Husband of woman on crashed Washington flight shares her final text

A man whose wife was on the plane that crashed into Washington DC’s Potomac River has shared the final message he got from her.

Hamaad Raza said the last contact he had was when she texted him to say she would be landing “in 20 minutes”.

He told reporters he was “just praying that somebody’s pulling her out of the river right now as we speak. That’s all I can pray for. I’m just praying to God”.

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Mr Raza showed his phone with her message but said the rest of his texts “didn’t get delivered”, and that was when he “realised something might be up”.

US President Donald Trump said in an update on Thursday that there were no survivors of the collision between an American Airlines jet and a US Army helicopter near Washington DC.

Earlier, Washington DC fire chief John Donnelly said he feared no one had survived, but did not confirm it.

Mr Donnelly said the initial search and rescue mission to look for survivors had become a recovery operation.

The plane was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near the city at around 9pm local time (2am UK time) on Wednesday night when the crash happened.

Sixty passengers and four crew were on board the jet, while the helicopter was carrying three soldiers.

At least 28 bodies – 27 from the passenger plane and one from the helicopter – have been pulled out of the freezing Potomac River.

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Both aircraft fell into the river, with the plane breaking into three pieces which were found upside down in waist-deep water. Wreckage from the helicopter has also been found.

Some 300 responders have been searching the river in freezing conditions.

Six skaters who were on the plane have been named by their club in Boston.

Among them are coaches Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, Russian former world champions.

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The American Airlines flight 5342 had set out from Wichita in Kansas, while the helicopter – a UH-60 Black Hawk based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia – was on a training flight.

CCTV footage shows a flash of light in the sky at 8.47pm local time (1.47am UK time) as the aircraft collided and burst into flames.

Investigators are looking into the causes of the crash.