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Government Officials Hold Press Conference on Midair Collision between American Airlines Plane and Military Black Hawk Helicopter Near Washington D.C.; No Survivors Expected from Midair Collision Near Washington D.C.; DC Fire: 27 Victims Recovered from Passenger Jet, One from Helicopter; Interview with Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA). Aired 8-8:30a ET
Aired January 30, 2025 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00]
SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: -- I look forward to the time and point when we can give you that information, but I don't want to comment on that right now.
(INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- very vocal about your concerns about busy runways here, air traffic. I know it's still early in the investigation. I'm just curious of the steps that you all plan to take to address that.
SEN. MARK WARNER, (D-VA): We have raised this issue continuously. We've got very busy airspace. I think we will ask questions, but at the appropriate time. We are in this period right now where families are still being notified, we're trying to figure out what happened. There'll be time for those discussions, I think.
SEN. TIM KAINE, (D-VA): Yes, I'd just say the same thing. We've been pretty plain about our concerns, but it isn't a good time to speculate right now. We have faith that the NTSB will provide the answers about this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, you walk, here and I'm going to take three in the middle. And then we're going to have to wrap. One, two, three after this one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, appreciate it. Chief I know again, I can imagine it must be traumatic for your first responders. How are they doing right now? And are you already offering any services to help them as they process this?
CHIEF JOHN A DONNELLY, WASHINGTON, D.C. FIRE AND EMS DEPARTMENT: So thank you for the question. Our first responders are resilient people, but yes, this call will be hard for them. Our peer support teams are already engaged with the responders, and we'll be following up on that to make sure that they're OK. But I think the concern is real.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What kind of communication was it between the helicopter and the tower? The plane and the tower and the helicopter and the plane?
DUFFY: I don't want to say too much on the communication between the helicopter and the tower and the airline and the tower. But I will say this. There was communication. It was, I would say, standard communication. So there was not a breakdown, if that's your question, in communication between the military helicopter and the American Airline flight. There was there communication between the aircraft and the tower.
(INAUDIBLE)
DUFFY: I would say the helicopter was aware that there was a plane in the area.
(INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Also a question about the national security advisor, Mike Waltz. He's saying that there was 30 bodies that had been recovered, that he just said that at the White House. Curious, I know you're in the sequester right now, so that's hard for you to update, but I do have a question --
DONNELLY: So in terms of body recovery, we, as we recover bodies, we have a process. And we're not counting any bodies until they're in the possession of the medical director. So there may be some fluctuating in numbers that other people would report. But our number is from the medical examiner.
DUFFY: So in regard to the president in the briefing room, I've been with this team for the last hour plus as we've worked through the details of the information we wanted to give you, but it is my understanding that either this morning he was going to be in the in the Situation Room, or the Situation Room is, obviously, briefing the president. He has been kept in full appraisal of what is taking place.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, last two of you, and you, ma'am. First.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You mentioned that the aircraft was on a standard flight pattern, which is curious when the airport opens at 11:00. Planes beyond that flight pattern, are they being directed to try a different way?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want to?
DUFFY: Well, I mean, safety is paramount. And I don't have that information quite yet from the FAA. So I don't want to provide any information, or I don't want to provide an answer or inaccurate information on what routes will be flown out of DCA.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Last one.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two questions, really quickly. What do you know about the experience and history of the pilots of both the American Airlines plane and the Army Black Hawk helicopter?
And then for Secretary Duffy, last night the president had said that this could have been prevented and questioned why air traffic control didn't tell his helicopter what to do. Is that something that investigators have determined should have happened in this situation?
ROBERT ISOM, CEO, AMERICAN AIRLINES: Just quickly. I don't have a lot of information to release. But these were experienced pilots. I know that the captain had six years with PSA, or almost six years with PSA, and the first officer almost two years. And again, standard approach. And that's about all I can say. Thank you.
DUFFY: In regard to the military, I don't have information in regard to the experience of the military pilots.
[08:05:00]
I would just note that this was classified as a training mission. Sometimes people could think that a training mission is someone who is inexperienced in the cockpit. This is, we call these missions that are flown in the D.C. area as our pilots are getting hours and experience training missions. So don't read into that, that we had how many hours the pilots on the military aircraft had. And you had another question for me, that was --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Last night, the president had said that this could be prevented, and also that air traffic control, questioning why they may not have communicated with the helicopter, telling them what to do.
