The American Airlines jet was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members when it collided with Black Hawk Army helicopter built by Connecticut's Sikorsky.

Military spokesman Ron McLendon II said the Army is joining an investigation into the crash headed by the National Transportation Security Board.

The UH-60 Black Hawk is the helicopter involved in a crash with a passenger jet on Wednesday night near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.

The helicopter collided with passenger plane carrying 64 people and crew, crashing into the Potomar River late on Wednesday night.

The Black Hawk helicopter has been in service since 1979, but what makes it so special, that 36 countries use it? Here's everything you need to know.

An Army Black Hawk helicopter collided midair with an American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, at Reagan National Airport on Wednesday.

A U.S. Army UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter has completed initial ground runs with two of the new T901 Improved Turbine Engines. Developed under the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP), the T901 was planned to power the now-canceled Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) but will instead make its way into the UH-60 and the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calls the deadly aircraft collision involving a Black Hawk and a civilian airliner "a tragedy" in a statement obtained exclusively by Fox News.

He indicated 27 bodies had been recovered from the airplane, and one from the helicopter.

A Black Hawk helicopter can transport up to "12 fully equipped, seated troops in combat," according to Lockheed Martin, the weapons company that builds the helicopter. There are about 5,000 of these helicopters in use by the United States Military.

The names of some of the plane crash victims have started to emerge overnight, including a 12-year-old figure skater and a university professor. Meanwhile, black boxes have been recovered from the airliner and tests are being carried out in a laboratory.