What to Know About the Passenger Jet, Army Helicopter Collision Near Washington, D.C.

A total of 67 people are presumed dead after a regional American Airlines flight, operated by PSA Airlines, collided with an Army helicopter in midair on Wednesday night when it was about to land at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that there are no survivors, and hundreds of responders were deployed to the nearby Potomac River, where the crash occurred, for recovery efforts. “We are now at a point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” John Donnelly, chief of D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, said in a briefing Thursday.

In a follow-up news briefing on Friday morning, Donnelly said 42 sets of remains have been recovered so far, and the team is continuing their work on recovering the rest. The commercial jet had 64 people aboard, while the Army helicopter had three people on board, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser earlier confirmed.

The collision happened in one of the most monitored airspaces in the U.S., with its proximity to the White House, the U.S. Capitol, and other government buildings. The cause of the collision remains unknown, but the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which leads the investigation, has since recovered the commercial jet’s “black boxes”—the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder—for analysis, according to Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. Inman told ABC News that the helicopter’s black box was also recovered.

The collision is the U.S.’ first major commercial aviation incident in 16 years, following the Buffalo crash in 2009, which killed 49 aboard Colgan Air flight 3407 and one on the ground.

Here’s what we know so far:

What happened?

According to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a regional jet operated by PSA Airlines—a subsidiary of American Airlines—had departed from Wichita, Kans. and collided in midair with a U.S. Army Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk helicopter while approaching Reagan Airport’s Runway 33 at around 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

Video of the supposed collision captured by an observation camera circulated on social media—showing two lit-up elements in the sky converging before exploding into a fireball.

Air traffic controller audio TIME retrieved from LiveATC.net revealed what happened moments before the collision. The tower had cleared the plane for landing on Runway 33, but just seconds before the crash, an air traffic operator asked the helicopter—with radio call sign PAT 25—if the commercial jet—referred to as the CRJ—was in sight.

“PAT 2-5 do you have the CRJ in sight?” the air traffic operator said to the helicopter. After a brief pause, he said, “PAT 2-5 pass behind the CRJ.”

Seconds later, gasps and a loud “Oooh!” could be heard. Then: “Tower, did you see that?”

Later, in the transmission feed, someone from the tower said: “I don’t know if you caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approach in the 3-3. We are going to be shutting down operations for the indefinite future if you want to go back to the gate. Highly suggest you guys coordinate with the company. Let me know what you want to do.”

In the news conference on the morning of Thursday, Jan. 30, with Mayor Bowser and other D.C. officials, new Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters that the night sky was “clear” on the evening of the collision, and that the flight patterns of both the aircraft and helicopter were “standard.”

Duffy said that he and his team would not “rest until we have answers for the families and for the flying public.”

In a press briefing on Friday evening, Inman from the National Transportation Safety Board said that an investigation is underfoot, including intense scrutiny of every air traffic controller involved in the incident.

“We don’t have a lot of information right now. Our intention is to have a preliminary report in 30 days,” Inman said. “We will not be determining the probable cause of the accident while we are here on scene nor will we speculate about what may have caused this accident.”

This comes after the New York Times reported on Thursday that staffing at the airport’s traffic control tower was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.”

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Who was on board the helicopter?

A U.S. Army spokesperson confirmed to TIME that the helicopter had flown out of Fort Belvoir, an Army base in Virginia.

A U.S. defense official speaking to CNN confirmed that the helicopter had a crew of three and was not carrying any VIPs. Joint Task Force-National Capitol Region media chief Heather Chairez told CBS News that the helicopter was on a training flight and had belonged to B Company, 12th Aviation Battalion.

On Friday, the U.S. Army identified two of the soldiers in the helicopter: Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia, who is presumed deceased pending a positive identification, as well as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland. The remains of Eaves “have not yet been recovered,” per the Army’s update. On Saturday, the Army released the name of the third soldier, Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, of Durham, North Carolina.

“We continue to work with the families of our fallen Soldiers and support the ongoing investigations,” the Army said.

Who was on the passenger jet?

American Airlines told TIME there were 60 passengers and four crew members on board American Eagle flight 5342, and that they are in contact with authorities and assisting with emergency response efforts.

Russian state news agency TASS reported that Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, former world champions in pairs figure skating who have since become coaches, were aboard the plane.

The U.S. Figure Skating organization told NBC News early Thursday morning that several athletes, coaches, and family members were also on board, returning from a camp held alongside the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita. "We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts," the organization said.

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In a briefing on Thursday, Doug Zeghibe, the CEO of Skating Club of Boston, said that “to the best of our knowledge,” 14 members of the figure skating community—including coaches, athletes, and athletes’ moms—were passengers in the jet.

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA), a union of over 50,000 flight attendants across 20 airlines, said in a statement that two of its members were working on the flight. “We ask the public to keep the families in your thoughts and respect efforts to get information to loved ones first as everyone clings to hope for survivors,” the statement read. The two flight attendants on board included Danasia Elder, 34, according to the Charlotte Observer, and Ian Epstein, according to his family’s statement on Facebook.

