Media has learned of warnings to pilots about the risk of airplane crashes over Washington, D.C.

Aviation experts and pilots have long warned of the risks of airplane crashes over Washington, D.C., due to congested airspace. The Associated Press (AP) reported on Jan. 31.

Experts say that even during peak weather conditions, the airspace near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport can be a challenge for the most experienced pilots. That's because pilots have to maneuver among hundreds of other commercial, military aircraft and in restricted areas around strategically important facilities.

"It was a disaster waiting to happen. Those of us who have been in the job for a long time were screaming into the void that something like this was going to happen because our systems are operating at capacity," the agency quoted Ross Eimer, a retired United Airlines captain and CEO of Aero Consulting Experts, as saying.

Gone under water: in the U.S., an airplane collided with a helicopter near the Potomac River

Extensive work is underway, divers are retrieving bodies

On the night of January 30, an American Airlines passenger plane and a Black Hawk military helicopter collided in the sky near Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington, DC. After the crash, they fell into the Potomac River. A total of 60 passengers and four crew members were aboard the airplane. There were three military personnel in the helicopter. The TV channel CNN reported that the bodies of more than 40 victims were extracted from the water. In turn, US President Donald Trump reported the absence of survivors in the airplane crash in Washington.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that there were Russian citizens in the plane that crashed in Washington. He expressed condolences to the families and loved ones of those who died in the plane crash.

Later, CNN reported that one of the flight recorders (black boxes) of the crashed passenger plane was recovered from the Potomac River near Washington. At the same time, ABC News, citing a source familiar with the situation, reported that both flight recorders - voice and parametric - of the passenger plane had been found