An American Airlines plane carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter outside Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C. Wednesday night. A D.C. fire official said Thursday that “we don't think there are any survivors from this accident" and "we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation.

An Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with a regional jet near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday evening, U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News.

The father of the man piloting an American Airlines jet that collided with an Army helicopter mid-air in Washington, D.C. has spoken out. Sam Lilley, 28, was one of two people piloting the flight from Wichita, Kansas, his father Timothy Lilley told Fox 5 Atlanta. All 67 people on board both aircraft are feared to be dead, officials say.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calls the deadly aircraft collision involving a Black Hawk and a civilian airliner "a tragedy" in a statement obtained exclusively by Fox News.

The Army helicopter that slammed into a passenger plane on Wednesday night was on a 'routine annual retraining,' Sec. of Defense Pete Hegseth said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was too soon to speculate the cause of the deadly crash above the Potomac River and pledged to release a preliminary report within 30 days. Skaters, parents,

Air crash investigations can take months, and federal investigators told reporters they would not speculate on the cause.

The Army Black Hawk is said to have been flying higher than it should have been when it collided with a passenger jet, killing 67 people. And the air traffic controller on duty was doing a job usually handled by two people.

Emergency teams will continue efforts to retrieve the bodies of those who died when a passenger jet and helicopter collided.

Divers are expected to return to the Potomac River as part of the recovery and investigation after the United States' deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter century.