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30 Jan, 18:56

Helicopter crew caused Washington air crash with airliner 'doing everything right' — Trump

According to the US president, the helicopter crew "had the ability to stop"

WASHINGTON, January 30. /TASS/. The crew of the passenger jet that collided with a helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington D.C. was "doing everything right," US President Donald Trump said, talking to reporters at the White House.

"You had an airliner coming in, American Airlines. He was doing everything right. He was on track. He was the same track as everybody else that came in," Trump said. "And for some reason, he had a helicopter that was at the same height, obviously, when they hit, but pretty much the same height and going at an angle. That was unbelievably bad," the US president added.

According to him, the helicopter crew "had the ability to stop." "I have helicopters. You can stop a helicopter very quickly. It had the ability to go up or down. It had the ability to turn. And the turn it made was not the correct turn, obviously. And it did somewhat the opposite of what it was told," Trump stressed.

The US president added that he "had the honor of hearing tapes," but provided no details. "Tapes are scary, very scary tapes," he noted.

Earlier, an American Airlines passenger jet and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter collided near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The American Airlines flight, en route from Wichita, Kansas, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members. There were at least three service members aboard the helicopter. Upon the collision, both aircraft crashed into the Potomac River.

The Wichita Eagle newspaper reports that members of the US junior figure skating team were aboard the plane. A source told TASS that Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won the world championships in pairs figure skating for Russia in 1994, were also among the flight’s passengers, as well as Inna Volyanskaya, Soviet bronze medalist in pairs figure skating.