The U.S. Department of Transportation said it was possible to prevent the Washington, D.C., plane crash

The plane crash in the skies over Washington, D.C., in which a passenger plane and a military helicopter collided, could have been prevented, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Jan. 30.

"To reiterate what the president said, based on what I saw, do I believe it was preventable? Absolutely," The New York Post quoted him as saying at a briefing.

President Donald Trump had earlier testified that the tragedy could have been avoided if the helicopter crew had changed course. The transportation chief confirmed that all 67 people aboard the plane and helicopter are presumed dead.

"It was a standard communication, there was no communication failure between the military helicopter and the US airline flight. There was communication between the airplane and the tower. Something went wrong," Duffy stated.

Interrupted flight: Russian figure skaters were among the dead in the plane crash in the USA

Yevgeniya Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on board, the names of the other passengers are being investigated

On the night of Jan. 30, an American Airlines passenger jet and a Blackhawk military helicopter collided near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington. A total of 60 passengers and four crew members were aboard the American Airlines plane. There were three military personnel in the helicopter. Preliminary, there is no data on survivors.

US President Donald Trump called the airplane crash that occurred in Washington terrible. NBC News reported that at the site of the airplane crash, the bodies of more than 30 victims were removed from the Potomac River. The wreckage of American Eagle Flight 5342 and a military helicopter continue to lie in the river. It was also noted that on board the plane, tentatively, were eight skaters and four coaches.

It is known that among them - the bronze medalist of the USSR championship in pairs figure skating and former figure skater Inna Volyanskaya and world champions in figure skating Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. Honored USSR figure skating coach Tatyana Tarasova called this information "terrible news." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Russian citizens were on board the plane.

German pilot and aviation expert Peter Gatz suggested that the collision between the military helicopter and the passenger plane could have been caused by a dispatcher's error.