DUFFY: So we are going to wait for all the information to come in from, from this vantage point. But to back up what the president said, what I've seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is there an acting FAA director?
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, you've been watching a news conference from officials in Washington, D.C., from Reagan National Airport for the very latest on the crash of American Airlines flight 5342. And the headline, the major headline very much no survivors. They do not believe anyone survived from this accident, which means that 64 people on the American Airlines flight and three on the helicopter have perished. Officials tell us they've recovered 27 bodies from the plane so far, and one from the helicopter. They've located the aircrafts in the river. The fuselage from the American Airlines flight is inverted in three different sections in waist deep water.
That's the most concrete information they provided. Beyond that, still huge questions, I have to say. And for that, let's bring in CNN aviation analyst Peter Goelz, former NTSB managing director, because, Peter, what we heard was that the American Airlines flight was in a standard flight pattern. What we heard is that the training helicopter, the Black Hawk, was in a standard flight pattern. What cannot be standard is that they were in the exact same place at the exact same time. And Sean Duffy, the new Secretary of Transportation, told us the helicopter was aware of the plane in the area, but he would not go so far as to say that the plane was aware of the helicopter. What do you read into all of this?
PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, obviously, there is nothing that is firm at this point. You look at this terrible tragedy, and there's really inexplicable given the oversight of this airspace. The PSA plane was clearly on a traditional approach, and I think the attention is going to be on the Black Hawk, and that's where the investigators are going to zero in on.
BERMAN: I don't know if you were able to hear this news conference, Peter, and there was not a lot of information. They told us the NTSB, which is taking this over completely, will be briefing later in the day. And I imagine this is where we'll get some of that information. But what questions do you have based on what you've heard so far?
GOELZ: Well, I think the two most important things are, one, confirming that the aircraft, the PSA, was in the proper approach. It looks like it was. There will be tower confirmation taped, and we will know whether the plane was in its proper approach. Then the second question is, was the Black Hawk under any kind of control or monitoring? And was it in its proper place, altitude and location? Those are the two most important aspects.
There was a lot of discussion last night about TCAS, which is the automatic collision avoidance system. That system essentially shuts down for the aircraft at 1,000 feet. So TCAS was probably not in play last night. People in the cockpit, the flight crew, see in a void and rely on the controller.
BERMAN: Peter Goelz, thank you very much. Stand by. Sara?
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we do have a team of reporters on this breaking news story. Rene Marsh, who has been on the scene, has just left that scene because it's now part of the crime scene. Arlette Saenz and Alayna Treene are also with us.
[08:10:04]
I want to start with you, Rene. You have been on the phone with the NTSB. What are you hearing from the NTSB at the moment?
RENE MARSH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So a lot of moving pieces. Clearly, lots of agencies involved in this investigation, so a lot of coordination is necessary. But their primary concern right now is that they do not in any way want to impede on the search and recovery mission. So they are being very careful before they go all in on their investigative work not to get in the way for the recovery of these bodies.
We heard in that press conference 27 bodies have already been recovered from the commercial regional jet and one from the Black Hawk. So clearly more work to be done as it relates to the recovery. And again, NTSB being very mindful of that.
We do know that they plan on having a briefing today. But level setting expectations -- we are not expecting to get this problem solved, this this midair collision solved. We won't have multiple answers. They will mainly be walking us through process and how they will be going about this investigation. And when NTSB arrives, their primary goals are, number one, going to be going to the scene to start investigating and taking a closer look, analyzing the pieces of these two aircraft, the fuselage. We heard that there are three parts of the fuselage found in the Potomac. That is going to hold some critical clues for them. Also, they want to take a closer look at that.
And then, of course, you have the black boxes. That is going to be your treasure trove of information. We are going to hear things like what the pilots were saying inside of the cockpit at the time. Both of these aircraft are equipped with black boxes. The NTSB will get that. These black boxes are able and designed to withstand heat as well as water. So, you know, the concern of these being submerged in water not necessarily a high concern at this point. And then that will be analyzed.
