The deadly midair collision of an Army helicopter and an American Airlines plane near the Ronald Reagan National Airport in the US claimed the lives of 67 people. Asra Hussain Raza, the daughter of Indian immigrants, was also one of them. According to a media report, Asra, 26, graduated with honours in 2020 from the USA's Indiana University and married her college mate. She worked as a consultant in Washington, DC and used to travel to Wichita twice a month to work on a turnaround project for a hospital there, her father-in-law, Dr. Hashim Raza, said.
Raza told CNN that she would often call him at the end of his late emergency room shifts to ensure he stayed awake on the drive home.
'We’re landing in 20 minutes': Her final words before midair collision
Hamaad Raza, her husband, said that she texted him that the landing of the plane was about to take place, but by the time he got to the airport to pick her up, his life had changed forever. “She said, ‘We’re landing in 20 minutes,’” Raza added. This was the last thing Hamaad said he heard from his wife.
NBC Washington quotes Hamaad as saying, "I was waiting, and I started seeing a bunch of EMS vehicles speeding past me, like way too many than normal, and two, my texts weren’t going through." “It’s just, it feels crazy that it happened to us, to be honest,” he said.
“I mean, it’s like you see these things happen in the news, you see them happen in other countries. And then, I show up to the airport, and my wife’s not responding, and I look on Twitter, and I see that it’s her flight.” Hamaad said he’s been surrounded by loved ones who are all devastated by the tragic and unexpected loss.
No one survived: US President Donald Trump
As per the latest updates, 28 bodies were pulled from the Potomac River. There were 60 passengers onboard the plane with four crew members. Moreover, three soldiers were aboard the helicopter. US President Donald Trump told a White House news conference that no one survived.
The crash occurred before 9 pm in some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world, just over 3 miles (about 4. 8 kilometres) south of the White House and the Capitol.
(With inputs from AP)
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