An American Airlines flight crashed into the Potomac River after colliding with a U.S. Army helicopter while approaching Reagan National Airport.

It's been more than two decades since American Airlines, the nation's largest carrier, was involved in a deadly crash.

A rare tragedy shocked the nation when an American Airlines plane collided with a military helicopter near Washington, D.C. The mid-air crash was reported near Reagan Washington National Airport late Jan.

Before Wednesday’s crash near Washington, D.C., there had not been a fatal collision involving a commercial aircraft in the United States since 2009.

In 2018, a passenger on a Southwest Airlines jet was killed after shrapnel from the plane's engine crashed through a window and caused such a drop in air pressure that a passenger suffered fatal injuries after nearly being sucked outside. It was the first death on a U.S. airline flight since 2009.

Air traffic controllers asked Flight 5342 to switch runways when coming in to land. Black box recordings from the jet and the military helicopter it collided with will help reveal if this contributed to the accident.

Scores of people were feared dead after an American Airlines regional passenger jet carrying 64 people collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the frigid Potomac River near Reagan Washington National Airport.

A regional jet carrying 64 people collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter. Reagan National Airport grounded all flights.

Wednesday's crash involving an American Airlines flight and Black Hawk helicopter marked the first commercial crash on U.S. soil in more than 15 years.

A regional jet collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday evening, U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News.

D.C. Serious crashes involving large passenger jets are exceedingly rare in the United States. Wednesday’s incident is the first fatal crash of a U.S. commercial airliner since the the Colgan Air crash in upstate New York in 2009, which killed 50 people.