United States President Donald Trump has questioned the movements of the Black Hawk helicopter before it crashed into the American Eagle jet.
Trump spoke to reporters at the White House during his remarks on Thursday.
The 78-year-old also went on to say the helicopter "had the ability to go up or down, had the ability to turn."
"You had a pilot problem, from the standpoint of the helicopter. I mean, because it was visual, it was very clear night. It was cold, but clear and clear as you could be," Trump said.
"You could have gone up, you could have gone down. You could have gone straight up, straight down. You could have turned, you could have done a million different maneuvers," he added.
Trump said "all of this is going to be studied, but it just seems to me from a couple of words that I like to use, the words common sense, some really bad things happened, and some things happened that shouldn't have happened."
However, when taking questions later on, the president seemed to backtrack and say, "I'm not blaming the controller."
"I'm saying there are things that you could question, like the height of the helicopter, the height of the plane being at the same level, going in opposite directions," Trump said before ending the news conference.
We reports that no one is believed to have survived the midair collision between an American Airlines jet plane and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter last night in the Washington, DC, area.
The development comes after emergency authorities switched to "recovery effort" after 28 bodies have so far been found.
The jet was carrying 64 people, while three soldiers were aboard the helicopter.
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