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CNN News Central

FAA Working to Address Chronic Shortage of Air Traffic Controllers; Hijacked Small Plane Circles Vancouver Airport, Suspect Arrested; Federal Indictment Charges Five People With Visa Fraud and Bribery; U.S. Lags Behind China in Clean Energy Race; "American Idol" Music Supervisor, Husband Killed in Their Home. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 16, 2025 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:33:30]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": It will take more than $30 billion to overhaul the nation's air traffic control system. That's the new figure that we're getting from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy as of today. It's a huge priority of course for the Trump Administration after delays and cancellations plagued Newark's main airport.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": And hiring air traffic controllers is also a priority with the shortage in the thousands. CNN's Pete Muntean got a look at the new moves the Trump Administration is making to get them trained and ready for the job.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a rare inside look at the epicenter of ending a chronic shortage of air traffic controllers that's burning out workers and delaying flights nationwide.

Here at the Federal Aviation Administration's Controller Academy in Oklahoma City, students spend months in classrooms and simulators before moving to on-the-job training at towers and radar facilities that are struggling to retain talent.

MUNTEAN: How bad is the shortage of air traffic controllers in the U.S. right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's had a staffing crisis.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): The latest estimates say the FAA is short 3,000 air traffic controllers. The newest moves by the Trump Administration include slashing the time candidates wait to be accepted here and giving them pay bonuses when they reach key training milestones.

SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: We're thinking creatively on how we can supercharge air traffic control.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Changes are working with the FAA just announcing enrollment here is now the highest it has ever been.

[13:35:00]

The FAA says it rejects 90 percent of applicants and of the students who do get in, 35 percent wash out, even still instructors put me to the test.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel confident you can do this.

(LAUGH)

MUNTEAN: Thanks for the pep tuck.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): This high-fidelity control tower simulator is the same one used by academy students. First, I start out by reading from a script in front of me.

MUNTEAN: Twin Cessna 310, Mike November, Academy Tower, and are left down one runway, two eight left. I already feel my heart rate going up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, get ready.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Commander to 27 golf kilo ready for departure from runway --

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Then the program throws more airplanes into the mix, to the point where I have to tell a flight to abort its landing.

MUNTEAN: Citation three pop in November, go around. Wow, my first go around.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How's it feel?

(LAUGH)

MUNTEAN: Fine. Did I mess something up?

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Finally, we are fully off script.

MUNTEAN: Challenger 6585 Juliet, Academy Tower, Runway 28, right lineup and wait. How did I do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You did really good.

MUNTEAN: Do you think I could pull this off if I came to the academy and --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll give you six more weeks and you'll be fantastic.

(LAUGH)

MUNTEAN (voice-over): We kept this demonstration fun, though the FAA insists this is serious work in hopes of ending its major staffing problem.

CHRISTOPHER WILBANKS, VICE PRESIDENT OF MISSION SUPPORT AND MANAGEMENT SERVICES, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION: I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I don't want to persuade people to think that's next year. We still have our work out in front of us, but we are absolutely moving in the right direction.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MUNTEAN (on camera): There are about to be more changes at the FAA Training Academy. A new FAA Administrator was just confirmed by the Senate last week. His name is Bryan Bedford, and he has said the FAA needs to cast a pretty big net to cast -- to attract the best new controllers. But he also says Congress needs to give the FAA money. President Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill, now law, directed $100 million to more of those tower simulators that you saw, part of $12.5 dollars to fix aging air traffic control systems.

I'm shocked at how hard that was. I --

SANCHEZ: You did it (ph) though?

MUNTEAN: I think I did OK.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: Oh, come on. You were fantastic.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. You were awesome, man.

MUNTEAN: Humility is important in this gig.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: But don't like leave us to become an air traffic controller.

MUNTEAN: This is already a stressful job and that's a stressful job.

KEILAR: I can stress you out way more --

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: -- if that's what you're looking for, if you need that.

SANCHEZ: The stakes are also a little bit lighter here. Let's be honest.

