Search crews work at the site of the crash in the Potomac River early Thursday.Search crews work at the site of the crash in the Potomac River early Thursday.

Search crews work at the site of the crash in the Potomac River early Thursday. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Witnesses in the vicinity of the crash have been describing to various news outlets what they saw and heard.

Ari Schulman, of Alexandria, Va., told CNN that he was driving home along a highway near Reagan National Airport looking at the line of planes coming in when he “saw sparks flying” on the underside of a plane.

“I believe what I saw was the collision,” Schulman said. “It looked like a Roman candle.”

Courtney Cain told the Washington Post she was at home at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling when she heard a bang outside. She looked out her window and saw a flash and immediately feared it might have been a plane crash. Those fears were soon realized when she saw news of the crash on television. “I’m honestly still shaking,” Cain said.

Another witness, Abadi Ismail, told Reuters that he was getting ready to go to bed at his home in south Washington, D.C., when he heard a loud bang. He said it was “a very unusual sound, something you don’t hear on a daily basis.

“It’s more like in a war zone, something you hear on the movies, action,” Ismail said. “So that caught my attention. I looked at the sky, I looked out the window, and all I could see at that moment was just smoke from the south side of Reagan Airport.”

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