Were you in the area? Did you witness the crash? If it is safe to do so, please get in touch.

You can also get in touch in the following ways:

• Email Haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk, external
• WhatsApp: +44 7756 165803
• Upload your pictures and video
• Tweet: @BBC_HaveYourSay, external
• Please read our terms & conditions and privacy policy

In some cases a selection of your comments and questions will be published, displaying your name and location as you provide it unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published.

Carl Nasman
Reporting from Reagan National Airport

Terminal 1 at Reagan National Airport is very quiet.

Even the large crowd of news media inside Terminal 1 is speaking in hushed tones.

The entire airport has been shut down until at least 11:00 local time (16:00 GMT) while rescuers scramble to find any crash survivors in the icy cold river.

There is a sense that given the severity of the collision and the cold conditions in the river, rescue efforts may be futile.

Tracking the aircraft flight pathspublished at 10:25 Greenwich Mean Time 30 January

10:25 GMT 30 January

Both the American Airlines flight and the Black Hawk helicopter were transmitting information about their paths and altitude ahead of the crash.

The two aircraft were visible on a tracking website called ADS-B Exchange as they approached each other.

The plane was sending out ADS-B signals, whilst the Black Hawk helicopter was tracked using another system called MLAT.

Aircraft such as these have systems onboard to detect nearby flights, including a Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS).

Doug Rice, a retired American Airlines pilot, told broadcaster NBC that TCAS isn’t effective below 700ft (213m).

Data from the tracking site shows the American Airlines plane had been on a steady descent approaching Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport from the south. The helicopter was flying from the north, along the Potomac River, also on a descending path.

The last recorded altitude of the aircraft just before the impact was around 200ft.

Simon King
BBC weather presenter and meteorologist

While the cause of the crash is still unknown, the moment there is an aircraft incident near an airport, a detailed weather observation is taken.

The investigators will then use this information to determine if the weather had any impact.

We know the crash happened at around 21:00 local time (02:00 GMT), and while there were clear skies with a visibility of more than 10 miles (16km), there were some gusty winds at that time around Washington DC.

The wind was coming in from a west-north-west direction with a speed of 16mph (26km/hr), gusting up to 26mph (42km/h).

The American Airlines flight will have been using Runway 33 (direction 330º) which means it would be near-enough landing into the wind (290º), as an aircraft would normally do.

However, there is still a crosswind component which is something pilots are aware of in any landing.

In this case, the crosswind at the surface was 10mph gusting to 17mph (16-27km/hr). This is well within the limits of the aircraft and ability for a pilot to land in, so I’m sure there would be have been no weather concerns on approach.

Image source, Getty Images

It's just past 04:50 in Washington DC and still pitch black as about 300 responders continue to work in very tough conditions on the Potomac River with parts of the plane submerged by up to 8ft (243cm).

As we've just reported, the water in the river is understood to have some ice and earlier, DC's fire and emergency services chief said the conditions on the river are "extremely rough".

The water temperature - combined with the lack of light and windy conditions - makes the operation "particularly difficult", says Matthew Schanck, founder of a maritime search, rescue and emergency response consultancy in the UK.

"There's ice in the river, it's particularly cold and that makes it very challenging to (rescue) crews," he tells the BBC. With more than 60 people to search for, he says "there's not a lot of time to really try and locate any survivors and rescue them because of the cold".

According to the US National Weather Service, when your body hits cold water, you can go into "cold shock" within the first minute with dramatic changes to breathing, heart rate and blood pressure.

Within ten minutes, you can lose muscle control and hypothermia can set in within 20 to 30 minutes.

American Airlines Flight 5342 was preparing to land on Runway 33 at the Ronald Reagan National Airport last night when it was involved in a collision with a military helicopter.

According to Reuters news agency, the airport - which is the closest to the capital - is the 24th busiest airport by passengers in the US.

The map below gives an idea of the geography of the region.

