Police boats combed the banks of the Potomac River on Friday, moving slowly under rainy skies and scanning the shoreline as investigators sought clues into the midair collision that killed 67 people and raised questions about air traffic safety around the nation’s capital.

Divers are expected to return to the Potomac River as part of the recovery and investigation after the United States' deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter century.

Crews are searching for survivors after an American Airlines regional jet and a Black Hawk helicopter crashed last night.

Officials say the conditions of the Potomac River are complicating recovery efforts of the bodies of the 67 presumed dead in a mid-air collision between American Airlines flight 5342 from Wichita and a military Black Hawk helicopter.

A small aircraft is down in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and fireboats were on the scene, the Washington fire department said. The airport said late on Wednesday that all takeoffs and landings were halted at the airport as emergency personnel responded to an aircraft incident.

A dramatic plane crash in frigid temperatures. And a search and rescue that saved lives on the same partially frozen Potomac River. Almost 43 years ago to the day, tragedy struck when a commercial jet − Air Florida Flight 90 − plunged into icy waters shortly after an afternoon takeoff from the same airport where a passenger jet with 64 people aboard collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night.

A 60-passenger jet collided midair with a Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport and crashed into the Potomac River.

The Bombardier and Black Hawk helicopter accident echoes another equally tragic incident that occurred in 1982. Of the 84 plane passengers, only five survived. The Bombardier and Black Hawk helicopter accident that crashed into the Potomac River in front of Washington brings echoes of another tragedy,