KEILAR: That's --

MUNTEAN: True. It's not life and death and controllers do have a stressful job. They're working mandatory six day weeks of 10-hour shifts. And this help can't come soon enough for them. They really, really need the help. And the Trump Administration is trying to fix this fast.

KEILAR: And when it comes to the shortage, which I think anyone who's an air traveler is sort of has that in the back of their mind.

MUNTEAN: Everyone's aware, yeah. KEILAR: What about this idea? The FAA is looking into the possibility of actually hiring controllers from other countries to try to fill this gap.

MUNTEAN: This is an interesting idea and it came out in exclusive reporting yesterday from The Atlantic. And the Trump Administration is sort of on defense here, essentially saying in a new statement that the DOT and the FAA are exploring every possible option to fix the problem, but that this is far away from a decision point. So we'll see if this actually comes to fruition. The big rub here is there are more air traffic controllers in the United States than in any other country in the world. So, to try and sort of pluck controllers from someplace else and drop them into the U.S. would be difficult. And also, there is the English language barrier. English is the universal language of aviation, but you have to be able to understand English and speak it clearly over the radio because as we've recently talked about, these can be matters of life and death. And so, those instructions are really important to get across clearly.

KEILAR: Yeah. Pete, thank you so much. Really great report and that was fascinating to go behind the scenes with you.

MUNTEAN: Thanks. A lot of fun.

KEILAR: One of the busiest airports in Canada was forced to temporarily shut down after somebody hijacked a small plane. That is it there on the ground at Vancouver International yesterday, surrounded by police after it finally landed. But for about a half an hour, people on the ground were watching as it was dipping low and circling the airport. In response, air traffic controllers grounded flights and aborted landings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do have an aircraft that has been hijacked. It is in the vicinity of the airport over flying.

SANCHEZ: Yikes. The plane had taken off from Victoria International, some 40 miles away where it's used for flight training. Police say the suspect was the only person inside and was arrested. So far, no word from officials on a possible motive for that joyride, joy flight.

Still to come, an alleged visa scam uncovered by the Feds. Now five people, including current and former police chiefs in Louisiana, are facing federal charges. The details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:43:52]

SANCHEZ: In the middle of the president's sweeping immigration crackdown, the Justice Department just revealed an immigration crackdown of a whole different kind in Louisiana, breaking apart an alleged fraud operation, which included law enforcement that allegedly put visas up for sale for nearly a decade. This video shows some of the warrants being executed yesterday in this case, which led to the arrests of five people, two police chiefs, one former police chief, a Marshall, and a restaurant owner. The visas allegedly sold were special non-immigrant U Visas, which give foreign nationals who are crime victims or witnesses to a crime, the ability to stay in the United States. CNN's Ryan Young joins us now live with the details. Ryan, walk us through how this scheme worked.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Boris, this is really unreal. When you think about it, it went on for almost 10 years. This operation really had some big time coordination, over 200 agents working on this. But when you think about how they put this together, they're basically saying those involved in law enforcement were paid $5,000 a name, and they had hundreds of names that they were involved in for years. And people got put to the front of the line.

[13:45:00]

So basically, if you're a crime victim, you get that chance to get that special visa. While this was happening, there were false police reports according to the federal government. But one of the things that stood out to us was just some of the purchases these officers were making. In fact, it was an F-150, a new Land Rover, ATVs. They bought land. This all got to a point where federal authorities were interested in what was going on and then you had that Subway owner, Mr. Patel, who was involved in all this.

And the question that we've had is how did anyone figure out that you could pay $5,000 per head or whatever the number was, to get this information and get these false police reports? This coordination's being ongoing for over a year. Law enforcement involved special task force. Take a listen to the news conference that happened a little earlier today explaining some of the details and the shock from law enforcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXANDER VAN HOOK, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY, WESTERN DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA: They were alleging that those people were victims of armed robberies, while in fact the armed robberies, it never took place and those listed in the applications were never victims of crime. Instead, these people would pay Mr. Patel, who would in turn pay Doyle, Slaney, Dixon, and Onishea to create false police reports, so that fraudulent visa applications could be submitted to the United States government.