Sean Dilley
BBC Transport correspondent

Former RAF pilot and broadcaster George Bacon tells the BBC that military aircraft and helicopters routinely fly in close proximity to passenger planes.

Bacon says: "I've flown as a military pilot in the US and I'm somewhat familiar with the airspace around Washington DC. It's highly congested but civilian and military traffic share one radio frequency".

Bacon adds that military pilots enjoy much greater freedom when it comes to navigation than they would over UK airspace: "The military regulate themselves and pilots can choose to fly where they want and need to. In controlled airspace like this, they would still have freedom to take avoiding action, but they would be following the direction of the controller. The emphasis is that they must look - it's known as 'see and avoid'."

This contrasts with civilian airliners, he explains, which are expected to follow fixed flight paths.

Asked about radio traffic alerting the helicopter pilot to the presence of the passenger aircraft in the capital, he says: "It's standard for air traffic controllers to ask simply 'do you see the aircraft?'. There would be a very clear instruction - so this would be down to the pilot of the military helicopter to avoid the commercial aircraft."

He adds: "It's not unusual for military helicopters to be in such close proximity to commercial aircraft. Investigators will establish what's happened and if there are lessons to be learned, there will be an amendment to the procedures."

We’ve just been hearing from someone who lives next to Reagan Washington National Airport. He describes how the busy airspace has now become eerily quiet.

Matthew Cappucci tells our colleagues on the Today programme that he lives about 1km (0.6 miles) west of the airport, under the flight path of planes taking off.

He says that he usually hears planes every 30 seconds but adds that “since the accident…it’s been absolute silence”.

Cappucci says that DC's airspace is very busy because of both commercial and military flights operating in the area.

“The airspace is so tightly governed but also so busy, and I’m not surprised that eventually there was a collision given how many moving pieces there are all the time.”

Cappucci says he didn’t actually hear the collision.

“I knew something was up when immediately my phone began ringing off the hook and I looked out of the window and I’d never seen so many emergency personnel”, he says.

A search is under way for survivors in freezing conditions after a commercial flight collided with a helicopter and fell into the Potomac River.

Nineteen bodies have so far been recovered, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News.

You can take a look at how events unfolded - and the emergency response under way - below:

Ana Faguy
US Reporter

I've landed at Reagan or National airport - name depends on who you ask - hundreds of times in the 15 years I've lived in Washington DC.

It's ordinarily a very scenic landing offering plane riders a view of many famous monuments on their way to landing at one of the DC area's three airports.

The runway borders the river so as fliers land many newcomers think something is going wrong. If you've ever flown into New York's LaGuardia Airport or San Francisco International Airport, it's much like that.

Simon King
BBC weather presenter and meteorologist

The official temperature at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, midnight local time is around 7C (44F).

But this temperature is expected to continue to drop to a minimum of -1C (30F) through the rest of the night.

However, in the suburbs of the city, the temperature has already dropped below freezing, and the water in the Potomac River is reported to have some ice.

Earlier in the night there was a spell of stronger winds with gusts of 20-30mph (32-48km/h), but those winds are now easing down and it should be calm for the rest of the night.

Into daylight hours in Washington DC, Thursday is expected to be calm and sunny with a maximum temperature of 10C (50F).

We're now seeing reports that two Russian figure skaters and coaches were on board the American Airlines flight 5342, following our recent post on the US Figure Skating's statement that several of their athletes were on the plane.

The reports are coming in from Reuters news agency, which cites Russia's TASS news agency.

We're still awaiting confirmation from officials on fatalities, but a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told the BBC's US partner CBS that authorities have recovered at least 19 bodies so far.

Image source, Getty Images

It's just past 03:00 local time (08:00 GMT) in Washington DC, and the UK is waking up to the news that the US has suffered its first major commercial air crash in 16 years.

Rescuers are currently scouring wreckage in the freezing Potomac River, where a plane carrying 64 people and a helicopter with three military personnel on board crashed after colliding in mid-air.