Other victims have been identified by their families on social media and to news outlets. The crew of the passenger jet included Jonathan Campos, 34, and Sam Lilley, 28.

The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry, a Maryland-based organization representing approximately “384,000 plumbers and service technicians in the U.S. and Canada,” issued a statement on Thursday that five of its members were on the PSA Airlines-operated flight.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also confirmed in a press release on Friday that two Chinese nationals were passengers on the plane.

Read More: What We Know So Far About the Victims of the D.C. Plane Crash

What do we know about the passenger jet?

According to the AP, Flight 5342 was flying to Reagan National at an altitude of about 400 ft. and about 140 m.p.h. when it lost altitude rapidly over the Potomac River, citing data from the plane’s radio transponder. The transponder then stopped transmitting about 2,400 ft. away from the runway, approximately in the middle of the river.

Flight 5342, which flies from Wichita, Kans., used a CRJ700 plane from Canadian aircraft manufacturing company Bombardier. PSA Airlines began operating CRJ700 flights in 2002. The plane has a capacity of 65 seats.

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom told reporters that the captain of the flight and the first officer had spent six and two years respectively with the airline.

What is the status of the search and recovery efforts?

According to D.C. Fire Chief Donnelly during a press briefing on Friday, 42 sets of remains have been recovered from the crash as of Friday morning, and 28 of those bodies have been positively identified. As of 6 a.m. Friday, he said 18 next of kin have been contacted. The recovery was set to continue throughout the weekend.

Duffy said at the Thursday morning briefing that the two aircrafts have been located in three different sections of waist-deep water. He went on to say the NTSB and the FAA will work together to “analyze” the aircraft.

Donnelly said he expects that recovery operations will go on for days as weather conditions “are extremely rough” and “dangerous” for the responders.

The U.S. Geological Survey logged that the water in the Potomac River near Washington, D.C. was around 34°F around the time of the crash.

Donnelly explained that divers were having difficulty because the Potomac River is not lit and has “dark” and “murky” waters. He said that the wind had carried debris down the river, which will take time to recover, having spread out the span of the recovery operations.

At Thursday morning’s press conference, American Airlines CEO Isom told reporters that family assistance centers had been set up in the D.C. area and in Wichita, Kans. The Trump Administration said it has also deployed fatality management and victim assistance specialists to help responders at the crash site.

On Saturday, David Hoagland—President of Washington, D.C., Firefighters Association Local 36—told CNN that this weekend, things have “slowed down…because they’re waiting on a lot more heavier salvage equipment that’s going to be showing up sometime in the next 24 to 36 hours.” He said these larger plane parts will likely be recovered on Monday.

What have U.S. officials said about the collision?

Trump was “fully briefed” on Wednesday night following the collision between the passenger jet and Army helicopter. He thanked first responders in a statement, but later posted on his Truth Social account that the incident was a “bad situation” that “looks like it should have been prevented.”

He went on to share further remarks during a White House press briefing on Thursday morning.

“On behalf of the First Lady, myself, and 340 million Americans, our hearts are shattered alongside yours, and our prayers are with you now and in the days to come, we'll be working very, very diligently in the days to come,” Trump said. “In moments like this, the differences between Americans fade to nothing compared to the bonds of affection and loyalty that unite us all, both as Americans and even as nations, we are one family, and today we are all heartbroken.”

Read More: Everything Trump Has Said About the Fatal Passenger Jet and Army Helicopter Crash

In the remarks delivered on Thursday morning, Trump focused also on “diversity” within the FAA. When asked by a reporter if he had any evidence to show that DEI policies were to blame for the crash, Trump said “it just could have been."

On Feb. 2, Duffy appeared on CNN’s State of the Union with host Jake Tapper, to discuss the state of the investigation looking into the crash, and whether American travelers are safe when they fly—especially after the FAA’s warning system experienced outages and caused flight delays throughout Sunday morning. Duffy said “of course it’s safe to fly… we have the safest airspace in the world.”

Duffy also criticized “DEI policies” within the FAA, citing them as potential causes for the crash. When asked by Tapper why he was focused on DEI policies, and if there was any “evidence” to support Trump’s initial claims, Duffy said: “The better question is: am I going to guarantee to the American people that only the best and the brightest serve in this incredibly important body of the Department of Transportation, that they’re driven by safety, that DEI doesn’t matter?”

He continued: “We see when you don’t focus on safety, and you focus on social justice and the environment, bad things happen.”

Duffy’s TV appearance comes after he briefed the press early Thursday morning, saying: “We [the Department of Transportation and the FAA] are going to offer full support to those on the ground, to the Mayor, but also to the NTSB, who is going to be conducting [an] investigation in this matter. We will provide all the support that’s necessary."