US plane crash: 'We don't believe there are any survivors' say authorities as 28 bodies recovered from river

Speaking at a press conference in Washington, fire chief John Donnelly of the Washington DC fire and rescue department said the operation had moved from “rescue” to “recovery” as the US Government said it had “early indications of what happened”.

Mr Donnelly described “extremely frigid” rescue conditions for the 300 emergency responders who worked overnight.

“Despite all those efforts, we are now at the point where we are moving from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” he said.

The American Airlines flight operated by PSA Airlines and a Black Hawk helicopter collided at Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington DC at 9pm local time on Wednesday evening with around 64 people on board.

A number of teenage figure skaters and their families are believed to have been on board, returning from an elite training camp in Wichita, as well as two former Russian world champions.

"At this point, we don't believe there are any survivors from this accident.”

He said a total of 27 bodies have been recovered from the plane and one more from the helicopter.

Robert Eisen, chief executive of American Airlines, said the cause of the collision was not yet known.

“At this point we do not know why the military aircraft came into the path of the PSA aircraft,” he said, adding that the pilot was “experienced”, with six years at the airline.

Sean Duffy, secretary of the US Department of Transportation, said investigations into the incident were ongoing.

He said: ​"We will not rest until we have answers, for the families and for the flying public. You should be assured that when you fly, you're safe."

He added: “We have early indicators of what happened here and I can tell you with complete confidence that we have the safest airspace in the world.”

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which has been closed since the crash, is due to reopen at 11am local time today.