Audio from DCA traffic control room from the time of DC crash as they start directing traffic after apparent collision.
Follow MailOnline's. PODCAST:America suffered a fresh tragedy when a packed passenger jet collided with a US Army helicopter and plunged into Washington DC's Potomac River.
More than 300 first responders and rescue workers were deployed to the Potomac on inflatable boats while others erected searchlights to illuminate the murky waters in a desperate hunt for survivors. Now, as rescue efforts continue and investigations into the tragic incident begin, here's how the catastrophe unfolded.
'I know that flight. I've flown it several times myself,' said Kansas Senator Jerry Moran said in the wake of the crash. This is some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world, just over three miles south of the White House and the Capitol. Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter, whose callsign was registered as PAT25, if it had the arriving plane in sight.
A recording of air traffic control communications revealed the shocked reactions of controllers as they witnessed the crash unfold in real time.February 12, 2009: a Colgan Air Bombardier aircraft flying from New York to the small town of Buffalo crashes, killing the 49 passengers onboard. October 19, 2004: a BAE Jetstream 32 operated by AmericanConnection crashes near Kirksville, Missouri due to poor visibility. Both pilots and 11 out of the 13 passengers are killed.
'I don't know if you caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approach into 33. We're going to be shutting down operations for the indefinite future,' another controller remarked. In footage taken from the Kennedy Center, Washington's cultural hub, the powerful lights of the descending airplane and the dimmer lights of another aircraft heading toward it can be seen until the fiery collision.
At least a half-dozen boats were scanning the water using searchlights overnight as images showed vessels grouped around a partly submerged wing and what appeared to be the mangled wreckage of the plane's fuselage. DC Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly speaks at a press conference with other government officials on the rescue efforts
Meanwhile, aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas was 'perplexed', explaining that almost all passenger and military aircraft in the US are fitted with Traffic Collision Avoidance System - a standard issue software designed to prevent such incidents. Meanwhile, the governing body of US figure skating announced that several athletes, coaches and their family members were aboard the doomed flight, along with a pair of Russian world champions.
Russian figure skaters Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov are reported to have been on board the American Airlines plane that crashed into a Black Hawk helicopter As many as 15 people on the flight may have been involved in figure skating, according to reports.
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