Regarding the collision that occurred on Wednesday night in Washington, the confirmed victims are 67, namely passengers and crew of the CRJ-700 airplane (64) and the military on board the US Army helicopter (3). No one survived. President Donald Trump, in the immediate aftermath, had also commented on social media that the tragedy was avoidable.

On board the airliner were several athletes from the American skating team, with coaches and family members returning from the championships in Wichita, Kansas; among them a pair of Russian world champions, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, together with Inna Volyanskaya, bronze medalist at the 1980 USSR championships.

The flight corridor where the accident occurred appears to be very popular with military helicopters. According to local press reports, shortly before the collision an air traffic controller asked the helicopter pilot if he had seen the aircraft; he confirmed and requested "ATC separation". The two aircraft then collided a few moments later, causing the military aircraft to explode. At the time of writing, the black boxes have not yet been found; debris ended up both in the Potomac river and on the ground.

Among the first measures taken by Ronald Reagan National Airport was to divert air traffic to Dulles, Baltimore and Richmond; in addition, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority extended the Silver Line service to support the diverted flights. Investigations are open on several fronts in support of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the head of the inquiry: the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the United States Department of Defense and the Army are also involved; the FBI has also declared its availability even though there are no elements that suggest acts of terrorism or criminality.

Condolences and words of comfort have arrived in abundance, and among the first was a telegram from Pope Francis. Moscow's silence in the face of the tragedy in which, as mentioned, three of its citizens were also involved has been underlined from many quarters: "No high-level talks are planned", was the dry comment from Russian authorities. On the American side, in these hours, Trump himself has made it known, speaking to journalists at the White House, that he is ready to facilitate the transfer of the bodies of the three Russians to their country of origin. "We are already in contact with Russia", he declared. A few hours ago, in a press conference attended by civil and military authorities, and heads of rescue and emergency medical services, the mayor of Washington Mariana Browse and the CEO of American Airlines Robert Aizen , it was stressed that "the wreckage of the plane was found upside down and broken into three pieces, in waist-deep water. The wreckage of the helicopter was also found". No survivors have been found, making the incident a tragedy, "making it the deadliest US plane crash in nearly 24 years".

On the accident see for details AVIONEWS 1, 2 and 3.