FLIGHT TRAUMA
‘I’m praying to God’, says panic-stricken husband as he reveals wife’s last text from doomed American Airlines plane
The woman texted her husband moments before the collision
A PANIC-stricken husband whose wife was onboard the doomed American Airlines jet has revealed the last text she sent him moments before the deadly crash.
The tragedy happened just before 9pm when the plane crashed with a helicopter mid-air at Reagan National Airport in Washington DC.
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Shocking images show the jet that plunged into the Potomac River split in pieces.
Horror CCTV from the Kennedy Center showed the moment the aircraft burst into flames.
All 64 people onboard - 60 passengers and four crew - are feared dead.
A distressed husband, whose 26-year-old wife was on the plane, said his last contact with his wife was just a few minutes before the crash.
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"She texted me that they were landing in 20 minutes," Hamaad Raza told .
He then showed undelivered messages on his phone saying, "That’s when I realized something was up."
He added, "I’m just praying that someone is pulling her out of the river right now. That’s all I can pray for."
He said his wife had gone to Wichita for work but admitted she never felt comfortable flying.
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The man and other family members are desperately waiting for updates at Terminal 2 at Reagan Airport.
The airport is set to remain closed until at least 11 am Thursday.
Tragic final moments of American Airlines flight revealed before horror crash
TRAGIC CRASH
The tragedy happened on Wednesday night when American Eagle Flight 5342 from Kansas was approaching Runway 33 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport when it crashed with a US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.
Horror CCTV from the Kennedy Center showed the moment the aircraft burst into flames after crashing in the air.
Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly has confirmed 27 bodies have been recovered from the plane and one from the helicopter.
He said the rescue mission has turned into a recovery operation, and there are not thought to be any survivors.
It comes as...
- Trump says crash 'should have been prevented'
- All 64 on board feared dead on plane
- CCTV reveals moment of crash
- Chilling audio reveals final moments of plane
- World champion figure skaters 'were on board'
- Husband from doomed jet
- Rescue efforts hampered by freezing & dark conditions
Emergency services are on the scene searching for bodies.
The airport's fire chief saying the operation will last "many hours."
FINAL MOMENTS
Chilling audio from air traffic control has revealed the final communications between the aircraft and air traffic control.
Flight tracking data appears to show the plane was at an approximate altitude of 300 feet when it crashed.
Fewer than 30 seconds before the crash, one controller asked the helicopter if it could see the plane.
The controller made another call to the chopper just moments later, saying: "PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ."
But seconds later, the plane and helicopter crashed.
The doomed plane was packed with figure skaters, including former champion figure skaters Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.
How common are domestic flights in the US?
by Georgie English, Foreign News Reporter
EVERY single day the Federal Aviation Administration oversees 45,000 flights with almost three million passengers on board
This covers a huge 29 million square miles of airspace from all over the US.
At peak times, up to 5,400 aircraft can be in the sky at any moment, creating a mammoth task for aviation experts and air traffic controllers to maintain safety among them.
This means that any wrong call or misstep from either flight crew or controllers can result in a fatal tragedy.
A shortage of air traffic controllers has caused delayed flights and raised a number of safety concerns.
Washington DC's airspace, in particular, is extremely busy at peak times.
In recent years, Reagan National Airport has seen several close calls, including a near-collision between an American Airlines jet and a small plane in May 2024.
A similar near catastrophe almost occurred a month earlier between a Southwest and JetBlue flight.
Reagan Airport also features much shorter takeoff and landing strips than many others, with over 90 percent of outgoing and incoming flights using the primary runway.
This makes it the busiest single runway in the US, with over 800 takeoffs and landings each day - or one every minute for much of the day.
USA Figure Skating said several members of its skating community were also on board.
It said that the athletes, coaches, and family members were traveling home from a development camp held in Wichita, Kansas.
"We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims' families closely in our hearts," the association said.
"We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available."
The skaters were part of the National Development Team and competed at the US Figure Skating Championships, which were held from January 20 to 26 in Wichita, Kansas.
Meanwhile, President Trump has questioned how the smash happened on a “clear night.”
“The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport," he wrote on Truth Social.
“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.
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"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!!!"
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