Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

American Airlines Jet Collides In Midair With Black Hawk Chopper; Camera Captures Moment Of Midair Collision; Black Hawk That Collided With Jet Was On Training Flight; Passenger Jet Collides in Midair With an U.S. Army Black Hawk Helicopter in Washington; 60 Passengers, Four Crew Members Onboard American Airlines Flight 5342; Three Military Personnel Onboard U.S. Army Helicopter; Official Says 300 Responders Working on Search and Rescue. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired January 30, 2025 - 02:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:00]

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: There was a really landmark one in 2009 over the Hudson River involving a general aviation airplane and a helicopter. And sometimes they just there, there's a different viewpoint. The pilots are maybe looking at the runway. They're locked in trying to land and that helicopter may have just not seen it, or the other way around.

So you just have to see and avoid and it seems like there was at least some effort by the controllers in the tower there at National Airport talking to both the helicopter and that flight to try and deconflict the two of them.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Pete Muntean, thank you. We're waiting to hear from officials again. They say they do expect to brief again in the morning. Our breaking news coverage will continue on this deadly mid-air crash here in Washington with Omar Jimenez right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and from all around the world. I'm Omar Jimenez in New York. We are following the breaking news tonight. The mid-air collision in the U.S. Capitol that we're told has resulted in fatalities. An American Airlines passenger plane in a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided near Reagan National Airport in Washington.

There's no official word yet on how many people have died or whether there are any -- coming into CNN show the wreckage in the freezing Potomac River. You can see the details there, investigators piecing through what they have were search and rescue efforts continue. You see the piece -- pieces of the plane in the water there. 60 passengers and four crew members were on board flight 5342 which is flying from Wichita, Kansas and approaching Reagan National Airport. Now, the U.S. military helicopter was carrying three soldiers and conducting a training flight at the time of the crash. You can see their flight paths and where they unfortunately met. A camera captured the moment of the collision. The American Airlines Flight is the large highlighted in the center of the screen. The smaller helicopter comes in from the left, and then you see that fireball there erupting in the sky.

That is the moment of collision, and you see debris falling down to the river below. Right now, so many people are wondering what went wrong and whether anyone could have survived. Now, authorities didn't provide those answers during questions at a news conference last hour, but they did talk about the difficult conditions hundreds of first responders are dealing with.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF JOHN DONNELLY, WASHINGTON, D.C. FIRE AND EMS: So, the challenges are access. The water that we're operating in is about eight-feet deep, there is wind, there is pieces of ice out there, so it's just dangerous and hard to work in and because there's not a lot of lights, you're out there searching every square inch of space to see if you can find anybody. Divers are doing the same thing in the water. The water is dark, it is murky, and that is a very tough condition for them to dive in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And just for perspective, temperatures in the Potomac River currently hovering around 35 degrees Fahrenheit, just above one degree Celsius, according to the National Weather Service. Now at that temperature in the water, a person may lose their physical abilities in as little as three minutes and become unconscious within 15 to 30 minutes. Hypothermia and other dangers usually increase with prolonged exposure as well.

I want to bring in Gabe Cohen, who joins us from Reagan National Airport where the American Airlines jet was headed just before this collision. Gabe, I know you've been there talking to officials over the course of the night following some of these developments, including from sources on the scene. What are you hearing?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Omar, I can tell you I spoke with a law enforcement source just a few minutes ago, who is at the scene where that search and rescue operation is happening right now, and he told me there's a really somber mood even at the rescue scene. We heard that as well from officials a little bit earlier. It feels certainly not officially, but that we're sort of moving from that search and rescue operation into a recovery effort.

We know that they have not pulled any survivors out of the water. Some -- they have pulled several bodies out. There are fatalities confirmed at the scene. And now we're just waiting for answers that investigation the NTSB will lead is already underway. We heard from the new transportation secretary, who said that he has been in touch with the White House, with the FAA. So, we know that investigators at work is getting going.

But in terms of the actual rescue operation, you mentioned, they are dealing with brutal conditions out there. The water is icy, it is choppy, and their rescue boats and the divers have been able to get images that were brought back to shore. And the source that I've been speaking with, who is onshore at the scene said that those pictures are stunning, much like the ones that we have been showing here on CNN.

They said that it's hard to even make out the pieces of the aircraft. It is broken into pieces in the water. The helicopter upside down. It's been bobbing up and down making things even more difficult for the search and rescue teams.

[02:05:06]

The dive teams that are trying to access those spaces. But it feels at this point, despite the effort we have seen from first responders, that they really haven't stood much of a chance in the scene. They are hoping, of course, still for a miracle as daylight breaks here in the next couple hours, but those conditions are so brutal, they really have to just pray for a miracle. There's not much more to do.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, you talk about the conditions, we know that the search and rescue efforts have been ongoing, that the mayor describing it as a rescue operation. But, of course, that threshold of rescue versus recovery such a grim one, but obviously one under consideration when you when you look at the time that this happened. I mean, the first alert sounded 8:48 p.m. local time.

