How News Outlets Covered the Washington, D.C. Plane Crash

News outlets went into breaking news mode on Wednesday night when an American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter over the Potomac River while approaching Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.

As of Thursday morning, officials have indicated that there are no survivors from the horrific incident. 64 people were onboard American Eagle Flight 5342 plane and while the Black Hawk helicopter carried three soldiers.

The collision is likely to be the deadliest aviation accident in the U.S. since the Colgan Air crash in February 2009. That tragedy occurred outside of Buffalo, New York, and resulted in 50 deaths.

CNN was the first network to report the D.C. collision, with Kaitlan Collins breaking the news at 9:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday. (All time Eastern.) Collins immediately brought CNN’s aviation correspondent Pete Muntean on air to provide additional information.

The network continued rolling coverage for the rest of the night, with Laura Coates co-anchoring her 11 p.m. program on location close to the collision scene.

CNN’s @thelauracoates now co-anchoring from the scene of the Potomac River plane-helicopter collision pic.twitter.com/jXRbSK8r1M

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 30, 2025

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow alerted her viewers to the incident at 9:34 p.m., with the network going into rolling coverage at 9:47 p.m.

Fox News began its coverage at 9:38 p.m. as Sean Hannity—who was airing a pre-taped interview with Vice President J.D. Vance—quickly pivoted to the breaking news situation in D.C.

The network pre-empted Gutfeld! at 10 p.m. as Trace Gallagher anchored an extended edition of Fox News @ Night until 1 a.m. The network continued with rolling coverage for the remainder of the night.

Chris Cuomo broke the collision news on NewsNation at 9:45 p.m.

Over on the broadcast side, ABC News was the first network to present a special report at 9:54 p.m., anchored by Nightline co-anchor Byron Pitts with additional commentary from ABC senior investigative correspondents Kathrine Faulders and Aaron Katersky, and aviation expert Steve Ganyard. The network continued breaking news coverage on its ABC News Live streaming service until 2 a.m.

CBS News presented its special report at 10:01 p.m. featuring Chris Welch and senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave. The network also interrupted programming at 10:33 p.m. with reporting anchored by Kristine Johnson, while chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett anchored a 12:53 a.m. update. Continuous coverage aired on its streaming service, CBS News 24/7.

NBC News cut into its programming with a special report at 10:15 p.m. with Hallie Jackson anchoring and Tom Costello reporting. It aired another special report roughly 30 minutes later anchored by Lester Holt.

All of the news outlets provided continuous coverage of the tragedy on Thursday morning. CNN’s Kasie Hunt anchored live from the scene at 5 a.m., MSNBC’s Ali Velshi was on-air for overnight coverage, and Fox News aired a two-hour edition of Fox & Friends First at 4 a.m.

ABC News aired a special report at 6:05 a.m. with George Stephanopoulos, Martha Raddatz, and Whit Johnson. ABC News Live First, anchored by Diane Macedo, resumed live coverage across streaming. David Muir will anchor World News Tonight from D.C. Meanwhile, CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil was in Virginia covering the tragedy; he was the only morning anchor reporting on location. Errol Barnett started live coverage on CBS 24/7 at 7 a.m.

NBC News had Tom Costello, Gabe Gutierrez, Aaron Gilchrist, Erin McLaughlin, and Emilie Ikeda provide updates from D.C., and Antonia Hylton & Shaq Brewster reported from Wichita, Kansas, on Today. Holt will anchor Nightly News tonight from D.C., and Tom Llamas will anchor Top Story on NBC News Now also from D.C.

FNC plans continuous coverage with anchor John Roberts and correspondent Madeleine Rivera reporting from Reagan National Airport. Additional reporting will be provided by chief Washington correspondent Mike Emanuel, correspondent Lucas Tomlinson, and chief National security correspondent Jennifer Griffin.

Here are the times that the various networks broke the news on Wednesday night (in alphabetical order):

ABC News: 9:54 p.m.
CBS News: 10:01 p.m.
CNN: 9:30 p.m.
Fox News: 9:40 p.m.
MSNBC: 9:34 p.m.
NBC News: 10:15 p.m.
NewsNation: 9:45 p.m.