The mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and a U.S. Army helicopter near Washington, D.C. killed all 67 people aboard both aircraft, according to a preliminary report by the Federal Aviation Administration.
A total of 60 passengers and four crewmembers were onboard American Eagle Flight 5342, while three soldiers were onboard the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter when the two aircraft collided and plunged into the Potomac River.
Search-and-rescue efforts that began around 9 p.m. on Wednesday eventually switched to a recovery operation, after D.C.’s Fire and EMS chief confirmed that officials believed no one had survived the crash. As of Thursday evening, at least 28 bodies had been recovered, authorities said.
Here’s what we know about some of the victims of the nation’s deadliest air disaster in over two decades.
Among the recovered bodies were all three soldiers flying the Army Black Hawk helicopter, who officials said were all “very experienced.”
“Both pilots had flown this specific route before, at night. This wasn’t something new to either one of them,” according to Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation. “Even the crew chief in the back had been in the unit for a very long time, very familiar with the area, very familiar with the routing structure.”
The crew chief was identified as Ryan O’Hara, a devoted husband and father to a 1-year-old son. The 29-year-old soldier was part of the 2014 class of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at Parkview High School in Lilburn, Ga.
“Ryan is fondly remembered as a guy who would fix things around the ROTC gym as well as a vital member of the Rifle Team,” JROTC wrote in a tribute shared on Facebook.
The identities of the two other soldiers had not been made public by authorities as of Thursday afternoon.
Among the 64 passengers and crew aboard Flight 5342, 14 of them were members of the figure-skating community — including six who were members of The Skating Club of Boston.
Skaters Spencer Lane and Jinna Han, who were around 16, and both of their mothers were killed, as were coaches Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, the club’s executive director said at a news conference.
Sam Lilley, the first officer of the doomed American Eagle flight, was a Georgia native and Georgia Southern University graduate, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The 28-year-old was engaged to get married in the fall, his father, Timothy Lilley, wrote in an emotional Facebook post.
The pilot of the American Eagle jet was identified Thursday afternoon as Captain Jonathan Campos, a 2015 graduate of Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University.
Ian Epstein and Danasia Elder were the two Charlotte, N.C.-based flight attendants working on Flight 5342, according to local reports. Epstein’s ex-wife, Debi Epstein, confirmed the news in a Facebook post, “with a very heavy heart and extreme sadness.”
Speaking with The Charlotte Observer, she said her former husband “made flying fun for the passengers on the plane so they didn’t get scared,” adding that he “died doing what he absolutely loved.”
A school district in Virginia confirmed that nine members of the school community had been killed in the crash.
“Many on the flight were returning from a figure skating event in Wichita, Kansas,” Fairfax County Public Schools Michelle Reid said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “What we know at this time is that three of our FCPS students and six of our FCPS parents were lost, affecting multiple schools and departments here at FCPS. Two of the parents were current or former FCPS staff members.”