We're coming up on six hours at this point and we heard from one of the senators from Kansas saying that he hadn't seen, at least from his perspective, had not seen many ambulances leaving the scene. Gabe, I know you've been there at the airport for hours, really, since this happened. What is the mood been like at the airport? Have you seen people trying to figure out what's going on, trying to potentially locate loved ones who may have unfortunately been on this flight?

COHEN: Well, we know that there has been some of that here at the airport. I can tell you that we are situated in Terminal One. There are two terminals here at DCA, and we were told at that press conference that there have been family members of the likely victims in this crash who are here at the airport, who came here to pick up loved ones, and they are -- tonight they have been with counselors and officials in an airport lounge who are trying to work with them through this and help them get information.

In terms of where we're standing here, the airport, Omar, is shut down right now. I'm looking at several screens around me that say there is an emergency alert due to an emergency situation. All flights are being held on the airfield, and we know the airport is going to be shut down into the morning at this point until 11:00 a.m. So, it is quiet in a lot of ways here at the airport, but we've been here along with a lot of members of the media. We're waiting for a long time for officials to finally arrive. And you could just tell, you know, Omar, having covered so many of these press conferences, you can sort of read the room and read the mood. And while officials wouldn't give any sort of official information on the recovery and any potential survivors or the fatality count, you could just tell that it was not good and that barring a miracle, they were looking at, you know, potentially the worst disaster here in Washington in decades.

JIMENEZ: In decades. And, you know, even when you look across the United States, accidents like this are incredibly rare. You have to go back almost 16 years even find anything similar, but to have a collision like this between two -- between a Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger plane like this, incredibly devastating. CNN's Gabe Cohen, stay close. We'll come back to you at Reagan National Airport. Really appreciate the reporting.

I want to show you all some new video -- we'll come back to that video as well. I want to bring in, though, David Soucie, a CNN safety analyst and former FAA safety inspector as well. I want to pick up on a little bit of what Gabe and I were talking about. We heard it from Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Mayor as well still describing this as a rescue operation rather than a recovery operation. Look, it is a grim distinction.

I am not making any light of that. But where or when do you make that distinction at this point?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, investigators will find out exactly at what point is the accident survivable had you survived the initial impact. So, at this point, my experience in that have what -- goes way back to 1982 and that was the Potomac crash over the 14th Street Bridge. At that point, there were four survivors in the Air Florida accident flight 90 at that time. And those four survivors, though, were brought out of the river.

And that was also in January. It was January 13th and -- during that time, the four survivors were brought out by bystanders who jumped into the river, tied ropes on themselves, went out there and -- two fatally -- that tried to make that rescue died in that -- in that attempt. But they were able to get four people out, but that was within maybe 15 minutes. The water is deadly cold and you cannot survive it for very long as Tom had mentioned before.

So, at this point, I'm certain at this point they've -- in their own minds that they haven't officially declared it that because there's some processes that have -- they have to go through to make sure that they do it properly. But at this point, I don't see that there would be any survivors after where we at four hours later, five hours later, it would be very, very miraculous to find anybody surviving that.

[02:10:11]

JIMENEZ: And, you know, maybe to this point. We just heard from Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas. He said they haven't seen any ambulances leaving the scene at this time. Obviously still a dynamic situation, so that could have changed in just the past few minutes or last hour. But does that tell you anything?

SOUCIE: The fact that there are no ambulances going out of there? Yes, it tells you a lot. There's -- there would be urgency, there would be movement in the early hours of the rescue operation, if you recall the first broadcasts that happened. There were sirens blowing. There were people moving around trying to get positioned to the right place and trying to look for survivors.

Now, if you also look, they started putting floodlights on top of the water. I hate to be too morose about this, but the main reason that you do that at that point is to look for anything that's surfacing. So, if there are loose bodies that were not still in contained in the aircraft, those bodies would float up to the top, and that's how they would find them most likely. So that's typically what we'll do in a -- in a rescue operation that's turning into a recovery operation to start looking for anything floating.

Any debris that's floating on the top and then investigate that to see if it might be one of the -- one of the souls that were on board.

JIMENEZ: And you know, David, look, I think you know the operations well in regards to the relationship between their air traffic control tower, the pilot, and perhaps a military vehicle or military helicopter and a passenger, commercial jet plane. Look, we've seen the video of the collision. I don't think we necessarily need to play it again, but based on what you saw there, what may have gone wrong?

I mean, what is the communication sort of structure in a situation like that, when you have a plane coming in to land and perhaps another helicopter flying in a either similar or nearby path?

