Washington, Jan 30 (IANS) No survivors have yet been found of American Eagle Flight 5342 that collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter near the Reagan National Airport in Washington DC Wednesday night.
Both aircraft fell into the Potomac river.
The plane was carrying 60 passengers and four members of the crew while the helicopter had three service members.
Rescuers had pulled out several bodies from the icy cold water of the river till early Thursday morning, but no survivors. The temperature of the water in the river was dangerously low around 0 degree celsius.
NBC’s Washington affiliate has reported rescuers have recovered 30 bodies from the river.
The plane was carrying passengers from Wichita in the state of Kansas to the National Airport.
DC authorities have said the plane had broken into pieces and the helicopter was found upside down in the river.
Rescue helicopters hovered over the river with flood lights as boats and rescuers combed the river for survivors and bodies.
The collision reportedly took place around 8:47 pm, local time.
The Army helicopter was a UH-60 Black Hawk on a training flight, US military officials have said. It was assigned to Bravo Company of the 12th Aviation Battalion, which operates out of Davison Army Airfield at Fort Belvoir, in nearby Virginia.
Two renowned former Russian figure skaters were on board the passenger plane, the Kremlin has said according to reports.
They were Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov did not identify them at a briefing but confirmed when asked if they were on board.
He also suggested that other Russian nationals were aboard the crashed flight.
“There were other of our fellow citizens there as well,” he said.
Shishkova and Naumov won gold at the 1994 Figure Skating World Championship for Russia. The Washington Post reported the married pair lived in the United States since at least 1998, where they coached young ice skaters.
