00:00Here's what I can share at this early stage. American Eagle Flight 5342 operated by PSA
00:08Airlines traveling from Wichita, Kansas to Reagan National Airport was involved in an accident just
00:16before 9 p.m. local time on final approach into Reagan National. It collided with a military
00:24aircraft on an otherwise normal approach and at this time we don't know why the military aircraft
00:31came into the path of the PSA aircraft. Flight 5342 a CRJ 700 was under the command of four
00:40crew members. They carried 60 passengers as you know for a total of 64 people on board. Last night
00:46at 848 the control tower sounded an alert which alerts responders to respond to a report of an
00:54aircraft crash on or near the airport. That sets off a immediate response from the Airport
01:00Authority Fire Department, from the District of Columbia and Metropolitan Harbor Patrol fireboats
01:05and other fireboats on the river in order to support that type of operation. Very quickly this
01:12call escalated. It became apparent you know the responders realized that they had a plane crash
01:18and immediately escalated to a response that ultimately included about 300 people last night.
01:26These responders found extremely frigid conditions. Despite all those efforts we are now at a point
01:33where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation. At this point we don't
01:39believe there are any survivors from this accident and we have recovered 27 people from the plane and
01:46one from the helicopter. The District Office of the Medical Examiner has leaned on reuniting these
01:54bodies and these people with their loved ones and we will continue to work to find all the bodies
02:00and collect them and reunite them with their loved ones. We should also acknowledge that the
02:06Virginia Medical Examiner and the Army Medical Examiner are involved in this operation and a
02:14very important part of getting people identified. Everything was standard in the lead-up to the
02:21crash. Now obviously there was something happened here. You'll get more information and more details
02:25as this investigation moves forward. We'll learn what happened but again those who live in the DC
02:31area we see military helicopters fly up and down the river. It's a standard path that they fly.
02:38They're used to aircraft landing at DCA and there's a procedure in place because this happens
02:45every day. Something went wrong here. I look forward to the time and point when we can give
02:49you that information. So we are going to wait for all the information to come in from this vantage
02:55point but to back up what the President said, what I've seen so far do I think this was preventable?
03:02Absolutely.
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