CBS News Miami's Chelsea Jones spoke with South Florida flyers who were traveling at the time of the collision.
President Trump said the crash was a "tragedy of terrible proportions" and told family members "Our hearts are shattered alongside yours."
A Boeing 737 crashed into a bridge over the river on Jan. 13, 1982, just after taking off from Washington National Airport in a snowstorm.
For Tampa International Airport Chaplain Joseph Krzanowski, Wednesday’s plane crash near Washington D.C. brings back old memories.
Multiple 911 callers reported the crash near the river just before 8:55 p.m., according to the Metropolitan Police Department and the District of Columbia Fire and EMS.
The deadly crash in the Potomac after an American Eagle jet collided with a military helicopter has stirred memories of a long-ago tragedy in Washington, D.C. An Air Florida flight taking off en route to Fort Lauderdale crashed into a bridge and tumbled into the icy Potomac in January 1982.
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has been closed until at least 11 a.m. Thursday. Several flights out of Florida have already been canceled.
Several federal and state investigations have been launched after an American Airlines flight and a military helicopter collided near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and fell into the Potomac River,
A jet with 60 passengers and four crew members collided with an Army helicopter while approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C.,
The airspace around Washington, D.C., is congested and complex — a combination aviation experts have long worried could lead to catastrophe.
Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning. Federal aviation investigators vowed earlier in the day that they will find the cause of a horrific collision. NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said at a briefing that the agency wants to assure the American public it will "leave no stone unturned in this investigation .