No survivors after midair collision near Washington, D.C., officials say

We'll have more coverage on the crash at cbcnews.ca throughout the day.

You can also find a fulsome story on the investigation .here

Doug Zeghibe, the chief executive at the Skating Club of Boston, said 14 members of the skating community were killed, including Jinna Han and Spencer Lane. Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, two highly regarded Russian coaches, are also among the dead.

Their son, a former U.S. junior champion who has finished fourth at senior nationals the past three years, was not on the plane. Maxim Naumov, 23, left Kansas a few days earlier.

Olympic medallist Nancy Kerrigan never worked with the Russian coaches, but often crossed their path — including at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994.

“Everything I’ve heard of them, maybe [they were] being a little tough but with a smile on their face. Anytime I was in, it was, ‘Oh, hi, good to see you.’ Always welcome and happy to see one another,” Kerrigan, who was born outside of Boston, told CBC News Network.

“To not see that [welcome] would be strange for everybody coming here. ... It’s going to be hard.”

“My heart goes out to the grieving family members and loved ones who are facing unimaginable loss following the tragedy at Reagan National Airport,” he wrote on X.

“To the American people: Canadians are mourning with you, and we stand ready to support our neighbours however we can.”

Two “accredited representatives" from the Transportation Safety Board are going to Washington to help the U.S.-based National Transportation Safety Board, according to a statement from the former. The northern agency is offering help because of longstanding “international agreements,” though the American Airlines plane was also Canadian-made.

Abadi Ismail lives a few kilometres from the airport and heard the crash last night. He said he heard at least two loud bangs seconds apart.

“It was something you don’t normally hear on a regular basis. Something you only witness in a movie theatre, in a war zone,” he told CBC News Network from his apartment overlooking the Potomac River.

“[It's] something I’ve never witnessed in my life. It's scary to think about the whole notion that there are victims in the water right now.”

Here are three basic takeaways from President Donald Trump’s eye-popping address at the White House briefing room podium.

First: He faults everyone but the American Airlines crew for the collision. He says the helicopter was flying straight toward the plane and only started turning too late. He also accused the air traffic control team of failing to deliver a clear warning. He said the instructions were vague, and also too late. “You had a confluence of bad decisions.”

Second: He’s a fighter, not a healer. Trump seemed to try, maybe, for a couple of minutes. He held a moment of silence. But within minutes, he was trashing the Democrats, diversity initiatives and outgoing transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, even using a swear word at one point. He then accused CNN of asking an unintelligent question. This is as bodies were still being pulled out of the river near the White House.

Third: There were victims from several countries. Not just Russia, Trump said. He said he would release more information soon.

President Donald Trump started his statement by referring to this as the sort of tragedy that unites the country across partisan divides.

That sentiment lasted a couple of minutes.

He proceeded to spend most of his public event on Thursday trashing his predecessors for hiring incompetent people to run air traffic control, on the basis of affirmative action for diversity or people with disabilities.

He complained about Democrats hiring people on the basis of race instead of competence and accused them of discriminating against white people.

He then trashed the last transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg. “A real winner,” Trump said. “He’s a disaster. … He’s run [the FAA] right into the ground with his diversity.”

In a post on X, Buttigieg said Trump’s remarks were “despicable.”

U.S. President Donald Trump has shared some theories about what he believes caused the tragic crash.

“We think we have some pretty good ideas,” Trump said from the podium in the White House briefing room. “We will state certain opinions.”

He appeared to blame both the helicopter for flying toward the commercial plane, and the air-traffic control crew for failing to warn it off.

Trump called the tragedy a moment of mourning for people in the United States and elsewhere.

“This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital, and in our nation’s history,” he said. “Our hearts are shattered.”

It was Trump’s first appearance in the briefing room since returning to office. He began his press encounter with a moment of silence.

Global Affairs Canada said it hasn’t heard about any Canadians on board American Airlines Flight 5342. A statement said “officials are in touch with local authorities and continue to gather more information."

Reagan Washington National Airport is unique in that it's common to see a mix of passenger and military aircraft using the space without issue. Officials have said both aircraft involved last night were following an otherwise normal flight path, so investigators will be trying to figure out why they ran into each other.

“It’s going to take some time and it’s going to be necessary for us to be patient, but we will understand how these two aircraft came together,” said John Cox, an accident investigator and former pilot based in Florida who has personally landed planes “countless” times at Reagan.

“Everything was routine until something went terribly wrong, and determining what that something was is going to be the focus for the [National Transportation Safety Board].”