Sean Hannity reveals 'off the record' texts about jet crash from congressman

It's one of the worst aviation disasters in recent memory in America, and the country is mourning.

Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, with 60 passengers and four crew members, collided with a Blackhawk helicopter carrying three people near Reagan National Airport just before 9 pm on January 29.

There were no survivors.

The Tragedy

The plane was owned and operated by American Airlines and the Blackhawk helicopter belonged to the US Army.

As of January 30, rescuers had recovered 28 bodies from the jet and one from the helicopter, per Washington DC Fire and EMS Chief John A. Donnelly.

While the search for the victims continued, Sean Hannity used his television program to fill in his viewers. He said he had been messaging with an unidentified Congressman about the wreck.

"Off the Record"

"I'll keep it off the record but a well-known Congressman just wrote me and said off the record," Hannity told his audience. "This Congressman is telling me and confirming what Kevin Cork said that this Congressman is being told that there are 60 plus dead."

Hannity didn't mention if all of the deaths he was referring to were from passengers on the plane or also included the crew and/or the Blackhawk helicopter crew. Among the dead were members of the American figure skating team who were returning from the US Figure Skating Championships.

According to the Daily Mail, the two aircraft collided and produced a huge fireball that was visible on dashcams of cars driving on the highways that go past the airport. The fireball then reportedly crashed into the Potomac River.

The helicopter was on a training mission and "cut through the airspace from the opposite direction under cover of darkness - with both aircrafts seemingly unaware of the other's presence."

Over 300 first responders rushed to the scene. Some were deployed on inflatable boats while others worked to put up searchlights to illuminate the murky waters. Freezing conditions made the recovery mission even more difficult.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy agreed with President Trump's comments that the crash was preventable. American Airlines appeared to point the finger at the helicopter pilot.

Duffy's Reaction:

"It was, I would say, standard communication, so there was not a breakdown, if that's your question, in communication between the military helicopter and the American airline flight. There was communication between the aircraft and the tower," Trump's new Secretary of Transportation said.

"I would say that the helicopter was aware that the plane was in the area," he added. "We are going to wait for all the information to come in from this vantage point, but… what I've seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely."