Pakistani woman killed in US airplane crash
Asra Hussain Raza, a Pakistani woman, was among the passengers tragically killed in a mid-air collision between an American Airlines flight and a US military Black Hawk helicopter.
Asra was aboard American Airlines Flight 5342, which was struck by the helicopter while in flight. Before the disaster, she sent a text to her husband, Hamaad Raza, telling him that the plane would land in about 20 minutes. Hamaad, waiting at the airport, never received another message.
"Asra was everything to us," said her father-in-law, Hashim Raza, in a phone interview with Reuters. "Now my son is a widower at 25. What do I say to him? They were so excited to start a family." Hashim was traveling from Missouri to Washington to be with his son.
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Asra, a straight-A student, met Hamaad at Indiana University Bloomington, where she studied corporate finance. She later earned a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and worked for a consulting firm in Washington, D.C. Her dream was to work for the government to improve public health. "All she wanted to do was help people," Hashim said. "And she was an amazing cook."
She had recently traveled to Wichita, Kansas, for work and was on her way back when the crash occurred.
Hamaad, 25, works as an accountant at Ernst & Young. A close family friend revealed that Asra and Hamaad had been married for two years. Asra, 26, was known to be uneasy about air travel.
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Dr. Hashim Raza, originally from Karachi, Pakistan, is a respected doctor in Missouri, working at the Missouri Baptist Medical Center.
Prime Minister’s Condolences
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed his condolences for the victims of the
tragic mid-air collision between the passenger plane and the military
helicopter in Washington, D.C. On his X timeline, he offered his sympathies to
US President Donald Trump and the American people, saying, "Our thoughts
and prayers are with US President Donald Trump and the American people at this
difficult time." He also extended his condolences to the families of the
victims.
Fatalities and Investigation
All 60 passengers and four crew members aboard the American Airlines flight
were confirmed dead, along with three military personnel in the Black Hawk
helicopter. The wreckage of the plane was recovered in three parts from the
shallow waters of the Potomac River, but not all bodies have been retrieved.
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Investigations are ongoing, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recovered the flight data recorders, with a preliminary report expected within 30 days. Early reports indicate that both aircraft were following standard flight patterns and that air traffic controllers had alerted the helicopter about the approaching jet. However, there were concerns about the staffing of air traffic controllers at the time.
This incident marks the deadliest air disaster in the United States in more than two decades, surpassing the crash of an American Airlines jet in November 2001.
Source: GEO TV