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Passenger Jet's Black Boxes Recovered After Midair Tragedy; Trump Tariffs On Canada, Mexico, China Begin Tomorrow; U.S. Stocks Fall After Trump Tariff Announcement. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired January 31, 2025 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


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[14:02:02]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar alongside Boris Sanchez here in Washington. And we do begin with breaking news this hour. We're standing by for a new update from federal and local officials investigating the deadly collision between an American Airlines jet and a U.S. army helicopter that's going to come here from Reagan National Airport.

And you are looking here at live pictures of the recovery effort. A short time ago, we heard from the White House, which sought to reassure the country that air travel is safe while insisting that President Trump was right to question whether FAA diversity policies played a role in the crash, something he did without evidence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAN #1: It's not safe to fly commercially, is it?

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The President was asked and answered this yesterday and he believes that it is still indeed safe and Americans should feel safe traveling our skies. With that said, two things can be true at the same time, and we certainly have seen the deterioration of federal hiring standards at the Federal Aviation Administration, and the President wants to increase those standards.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Meantime, American Airlines says it will resume flight service tonight between Wichita, Kansas, and the nation's capital, while helicopter routes near Reagan National Airport are now shut down until further notice.

All of this as two painstaking processes continue at the crash site. There's still an effort ongoing to locate the 14 victims still missing and, of course, the work of investigators to detail exactly how all of this happened. CNN's Rene Marsh is following all of these developments live at Reagan National Forest. Rene, what can you tell us?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris and Brianna, as far as the how, I mean, one of the areas that investigators will be looking at is were these aircraft at the right altitude? Were they in the right position? We know the New York Times is reporting a deviation of that Black Hawk helicopter and that perhaps it was above the altitude it should have been. And if that is the case, then that would indicate that the pilot of that Black Hawk was not flying with the flight regulations at the time that were necessary.

And so that is something that will certainly be a data point that will show up on the black boxes that they have yet to retrieve for that Black Hawk helicopter. That black box will have information like the altitude. We do know that the investigators have already retrieved the black boxes for the commercial passenger plane.

They have opened it. They have started the process of reviewing it. And we believe that it will take a few months to get the full picture. But we do know that the NTSB is planning on releasing a preliminary report within the next 30 days.

Also on their plate will be to interview those air traffic controllers. They are another crucial piece of this. As of this morning, we know the NTSB had not yet interviewed them, but they are going through the process through the air traffic controller union to get those interviews all set up.

[14:05:07]

And they won't only be asking these air traffic controllers about the day of the midair collision, but they're also going to be very focused on the prior 72 hours.

How much sleep did they get, you know, what their schedule was on the prior 72 hours, any medications they may have been on, not for any reason other than this is the normal protocol for all NTSB investigations. We are expecting to get another briefing from the NTSB later on today.

SANCHEZ: Rene Marsh live from DCA. Thank you so much, Rene.

The Defense Department has since launched its own investigation into how that Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with the American Airlines jet.

KEILAR: CNN's Natasha Bertrand is at the Pentagon. Natasha, what are you learning?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, one of the really key aspects of the investigation, of course, is going to be that black box inside the Black Hawk helicopter, which according to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, that has not been retrieved yet. But we saw President Trump post on Truth Social earlier this morning that he made basically a definitive assessment that the helicopter was flying too high, seeming to suggest that that was the reason for this collision.

But Hegseth, again, who is newly installed as the Secretary of Defense, he would go that far in an interview earlier today on FOX and Friends saying that all of that is still under investigation. Here's what he said. We do not appear to have that sound at this moment, but he said that this was not necessarily conclusive at this point.

It's not only the altitude that is potentially at issue here, but also the course that the helicopter was flying on. Was it deviated in any way, in a way that would actually bring it a little bit closer to Reagan National Airport? All of that is going to be investigated here.

And it's important to note that these pilots, they were not necessarily inexperienced. The instructor pilot had about 1,000 flight hours. The co-pilot had about 500. So these were not junior pilots that didn't have the requisite experience or, you know, experience in this flight path. So all of this really raises even more questions about what exactly happened here.

SANCHEZ: And Natasha, the governors of Georgia and Mississippi went ahead and identified two of the soldiers on that Black Hawk. What can you tell us?

BERTRAND: That's right. So we are learning about the identities of two out of three of those soldiers. One of them was Chief Warrant Officer Andrew Eaves and he was the instructor pilot who I mentioned earlier, who had about 1,000 flight hours. So a fairly experienced pilot.

And the other soldier that we're learning about was Ryan O'Hara, and he was the crew chief in the Black Hawk. So he would have been responsible for maintaining the Black Hawk, for ensuring that everything was proceeding in a technically correct way. So, again, we're still waiting to see exactly what the full breadth of experience was of this crew.

