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U.S. authorities said on Thursday it was not yet clear why a regional jet and a U.S. Army helicopter collided at a Washington airport, killing 67 people in the deadliest U.S. air disaster in more than 20 years. Investigators recovered the so-called black boxes from the plane, an American Airlines Bombardier jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, which collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River as it prepared to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night. No one survived. Names of all the victims have not been released, but they included promising young figure skaters and people from Kansas, where the flight originated. Senator Maria Cantwell said that the dead also included citizens from Russia, the Philippines and Germany, and Chinese state media Xinhua reported two Chinese citizens had been killed in the crash. Investigators recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the Bombardier CRJ700 passenger jet, the National Transportation Safety Board said. A preliminary report about the incident is expected within 30 days. NTSB member Todd Inman said the military helicopter was equipped "with some form of recording devices and those will be read either by DOD or by us." He said NTSB and DOD have agreements to share data on those recorders. The agency has begun collecting wreckage, including portions of the helicopter, and is storing it at a hangar at Reagan National. Washington's fire and emergency department said its divers had searched all accessible areas and would conduct additional searches to locate aircraft components on Friday.<br/>

Air traffic control audio recorded the moments before and after an American Airlines regional passenger jet crashed with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter in a midair collision over Washington on Wednesday night. Audio from LiveATC.net, a respected source for in-flight recording, captured the final communications between the three crew members of the helicopter - call sign PAT25 - before it collided with the CRJ700 Bombardier jet carrying 64 passengers and crew. "PAT25, do you have a CRJ in sight? PAT25, pass behind the CRJ," an air traffic controller said at 8:47 p.m. (ET) on Wednesday (01:47 GMT on Thursday). Seconds later, another aircraft called in to air traffic control, saying, "Tower, did you see that?" - apparently referring to the crash. An air traffic controller then redirected planes heading to runway 33 at Reagan Washington National Airport to go around. The explosion in midair occurred over the frigid Potomac River near the airport. "Crash, crash, crash, this is an alert three," one of the air traffic controllers can be heard saying in the audio from around the time of the crash. "I don't know if you caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approach into 33. We're going to be shutting down operations for the indefinite future," another controller remarked. "Both the helicopter and the plane crashed in the river," a third air traffic controller can be heard saying. "It was probably out in the middle of the river," the controller said. "I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven't seen anything since they hit the river. But it was a CRJ and a helicopter that hit." The crash was caught on a webcam at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. The clip shows the aircraft exploding in flames and plummeting to earth after it was struck by the helicopter.<br/>

The US Army helicopter involved in an overnight collision with a passenger jet near Washington involved a “fairly experienced crew” that was operating with night vision goggles, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Jan 30, as the Pentagon ordered a 48-hour pause in flying for the unit involved in the crash. In addition, Mr Daniel Driscoll, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Army secretary, told a Senate hearing that the crash on the night of Jan 29 appears to have been preventable, and he raised questions about whether training should take place near a busy airport. The Black Hawk helicopter struck an American Airlines passenger jet near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, with both aircraft plunging into the Potomac River. Authorities have said there were no survivors. The cause of the crash is under investigation. The airport is located in Arlington, Virginia, across the river from Washington. In a video statement, Hegseth said there was a crew of three soldiers on the training flight. Officials have not identified the soldiers involved. “It was a fairly experienced crew and it was doing a required annual night evaluation,” Hegseth said in the video.<br/>

The military helicopter that collided with an American Airlines regional jet on Wednesday night appears to have been flying too high and outside its approved flight path at the time of the crash, according to four people briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak publicly. The Army Black Hawk helicopter was supposed to be flying in a different location and lower to the ground as it traversed the busy Reagan National airspace, the people said. Before a helicopter can enter any busy commercial airspace, it must get the approval of an air traffic controller. In this case, the pilot of the helicopter asked the air traffic controller for permission to use a specific, predetermined route that lets helicopters fly no higher than 200 feet and that hugs the bank on the east side of the Potomac River, a location that would have let it avoid the American Airlines plane. The requested route — referred to as Route 4 at Reagan — followed a specifically carved out path already known to the air traffic controller and helicopter pilot. The helicopter pilot confirmed visual sight of the American Airlines plane, and the air traffic controller instructed the helicopter pilot to follow the route and go behind the plane. But the helicopter pilot did not follow the intended route, the people briefed on the matter said. Rather, the helicopter was above 300 feet, not below 200 feet, and was at least a half-mile off the approved route when it collided with the jet. A senior Army official urged caution in making any assessments until the helicopter’s black box could be recovered and analyzed, along with other forensic data. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing inquiry, said the Black Hawk’s pilots had flown this route before, and were well aware of the altitude restrictions and tight air corridor they were permitted to fly in near the airport.<br/>

Qantas is on the lookout for a new Australian designer to replace the staff uniform famously launched by supermodel Miranda Kerr over a decade ago. The updated look will debut in 2027, and the airline added it would survey staff to assist in developing the new outfits. “With a vast and growing international and domestic network, a historic fleet renewal program underway and the final frontier of global aviation just around the corner it’s time to define a new look for our people that reflects where we are heading,” said Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson. The previous look was launched in 2013 and designed by Paris-based Australian Martin Grant. In total, 35 different garments were originally produced featuring French navy suits and white shirts alongside Qantas red “variations” of ruby red and fuchsia pink. However, newspapers reported that staff complained the outfits were “too sexy” and not practical for the physical work undertaken on an aircraft.<br/>