The staffing at the air control tower at Reagan National Airport was "not normal" when an American Airlines plane and Army helicopter collided on Wednesday night, a report shows.

Sixty passengers and four crew members from the plane and three Black Hawk helicopter personnel are feared dead as a recovery mission is underway.

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.