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STORY: :: An eyewitness describes the collision between a passenger jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter:: Washington, D.C. :: January 30, 2025:: Abadi Ismail"I was getting ready to go to bed, laying down when I hear the ‘bang bang’. A very unusual sound, something you don't hear on a daily basis. It's more like in a war zone, something you hear on the movies, action. So that caught my attention. I looked at the sky, I looked out the window, and all I could see at that moment was just smoke from the south side of Reagan Airport, you know.":: Earthcam“Horrendous. Unbelievable. Shocking. Just to think about a plane crash in the D.C. area, a very busy area in terms of aviation. We have three major airports in this area, DCA (Washington Reagan National Airport), Dulles Airport, Baltimore Airport. They're all within 40 minutes' drive of each other. So that’ll give you a sense of how busy the radars, the air (traffic) controller and there is no room for error.”Speaking to Reuters from his apartment in the Washington, D.C. area, 38-year-old Buzzard Point resident Abadi Ismail said he was ready to go to bed on Wednesday (January 29) night when he heard "bang bang" sounds before seeing smoke rising from the south of Reagan airport.The mid-air collision occurred as the passenger jet, carrying 64 people on board and travelling from Wichita in Kansas, was on its approach to land at Reagan. Radio communications between the air traffic control tower and the Black Hawk showed the helicopter crew knew the plane was in the vicinity.Both aircraft crashed into the frigid Potomac River near Reagan airport following the collision.Officials did not provide a death toll from Wednesday night's collision but U.S. Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas, where the flight originated, suggested most if not all those on board had been killed.