We don't have their full service records yet, and we are still awaiting the identity of that third soldier, the co-pilot who was on board at the time. And we should note that it's unclear at this point whether all of the bodies from that Black Hawk helicopter have actually been recovered.

KEILAR: All right. Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much.

Let's talk now with former FAA Safety Inspector David Soucie and also Chad Kendall, former Commercial Airline Pilot and now an associate professor in aviation at Metropolitan State University in Denver. David, I do want to ask you, and we'll talk about the elevation or the altitude issue, but let's talk about these black boxes because two have been recovered from the American Airlines jet, but we don't know -- nothing has been recovered at this point from the Black Hawk. They seem confident they will.

But what we do know is that there's some kind of recorder. We just don't know is it going to have data and voice? Is it just going to have data? How essential is it that that has voice? And what all can we glean from these recorders?

SANCHEZ: It looks like we're having -- It looks like we're having trouble with David's audio. I think we can hear, Chad. Chad, what's your response to that question about information that's gathered from these recorders? CHAD KENDALL, COMMERCIAL AIRLINE PILOT: This is part of the NTSB's mission to gather as much data as possible. And certainly they found the black boxes from the jet aircraft. They will pull as much information as they can off of the military helicopter. They'll look at radar data returns from the air traffic control facility and use all of that as part of this meticulous investigation to determine the final cause for the accident.

[14:10:00]

SANCHEZ: I believe we have David's signal back. David, if you want to take us through your thoughts.

DAVID SOUCIE, FORMER FAA SAFETY INSPECTOR: Yeah, just real quickly. On the Black Hawk, the military is not required to have anything by federal regulations, but they are by the military. Now, the Black Hawk carries a health and usage monitoring system, a HUMS system and that does monitor things.

Various versions of that will have audio or not have audio. Depends on whether they're using the night vision goggles or not because that integrates with those helmets. So we'll have to see how much information's in there.

But it is pertinent that they get that information. We need to find out why that helicopter made the moves that it did and what discussions went on. Because the main character -- the main problem here is when they said we have the aircraft in sight at that point, where were they looking? Were they looking straight out?

If they have a heads up display, night vision, it's only 70 degrees wide. You can't see everything around them. It's very focused. So I think that may play a contributing part to this tragic accident.

KEILAR: We do have some news into CNN and that is that the flight data, and this is brand new, we're just getting this in. Flight data appears to show that the Black Hawk helicopter was 100ft above max altitude and that it was off course.

So Chad, you know, tell us, as a former commercial airline pilot, knowing that this is a route that it comes very close to this final approach of this particular Runway at Reagan Airport, which obviously, and for those of us who have flown in and out of Reagan, it's right there. I mean, you can see over the river.

This is a very -- there is not much altitude on the airplane. It is landing right off of the river. And then knowing that this helicopter was on the wrong route and appeared to be flying higher than it should have been, what that says to you, what questions that raises.

KENDALL: I've flown into Washington, Reagan hundreds of times, landed on that Runway as well, a very tight corridor tracking from both the commercial pilot side landing at Reagan and the helicopter operations that are happening along the river. And certainly vigilance needs to be made during this approach. Certainly communications with ATC is occurring, specific tracks that the helicopters are to follow, specific altitudes. And again, that's the data that the NTSB and the FAA is going to look at is the radar signature, the radar altitude tracking of the aircraft to use that as part of their findings or the why this accident occurred.

SANCHEZ: I do want to dig into some of this new reporting. It's from CNN's Oren Lieberman. And it is fascinating. It specifies that just two minutes before the midair collision between this Black Hawk helicopter and the American Airlines flight, flight tracking data shows the helicopter was at 200ft as it crossed over the Potomac, which is the maximum allowed altitude.

But then it made two sharp turns over the park and appears to have gotten much closer to the airport than it should have been and also much higher. It went up from 200 to 300ft. I wonder when you hear that, Chad, given your expertise in aviation, what would be some of the reasons for that aircraft to not only go off course but also go up in altitude?

KENDALL: I want to start with what we've heard first from air traffic control and that's air traffic control asking the helicopter pilot if they had the other aircraft in sight. And assuming they did, then air traffic control stating fly behind that aircraft. You know, what happened from that point to the collision is part of this investigation.

You know, were there distractions in the flight deck, limited ability with technology being used? Did they see something else? The information that can be gleaned from the helicopter data, if we can get any, is going to be used to determine the answer to that specific question.

KEILAR: Yeah, because David, that's -- we have to think about what we don't know at this point in time, right? And that is that air traffic control transmission and the Black Hawk helicopter acknowledging. I mean if one second or two seconds passes between that and the crash, that's going to be really informative, right? If it's a very brief period of time. And if they said they saw an aircraft but it becomes very apparent that they were referring to another aircraft that is also an important question to ask, David.