SOUCIE: There are so many safety vulnerabilities. You know, I've done a lot of aircraft accidents, investigated them, and I've never seen one that had one singular cause. It's a culmination. It's a -- it's a disastrous combination of these failures. The safety system failures and that's what we have here are multiple failures, one of them, which could very well be the communications. There are different frequencies between the military.

They operate on communications with the military at one frequency, and then they operate at the airport, communications commercially with a different frequency. So they're not directly connected to each other. They're not calling each other saying, hey, I have you in sight, or anything like that, like you would in visual rules. At night, this -- it -- that's one of the problems that I see in it.

The other thing is that you can over rely on the TCAS system that the traffic control that allows you to know whether there's an aircraft coming at you or not. So that Air Traffic Control System, the TCAS, will warn you if there's aircraft coming approaching at you. The faulty part of that is the fact that if that aircraft isn't approaching you, it only looks forward. So, if the helicopter, this airplane was coming to the north and turning left and -- or excuse me, if the airplane was doing that and the helicopters coming the opposite way, if it's to the side of the airplane which appears to me that is what happened. The TCAS would not have given a warning to the pilot. So that's two of the vulnerabilities. The other vulnerability that in -- and when I was based in Washington, D.C. in the FAA headquarters for many years and I would fly mostly at night, doing surveillance. I sit in the cockpit, in the jump seat, and watch these flights go in and out, watch the pilots, how they act. That was part of my job as a safety inspector.

So, literally hundreds of flights in and out of DCA at night going over that black piece of water at the bottom. And it literally is like turning off all the lights. You cannot see anything out there. There's a light here, a light there. They don't mean anything to you. So, you really have to pay attention to exactly where you're going. And if that light from the helicopter wasn't present which it wouldn't have been, if he was turning away from it, they would have had no clue what was coming at them at all.

So, you put -- combine all of those things together, the fact that this is one of the busiest airports. Not only is it the busiest, it's the most complex airport. There's military and commercial together. There's flight restrictions on where you can fly, what kind of approaches you have to make and there's demands on how quickly those airplanes have to come in and out. You can't just say, wait, I'm going to go around again without having a lot to do to get to that place.

So, there's so many factors. I am surprised that there hasn't had something happen before.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, David on that front, look, want to be sensitive here, there is a -- there are families waiting to figure out if their loved ones are among those that were potentially killed in this crash.

[02:15:03]

But there also is an investigation likely beginning as well, trying to figure out what may went wrong, where collision points were. As an investigator, when you arrive to a dynamic scene like this, what are some of the first things that you're looking for?

SOUCIE: People, people, people. It's all about helping people at that point. That's the first job, the rescue operation. That's why they're not quick to jump from rescue to recovery, because of the fact that there are people involved, there's families involved, they want to know that there's hope. It's hard to accept that those things have happened. Obviously, you can't under -- you can't overemphasize how important it is to manage that communication with the people and the people that are going through the grief and the sorrow of having lost a loved one.

That's the number one thing that any investigator, any investigator in charge, the NTSB, the FAA, anyone on site, is going to be addressing that first. Once those people are handled and dealt with and you're comfortable with the fact that they are dealing with it appropriately, and have a place to grieve with that. And the NTSB has done great things with trying to give a family grieving center and those sorts of things at the accident sites. So, that's been much better than it has been ever before. So that's going on now. The next thing you do, after you've agreed and everyone's been handled with the people side of it. Then you start looking at the recovery aspect and do how do we get it? How do we preserve evidence? You communicate with your local authorities, make sure they understand that everything they do, everything they touch, can change the evidence.

Can change what's happening, can destroy evidence and damage the boxes and the information that is available on site. So, that has to be the next thing that you do is coordinate with the local authorities and make sure that they know how to do this recovery properly. And then at that point, you have to gather all that information in one place. And that's the purpose of the team.

The Go Team at the NTSB is rarely deployed in the United States. It's been 15 or 16 years since we've had anything to do here in the United States. So, the Go team has put together. They're out there. They're bringing experts. You have experts from air traffic control. You have experts from the manufacturers of the airplanes, the military experts. It's a very, very extensive operation in -- with the goal of trying to make sure it never happens again.

JIMENEZ: David Sousie really appreciate the time and perspective on what is still an ongoing situation right now, as hundreds of first responders are working through this scene right now. Thank you for being here.

We also have some new video just into CNN that appears to show the moment of the mid-air collision. It was recorded by a security camera at Reagan National Airport. You can see that giant orange fireball with pieces of the debris falling from the sky. Again, a collision between a passenger jet, commercial plane, and a military Black Hawk helicopter.

Joining me now from Washington is CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. You know, I've lived in D.C. I know you have spent a lot of time in D.C. For those that live there, it may be commonplace to look up in the sky and you see military aircraft, you see commercial planes, you see all different levels. So, you might see police helicopters, all different levels and jurisdictions of aircraft that are in the sky.

