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 evening. Three soldiers were onboard the helicopter and a massive search and rescue operation is now unfolding in the Potomac River.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a statement saying that A PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet collided in midair with a Sikorsky H-60 helicopter while approaching Washington National Airport at about 9 p.

One of the pilots of the passenger jet involved in a mid-air collision in Washington, D.C. was a native of New York but grew up in Florida, where he learned to fly planes, according to records and statements from those who knew him.

A midair collision occurred between an American Airlines jet with 64 people onboard and a U.S. Army chopper carrying three soldiers on Jan. 29 in Washington, D.C. Among the fatalities in the crash include 14 U.

The FAA said the crash happened in some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world, just over three miles south of the White House