President Trump said the crash was a "tragedy of terrible proportions" and told family members "Our hearts are shattered alongside yours."

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has been closed until at least 11 a.m. Thursday. Several flights out of Florida have already been canceled.

The deadly crash in the Potomac after an American Eagle jet collided with a military helicopter has stirred memories of a long-ago tragedy in Washington, D.C. An Air Florida flight taking off en route to Fort Lauderdale crashed into a bridge and tumbled into the icy Potomac in January 1982.

CBS News Miami's Chelsea Jones spoke with South Florida flyers who were traveling at the time of the collision.

A Boeing 737 crashed into a bridge over the river on Jan. 13, 1982, just after taking off from Washington National Airport in a snowstorm.

For Tampa International Airport Chaplain Joseph Krzanowski, Wednesday’s plane crash near Washington D.C. brings back old memories.

Multiple 911 callers reported the crash near the river just before 8:55 p.m., according to the Metropolitan Police Department and the District of Columbia Fire and EMS.

Several federal and state investigations have been launched after an American Airlines flight and a military helicopter collided near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and fell into the Potomac River,

We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation,” said John Donnelly, the fire chief in the nation’s capital.

One of the pilots of the passenger jet involved in a mid-air collision in Washington, D.C. was a native of New York but grew up in Florida, where he learned to fly planes, according to records and statements from those who knew him.

I don’t know of any other accident that has had this amount of impact on aviation but also in other industries,” one expert said of the 1982 crash.