From a military perspective, what types of aircraft are typically in the sky in Washington, D.C.? Why would a Black Hawk helicopter be flying potentially this close to Reagan National Airport?

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Omar. That's a great question. Well, one of the key things that these helicopters do is provide transport to officials and also, they ferry, you know, things like documents and cargo and all kinds of other things that the military needs at various places. So, in this particular case, what we have is a U.H.60 Black Hawk helicopter from the 12th aviation battalion that's based at Fort Belvoir Davis Army Airfield which is south of Washington near Mount Vernon. And these aircraft provide among other things, VIP transport for Army leadership, as well as members of the Joint Staff and other entities in and around the D.C. area. So, the Pentagon is an area where they would fly normally and they often use the rivers like the Potomac River, the Anacostia River and some of the other bodies of water around here as ways to navigate. They also use some of the highways.

There's an interstate highway that travels as, you know, south of D.C. and interstate 395 that goes right by the Pentagon.

[02:20:01]

And these helicopters will often use Interstate 395 as a way to navigate, not only about traffic, but as a means to get from point A to point B. So, there's a lot of training that goes on for these pilots. It's a very congested air environment. There also, of course, are other types of helicopters, like Marine One, that is -- that are used. They are different to type of helicopter from the -- from the Black Hawk but have a similar function.

And of course, Marine One is the helicopter that transports the President of the United States. And so, those are some of the things, some of the aircraft that you see around here, and it's really part of a very dynamic environment. You mentioned the police helicopters, plus some other aviation assets, including press helicopters in some cases. So, there's a lot going on here and it's a very complex environment and accidents like this as David mentioned in your previous conversation. It's one that they haven't happened more off, more frequently.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, and just for our viewers perspective, this was the U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter was on a training flight at the time of the incident. Crew of three people, as we understand, not carrying any senior military officials, but a crew of three nonetheless, as a source tells CNN. But training flight. So, what sort of -- what sort of scenarios are you training for when you have a crew on a training flight, what are you training them for, especially in D.C. airspace?

LEIGHTON: So, one of the things that they're training for, Omar, is that very congested air environment that I spoke about. There are different types of familiarizations that take place for pilots and other crew members on these helicopters. You will often see them flying in areas that are just outside of the city. That's to get familiar with those particular areas. They will train not only to learn the geography, but also to learn the flight patterns.

They will train to learn how the commercial aviation operates in this area. You've got two major airports right around D.C., Reagan National being one of them, the other one being Dulles. And then up north, you have Baltimore, Washington International. So, there's a lot of -- lot of air traffic that way. The other thing that they're doing is they're checking their instruments. They're winning how to fly in that particular environment with night -- with vision goggles.

And that's the kind of thing that that they do, for example. Plus, they also use instruments of various types to do that. So that's the kind of thing that that they train for. A lot of training goes on, you know, basically around the clock around here, so that they're not only mission ready, but potentially combat ready as well.

JIMENEZ: Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you for the time and perspective. A lot of breaking news to follow in this developing story. I want to go now to CNN's Brian Abel who is standing by in Alexandria, Virginia. Outside, we can see some of the scene behind you there. Brian, what have you seen with your own eyes at what is clearly a very active scene?

BRIAN ABEL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Active scene, an unsettling one as well, Omar. We've seen the helicopter flying over with the spotlight, searching these waters here on the edge of Potomac, looking for anything, whether it be a survivor or anybody from that flight or that helicopter. And in fact, just about the last hour or two, law enforcement officers came alongside here, where there's a handful of media here on the edge of this river, and asked us to turn off our bright lights.

That's why it might appear them a little bit more dimly lit than we otherwise would be because the lights were interfering with their night vision goggles as they were trying to search. We've also seen boats in the water here looking along the edge as well. We do know 300 or so first responders are working this scene here tonight. But right now, we know there's no survivors that have been pulled that we are aware of. Yet, the search still continues.

They haven't called it a recovery effort just yet. They're still calling it a search and rescue at the moment, but a very eerie, unsettling scene here, Omar, as we look over my right shoulder here, we see Reagan Air National Airport with those first responder lights. We see the U.S. Capitol in the distance, the Washington Monument right there and the scene of multiple people in the water and the search and rescue effort underway right now.

JIMENEZ: And Brian, can you just give our viewers some perspective about Washington, D.C. airspace? Clearly, look, we have a -- we have a helicopter crashing into a passenger plane.

[02:25:06]

But this is one of the most -- this is one of the busiest air spaces in the country airspace.

ABEL: Omar, you know this, you've been in the D.C. bureau. We have a view of the U.S. Capitol, and we see all the planes as well that are coming in for landing or taking off all the time every day. It seems it never ends. So yes, this is one of the busiest airports that are servicing it's the closest one here to the nation's capital. So, another eerie, unsettling kind of feeling of not seeing anything in the airspace other than that one helicopter that has been circling here for most of the night.

We are told that the airport will remain closed until at least Thursday morning at 11:00 a.m. and also, we should note that American Airlines has said that they've set up a call line as well as a center in Reagan for families of loved ones. Omar?

JIMENEZ: Brian Abel, really appreciate the reporting. We're continuing to follow the breaking news tonight as mid-air collision in the U.S. Capitol that we're told has resulted in fatalities. These images coming into CNN live right now of what it looks like at the scene as hundreds of first responders are piecing through the wreckage. We're going to have more after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:30:40]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWSROOM": Welcome back, everyone. Let's get right back to the breaking news. We're following the collision between a passenger plane and a military helicopter in the U.S. Capitol. A massive search and rescue effort is underway for 64 people onboard American Airlines Flight 5342 and a crew of three in the U.S. Army helicopter.

A law enforcement source tells CNN that just about every agency in the area is involved. The moment of the collision was captured on a local surveillance camera. You can see the brightly lit passenger plane near the horizon, as the helicopter travels from the left there. You see that dot, and as they get closer and closer and closer, you then of course see that moment of impact and that bright light. A source tells CNN, there are confirmed fatalities as rescuers have yet to pull any survivors from the water to this point.

This is what the scenes have looked like to tonight. The CEO of American Airlines says he will be heading to Washington, D.C. to assess the plane collision and support families of those who are on the plane as well as employees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT ISOM, CEO, AMERICAN AIRLINES: Our cooperation is without pause and we want to learn everything we can about today's events. That work will take time, but anything we can do now, we're doing. And right now, that means focusing on taking care of all passengers and crew involved, as well as their families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And at this point, there are a lot of families wondering where their loved ones might be and hoping to hear from some of those loved ones. One man whose wife was on the American Airlines plane told CNN's local affiliate, WUSA, that he received a text from his wife just before the plane was supposed to land. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAMAAD RAZA, WIFE WAS ON THE PLANE THAT CRASHED: I'm just praying that somebody's pulling her out of the river right now, as we speak. That's all I can pray for. Just praying to God.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When was the last time you spoke with her? RAZA: She texted me we were land -- that they were landing in 20 minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you show us that text message that you got from her?

RAZA: Landing in 20 minutes? The rest of my text didn't -- didn't -- did not get delivered. That's when I realized something might be up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Just heartbreaking reality there. I want to bring in CNN's Brian Todd in Arlington, Virginia. Brian, I know you've been out there for the past few hours now. What have you seen over that scene area? I know it's gone through phases of being more active than not, but what are you seeing right now?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Omar, I can set the scene for you here. We're at the Dangerfield Marina in Alexandria, just south of Reagan National Airport. Our photojournalist, Steve Williams, can pan to his right -- to your right, my left, and you can see some floodlighting over across the river. Now that is the area of Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, which is a joint naval and air force base. We -- what we don't know is whether that is the exact pinpointed location of where the plane is or not.

It could be where the plane is, or it could be just an area where they're bringing in and deploying boats and other equipment and apparatus. We do know this is a fairly wide area of response because we see flashing red lights all along the river from Reagan National on our side to the D.C. side over there. At various points, helicopters and boats have been deployed near us. At one point, not too long ago, a park police officer came over to the park and talked to reporters and asked us not to train our brighter lights onto the river because that was impeding their vision of the divers and the other rescuers.

So, we turned our lights away from the river. But now, you can see -- well, what we cannot see right now are a lot of boats in the water, although I'm sure there are some over there in that area where the flood lighting is. But there were many more boats in the water a short time ago. So Omar, that's the scene here as the rescue operation continues and of course, we're all unfortunately waiting to hear for when the rescue operation becomes a recovery operation.

Our colleague Gabe Cohen has reported that bodies have been pulled from the water. We want to hold off right now in saying exactly how many bodies have been pulled from the water because we don't have a lot of great information on that.

[02:35:00]

We did hear a short time ago that there was Air Traffic Control audio which indicated that the pilot of the Black Hawk helicopter had the passenger plane in his sights a few seconds before the crash occurred, before the collision occurred. And then about 13 seconds after that, pilot reported that, Air Traffic Control observed, what appeared to be the collision. So, there was an indication that the pilot of the Black Hawk helicopter did have the passenger plane in his sights at least a few seconds before impact.

Now, of course, a lot more information has to come out as to whether mistakes were made on the part of anyone in any of the aircraft or on the ground, which led to this. Obviously, mistakes were made, but what -- who made the mistakes and when they were made and what the nature of those mistakes were, that is going to be so crucial in figuring out how this accident occurred in an area that we have to say, is very, very heavily trafficked by many types of aircraft all day long.

