Washington, Jan 31: There are no survivors in the midair collision between a US Army Blackhawk helicopter and a passenger jet in Washington DC, a fire official said. Twenty-eight bodies have been recovered from the Potomac River.“At this point we don’t believe there are any survivors,” Washington Fire Chief John Donnelly told a news conference at Reagan National Airport, outside the US capital. “We are now at a point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation.”
Donnelly said 300 first responders had been involved in the operation – most of it conducted in pitch darkness.
“These responders found extremely frigid conditions, they found heavy wind, they found ice on the water, and they operated all night in those conditions,” he said.
