A ring camera catches the Learjet as it falls from the sky.
An airplane operated by Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, in Pennsylvania crashed earlier today leaving 6 dead.
The plane was a medical transport plane carrying two pilots, two doctors, the patient and a family member and crashed shortly after takeoff. As the crash happened in the middle of the city the horrific explosion was recorded by several different cameras showing multiple angles, including one bystander who was a couple dozen feet away when the plane hit the ground.
The flight departed Philadelphia Airport (PNE) for Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri at 23:06 UTC(7:06PMEST), reaching a maximum altitude of 1,650 ft at 23:06:54. Its last recorded ADB-S reading showed the plane losing altitude at a vertical rate of -11,008 ft per minute.
Some data on the flight from Flightradar 24.A visualization from ADS-B Exchange.
Not much is known about why the plane crashed. Possible icing conditions have been given as an explanation but we can’t yet confirm anything.
Several houses in the area of the crash were set on fire and fire fighters are currently fighting those fires.
A video from a bystander who witnessed the ground impact from several dozen ft. away.
Wreckage of Flight 5342Search and rescue efforts underway.Images from a rescue helicopter show the debris in the river.
PSA Flight 5342, a Bombardier CRJ700 passenger jet ,registered N530EA, was on a Wichita, Kansas -to-D.C path when on final approach for runway 33 at Ronald Regan Airport (DCA) when a Blackhawk helicopter, carrying 3 people collided with the plane sending it into the Potomac river with its 60 passengers and 4 crew aboard. One person on the ground was also killed as both aircraft fell into the river.
ADS-B exchange shows the flight of the CRJ at the time of impact.ADS-B shows the path of the Blackhawk before impact.
A search a rescue effort involving over 300 people has failed to turn up any survivors. 18 body’s have been pulled from the river at the time of writing.
Initially, there was some confusion on the identity of the helicopter as it was first mistakenly reported as apart of the DC metro police fleet and then again misidentified as UH-60 used for VIP transport. Heather Chairez, a spokesperson for the joint task force-National Capital Region confirmed the aircraft was a UH-60 Blackhawk on a training mission.
Airports have altitude restrictions for helicopters, usually keeping them around 200ft above ground level at the point of impact the plane would have been around 400-500 ft. Audio released after the accident confirms that the plane was pointed out to the helicopter crew. It’s likely that when asked to confirm they could see the plane, they might have looked at another plane that was coming in at the same time to land on a different runway. The plane was in a blind spot that would have been difficult to see.
More information will come out in the following days. This is all based on information I’ve gathered from statements given by officials as well as open sources and could possibly be flawed.
Info will be added here as it come out.
Updates.
Helicopter was with Bravo Company 12th Aviation Battalion at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. It was conducting a training flight at the time of the crash.
Several aviation enthusiasts around the DC area have said that a crash like this around Ronald Reagan was a case of “when not if” Helicopters regularly fly that route down the river coming within a couple hundred feet of airplanes on final.
Hi, this is Scott. I just wanted to say that my heart goes out to those affected by this accident. Tragedies like this are the hardest for me to write about but I know that doesn’t compare to the pain felt by those affected.
Global Conflict Reporting 
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