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Distraught households of the victims of a lethal midair crash had been rushed by Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport in a heartbreaking scene on Thursday, the morning after a tragic crash within the skies above the nation’s capital killed 67 individuals.
The often bustling airport was full of investigators from the FBI, Homeland Safety, the Nationwide Transportation Security Board, and native and state police, as a number of involved passengers searched for his or her flights.
Simply hours earlier, authorities introduced that the rescue operation for American Eagle Flight 5342 had became a restoration — there have been no survivors. Up to now, officers have pulled 27 our bodies from the Potomac River, which had been partly frozen within the days main as much as the crash.
Tara Murphy-Dority, a D.C. resident who works in tech protection, stated she was mourning each for her metropolis and her colleagues within the navy.
“It is very somber in Washington, D.C. proper now. My coronary heart goes out to the sufferer’s households, and the complete United States Military,” she advised The Unbiased as she regarded for her flight to Atlanta.
“I’d say that the women and men who serve this nation are the perfect on this planet at what they do, and it is only a heartbreaking tragedy.”
A transparent night time in Washington, D.C., was lit up by a flash at round 9 p.m. Wednesday, when a passenger jet flying from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a Black Hawk navy helicopter. The aircraft was descending into the Arlington, Virginia, airport when the incident occurred.
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Boats had been nonetheless looking out the river for wreckage on Thursday morning because the airport started to open up once more.
Some passengers questioned how such a tragedy may occur in one of many busiest and most policed airports in america. The Pentagon is positioned simply two miles away.
“My query is how is it {that a} navy helicopter runs into an airplane in the event that they’re presupposed to be extraordinarily nicely skilled?” stated one lady who didn’t need to be recognized out of worry of repercussions from her employer.
“I didn’t sleep final night time. I’m careworn,” she added, her palms shaking. She had traveled to Washington, D.C., from Ohio on Sunday and was flying again Wednesday.
“I simply need to know did one thing rogue occur? Am I protected if our personal authorities can’t maintain our helicopters protected? Who’re those right here to guard us?”
U.S. Military Black Hawk helicopters frequently fly alongside the Potomac River with out subject, leaving many shocked over how such an accident may happen.
At a press convention held in Terminal One of many airport, newly sworn-in Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy stated the three troopers on board the helicopter had been engaged in a coaching session. The plane is from Fort Belvoir, Virginia, a navy aviation hub.
The helicopter knew there was a aircraft within the space, Duffy stated he thought the incident was “completely” preventable.
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Washington’s Hearth and EMS Chief John Donnelly stated responders had been enduring “extraordinarily frigid circumstances,” earlier than saying that the operation had turned from a rescue mission to restoration.
“We don’t imagine there are any survivors,” he stated.
By 11 a.m., ticket desks started to open up once more and passengers had been lining up with their luggage.
Kathy Maxemchuk, a 45-year-old architect from San Francisco who was on the town on enterprise, was making an attempt to navigate her manner by press and police to search out her 1 p.m. flight.
“It’s been a bit of disconcerting since attending to the airport and seeing all of the press and the police and all of that.
“It undoubtedly makes it extra actual and apparent. I am not feeling nervous about my flight essentially, I do know it was only a tragic accident.”
Larkin Callaghan, a 41-year-old pharmaceutical firm employee, stated the information of the deaths was “devastating.”
“I used to be anticipating delays, clearly,” she stated. “No matter we have to do to assist the households which are impacted by this, in fact, that is the precedence. So if I am taking it because it comes.
She stated she was not nervous about flying after the incident.
“I count on that individuals shall be heightened if something, for security measures, and it does appear that this was an exceptionally uncommon incidence.”
By early afternoon, the airport was buzzing with passengers once more.
