The doomed American Airlines Flight 5342 took many lives in its wake, potentially, all of them. Now, a man whose 26-year-old wife was on the flight opens up about the tragedy, as they both shared final messages before the fateful moment.
The Wichita, Kansas – Washington flight unfortunately collided with a military helicopter just before 9 pm on Wednesday. Emergency services are currently searching the Potomac River near the airport after the incident.
The husband is in shambles
Hamaad Raza spoke to WUSA9 about his wife, saying that they exchanged texts, minutes before the crash.
“She texted me that they were landing in 20 minutes. The rest of my texts didn’t get delivered and that’s when I realized that something might be up,” he said.
Raza is desperate for any news about his wife
“I’m just praying that somebody’s pulling her out of the river right now, as we speak. That’s all I can pray for, I’m just praying to God,” Raza told the outlet.
Raza said that his wife flew to Wichita for work but she was never comfortable with flying.
The anxiety is eating them up
Raza and another family member were anxiously pacing back and forth through Terminal 2 at Reagan Airport Wednesday night, in the hopes of hearing any updates.
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The WUSA reporter remarked that his conversation with Raza was “one of the most heartbreaking interviews” of his professional career.
Officials are doing their best
Officials are currently looking for a total of 67 people: 60 passengers, four crew members, and three soldiers on a “training flight.”
They haven’t disclosed a number yet but so far, the bodies of 30 people reported to have been recovered. Authorities hint at the possibility of having no survivors.
The flight included a married Russian-born former world champions
The flight also had ice skaters, families, and coaches as its passengers, including former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. The skaters were returning from a camp after a Witchita event.
Their son might have been on the flight
Russian media said Shishkova and Naumov, who were working as coaches and were married, were returning from Wichita with a group of young skaters.
Their son, Maxim, 23, is a figure skater for Team USA and was at the camp but it is vague whether he was on the tragic flight with them.
Another US figure skating team member was on the flight
US figure skating team member Spencer Lane, 26, posted a photo as a story on Instagram of the plane taxiing on the runway at Wichita Airport before it took off for its last flight.
He captioned the photo with: “ICT -> DCA.” These are the codes for Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
It might take a political turn
Russian media published a list of 13 skaters, with many of them being children of Russian emigres to the US, who were believed to be on the horrifying flight.
The Kremlin sent out its condolences to Russian families whose loved ones were on the flight. However, they expressed that there is no intention so far for presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump to contact one another.
How the flight turned deadly
American Airlines Flight 5342, a Bombardier CRJ700, crashed into a Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk helicopter as it was approaching Runway 33.
The Bombardier is said to have split into two and was in around seven feet of water. As for the helicopter, it was upside down and unstable.
Officials unleashed a massive search and rescue operation
Divers dove into the snow-lined Potomac into the night, depending on the glaring lights of powerful light sources to scour the wreckage left behind of both aircraft.
In addition, officials sent a team to look for those on both aircraft, having found over 30 bodies out of the 67 in the river.
