A haunting text exchange with a passenger on the ill-fated American Eagle flight was the first sign something was wrong, a relative says. A man who says his wife was aboard the doomed passenger jet, which crashed after colliding with a US Army Black Hawk while preparing to land in Washington on Wednesday night, had messaged him shortly before they were set to land. Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, was about to arrive at the capital's Reagan Washington National Airport when tragedy struck.