The tragic moments before an American Airlines plane collided with an army helicopter have been remembered by an eyewitness.<\/p>\n
Sixty passengers, four cabin crew, and three soldiers were among the 67 individuals involved in the incident, which happened last night (January 29).<\/p>\n
The two planes collided in midair as they were en route to Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n
While those on the Black Hawk helicopter were engaged in a training exercise, the commercial flight was departing from Wichita, Kansas.<\/p>\n
Eyewitnesses have been coming forward to share their first-hand accounts of what they saw as authorities continue to try to piece together what caused the crash.<\/p>\n
Ari Schulman, who frequently travels the George Washington Parkway, is one individual who has spoken out. At the time of the tragedy, he was traveling along this route.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always look [at the planes landing] when I\u2019m driving home,\u201d Schulman said in an interview with NBC Washington. It\u2019s always a beautiful, fascinating sight. As they approach land, they are all nicely separated in a lovely line.<\/p>\n
Schulman continued by recalling what is thought to have been the American Airlines flight, saying that its route appeared \u201ctotally normal\u201d to him. He was eager to see it land, so he turned back onto the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to get another look to try and see the plane land, so I turned back again a few seconds later and it looked very, very wrong,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The plane] had a sharp rightward turn, perhaps 90 degrees or more. You shouldn\u2019t be able to see the underside of a plane, but I was able to see it because it was so dark outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it was visible to me. A stream of sparks flowed beneath it, and it was bright yellow in illumination. I thought it resembled a gigantic Roman candle.<\/p>\n
As of this writing, 19 bodies have reportedly been recovered from the Potomac River as a result of the collision that occurred last night.<\/p>\n
Officials have not yet verified this number, though.<\/p>\n
According to DC Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly, it will be challenging for divers to find the remaining bodies.<\/p>\n
He remarked, \u201cThe challenges are access,\u201d \u201cThe water that we\u2019re operating in is about 8ft deep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donnelly went on: \u201cThere are ice fragments and wind outside. It\u2019s simply hazardous and challenging to work in. And since there aren\u2019t many lights, you\u2019re looking everywhere to see if anyone is there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The tragic moments before an American Airlines plane collided with an army helicopter have been remembered by an eyewitness. Sixty passengers, four cabin crew, and three soldiers… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance"],"yoast_head":"\n