The passenger aircraft that collided with a helicopter near Washington Wednesday night flew over the Louisville area just hours before it crashed into the Potomac River. American Airlines Flight 5342 was approaching the runway at Reagan National when it sustained rapid loss of altitude,

Ronald Reagan National Airport halted all departing and arriving flights until 11 a.m. Thursday after the midair crash.

I don’t know of any other accident that has had this amount of impact on aviation but also in other industries,” one expert said of the 1982 crash.