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'Like a war zone': Washington plane crash witness describes scene of horror he saw from his window
30 January 2025, 23:26
Witness describes Washington plane crash
A man who witnessed the fatal plane crash in Washington DC has described the scene he saw from the window of his home.
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Abadi Ismail, who lives close to the Potomac river in the US capital, said that the collision of a helicopter and an American Airlines plane on Wednesday night was "like a war zone".
Describing the scene to LBC's Ben Kentish, Mr Ismail said: "Somewhere around 8:50pm last night I was ready to get to bed when I heard a loud bang bang within two seconds... from each other.
"I immediately turned myself to the window to take a look and see what might that be - something you don't normally hear... day to day.
"It's something you see and hear on a movie set, in a war zone," he said of the crash, in which all 67 people died.
DCA search and rescue! pic.twitter.com/xSG9UBJBsQ
— Abadi Ismail 🇱🇧🇸🇦🇵🇸🇸🇾#FreePalestine (@FollowAbadi) January 30, 2025
Mr Ismail said it took him a few seconds to work our what was happening before reading the news online.
Emergency services desperately worked to find survivors in the river but everyone on board both aircraft died.
He said that he could see the helicopters... really trying to spot anything in the water.
"It's 9pm and the water is absolutely freezing and you can see actually the ice, the sheet of ice all over the Potomac."
Speaking on Thursday, Donald Trump questioned the actions of the army helicopter pilot and air traffic controller.
And he quickly veered into politics to speculate that Democrats and diversity initiatives shared blame for the deaths of 67 people.
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As Mr Trump spoke, a federal investigation into the crash was just getting started and first responders were still working to recover bodies from the crash site.
Speaking from the White House - just over three miles from the scene - Mr Trump at points acknowledged that it was too soon to draw conclusions as he encouraged the nation to pray for the victims.
But he moved nonetheless to assign blame.
Mr Trump said "we are one family" as he expressed condolences for the crash. He then proceeded to attack political opponents and unleash grievances about diversity initiatives.
