A Pakistani woman, Asra Hussain Raza, was among the victims of a deadly mid-air collision in the United States involving a passenger aircraft and a military helicopter.
She was traveling on American Airlines Flight 5342 when it was struck midair by a US military Black Hawk training helicopter, leading to the tragic crash.
Moments before the accident, Asra texted her husband, Hamaad Raza, informing him that she would be landing in Washington in about 20 minutes, her final message before the disaster unfolded.
Hamaad, who was waiting at the airport for her arrival, never received another message, his father, Hashim Raza, told Reuters.
“Asra was everything to us,” Hashim, holding back tears with a quavering voice, said in a telephone interview as he traveled from Missouri to Washington to meet his son. “And now my son is a widower at 25. What do I say to him? They planned to have children, they were so much looking forward to that.”
The couple met at Indiana University Bloomington, where she studied corporate finance and was a straight-A student.
Hashim said when his son first met Asra, he declared: “I’m going to marry her.”
Asra later earned her master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and got a job with a consulting group in Washington, with the ultimate goal of working for the government to improve public health, her father-in-law said.
“All she wanted to do was help people, and DC, she thought, was the place to achieve her goals,” Hashim said. “And she was such a great cook — Indian, Italian, Chinese food. I told her to open a restaurant.”
She traveled to Wichita about once or twice a month to help turn around a hospital, he said.
“She was an extremely caring person,” he said. “She’d call just to say, ‘I love you.'”
She had travelled to Wichita, Kansas, for work-related matters and was on her way back when the unfortunate incident occurred.
Raza, who lost his wife in the crash, resides in the state of Missouri, USA. According to a close family friend, Hamaad and Asra had been married for two years. Asra was 26 years old, while Hamaad is 25. Both were graduates of Indiana University. Hamaad currently works as an accountant at Ernst & Young, and he mentioned that his wife never considered air travel to be a comfortable experience.
Raza’s father, Dr Hashim Raza, is originally from Karachi, Pakistan. A graduate of Dow University, Dr Raza is regarded as one of Missouri’s most distinguished doctors and is currently serving at the Missouri Baptist Medical Center.
PM Shehbaz gives condolences
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the loss of lives caused by a mid-air accident between a passenger plane and a military helicopter in Washington DC.
On his X timeline, the prime minister conveyed his condolences to US President Donald Trump and the American people at this difficult time.
“Deeply saddened by the tragic news of a mid-air accident between a passenger plane and a military helicopter in Washington DC. Our thoughts and prayers are with US President Donald Trump and the American people at this difficult time,” he wrote.
Prime Minister Shehbaz also conveyed his sympathies to the families of those who lost their loved ones and prayed for the safety of the survivors.
Fatalities and findings
All 60 passengers and four crew members on board the ill-fated American Airlines flight have been confirmed dead.
Additionally, three military personnel aboard the Black Hawk helicopter also lost their lives. The wreckage of the passenger plane was recovered in three parts from the shallow waters of the Potomac River, but not all bodies have been retrieved yet.
US authorities said on Thursday it was not yet clear why a regional jet and a US Army helicopter collided at a Washington airport, killing 67 people in the deadliest US air disaster in more than 20 years.
Investigators recovered the so-called black boxes from the plane, an American Airlines Bombardier jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, which collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River as it prepared to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night.
Investigators recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the Bombardier CRJ700 passenger jet, the National Transportation Safety Board said. A preliminary report about the incident is expected within 30 days.
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said both aircraft had been flying standard flight patterns on Wednesday and there had been no breakdown in communication.
Radio communications showed that air traffic controllers alerted the helicopter about the approaching jet and ordered it to change course.
One controller rather than two was handling local plane and helicopter traffic on Wednesday night at Reagan National, a situation deemed “not normal” but considered adequate for lower volumes of traffic, according to a person briefed on the matter.
The decision to combine duties in the evening is not uncommon, the source said. The New York Times first reported the “not normal” designation.
A shortage of air traffic controllers in the United States in recent years has spurred safety concerns. At several facilities, controllers work mandatory overtime and six-day work weeks to cover shortages. The Federal Aviation Administration has about 3,000 fewer controllers than it says it needs.
It was the deadliest US air disaster since November 2001, when an American Airlines jet crashed after departing from John F Kennedy International Airport in New York, killing all 260 people onboard and five people on the ground.
Reagan National’s main runway is the busiest in the United States, with more than 800 daily takeoffs and landings. The National Transportation Safety Board has investigated nine accidents or incidents at the airport this century, including two that were fatal, records showed.
— With additional input from Reuters