And the reason why that is so critical is because we have a lot of gaps in this story right now. We have air traffic control audio where we know, essentially, that the pilots of this Black Hawk helicopter saw this commercial regional jet. They communicated that to air traffic controllers. But then we also know just 13 seconds later was this midair collision. So what happened within that time? And so these black boxes will help to fill in the blanks and fill out this timeline, which will be critical.
The other thing that we have to keep in mind here is just patience, because I have covered so many of these investigations, and we oftentimes do not have answers in a day, two days, or even three. Sometimes we don't get the full picture to a year from now. So the good news is that they are there, they are ready to go. But this will be some time before we have all of the answers.
SIDNER: I just want to quickly ask you, because you have covered so many of these, what stood out to me from American Airlines CEO has said, we do not know why the military aircraft came into the path of the passenger jet, which seems to indicate that the passenger jet was on its normal trajectory and it was the military aircraft potentially that may have swerved into their lane, if you will. What stood out to you as you listened to the press conference today when you heard some of that?
And we should just remind people that we are now in a recovery phase. There is no chance, according to the fire chief, that there are survivors. They have already taken out 27 people from the plane and one body from the helicopter.
MARSH: Yes. I mean, Sara, you bring up such a good point because this airspace is a busy one. It's also a complicated one because you have all of these different aircraft that are operating within this airspace. You have military aircraft, you have police aircraft, and then you have the commercial aircraft. And again, Reagan National, quite a busy airport. So all of that comes into play. And then on top of that it was nighttime.
So these are all complications that come into play for this specific airspace. But as far as who is in what position, was the chopper or the helicopter at the right altitude, in the right position, those are all going to be critical questions, and we just simply can't say at this point. But it is notable that American Airlines made that distinction. But again, until this investigation concludes, we just cannot definitively say exactly what went wrong.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Rene Marsh working her sources, going to stay in close touch. Rene, thank you so much.
[08:15:00]
Let's get over to Arlette Saenz. And, Arlette, we were talking to you just before the press conference began. You were there at the press conference.
And DC Fire and EMS made clear, I mean, listing out all of the agencies that were involved in trying to help in rescuing people overnight as they announced though, it is now switching from a rescue to a recovery operation. So, what happens next?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, that was the tragic news out of this press conference. As they have said, that they've shifted from a search and rescue to a recovery operation.
The DC Fire and EMS chief saying that he does not believe that there are any survivors from this collision between that American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, here to Reagan National and that Army helicopter.
Now, what we know so far is that they have pulled out at least 28 bodies as they've been conducting this search. That includes 27 people who were aboard that American Airlines flight and then another soldier who had been on board that Army Black Hawk helicopter.
Some of the next steps that will happen is that they will continue these recovery efforts. They said that they're confident they will be able to find all of these individuals, but that it could potentially take some time, could potentially require bringing in additional equipment to help with that search.
They will also begin notifying the families, trying to reunite them with the remains of their loved ones as they're facing this now very tragic situation.
Now, we do have some pictures of some of the individuals who were aboard that flight. US Figure Skating had said that there were athletes, coaches, family members who had been -- who had travelled to Kansas for some type of skating event, that some of them were on board this flight.
Russian state media had said that there were two world class figure skaters from Russia who had been on this flight.
And then, at this press conference, I was also able to ask both Transportation Secretary Duffy, as well as the American Airlines CEO, whether they had any knowledge about the backgrounds of these pilots, how much experience they have. The American Airlines CEO, Isom, told me that they have -- one of the pilots had about six years of experience aboard that American Airlines flight that was operated by PSA. The other pilot had about two years.
So, this is painting a bit of the picture of who was aboard that flight as it collided with that Army helicopter overnight.
But still, so many questions about how exactly this incident occurred.
Transportation Secretary Duffy stressed that the flight patterns around here for those two aircrafts were standard, but still a lot of questions about the communication potentially between those aircrafts, between air traffic control as well as people are now trying to piece together what exactly happened here and also provide some answers to the families who are now suffering from this tragic loss.
BERMAN: All right, Arlette Saenz, at the site of this news conference. Arlette, thank you so much for being there.
Let's get right to the White House. Alayna Treene standing by there for the latest. We heard from Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, that the president and others have been monitoring this all night from the White House.
What are you hearing?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: That's right. And I did just speak recently, I'm here at the White House with the National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz, who said that he was in the Situation Room with the president very late last night.
We did hear while Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, I would note who's -- it's only his second day on the job. He was sworn into office as Transportation Secretary on Tuesday. He said as well that it is his understanding that Donald Trump will be back in the Situation Room early this morning if he is not already monitoring the situation.
Now, one key question I have, and I've asked the White House, this, John, is whether or not we should expect to hear from the president today publicly if he will make any sort of remarks from the White House on this, as well as whether or not. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is expected to brief.
These are all questions that as of now, we do not know the answer to. I do also want to point your attention, though, to what we saw President Donald Trump post just after midnight regarding this crash. Again, we were told that he was in the Situation Room with top US officials giving him the updates on what was going on at the scene after this collision. This is what Donald Trump posted.
He said that he believed that the airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. He went on to say that it was a clear night, and this is the part I wanted to focus on. He said that this is a, "bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. Not good." Now, someone did, a reporter just during that press conference moment moments ago asked Transportation Secretary Duffy whether or not he agrees with the president that this should have been preventable. We did hear Duffy say that he believes that in his mind, yes, they are still learning information, but it does seem like this should have been preventable.
So again, I think we're going to be trying to get more updates on this as it all comes together.
And another thing as well to note, not only Sean Duffy is very new into his role as Transportation Secretary, but we also know the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, he was just sworn in over the weekend. Of course, his involvement in this is going to be crucial given that this was a US Army helicopter that collided with that commercial aircraft.
So, a lot of things that I think we are still waiting to learn more on as we get more updates, but we expect Donald Trump to continue to be in the Situation Room this morning as Duffy laid out.
[08:20:38]
BERMAN: On your last point right there, Secretary Duffy pointed out that the helicopter was aware of the plane. That bit of information from Secretary Duffy moments ago. Alayna Treene at the White House, we know you're there. Keep us posted when you hear anything new -- Sara.
SIDNER: All right, joining us now is former Transportation Secretary under President Obama, Ray LaHood.
Thank you so much for joining us.
I'm just curious, we've just listened to this press conference where we heard Sean Duffy, the US Transportation Secretary, say, look, this was a clear night. So, it doesn't look like there was any weather issues.
The helicopter was in a standard flight pattern, as was the aircraft in a standard pattern. But then you see this horrific crash that has now confirmed to have left 64 people dead.
When you consider that on the aircraft and three in the helicopter, what are your questions? What is your main question about what happened here? A rare mid-flight collision.
RAY LAHOOD, FORMER TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Well, first of all, my thoughts are with the families of the passengers and we are praying for these families that they can get through this very, very terrible situation.
Secondly, as has been mentioned. This is one of the most tricky, trickiest airports to fly in and out of because of the vectoring that has to take place to avoid monuments and the White House and other places where the airport is located and then complicated by the fact that -- the involvement of an Army helicopter. Obviously, this is going to be a complicated -- and it will take a long time for the NTSB to come up with the answers that we're all looking for.
But I want to just say one thing. No place else in the world do we have an organization as professional with career, professional people as the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board is the best. They will get to the bottom of this. They will get to the answers that we're all looking for, because these professional people do this day in and day out and have done many investigations.
And I think the American people and all of the folks that are watching this program should know, we have the best organization for getting the answers that we want, and they will. It's going to take a good long period of time for it to happen, but NTSB is the best.
BOLDUAN: Secretary, it's Kate Bolduan here.
As our correspondent just noted, the Transportation Secretary, now Sean Duffy, he was just, he has just gotten on the job and from that level of experience that you have, I believe that you also were faced with a tragic plane crash shortly after you were sworn into office at the beginning of the Obama administration, a commercial plane crash in Buffalo.
What does Sean Duffy and the Department of Transportation, what do they need to do real quick to make sure that they get this right, as they're still trying to get their feet underneath them, obviously, with the new administration coming in?
