WASHINGTON — A midair collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight killed all 67 people aboard the two aircraft, officials said Thursday, as they scrutinized the actions of the military pilot and reported that control tower staffing was “not normal” at the time of the country's worst aviation disaster in a generation.

At least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River after the helicopter apparently flew into the path of the jet late Wednesday while it was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport, just across the river from Washington, officials said. The plane carried 60 passengers and four crew. Three soldiers were aboard the helicopter.

One air traffic controller was doing work normally assigned to two people in the tower at Reagan National when the collision happened, according to a report by the Federal Aviation Administration obtained by The Associated Press.

“The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” the report said.

President Donald Trump said in a White House news conference that no one had survived.

“We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation," said John Donnelly, the fire chief in the nation’s capital.

The plane was found upside-down in three sections in waist-deep water, and first responders were searching an area of the Potomac as far south as the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, roughly 3 miles south of the airport, Donnelly said. The helicopter wreckage was also found. Images from the river showed boats around the partly submerged wing and the mangled wreckage of the plane’s fuselage.

The collision was the deadliest U.S. air crash since 2001.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the collision, but officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet arrived from Wichita, Kansas, with U.S. and Russian figure skaters and others aboard.

“On final approach into Reagan National, it collided with a military aircraft on an otherwise normal approach," American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said.

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the agency has not retrieved the flight recorders from either aircraft but believes they will find them and be able to read the data, even though the recorders are underwater. 

NTSB investigators said they do not have enough facts to determine if the crash was caused by human or mechanical failures. NTSB board member Todd Inman said it is common for helicopters to operate in the area.

Inman said the crash was a "very quick, rapid impact," but added the agency needs to verify all the information it has received so far, including a large package from the Federal Aviation Administration that it received at 3 a.m.

"We’re here to assure the American people that we are going to leave no stone unturned in the investigation," Homendy said. "We are going to conduct a thorough investigation of this entire tragedy looking at the facts."

Preliminary results of the investigation will be available in 30 days, the NTSB said. 

A top Army aviation official said the Black Hawk crew was “very experienced” and familiar with the congested flying that occurs daily around Washington.

“Both pilots had flown this specific route before, at night. This wasn’t something new to either one of them,” said Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation. “Even the crew chief in the back has been in the unit for a very long time, very familiar with the area, very familiar with the routing structure.”

The helicopter's maximum allowed altitude at the time of the crash was 200 feet above ground, Koziol said. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that elevation seemed to be a factor in the collision.

But Koziol said investigators need to analyze the flight data before making conclusions about altitude.

Trump opened a White House news conference after the crash with a moment of silence honoring the victims, calling it an “hour of anguish” for the country.

But he spent most of his time casting political blame, lashing out at the Biden administration and diversity efforts at the Federal Aviation Administration, saying they had led to slipping standards — even as he acknowledged that the cause of the crash was unknown.

Without evidence, Trump blamed air traffic controllers, the helicopter pilots and Democratic policies at federal agencies. He claimed the FAA was “actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative."

Inside Reagan National Airport, the mood was somber Thursday morning as stranded passengers waited for flights to resume, sidestepping camera crews and staring out the terminal’s windows at the Potomac, where recovery efforts were barely visible in the distance.

Aster Andemicael had been at the airport since Wednesday evening with her elderly father, who was flying to Indiana to visit family. She spent much of the long night thinking about the victims and their families.

“I’ve been crying since yesterday,” she said, her voice cracking. “This is devastating.”

Flights resumed at the airport around midday. But many flights had been canceled, and airport information boards were covered in red cancellation messages.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who was sworn in earlier this week, said there were "early indicators of what happened,” though he declined to elaborate pending an investigation.

It is not unusual to have a military aircraft flying the river and an aircraft landing at the airport, he said, but added that he believed the crash could have been avoided.

“From what I’ve seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely.” he said.