SOUCIE: Now, I'll tell you, that's easy to do. I've flown in and out of in the cockpit on the jump seat observing pilots with the FAA hundreds of times. And that airport can be very tricky with how much -- how many lights are coming from where.

[14:15:01]

And if you look at that video, you'll see that the glaring light coming at you is still because that means it's coming directly at the camera and you can see the helicopter approaching from the left.

But before you hear him say I have it in sight, there's another aircraft that passes and you have to really pay attention to see it. There's another aircraft that passes from right to left from that camera view. And it's very possible that that's what he saw when he said I have the aircraft in sight. And I can see how that can happen in a dark night above that black, black river and there are other aircraft out there and it's really hard to do VFR following in when it's night and no moon and all you see are some flashing lights.

SANCHEZ: Chad I also imagine as a commercial airline pilot when something like that happens at such a relatively low altitude in the conditions that David just described, there's not much you can do at that point.

KENDALL: No. The airline crew is seconds from landing. Their minds are focused on the Runway environment, maintaining aircraft control. They're listening to ATC, but they're in a critical phase of flight to transition to land the airplane. So certainly not a lot of time to make any significant changes.

SANCHEZ: Chad Kendall, David Soucie, very much appreciate your expertise on this. Thank you so much for joining us.

SOUCIE: Thank you.

KENDALL: Thanks for having me.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, we're awaiting a press conference from D.C. officials on the recovery efforts from this midair collision. We're going to bring this to you live.

KEILAR: Plus, the White House says President Trump will move forward with new tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China starting tomorrow. What that means for you? Next here on CNN News Central.

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[14:21:25]

SANCHEZ: Take a look at this, the Dow Jones and specifically notice when it starts getting red. Right around 1:30 or so. Yeah. In the last hour, Wall Street investors appear to be rattled after the White House said that President Trump is sticking to his February 1st deadline for new tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. Tariffs that could raise prices for many products that Americans buy, potentially stoking inflation.

Let's get the latest from CNN's Matt Egan. Matt, what can you tell us about these tariffs and what it could mean for the price of everyday goods?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Boris, we could be on the verge of the first shots being fired in what would be a trade war in North America? Because as we remember, it's not just these 25% tariffs that have been threatened by President Trump on Canada and on Mexico. It's also the retaliation that they have promised as well.

And as you pointed out, this did not go over so well on Wall Street. The moment that this news came out from the White House that the tariffs are still on track to happen, we did see a noticeable dip in the stock market with the Dow moving solidly lower. Now, look, we don't know exactly what's going to happen here. It's still possible that President Trump decides to delay when these tariffs get implemented or cancel them altogether.

But we do know that he views these tariffs as sort of a magical negotiating tool that can solve almost any problem. Of course, this would be a risky gamble because The United States imports a lot of goods from Canada and from Mexico, not to mention from China as well. Last year alone, the U.S. imported $400 billion of goods from Canada. Everything from oil and minerals to cement, wood and paper goods.

This is also a major place where the United States imports food from Mexico in particular, right? Roughly 90% of the avocados that get imported into the United States come from Mexico. Same thing for tomatoes. The auto industry in North America is also very closely linked together. That's why analysts have said that tariffs like this would be devastating to the auto industry and would lift the price of the average cost sold -- the cost of the average car sold in the United States by $3,000.

Now, meanwhile, there's also the risk that all of this could lift gasoline prices because Canada is the biggest source of foreign oil into the United States. The U.S. imports about four million barrels of oil from Canada every single day. Look at that. That's four times as much as what is imported from OPEC. Mexico is also a major source of fossil foreign oil and big oil.

The oil industry is pleading with the White House to shield oil and natural gas from these imports. They're warning that Canada is just such a crucial source of oil into the refineries that what could happen is you could see gasoline prices go significantly higher. A gas buddy has said that if these 25% tariffs go into effect, gas prices in the Great Lakes region could go up by up to 50 cents per gallon. Similarly go significantly higher in the Midwest and in the Rocky Mountains as well.

And so that's why we've got to pay very close attention to what happens next and whether or not the White House ends up putting the tariffs in place, but perhaps having some sort of a carve out so that it doesn't impact gasoline prices. Because, Boris, if we've learned anything the last few years, it's that people care very much about how much the price of gasoline is.

[14:25:00]

SANCHEZ: It's perhaps part of the reason, the price of everyday goods, why Donald Trump got elected. And we should quickly point out Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary was asked about exceptions specifically for oil and oil products and she didn't have any specifics. She said that we would find out within the next 24 hours. So Matt Egan will check in again once these tariffs are rolled out to see whether there was a carve out or not. Thanks so much Matt.

Stay with CNN. We're waiting on a news conference from D.C. officials on the recovery efforts from that midair collision. We're going to bring it to you live. Stay tuned. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)