LAHOOD: Kate, very good point, and the last major air crash that occurred in our country occurred on our watch, the Colgan air crash at Buffalo, New York, 49 people perished. Every one of those people when they left their destination flying to Buffalo, felt that they were going to land in Buffalo safely and it didn't turn out that way.
And if anything good came of that crash, it's that we worked with the families and we worked with Congress, and Congress was able to pass legislation for pilot safety, more pilot rest and some real reforms that I think have taken hold and until this crash, we haven't had another crash.
And so, we need to wait to see what the NTSB does. I think the other little bit of a handicap here is that the FAA does not have an administrator. President Trump needs to nominate someone. Congress needs to pass on that person and approve that person.
[08:25:12]
So, what Sean has at his disposal, he has a very highly professional staff at DOT and at FAA who have dealt with these issues, but we need to get an FAA administrator approved to become a part of Sean's team. And we also -- what I said earlier, Kate, we have the NTSB, very, very professional organization that will get to the bottom of this.
BERMAN: Mr. Secretary, John Berman here, to the extent that you know and can explain, we get that the FAA and control towers handle civilian flights and routing, particularly around Washington, DC, and they have conversations, presumably with military aircraft as well. But how are military helicopters, exclusively, how are they handled in terms of air traffic around the district?
LAHOOD: Anytime there's an aircraft in the vicinity, in the region, whether it's Dulles, whether it's Baltimore, whether it's -- they're all a part of the airspace, whether it's Reagan, they're all controlled by the air traffic controllers in the region. And these people are the best. I know these air traffic controllers. I know the air traffic control system. Again, these are very professionally trained people. And they guide planes in and out.
As someone who served in Congress for 14 years and flew in and out of, of Reagan twice a week from Illinois and back, I can tell you this is a very tough airspace because you have Dulles, an international airport. You have Baltimore, an international airport, and then you have Reagan, an international airport.
And Reagan is particularly difficult because of all the vectoring that needs to take place to avoid, as I said earlier, the monuments, the White House and the airspace is tough. But having good, capable air traffic controllers who do have the responsibility for the military aircraft --
John, I think one of the things that will come out of the NTSB report is recommendations on, you know, how much aircraft can be flying around in this region and particularly in the lanes that the helicopters use, but it is all controlled by the air traffic controllers.
BERMAN: Ray LaHood, former Secretary of Transportation, great having you on. Thank you so much for being with us.
BOLDUAN: Let's go right now to Senator Mark Warner. Obviously, senator from Virginia. We saw -- Senator, we saw you there, you're still there at the press conference talking about, well, sharing in the tragedy that this is.
What happens now? What's the role of Congress in all of this? Because very quickly, Senator, you know that the investigation needs to happen and everything we've heard from everyone this morning is after we have answers, fixes need to be made.
SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): Absolutely, but first of all, remember, we're less than 12 hours after this tragedy. The families -- the loved ones I think are still being notified. The bodies are still being recovered. I do want to obviously express my condolences to those families, but also commend the remarkable work of our first responders, folks who don't live in the DC area. We've got a whole lot of jurisdictions, we've got Virginia, Maryland District, the Feds, DoD, and a whole series of local jurisdictions. They all came together last night.
I live four miles away from the airport. I drive by it every day going to the Capitol. Last night we were driving by about the time the crash took place. I didn't see the crash happen, but I'd never seen as many red lights racing, both to national and across the river in Maryland. Those folks went into very cold water, and they're going about and obviously, very challenging part of the of the recovery at this point. There will be time to ask those other questions. I heard your earlier commentator individuals, Senator Kaine and I, and the whole delegation has been concerned about the enormous amount of air traffic. But we have at this moment, no idea what role, if any, that played in this tragedy.
SIDNER: Senator Warner, I do want to expound on that just a bit, because you and your colleague, Tim Kaine have talked a lot about the concern of the number of aircraft that has been coming through that area.
I think Tim Kaine said its pressed to the gills with 25 million passengers coming in and out of there. And he says it's really only meant for about 15 million passengers. Do you think that there must be change, considering what happened here?
WARNER: We wouldn't be operating at these levels if FAA, the Airports Authority and others didn't believe it's been safe, we haven't had an incident like this for decades.
[08:30:31]