Midair collision kills 67 people in the deadliest US air disaster in almost a quarter century

They actually came out with a directive: 'too white.' And we want the people that are competent.

He claimed

Deeply saddened by loss of lives in the tragic collision in Washington DC. Our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims. We stand in solidarity with the people of the United States."

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he wrote

Sadly, there are no survivors. 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 we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly. This is really shaking a lot of people, including people from other nations."

Addressing a press briefing on the aviation disaster, Trump said

I will be meeting with some people that were very badly hurt with their family member, obviously, but I'll be meeting with some of the families, yeah,

Trump said

But I believe that the air traffic controller did the best they could with the then circumstances or the means,

said Wang

This was a disaster waiting to happen,

said Ross Aimer, a retired United Airlines captain and chief executive officer of Aero Consulting Experts

The people in the helicopter should have seen where they were going,

Trump said

Conspiracy theories don't f---ing help Taylor. I live in DC like 10min from Reagan, they share air space with Joint Base Bolling. So it's common to see Airport planes and mil aircraft flying overhead, the problem came down to horrible communication, either with (ATC) or the Helo.”

Someone commented

You can't tell me this isn't suspicious. My heart aches for those on that plane. Literally everyone's worst nightmare.”

Uploading a clip of the tragedy, he captioned the post

We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,

said John Donnelly, the fire chief in the nation’s capital

The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,

the report said

I’ve been crying since yesterday,

Andemicael said, her voice cracking

Both pilots had flown this specific route before, at night. This wasn’t something new to either one of them,

said Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation

PAT25, do you have a CRJ in sight? PAT25, pass behind the CRJ,

an air traffic controller says at 8:47 p.m. ET (0147 GMT) on Wednesday, ... according to a recording on liveatc.net

I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven't seen anything since they hit the river,

an air traffic controller says

Glenn Youngkinvirginia Governor

Everything was routine up to the point of the accident,

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin told Reuters

A number of us have been sounding the alarm about congestion for some time,

he said of DCA’s flight schedule, noting the

You don’t want to be the rookie on your first flight landing there,

said Campbell, who is also a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel

The airspace is both complicated and crowded as an increasingly high volume of passenger planes share the air, and communications frequencies, with military aircraft, VIP flights, White House transportation and drones flying clandestine operations,

he wrote

They don’t have time to be looking out the side window for a black helicopter,

he said