64 dead from mid air collision

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President Donald Trump called the deadly collision a “a tragedy of terrible proportions” and said there were no survivors as he addressed reporters in the White House briefing room Thursday morning.

“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 one nation, we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly,” Trump said.

What we know about the plane
There were 60 passengers and four crew members on American Eagle Flight 5342, which was traveling from Wichita to Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, just over the Washington line, according to American Airlines.

The crash took place near the airport.

What we know about the helicopter
The Army confirmed that the helicopter was a Black Hawk operating out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the helicopter crew involved in the crash was “fairly experienced” and was doing an “annual proficiency training flight” at the time of the collision.

Hegseth said the three crew members were from the Bravo Company 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir, an army base in Virginia that’s about 14 miles away from the airport.

No survivors from crash
All passengers and crew on both aircraft are feared dead, Trump said Thursday morning. Dozens of bodies have been recovered from the Potomac River, and the operation has become a major recovery effort.

The flight carried several elite figure skaters from both the U.S. and Russia who were traveling back from a competition in Wichita.

Doug Zeghibe, CEO of The Skating Club of Boston, said 14 skaters returning home from the national development camp in Wichita, Kansas, were killed in the crash.

Of those, six were from the Skating Club of Boston — two coaches, two teenage athletes and the athletes’ mothers. Those six were identified as athlete Jinna Han; Jinna’s mother, Jin Han; athlete Spencer Lane; Spencer’s mother, Christine Lane; and coaches Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova.

Two Russian world champions were also among the passengers on the American Eagle flight, Russian state media reported.

By Thursday morning, officials said that at least two dozen bodies had been pulled from the water. Of those, 27 were from the American Eagle civilian jet and one from the U.S. Black Hawk helicopter, officials said.

In his first news conference since the aircraft collision over the Potomac River, President Donald Trump on Thursday implied that diversity, equity and inclusion programs could be the cause, although an investigation has only just begun into the fatal disaster.

“We have to have our smartest people” as air traffic controllers, Trump said Thursday morning. “It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. ... They have to be talented, naturally talented. Geniuses. Can’t have regular people doing their job. We can’t have regular people doing this job. They won’t be able to do it, but we’ll restore faith in American air travel.”

Trump spent a considerable amount of time discussing the Federal Aviation Administration's DEI initiatives, particularly under Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama. He cited the FAA's acknowledgment of the underemployment of employees with disabilities.

A week before he took office, Trump said the FAA website said "people with severe disabilities are the most underrepresented segment of the workforce, that they want them" to be "air traffic controllers. I don’t think so."

Trump also railed against former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who served under Biden, calling him a “disaster.” But under questioning from reporters, Trump stopped short of outright blaming the programs for the midair collision on Wednesday night.

"It just could have been," Trump said when asked whether he believed the crash was the result of diversity hiring.

Trump went on to attack the Obama and the Biden administrations, saying they lowered requirements for air traffic controllers in service of DEI. “Their policy was horrible and their politics was even worse,” he said.

“A group within the FAA determined that the workforce was too white, then they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change that and to change it immediately,” he added. “This was in the Obama administration.”

Buttigieg quickly responded to the president's remarks, saying in a post on X that the comments were "despicable."

"As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying," he said.

"President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again," Buttigieg said.

The FAA has had a shortage of air traffic controllers for years. Tennesse Garvey, a pilot for 22 years who is Black, previously told NBC News that eliminating DEI may only exacerbate demand.

“There’s never been any proof that DEI causes any safety issues, because it doesn’t,” Garvey said. “And if there’s something wrong with aviation in America, how can DEI be the problem? There are only 4% Black pilots operating within this space.”