A man whose wife was aboard an American Airline flight which collided with a Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday revealed his harrowing last messages with her moments before the crash.
Hamaad Raza is now eagerly awaiting news of his wife after a military helicopter crashed into American Airlines Flight 5342 that was descending onto the runway.
Mr Raza revealed that the flight was so close that his wife had found a phone signal and could text him about their imminent landing.
“She texted me that they were landing in 20 minutes. The rest of my texts didn't get delivered and that's when I realised that something might be up,” he told the WUSA news team at the airport.
A glance at his phone shows that the final message he sent her was: “Haven’t landed yet?”
Speaking to reporters he said: "I'm just praying that someone is pulling her out of the river right now as we speak.”
Mr Raza is among many heartbroken families that are desperately trying to find information at Reagan Airport about what happened to their loved ones.
A massive search mission and investigation is underway after the regional plane carrying 60 passengers and four crew collided with a military aircraft mid-air.
The plane departed from Kansas and was due to arrive at Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC at around 9pm local time on Wednesday.
Few details have emerged so far about the cause of the incident, however it has been reported that the control tower was in contact with the helicopter moments before the incident happened.
According to CNN, the US Army Blackhawk had three military personnel onboard and was conducting a training flight at the time of the incident.
As the commercial flight pilots descended to Runway 33, the control tower asked the nearby helicopter whether they had the plane in sight.
Less than 30 seconds before the crash, the control tower instructed the helicopter: "PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ."
Both aircraft broke up and crashed into the Potomac River below, where 18 bodies have so far reportedly been recovered. No survivors have been confirmed.
Details are also slowly emerging about the people who were aboard the commercial flight, with Russian state media revealing that famed Russian figure skaters Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov had been on board.
According to DC Fire and EMS Chief John Donnelly, the rescue and recovery has become “a highly complex operation. The conditions out there are extremely rough.”
The river where the aircraft crashed into is around 8ft deep and had bits of ice floating in it.
