WASHINGTON (WHDH) - The shock of a plane and military helicopter colliding is leaving many questions as to how a situation like this could have happened.

President Trump said on social media that it “looks like it should have been prevented”.

7News spoke with aviation experts about what may have gone wrong.

“Once we have a mid-air collision, it is often a very dangerous position that puts people at risk and very rarely has survivors, quite honestly,” said aviation expert Kit Darby.

Experts said every aircraft has a “traffic collision avoidance system” which tells pilots if there is another aircraft near them – but it likely wasn’t in use due to the plane’s altitude.

“I don’t believe it would display if the helicopter was below 360 and the regional jet pilot couldn’t see it,” Darby said. “He would not get an alert, which would typically tell him it’s there, and typically tell him what to do to avoid it.”

Darby said investigators have a lot to work off of, but that the conditions of the crash could make their work harder.

“I’m impressed with the amount of information we have already visually, but I think the details are gonna be difficult because of the impact leading to a water crash,” Darby said. “Mid-air collisions are very unusual and its very rare for them to be between a helicopter and an airplane so this is a very rare situation.”

Tom Kinton, another expert, who works with Massport, said it’s a race against time to get any survivors out of the Potomac River.

“In those temperatures you cant survive long without a survival suit on,” Kinton said. “Time is of the essence again given the temperature and after a while it becomes a recovery operation rather than rescue.”

Experts said divers will also search for the flight data recorders that were on the airplane and helicopter, which will likely give investigators a lot of insight into how the crash happened.

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