Hundreds of rescuers were rapidly at the scene, but found themselves battling darkness and floating ice through the night. Some of the debris was found a mile downriver.
Among those on the airliner were several US skaters and coaches, US Figure Skating said. Officials in Moscow also confirmed the presence of Russian couple Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won the 1994 world pairs title.
The violence of the collision soon made it clear that survivors were unlikely.
“I just saw a fireball and it was gone,” one air traffic controller was heard telling a colleague after communication with the helicopter was cut.
What happened?
Hegseth said the Black Hawk chopper had “a fairly experienced crew that was doing a required annual night evaluation.”
“Do I think this was preventable? Absolutely,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.
Trump, in addition to blaming racial and other kinds of diversity policies, offered extended remarks on the flight paths.
The helicopter was “going at an angle that was unbelievably bad,” Trump said.
“The air traffic controller said, ‘Do you see… Do you see him?’ But there was very little time left when that was stated,” the president added, blaming a “confluence of bad decisions.”
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