Sixty-seven people are believed to have died after a passenger plane hit a military helicopter in mid-air near Washington DC's Ronald Reagan airport on Wednesday evening.

A deadly midair collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter near the nation's capital is bringing renewed focus on the federal agency charged with investigating aviation disasters.

Sixty-seven people are presumed dead after a passenger plane on approach to Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC, collided Wednesday night with a US Army helicopter midair, sending both aircraft into the Potomac River below,