ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – One of the 67 victims in a crash involving an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter was from Central Florida, according to a family member.
News4JAX sister station WKMG reported that Jonathan Campos, 34, of Ormond Beach, was identified by his aunt.
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News 6 spoke with his aunt who added that several family members have traveled to Washington, where the tragic crash occurred.
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According to FAA records, Campos was a certified commercial airline pilot, although it’s not known if he was piloting the American Airlines jet at the time of the crash.
Campos was also a helicopter pilot and a certified aviation mechanic.
News 6 is working to learn more about Campos, so check back for updates.
All 64 people aboard the American Airlines jet and three soldiers aboard the helicopter were believed dead. At least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River after the helicopter apparently flew into the path of the jet late Wednesday as it was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington.
“We don’t believe there are any survivors,” said John Donnelly, the fire chief in the nation’s capital. “We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation.”
The plane was found upside-down in three sections in waist-deep water, and first responders were searching an area of the Potomac River as far south as the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, roughly 3 miles south of the airport, Donnelly said. The helicopter wreckage was also found. Images from the river showed boats around the partly submerged wing and the mangled wreckage of the plane’s fuselage.
If no one survived, the collision would be the deadliest U.S. air crash since 2001.
There was no immediate word on the cause of the collision, but officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet arrived from Wichita, Kansas, with U.S. and Russian figure skaters and others aboard.
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“On final approach into Reagan National, it collided with a military aircraft on an otherwise normal approach,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said. “At this time, we don’t know why the military aircraft came into the path of the ... aircraft.”
President Donald Trump opened a White House news conference after the crash with a moment of silence honoring the victims, calling it an “hour of anguish” for the country.
What happened
The FAA said the midair crash occurred before 9 p.m. EST in some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world, just over 3 miles south of the White House and the Capitol.
American Airlines Flight 5342 was inbound to Reagan National at an altitude of about 400 feet and a speed of about 140 mph when it rapidly lost altitude over the Potomac River, according to data from its radio transponder. The Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine jet, manufactured in 2004, can be configured to carry up to 70 passengers.
A few minutes before landing, air traffic controllers asked the arriving commercial jet if it could land on the shorter Runway 33 at Reagan National, and the pilots said they were able. Controllers then cleared the plane to land on Runway 33. Flight-tracking sites showed the plane adjust its approach to the new runway.
Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter, a UH-60 Blackhawk, if it had the arriving plane in sight. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later: “PAT 25, pass behind the CRJ.” Seconds after that, the two aircraft collided.
The plane’s transponder stopped transmitting about 2,400 feet short of the runway, roughly over the middle of the river.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.