More information is coming out about Wednesday night's tragic collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The Blackhawk that struck an American Airlines flight landing at Reagan airport had three soldiers on board and no VIPs or senior officials were involved.

The crew of a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk that fatally struck a commercial airliner was assigned to a Virginia-based VIP transport unit and was performing an annual night proficiency flight at the time of the incident.

The UH-60 Black Hawk has been deployed to dozens of combat zones around the world. Sikorsky has built more than 5,000 of them in Stratford since the 1970s.

For many, the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, like the one involved in the Wednesday collision over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., is familiar for one reason: the 2001 movie "Black Hawk Down ," based on the 1993 shooting down of U.S. Black Hawk helicopters during the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the military has identified the three soldiers killed in the Black Hawk collision over the Potomac River.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the Pentagon has begun a probe into the cause of a deadly midair collision between a passenger jet and a military helicopter, looking to understand who was to blame and how the tragedy occurred.

The UH-60 Black Hawk is the helicopter involved in a crash with a passenger jet on Wednesday night near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.

American Airlines Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, was attempting to land when the plane and a Black Hawk helicopter collided.

A Black Hawk helicopter can transport up to "12 fully equipped, seated troops in combat," according to Lockheed Martin, the weapons company that builds the helicopter. There are about 5,000 of these helicopters in use by the United States Military.

An NTSB-led investigation is in full swing to identify factors that led to the Jan. 29 midair collision between an American Eagle Bombardier CRJ-700 operated by PSA Airlines on approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) and a U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter.