The plane, American Eagle flight 5342 with 60 passengers and 4 crew on board, had taken off from Wichita, Kansas, and was approaching for landing when it collided with an Army helicopter mid air. The helicopter was on a training flight with a crew of three, based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia,

During a press conference about the Washington, D.C., plane crash that involved an American Airlines regional jet colliding with an Army Black Hawk helicopter, Senator Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, expressed his condolences and added that the flight is "personal" for him,

A frantic search for survivors is underway after a passenger plane collided with a US Army helicopter midair near Reagan National Airport outside of Washington, DC Wednesday night.