The UH-60 Black Hawk is the helicopter involved in a crash with a passenger jet on Wednesday night near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.

Multiple fatalities have been reported after a horrific incident involving American Airlines flight 5342 and a U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter over

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.

A Black Hawk helicopter can transport up to "12 fully equipped, seated troops in combat," according to Lockheed Martin, the weapons company that builds the helicopter. There are about 5,000 of these helicopters in use by the United States Military.

The trials mark the first time one of the new GE Aerospace T901 Improved Turbine Engines has been powered up inside a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk as part of a US Army plan to overhaul its fleet of the iconic utility helicopters.

The Blackhawk that struck an American Airlines flight landing at Reagan airport had three soldiers on board and no VIPs or senior officials were involved.

The American Airlines jet was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members when it collided with Black Hawk Army helicopter built by Connecticut's Sikorsky.

A passenger plane carrying 64 people has collided midair with a military helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC. The PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 jet collided with a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter at around 9pm on Wednesday (02:00 GMT Thursday), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.

Investigators in the US have located the black boxes from the American Airlines jet that crashed into a US Army helicopter near Washington, DC, killing all 67 people on board.

A devastating mid-air collision between a commercial airliner and a U.S. Army helicopter sent both aircraft crashing into Washington’s Potomac River on Wednesday night, killing all 64 passengers and crew on the jet.

The names of some of the plane crash victims have started to emerge overnight, including a 12-year-old figure skater and a university professor. Meanwhile, black boxes have been recovered from the airliner and tests are being carried out in a laboratory.