, along with one person on the ground. On Nov. 12, 2001, a mere two months after the 9/11 terrorist attack, another American Airlines flight crashed in New York and killed all 260 people on board, resulting in the highest death toll for any single airliner crash in U.S. history. D.C.'s midair collision also evoked another disaster in the Potomac almost four decades ago, when an Air Florida flight crashed in 1982, killing 78 people.As many as 14 figure skaters are feared dead in the midair collision over the Potomac River, Skating Club of Boston CEO Doug Zeghibe said.Six victims of last night's tragedy were affiliated with Skating Club of Boston: two coaches, two skaters and their two'We mourn with all those who have been impacted. This is a terrible tragedy that will unite those in Washington, D.C., and Wichita, Kansas, forever,' she said. Wu said that she does not yet know a final confirmation of the individuals who were on the flight, but that no names would be released until their families had first been contacted.'Our community needs to come together to support the family members who have been impacted, to come together in honor of those individuals on that flight,' Wu said
Plane Crash Potomac River Figure Skaters Military Helicopter President Trump Investigation National Tragedy
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