DEMETRIUS HARDIMAN, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, IRS CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION, ATLANTA: These unsealed indictments announced today, send a clear message that whether you carry a badge or a business license, those who engage in criminal activities will be held accountable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Boris, two of the police chiefs were arrested at a conference. So, it's very interesting to see how they executed this. They didn't say why they decided to move forward with this. This is an ongoing investigation. From what we know right now, the only person still in jail is Mr. Patel. From all of this though, you got to think about the coordination, the amounts of money that were coming in, sometimes $50,000, $60,000, $70,000 at a pop. This detailed indictment really shows how the Feds were able to track the money and then also look at the fact that there were large expenditures that were being paid for by all these folks, according to the federal government.

And part of this is, they didn't want to go into further detail because they say, A, it is an ongoing investigation. And this could be a longer court case, but we know how desperate people are to join this wonderful country of ours. And at the same time, they're willing to spend the money. But they never told us how people ended up at that Subway or with Mr. Patel or how they were able to execute this orders and how this scheme got started, something that we'll have to continue to watch. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Just a wild story. Also interesting that it doesn't seem that they thought that Immigration and Naturalization Services would look into these fake police reports, like they would just trust that they were real.

YOUNG: And that just shows you the power of some of these smaller towns where they can generate this and that's what makes it interesting. One last thing, they really stressed that the end of this, that people should still be able to trust law enforcement. There are a lot of big questions left because what happens? Because some of these men are elected officials. Of course, everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty, so we'll have to see how this plays out in court.

SANCHEZ: Ryan Young, thank you so much for the reporting. Still to come on "CNN News Central," there are new signs that the U.S. is lagging even further behind China in the clean energy race. What the consequences could mean for you, next on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:52:37]

SANCHEZ: In the race for clean energy, the United States is now apparently falling even further behind China. Some new stats reveal how China is outpacing the U.S. by installing more wind and solar power in a single year than the total amount of renewable energy currently operating in the United States.

KEILAR: And experts say that President Trump's signature spending law could mean China continues pulling away with renewable energy set to take the backseat to more expensive gas here in the U.S. CNN Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir is with us on this. Bill, how far ahead is China when it comes to the clean energy race?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: If it was a little league game, they'd call the slaughter rule. Brianna, this is the Global Energy Monitor is sort of the umpire. They tell us what's happening around the world when it comes to energy and look at this bar chart. Let's just start by saying that one gigawatt powers about a million homes. It varies, but let's just say that. The United States had 275 gigawatts end of last year. Look at China, 1,400 with another 500 being installed right now. So, China is basically installing as much wind and solar as the all of the United States has in its history, thus far.

And this is -- this dynamic is playing out. They are building the great wall of solar in the inner Mongolia. You can see it from space now. They're going so far, all in on the post-carbon economy. At the same time, the Trump Administration has knee-capped wind and solar here in the United States. So, how do you compete? How do you build the technologies of the 21st century while sticking with the fuels of the 19th century? We're about to find out.

SANCHEZ: What does all of this wind up meaning for consumers?

WEIR: Well, it's huge energy spikes. The cost of energy will go up in all 50 states, the analysts say, because right now, the two cheapest forms of energy are wind and sun stored in batteries, sometimes for days at a time. But, with the incentives taken away, making that more expensive and forcing communities to go back to coal or natural gas which is more expensive, that just means the prices go up for everybody while increasing air pollution and climate change at the same time.

KEILAR: Yeah, and that's what it means. Bill Weir, always great to have you take us through this. We appreciate it. Still ahead, police make an arrest after an "American Idol" music supervisor and her husband were shot dead in their California home. We'll have the latest on that case coming up on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:59:38]

KEILAR: Will he or won't he? President Trump sending mixed messages on whether he could fire Fed Chief Jerome Powell. Trump's saying it's unlikely he would do it, but White House officials tell CNN that is exactly what the president is considering. And trying to move on, President Trump now says the Jeffrey Epstein controversy is nothing but a hoax. But some Republican lawmakers seem to disagree with him.

SANCHEZ: Plus, producers and fans of American Idol are mourning the loss of one of their own after a brutal double homicide in --

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)