WHAT ought to have been a routine flight for American Airways led to catastrophe when it collided with a helicopter simply moments earlier than touchdown.

Questions at the moment are being requested over how the jet and chopper crashed mid-air earlier than plunging into Washington DC’s Potomac River.

Hopes of discovering survivors quickly fading – with all 64 on board the aircraft and three on the helicopter believed to be useless.

Horror footage confirmed the second the twin-engine Bombardier CRJ700 jet collided with the US Military Black Hawk – with a brilliant flash lighting up the sky.

Determined rescue crews at the moment are frantically trying to find survivors within the freezing water, with efforts being hampered by darkish, chilly circumstances.

Officers have warned there are “many, many, many” deaths as authorities work out precisely what brought about the tragedy.

That is the minute-by-minute breakdown of how the crash unfolded.

5.18pm, Jan 29 – The American Eagle Flight 5342 takes off from Wichita, Kansas.

A number of ice skaters are on board, having been at a contest within the metropolis.

USA Determine Skating later confirms athletes, coaches and family members had been travelling again house.

Amongst these on board are Russian champion determine skaters Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, pictured beneath.

8.39pm – A US Military UH-60 helicopter takes off from Fort Beaver, Virginia.

Three individuals are on board as a part of a coaching train.

Round 8.28pm – A girl on board the aircraft texts her husband to say the flight can be touchdown quickly.

8.40pm – Flight 5342  begins approaching the Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport.

Between 8.43pm and eight.47pm – Air visitors controllers ask the coming jet if it might land on the shorter Runway 33.

Pilots say they’re able to.

8.47pm – An air visitors controller makes a remaining try to speak with the helicopter, callsign PAT25, relating to the aircraft, callsign CRJ.

A controller says: “PAT25, do you’ve got a CRJ in sight? PAT25, move behind the CRJ.”

CCTV, proven beneath, captures a brilliant flash within the sky – the second the aircraft and chopper collide simply 400ft above the bottom.

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The aircraft was flying at round 140mph when it crashed.

8.48pm – An alert is sounded after the crash.

Between 8.48pm and eight.53pm – Controllers react after seeing the crash unfold.

One says: “Oh, oh my god! Tower, did you see that?”

“Crash, crash, crash, that is an alert three.”

One other will be heard saying: “I do not know in case you caught earlier what occurred, however there was a collision on the method into 33.

“We will be shutting down operations for the indefinite future.”

A 3rd provides: “Each the helicopter and the aircraft crashed within the river.

“It was in all probability out in the course of the river.

“I simply noticed a fireball after which it was simply gone. I have not seen something since they hit the river. But it surely was a CRJ and a helicopter that hit.”

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8.53pm – Police start receiving a number of calls in regards to the incident.

8.58pm – The primary emergency crews arrive on the scene.

9.04pm – The primary search and rescue boat leaves Capital Cove Marina.

9.11pm – The search boat arrives on the scene. Emergency crews and police divers are scouring the water for survivors.

Midnight – Passenger boat Nationwide Elite joins the hunt, in addition to hearth and rescue boat

00.19am, Jan 30 – Donald Trump says the crash “ought to have been prevented” in a publish on Reality Social.

He writes: “The airplane was on an ideal and routine line of method to the airport.

“The helicopter was going straight on the airplane for an prolonged time frame.

“It’s a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the aircraft had been blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or flip.

“Why didn’t the management tower inform the helicopter what to do as a substitute of asking in the event that they noticed the aircraft.

“It is a unhealthy state of affairs that appears prefer it ought to have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”

12.58am – Officers maintain a information convention and make sure 300 responders are concerned with the operation.

Washington DC’s mayor Muriel Bowser says firefighters are working “diligently” within the chilly.

The capital’s emergency chief John Donnelly added: “There’s wind. There are items of ice within the water.

“And since there may be not loads of mild, you might be on the market looking each sq. inch of house.

“These are very powerful circumstances for [rescuers] to dive in.”

Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas says: “When one individual dies it is a tragedy, however when many, many, many individuals die it is an insufferable sorrow.”

Officers are unable to present a dying toll.

3.47am – Legislation enforcement sources say as much as 20 our bodies have been pulled from the water.

Rescue crews proceed to work on the scene because the solar rises.

7.30am – Official maintain a press convention in terminal 1 on the airport.

Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser thanks emergency crews who’ve labored tirelessly all through the night time.

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy says it was a transparent night time and each plane had been following normal flight paths.

He says the fuselage of the aircraft was present in three totally different components inn waist-deep water.

These can be analysed as a part of the investigation.

Hearth and EMS Chief John Donnelly confirms 27 our bodies have been recovered from the aircraft, and one from the helicopter.

He says the rescue mission has become a restoration operation, and there aren’t regarded as any survivors.

American Airways CEO Robert Isom say they “do not know why the navy plane got here into the flight path of the American Airways aircraft”.

Authorities affirm the airport will reopen at 11am.