There are many military bases around here. The Pentagon is not far from where we're standing here. The Pentagon has a helipad, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, near Mount Vernon, which is not far from here. That's where the helicopter was based. That has a helipad. The CIA has a helipad near here. So, a lot of military installations with helipads, a lot of small aircraft, choppers are always flying at low altitudes as planes come in from far away locations to Reagan National Airport.

So, this is an area that is just heavily trafficked with a lot of aircraft at all times of the day and night. And unfortunately, this is something that occurred, as apparently this one military helicopter was on a training mission pretty late at night on Wednesday night, Omar.

JIMENEZ: And Brian, we've been showing images of the scene while you've been talking, but one thing we can't get a sense of just from looking at it is the weather, the conditions. We have heard from officials that they have been cold in dark conditions. We know the water temperature has been in the 30s to this point, which obviously makes any survivability that much more difficult even in the immediate minutes after being exposed to that. What are the conditions right now? What have you felt -- what are these first responders feeling?

TODD: Well, we can tell you, Omar, that the conditions are getting worse as we get toward the early morning hours. The temperature has really dropped. It's supposed to drop to maybe around freezing or maybe below freezing by about 6:00 a.m., a few hours from now. The water is in the 30s, as you mentioned. The Chief of the D.C. Fire and EMS Service, John Donnelly, has said that it was windy and very cold where the divers and the rescuers were across the river from us. It is not so windy where we are, but we can see that the currents of the water, actually, I can physically see now that the currents of the water have gotten more choppy in the last hour or so.

It was very smooth where we are not too long ago, but I can see the currents have gotten choppier. So, the water has gotten more, just more problematic for the rescuers. And at its best, the Potomac is a very brackish river and very shallow. So the visibility there is not very good under the best of circumstances. And now, it's even worse in the pitch black. And again, the average depth of this river is only 24 feet and it's very shallow here where we are and across the river is probably equally as shallow. We do know that parts of the fuselage of that plane are above water as the rescuers are working around it. JIMENEZ: And to this point, we're now coming up on almost six hours from when the first alerts went out, and we have not gotten any reports of survivors being pulled. And given the conditions you just listed, Brian, much more grim situation -- a much more grim picture seems to be being painted. Brian Todd, really appreciate the reporting. We'll come back to you.

Preliminary flight tracking data shows the paths of both aircraft as they collided just south of Reagan National Airport outside of Washington. CNN's Tom Foreman has that.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it's helpful to have an idea of how this all lays out. If you've been to D.C., the Capitol, the White House, all of that is up here, the Pentagon is up here. So just to give you a little lay of the land, that's north up there. Pete has been talking all evening about the runway they were originally headed for. That's this one, right through here. They did not go that way. They diverted off to come in on this one over here, which is a different runway. That's the direction they were coming in from to land at this very busy airport.

If you look at Flightradar24, you can also see the tracking on this plane of where it was coming in over this way. We've had witnesses over here talk about seeing the plane and seeing it turn so they could see the whole belly of the plane at one point. We have witnesses up here who've told us on air about seeing the accident.

[02:40:00]

So this is the area we're talking about. The river is not terribly wide here. This plane was actually truly within seconds of touching down when all this happened. The type of plane, this is not the plane, but it's the type of plane typically has 2x2 seating inside. This is a configuration. When it comes into land, it's going to be at maybe 150 miles an hour to put it in road terms. The Black Hawk helicopter we're talking about also capable of speeds like that and more. We have no idea though, because the helicopter can also be moving quite slowly.

This is a 12,000 to 13,000 pound vehicle. So the collision, the kinetic energy of that, absolutely immense. And we've talked an awful lot about the notion of the water down here. When we talk about the current, the current is flowing this way. The Potomac and the Anacostia River coming together, so fairly strong current pushing down this way and as Brian noted, a lot of countercurrent. But the water temperature, yeah, that's a huge issue here.

The Coast Guard would put survival -- we talk about your ability to do anything, swimming or anything like that, that's usually limited to 10, 15 minutes before your muscles, your brain really struggles to function well in that kind of cold. And the Coast Guard puts survival overall at maybe an hour and a half.

JIMENEZ: And it is now, again, coming up on six hours since the first alerts went out before this crash. And we are also getting Air Traffic Control audio obtained that captured the moment before, during, and after the crash. Now, we're not going to play the moments when controllers actually reacted to the collision, but we can play this segment when the tower alerts another pilot about what has taken place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know if we caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approach end of 3-3. We are going to be shutting down operations for the indefinite future. If you want to go back to the gate, I would suggest you guys coordinate with the company. Let me know what you want to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will let the company -- yeah, talking to them right now. Yeah, we witnessed the whole thing if you need any information from us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And that's real-time reaction in the moment, including from an eyewitness who saw the American Airlines plane just minutes before the crash. They described the moment leading up to the incident. Here's what Ari Schulman told CNN earlier.

