American Airlines Flight 5342 was approaching Washington’s Reagan National Airport at around 9pm on Wednesday when the military chopper and plane collided in mid-air, before falling into the Potomac River.
The plane held four crew members and 60 passengers, while the helicopter was carrying three soldiers on a ‘training flight’.
Officials have not said how many are dead but 28 bodies have been recovered so far. Authorities believe there may be no survivors.
The Army and Defense Department has launched an investigation into the crash as many questions regarding how a plane with modern collision-avoidance technology and nearby traffic controllers could collide with a military aircraft over the nation’s capital.
Conspiracy theorists have rushed to social media to place uncorroborated blame on the US government, suggesting the collision must have been intentional because ‘military helicopters don’t fly into planes’.
Some allege the helicopter appeared to ‘chase’ the Bombadier plane as it approached for landing, comparing the scene to a ‘1970s-style assassination’.
Others have demanded to ‘know who was on that passenger plane’, suggesting that the incident was a ‘targeted hit’.
