The moments before 67 souls perished in a midair collision over the Potomac River

On Wednesday evening, American Eagle Flight 5342 took off from Wichita, Kansas, bound for the U.S. capital. Before takeoff, figure skater Spencer Lane snapped a photo of the plane, its wing stretching out onto the tarmac, pointing towards the distant horizon. The teenager posted the photo to his Instagram story, the gray-blue overcast forming a shimmering veil over the setting sun.

The rising figure skating star wrote “ICT->DCA,” citing the airport codes for his departure and destination cities. Lane and his mother, along with other skating hopefuls from the U.S. and Russia, their families, and coaches, were waiting to depart after attending the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and a junior development camp. The commercial jet, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, took off at 5:39 p.m.

The 2-hour and 35-minute journey would take them into one of the busiest and most complex air corridors in the United States, approaching the runway at Reagan National Airport, south of the capital's illuminated marble monuments. However, this flight would ultimately become the deadliest aviation disaster in the U.S. in nearly a quarter of a century. On a clear night, the nearly full Bombardier CRJ700 jet collided mid-air with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that was conducting a training flight, as it approached runway 33 around 8:48 p.m.

Video captured a massive red-orange fireball, followed by eerie plumes of smoke and burning debris. Both aircraft plunged into the cold, dark waters of the Potomac River, with no survivors. The victims represented a cross-section of people who travel daily through America’s congested airspace, including a biology professor and a beloved soldier, veteran airline pilots and flight attendants, a union plumber returning from a hunting trip, a lawyer and a pair of young colleagues, and the aspiring figure skaters, their families, and coaches.

Timothy Lilley's son, Sam Lilley, was the first officer on American Airlines Flight 5342, and had previously served as an Army helicopter pilot for 20 years. Both he and his son shared a passion for flying. Now, Lilley told Atlanta’s Fox 5, he must reconcile that passion with the cause of his son’s death. “It hurts me because those are my brothers,” he said of the Army helicopter crew, “and now my son is dead.”

At Reagan National Airport, Hamaad Raza received a text from his wife: the flight was about 20 minutes from landing. He later showed the text to a reporter with CNN affiliate WUSA. As Flight 5342 descended a few miles south of the White House, the UH-60 Black Hawk was flying low along what is known as Route 4. The route hugs the eastern shore of the Potomac River and is a special corridor reserved for law enforcement, medevac, military, and government helicopters. Helicopters within the corridor are required to fly at or below 200 feet above sea level.

According to The New York Times, the military helicopter may have been outside of its approved flight path, flying higher than expected and deviating from the approved route by at least a half-mile. The soldiers aboard the aircraft—members of Bravo Company, 12th Aviation Battalion, based at Fort Belvoir, Virginia—were highly experienced with the congested and tightly controlled airspace above Washington, D.C. The helicopter pilots and co-pilot had at least 1,500 hours of total flight time—a considerable number, according to a senior Army official, given their average flight time was around two hours. Army aviation chief of staff Jonathan Koziol described the soldiers as “an exceptional crew, very experienced at what they do.”

The two pilots of Flight 5342 were also seasoned. According to company CEO Robert Isom, the captain had flown for PSA Airlines, which operates flights for parent company American Airlines, for nearly six years. The first officer had been with the airline for nearly two years. Around 8:43 p.m. on Wednesday evening, an air traffic controller at Reagan National Airport contacted the commercial jet. “Can you go to runway 33?” the controller asked, directing the plane to a shorter runway that intersects with the busy main runway. “Yes, we can go to 33,” the pilot responded. “Confirm runway 33, runway 33 is cleared to land…”

The soldiers in the Black Hawk were conducting what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as annual nighttime training, performing “continuity of government missions.” These missions are routine: in the event of a disaster, helicopters are often used to escort government officials to safety. The defense secretary said the crew was wearing night vision goggles. The Black Hawk flew past the Lincoln Memorial, over the Tidal Basin. As the dark waters of the Potomac River unfolded below the helicopter, an air traffic controller at Reagan National Airport contacted the military pilots. “Do you see the CRJ?” the air traffic controller asked, referring to the regional jet. The controller instructed the military aircraft to be aware of the jet. Before the pilot could respond, the controller instructed the helicopter to “pass behind the CRJ,” according to a recording of air traffic communications.

“Pat-25 has the aircraft in sight,” the helicopter pilot responded, using his call sign. He requested “visual separation,” meaning he would visually maintain a safe distance from the jet. The tower acknowledged and cleared the pilot to visually navigate and avoid Flight 5342. The final communication was followed by more than 10 seconds of silence before a massive fireball erupted over the Potomac River. Audio captured audible gasps, including a loud “oh” in the background. “Oh, my god!” someone can be heard saying in the background of the radio transmission. Air traffic controllers were busy directing planes to nearby airports. “Tower, did you see that?” a pilot of one aircraft asked over the radio transmission. “Looks like a flare in the sky,” one pilot reported to the tower at one point. “We’re working on it,” the controller responded. An unidentified pilot told the tower he saw “flares across the Potomac.” “Apparently, both aircraft involved are in the river,” the controller said later.

According to CNN, one air traffic controller was operating two different tower positions at the time of the accident, handling both local and helicopter traffic. Sources said that this setup was not unusual. However, The New York Times reported that an internal preliminary report from the Federal Aviation Administration said that staffing was “not normal for the time of day and traffic volume.” The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the collision, has recovered the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder (commonly known as the black box) from the jet. The helicopter’s flight data and voice recorders (combined in a single black box) have also been recovered.

After weeks of cold weather in the region, Wednesday evening felt relatively mild. Jimmy Mazel, 17, and his girlfriend decided to have dinner at Gravelly Point Park in Arlington, Virginia. The park, just north of Reagan National Airport, is a popular destination for watching planes take off and land. He said that the evening of dinner and plane-watching was interrupted by “a white light that came out of the sky.” Nearby, Roy Best was standing on the roof of his building when he heard a loud boom and saw a bright flash in the distance. “I turned around and saw like a big spark,” he said, “and then, you know, something fell.” Best said he initially thought it might be fireworks. It wasn’t until later that he learned the truth.

When the direct line to Reagan National Airport rang on Wednesday night, David Hoagland, president of Local 36 of the D.C. Firefighters, said first responders expected a routine report of an aircraft in distress. Instead, they heard: “Crash! Crash! Crash!” he recalled. As union members raced to the docks to board fireboats, burning debris rained down on the Potomac River. Hoagland said that when first responders arrived, they found the wreckage submerged in shallow water and began discovering victims almost immediately. Some of the plane’s passengers were still strapped into their seats, but removing them proved difficult as sharp debris tore through the divers’ suits. The plane was found upside down in the shallows, broken into three pieces—including a partially submerged wing and a destroyed fuselage. The wreckage of the helicopter was also found.

Gravelly Point Park, a destination for plane enthusiasts, is now a makeshift morgue. At least 41 bodies—28 of which have been identified—have been recovered from the murky depths of the Potomac, and the search has been hampered by near-zero visibility in the water and other difficult conditions. D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Chief John Donnelly said the aircraft fuselage would need to be removed in order to find the remaining bodies. On Friday, as overcast skies and cold rain set in—as flights took off and landed, and search crews continued their work—the pall of the tragedy hung heavy over the city and the nation.