ARI SCHULMAN, WITNESSED PLANE CRASH (through telephone): I saw only about two seconds of it, but I believe that what I saw was the collision. So I was headed south, going straight. The airport was off to my left. I was looking at the line of planes coming in because that highway lines up almost exactly with the line of planes coming into land. It's just off to the right a little bit.

So I was driving home, and I always watch that line of planes coming in. I saw how evenly spaced apart they were, and I thought there might be one right off to my left, right about to land. It looked like the spacing was right. So I looked off and I saw, initially I saw the plane and it looked fine, normal. It was right about to head over land. It was maybe 120 feet above the water. It looked like a fairly -- a small end, but normal size passenger jet, and it looked normal. It was level.

So I looked back at the road and then I looked back again just to see if I could maybe see it land. And this was three seconds later. And at that point, it was banked all the way to the right. I would say maybe past the right past 90 degrees. I could see the underside of it. It was lit up, a very bright yellow, and there was a stream of sparks underneath it. It looked like a Roman candle, if you've ever hold one of those on the 4th of July. But it was much, much bigger than that. It was high off the ground.

I didn't see anything beyond that. I didn't see any helicopter. It's a very, very dark night out tonight. So anything that's not illuminated, you can't really see. So I didn't see the other aircraft, but I saw the plane banking at an angle that a plane shouldn't bank. And I saw sparks flying.

JIMENEZ: And it matches both what we've seen on video many times to this point, that collision, a bright ball in the night sky. If you believe you may have loved ones onboard American Airlines Flight 5342, you need to call toll free (800) 679-8215 for more information if you're in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. Or go to the American Airlines website at news.aa.com for more phone numbers.

Look, we're following breaking news of the plane and helicopter collision near Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C. Law enforcement source tells CNN authorities have confirmed fatalities and we're going to show you live images. This is what you're seeing here as search and rescue efforts are ongoing several hours after the crash. Now at this time, first responders haven't yet recovered any survivors from the frigid waters of the Potomac.

This other video from security camera at Reagan National Airport shows the moment of impact and that giant fireball in the sky with debris falling down afterward. That is the moment of the crash.

[02:45:00]

Now, about 300 emergency responders are working the rescue operations, including underwater dive teams with night vision. These are some of the clearest images we've seen of the scene that they are working through right now. The plane is in pieces and the U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter is nearby. Officials say there were 64 people on board the plane and three soldiers in the Army helicopter.

U.S. President Donald Trump posted online that the crash "Looks like it should have been prevented." Now, Trump wrote that the plane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport on a clear night. He asked why the helicopter didn't turn and why the control tower didn't tell the helicopter what to do. It's not immediately clear whether the president's post was based on information on which he'd been previously briefed. But CNN is reaching out to the White House on that front.

I want to bring in Scott Hamilton, an aviation analyst and the author of the book "Air Wars." He joins us from Chicago. Scott, thanks for being here. What are your initial impressions based on what we've seen from now the surveillance video and cell phone video of how this collision actually unfolded and what we have learned since?

SCOTT HAMILTON, AVIATION ANALYST (through telephone): The audio from the Air Traffic Control Center makes it clear that they had warned the helicopter about the presence of the airplane. We haven't heard any audio so far about ATC communicating with the American Eagle Flight, so we don't know if they were aware of the helicopter. That'll come out.

We have seen some stilt fixtures of the CRJ in the water. It looks like the impact may have been after the wings or the airplane split in two after the wings. That's where the flight data and cockpit voice recorders are located. That's going to be something that the National Transportation Safety Board is going to want to find. Hopefully, the collision would not have damaged those recorders. They may well have. So we want to find out what's on those recorders as well.

JIMENEZ: And you know, you mentioned the ATC audio and communication with the helicopter here. Can you just give our viewers a sense of the communication patterns that would've been going on between the ATC tower, this commercial plane, and this military helicopter?

HAMILTON (through telephone): Well, according to another video that I've seen that was online, there were some collision avoidance warnings associated with the transponder identification of the helicopter and of the CRJ. So, the controllers should have been in communication with both aircraft to let them know about the presence of the other one. We've heard that they were in communication with the helicopter. So far, I haven't heard about any communication with the CRJ, but that should have occurred.

JIMENEZ: And collisions like this especially are very rare. Crashes are also rare as well. But anytime there is a crash, I mean, you go back to 2013, Asiana Airlines flight, but also 2009 as well, the Colgan Air Flight 3407 crash near Buffalo. Whenever there is a crash, there is always a new set of standards or things that are learned from what may have went wrong or things that were learned as part of the investigation into certain crashes. Where are you potentially looking in this situation? Or where are you most interested from an investigative standpoint from this collision here?

