The heartbroken husband whose wife texted him that she was landing minutes before her doomed American Airlines flight collided with an Army helicopter revealed he found out it was his wife’s plane through social media.
Hamaad Raza remembered his wife, Asra Hussain, as the “kindest person I’ve ever met” who went “above and beyond” for others before she was killed during the collision in Washington, DC, on Wednesday night.
“She went above and beyond and then took a giant leap over that when it came to doing things for other people, for me, for her parents, for my parents,” Raza told NBC 4 Washington.
The couple met while in college in Indiana and were only married for two years. Hussain was returning home from business in Wichita, Kan.
Raza received a text message from Hussain as he was heading to Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night to pick her up.
“We’re landing in 20 minutes,” Hussain’s text read.
However, while waiting for Hussain, Raza noticed first responders racing toward the Potomac River.
“I was waiting and I started seeing a bunch of EMS vehicles speeding past me, like way too many than normal,” he told the outlet.
Raza’s worries were amplified when he realized the texts he sent to his wife “weren’t going through.”
He reached Terminal 2 at the DC airport and said he witnessed hundreds of emergency workers around the airport responding to the collision.
Raza then went on social media to look for answers.
“I show up to the airport, and my wife’s not responding, and I look on Twitter and I see that it’s her flight,” the grieving husband told the outlet.
He told WUSA that he was “praying” his wife was safe and showed the undelivered messages on his phone screen.
A day later, he said it was “crazy” to realize his wife’s plane was involved in the fatal collision.
“It’s just, feels crazy that it happened to us, to be honest,” he told NBC 4 Washington.
“I mean, it’s like you see these things happen in the news, you see them happen in other countries.”
Now, as he prepares to plan his wife’s funeral, he said the experience has shown him how fragile life can be.
“Life is short. Hug your loved ones,” Raza said.
“Tell them you love them when they’re getting on a flight. Check up on them. Text your family when you land.”
The crash, which killed all 64 people aboard the packed Flight 5342 from Wichita — plus three people on the chopper — is the deadliest US air disaster since 2001.
There are two flight paths in the area — one for helicopters and another for airplanes — that converge near Reagan Airport, according to an official flight map.
The plane route from Wichita to DC first started just over a year ago, on Jan. 8, 2024.
The Black Hawk helicopter was apparently flying too high — at about 400 feet — when it collided with the American Airlines jet, which was rapidly descending after it was cleared for landing, according to experts.
Officials have not yet offered a possible cause for the crash.
However, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Thursday that the tragedy was “absolutely” preventable.
Duffy, who was confirmed to his role just a day before Wednesday night’s crash, agreed with President Trump that it “looks like it should have been prevented.”
