No fewer than 60 people are feared dead after an American Airlines commercial plane and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter collided and crashed into the frigid Potomac River near Washington DC in the United States on Wednesday night.
Officials are yet to provide a death toll from the collision.
But Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas, where the flight originated, suggested that all on board died.
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“It’s really hard when you lose probably over 60 Kansans simultaneously. When one person dies, it’s a tragedy, but when many, many, many people die, it’s unbearable sorrow,” he was quoted to have said at a news conference at the airport on Thursday.
The CEO of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, Jack Potter, emphasised at the same news conference that first responders were still in “rescue mode”.
CBS News had reported that at least 18 bodies had been recovered, citing a police official.
Reuters quoted two sources as saying multiple bodies had been pulled from the water.
According to American Airlines, 60 passengers and four crew members were aboard the PSA Airlines Bombardier regional jet that was travelling from Wichita, Kansas to the US capital.
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Three US Army soldiers were onboard the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter based out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
A spokesperson with the Joint Task Force-National Capital Regio, Heather Chairez, said it was taking part in a training flight.
The accident is said to be one of the worst air disasters in the US in more than 15 years.
Search and rescue operations are still under way at the nearby Potomac River.