WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — The collision Wednesday nighttime betwixt a subject chopper and American Airlines Flight 5342 happened successful immoderate of the world's astir tightly controlled airspace, conscionable implicit 3 miles southbound of the White House and the U.S. Capitol.

The collision happened astatine astir 9 p.m. erstwhile a determination pitchy astatine the extremity of a formation from Wichita, Kansas, collided with a subject chopper connected a grooming exercise, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The chopper was a UH-60 Black Hawk based astatine Fort Belvoir successful Virginia flying southbound implicit the Potomac River arsenic the American Airlines formation was flying north.

A fewer minutes earlier the pitchy was to land, aerial postulation controllers asked American Airlines Flight 5342 if it could bash truthful connected a shorter runway, and the pilots agreed. Controllers cleared the pitchy to land, and formation tracking sites showed the level set its attack to the caller runway.

Less than 30 seconds earlier the collision, an aerial postulation controller asked a chopper if it had the arriving level successful sight. The controller made different vigor telephone to the chopper moments later, saying, “PAT 25 walk down the CRJ" — seemingly telling the copter to hold for the Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine pitchy to pass. There was nary reply. Seconds aft that, the craft collided.

The plane’s vigor transponder stopped transmitting astir 2,400 feet abbreviated of the runway, astir implicit the mediate of the Potomac River.

The assemblage of the level was recovered upside-down successful 3 sections successful waist-deep water, officials said. The helicopter's wreckage was besides found.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.