Witness of American Airlines plane crash saw something ‘looked very wrong’ moments before collision

An eyewitness has recalled the devastating moments leading up to an American Airlines aircraft colliding with an army helicopter.

The incident, which unfolded last night (January 29), involved 67 people — 60 passengers, four cabin crew, and three soldiers.

Both aircrafts were heading for Washington DC‘s Ronald Reagan National Airport when they struck one another mid-air.

The commercial flight was travelling from Wichita, Kansas, while those on the Black Hawk helicopter were doing a training exercise.

As officials continue to try and piece together what happened to cause the crash, eyewitnesses have been coming forward to share their first-hand accounts of what they saw.

One person to have spoken out is Ari Schulman, who had been driving along the George Washington Parkway – a route he often takes – when the tragedy unfolded.

The aircrafts crashed into the Potomac River (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Speaking to NBC Washington, Schulman said: “I always look [at the planes landing] when I’m driving home. It’s always a really interesting, elegant sight. They’re all nice and spaced out in a beautiful line when they’re coming into land.”

Going on to recall what’s presumed to have been the American Airlines flight, Schulman described its route as looking ‘totally normal’ to him and, keen to see it land, so he turned back onto the road again.

“I wanted to get another look to try and see the plane land, so I turned back again a few seconds later and it looked very, very wrong,” he recalled.

“[The plane] was turned hard to the right – maybe 90 degrees or more to the right. I could see the underside of the plane, and it was very, very dark out so you shouldn’t be able to see the underside of a plane.

“But I could see it. It was illuminated bright yellow and there was a stream of sparks underneath it. It looked to me like a giant Roman candle.”