HAMILTON (through telephone): Obviously, why didn't the two airplane pilots see each other? There's a see and be seen rule involved. The one video shows that the helicopter was lit up and its strobe light was flashing. Now, I've never been in a Black Hawk helicopter, so I can't speak to the visibility from the cockpit. I have been in a CRJ cockpit, and when you're coming in landing, there is a blind spot where you can't really see below the airplane. So the NTSB is going to be looking at the visibility and the blind spot issues.

JIMENEZ: Scott Hamilton, thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate the time and perspective.

HAMILTON (through telephone): You're welcome.

JIMENEZ: And as we were just talking about, statistically, flying is the safest form of travel. Commercial plane crashes in the United States are extremely rare. But some of the latest fatal incidents include the Asiana Airlines crash in 2013, three people were killed and 187 injured when the Boeing 777 crash landed at the San Francisco International Airport. Investigators there though say the cause was pilot error.

[02:50:00]

And in 2009, a Colgan Air Regional Flight crashed into a house near Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people onboard and one person on the ground. Investigators believe the pilot of that plane was not qualified to fly it. Meanwhile, an audio recording from the D.C. Air Traffic Control tower captures the moments just after the crash. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crash, crash, crash. This is alert three. Crash, crash, crash. This is alert three. Crash. Crash, Crash. This is alert three.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's the alert three?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's off the approach into runway, 3-3. Approaching into runway 3-3. Helicopter crash. Helicopter, CRJ approach into runway 3-3.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The approach into runway, 3-3, a mile off (ph) final.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tower, this is operations. Was that a helo and a CRJ?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is affirmative, helo, CRJ approach into 3-3.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tower, ops.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do we know what helicopter company?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pat?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a military?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And that was literally the Air Traffic Control dispatchers reacting in the moment, trying to process what they had just seen with their own eyes, likely in disbelief. CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean also notes an accident like this is incredibly rare, as we mentioned. Earlier, he explained to our Kaitlan Collins potential factors that could have caused the deadly collision. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: I get a lot of questions about, is flying safe? Typically, I answer yes. Now, it gives me a bit of pause, knowing that this has happened and we have had a bit of an aligning of the holes in the Swiss cheese that so many aviation experts have warned about. A mid-air collision like this is incredibly rare, and really has not happened involving a commercial flight in decades.

1978 was about the same time, and perhaps a grim piece of irony involving a PSA flight. It's important to note, as we continue to hear about PSA, this airline that was operating this flight on behalf of American Airlines, that is a company that is owned wholly by American Airlines. This is the flight path that you can see here. The yellow line is of the helicopter. This is the flight tracking data. The orange line is of that American Airlines PSA flight coming into land on runway 3-3 at Reagan National Airport.

This is a common and routine approach, typically utilized by Air Traffic Controllers to try and squeeze planes in a little bit faster. This is the image of the fireball that ensued of the helicopter coming right to left toward the bright light there. That is that PSA American Airlines flight and then smash, that is the mid-air collision and the parts falling to the icy Potomac River below water temperature about 35 degrees tonight.

I've pointed this out a couple times prior, and I have a few models here to demonstrate just how hard it can be for a pilot of a -- pilots of a commercial airline or two pilots in that airplane and the pilots of helicopters, to see one another typically --

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Where -- yeah, where are the blind spots? If you're -- you're a pilot, Pete, so you understand this very well obviously, where are the blind spots if you're on either of these aircraft?

MUNTEAN: The blind spot in a commercial airliner is really anything that the pilots are not focused on. When you're descending, you can't see super well below and in front of you. So, it is said that pilot's doing a typical approach in a commercial airliner, their brains are lighting off with the same frequency as a doctor doing cardiovascular surgery, open heart surgery.

COLLINS: Because they're that focused on all aspects.

MUNTEAN: It's an incredible focus. You're focused on the instruments and also focused on the runway. You are locked in. The blind spots in a helicopter, helicopter pilots typically are looking at the ground. And the altitude here was only at about 300 feet, so you can see here, as the collision sort of is ensuing, helicopter pilots aren't looking up a lot because of where the rotors are. The pilots are probably locked in on the runway in front of them, and you could see how this sort of disaster is in the making.

So, it is really so important to underscore how infrequent midair collisions are. But how quickly the recipe, the bad recipe can be concocted and disaster can take place. This is likely going to be one of the worst air tragedies we have seen in 25 years, maybe more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And if you believe you may have loved ones on board American Airlines Flight 5342, I want to put up the number again. You can call toll free, (800) 679-8215 for more information if you're in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. Or you can visit the American Airlines website at news.aa.com for more phone numbers.

[02:55:00]

I'm Omar Jimenez. Our breaking news coverage continues after a quick break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)