New footage emerges of crash of American Airlines flight 5342 and Black Hawk helicopter
A firefighter has revealed the distressing scene they encountered at the Washington crash as distressing new footage has emerged providing more clues.
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WARNING: Distressing content.
A firefighter has described the horror scene they found after the Washington DC air crash with perished passengers “still strapped in” to their seats.
The revelation comes as distressing new footage has emerged of the incident that could provide further clues as to how the tragedy unfolded.
The new video is significantly clearer than previous CCTV footage from further away.
While, on Friday, US President Donald Trump again posted on social media about his theories on the crash. “Not complex is it?” he wrote.
On Wednesday night, local time, American Airlines flight 5342 collided with a Black Hawk military helicopter above the icy Potomac River.
The passenger just, operated by PSA Airlines and branded under the American Eagle regional banner, was seconds from landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport with 64 people on board.
It had flown in from Wichita, a city in Kansas.
The US Army helicopter had three people on board and was on a training flight.
All 68 people on both aircraft are thought to have died. As of Friday, US time, 41 bodies have been recovered.
The new videos, obtained by CNN, were both shot on mobile phones.
One, from the banks of the Potomac, the river that flows through Washington, shows the American jet flying towards the runway, lights ablaze.
The Black Hawk comes in from the side with its lights on and ploughs into the Canadian made Bombardier plane. It does not appear to slow or change course.
An explosion follows. The helicopter, with its lights still on and its fuselage still recognisable, falls towards the water.
The American aeroplane appears to be in parts and spins before hitting the river seconds later.
Initial reports have said the passenger jet was sheared into three sections by the impacts.
The second mobile phone footage comes from a higher position with the airport itself. Delta and JetBlue aircraft can be seen taxiing as the American plane comes into land.
The helicopter zooms in from the left of the image, collides and a fireball takes place.
While both aircraft would have automated avoidance systems on board to warn of an impact, many of these don’t work at the very low altitudes this crash occurred at. That’s because the systems could distract the pilots warning them to avoid planes on the ground, for instance, that pose no risk.
‘Still strapped in’
A firefighter has described the scene that confronted them as they raced to the crash scene on Wednesday night.
David Hoagland, President of the DC Fire Fighters Association, said his crews could see “debris falling from the sky” as they responded.
“It’s graphic. They encountered people inside the plane still strapped in their seats, and they weren’t able to remove them right away,” he added.
“Today, a lot of the effort has been focused on removing people from inside the plane who they were not able to remove last night, as well as just continuing to scan the entire area to see who they can locate.”
Trump tweets on crash again
On Friday morning, US time, President Trump took to social media to posit more thoughts about the deadly incident.
At a press briefing on Thursday, Mr Trump said the causes of the crash remained “unknown” but heavily suggested that diversity, in some way, could have played a role.
No evidence has so far emerged of this.
“The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot,” wrote Mr Trump.
“It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???”
The videos certainly show that at that location, the two aircraft were at the same height. Potentially, either the American plane was too low or the helicopter, as Mr Trump suggested, was higher than it should have been.
In the congested airspace near Reagan National Airport, passenger planes share space with military aircraft, tourism flights and indeed the President’s Marine One helicopter.
While all of these aircraft are in similar airspace, various rules, such as how high each type of plane flies, is designed to keep the area safe.
The victims have so far included a bevy of American and Russian figure skaters, a group who had been on an annual hunting trip and a Harvard educated civil rights lawyer.
Originally published as New footage emerges of crash of American Airlines flight 5342 and Black Hawk helicopter
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