Even as rescue teams continue their search for survivors in the Potomac River, U.S. President Donald Trump has already started assigning blame for the mid-air collision between an American Airlines aircraft and a U.S. Army helicopter.
The accident occurred on Wednesday night when an American Airlines plane carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter with three personnel onboard. The plane was in the process of approaching Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia. According to CBS News, a police official confirmed that 18 bodies have been recovered so far.
Hours later after the crash, Trump resorted to spinning the cause on Truth Social by blaming the Army helicopter pilots and air traffic control, respectively.
“The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time.”. It is a clear night, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. Not good! (sic)” said Trump.
While building the suspense around the chopper crash, Russia’s state-run media also hyped it. RT, a pro-Kremlin media outlet, cited X to say that the variant of Black Hawk the crashed helicopter is usually designed to carry top officials, suggesting that “it probably left from CIA HQ too.”
RT’s claims were, of course, rejected by the U.S. Army.
Fox News Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin reported that the U.S. Army stated: “No senior officials onboard the Blackhawk helicopter that crashed into American Airlines flight near Reagan National Airport.”
Additionally, the U.S. Army confirmed to Griffin that the helicopter was on a training flight.