So far, 19 bodies have been recovered, and US Figure Skating has confirmed that several members of its community were on board - we don't yet know the condition of these passengers.

Donald Trump has reacted to the crash on his TruthSocial platform, where he says it “should have been prevented”.

A little earlier, we heard a short press briefing that left the biggest question unanswered - the number of people killed in the crash. But officials promised to speak again during the daylight hours.

Here's what we learned:

• The rescue operation is large-scale and complex, with 300 first responders on the water, as well as boats and divers from around the region. Rescue efforts are expected to continue all night
• Searchers are dealing with very tough conditions - freezing water, wind and no light. An emergency official described the river as a "big patch of black" and said pieces of ice have been spotted
• Reagan National Airport will now reopen on Thursday, at 11:00 local time (16:00 GMT). Earlier reports suggested it could be closed until Friday morning

Image source, Getty Images

The plane broke into multiple pieces and is now 5-8ft (152-243cm) deep in the water, according to authorities the BBC's US partner CBS News reports.

The dive team has now also found what appears to be one of the two black boxes.

Divers have had some access to the cabin and luggage is among items they have recovered so far, CBS reports.

The report states that the helicopter is upside down but appears to be mostly intact.

Investigators are expected to examine pilot experience in the Washington DC airspace as helicopters are supposed to stay under 200ft (60.9m) when flying around the DC approach.

US Figure Skating - the American governing body for the sport - has confirmed in a statement that several members of its skating community were on board the American Airlines Flight 5342.

"These athletes, coaches, and family members were returning home from the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas," the statement reads.

"We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts. We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available."

The 2025 Prevagen US Figure Skating Championships were held in Wichita, Kansas, between 20-26 January.

Authorities have recovered at least 19 bodies, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation tells BBC's US partner CBS.

We've just heard from Geoffrey Thomas, an aviation consultant, who says the US has the safest airline system in the world and "these sorts of things don't happen in the United States anymore".

Thomas tells the BBC that mid-air collisions were supposed to be something of the past, and that new technology has enabled aircraft to electronically talk to each other to warn pilots of such impending collisions.

This is a system called the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), which Thomas says has saved tens of thousands of lives in the last few decades.

He adds that all commercial aircraft and most military aircraft are fitted with this technology.

"Technically (the crash) should never have happened. It's perplexing and tragic".

Moments before the crash, an air traffic controller can be heard asking the helicopter if it has the American Airlines passenger jet "in sight", according to CNN.

Another warning is given by air traffic control and seconds later the collision happens.

The audio was published Live ATC, a site that focuses on aviation communications for more than 1,200 airports. It has not been verified by the BBC.

The audio does not appear to include any response from the helicopter to the warnings from air traffic control.

The last major US commercial air crash was in February 2009, when a Continental Airlines flight that departed from Newark, New Jersey, operated by Colgan Air, crashed into a house as it was approaching the airport in Buffalo, New York.

The plane was a Bombardier Q400 and 49 people were killed in the crash.

The most recent large-scale American Airlines crash was in November 2001 near John F. Kennedy International Airport.

American Airlines Flight No 587, an Airbus A300, crashed shortly after take-off, killing 265 people.

The flight was bound for Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and crashed in the Belle Harbor area of the Rockaways in the New York City borough of Queens.

In 2009, a US Airways Airbus A320 made a crash landing minutes after it took off from New York City's LaGuardia airport, after both its engines were disabled by a flock of birds.

The pilot decided to glide the plane to ditching on the Hudson River and all 155 passengers and crew were rescued with no fatalities.

Image source, Getty Images

An extensive search and rescue operation is currently under way in the Potomac river.

It is late into the night in Washington DC, and emergency services chief John Donnelly has warned that conditions are "extremely rough" amid little light and icy temperatures.

At the scene, rescue workers can be seen climbing over parts of the commercial flight that had been broken up in the water.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images