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Second Pilot Dies After Midair Helicopter Crash in New Jersey; New Search for Missing MH370 Plane to Resume Tomorrow; Scotland's Hogmanay Kicks off with River of fire Procession; Bank of America CEO Predicts Wealth Growth for Americans in 2026. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired December 29, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: ... CPSC website and look through its list of recalls, ensure that the product that you're considering buying hasn't been recalled.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Important advice, thanks so much to Meg Tirrell for that.

Still to come, new details involving a deadly midair crash in New Jersey. What investigators say happened right before two helicopters collided.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We're back now with a sad update to a story that we've been following out of New Jersey. A second pilot has now died after two helicopters collided in mid-air. Video from Sunday capturing the moment that one of the helicopters was spiraling out of control just moments before crashing.

CNN's Rafael Romo is joining us now for the latest. Rafael, tell us what you're learning here?

[14:35:00]

Brianna, just in the last couple of hours, Hammonton police released the identities of the two pilots who died in the crash while providing an update about the tragic incident. According to Hammonton Police Chief Kevin Friel, 71-year-old Michael Greenberg was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. 65-year-old Kenneth Kirsch, the second pilot who died, was pronounced dead at the hospital. Both victims were from New Jersey.

Chief Friel described the crash as a mid-air collision between an Anstrom helicopter model 280C and another Anstrom helicopter model F- 28A, adding that both aircraft had just departed from the Hammonton police -- I should say, Hammonton Municipal Airport when they collided approximately at 11:25 Eastern time on Sunday morning.

Chief Friel also said that the helicopters crash landed in a field and tree line. One helicopter was engulfed in flames, he said, and the fire was later extinguished by the Hammonton Volunteer Fire Department. According to police, statements from witnesses had the two helicopters flying close together just before the crash. The crash site was approximately a mile and a half from the airport in a farm field.

CNN has obtained the video. We were showing it before, Brianna, showing the moment one of the helicopters went down spinning out of control. A restaurant owner at the Hammonton Municipal Airport says he had just seen both pilots at his establishment prior to the crash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAL SILIPINO, APRON CAFE OWNER: They were just at our cafe having breakfast. They're wranglers. They come in every week or every other week. I don't know them personally. Just that they seem to come in all the time together. They fly in together, and they seem to be close. You know, they sit together, and they seem to be good friends or relatives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And Brianna, the mid-air collision happened in Hammonton, located in Atlantic County, which is about 35 miles southeast of Philadelphia and sits near the New Jersey Pine Barrens, a vast area of forested wilderness. Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the accident, but the NTSB will be in charge -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Rafael Romo, thank you for that.

SANCHEZ: So it's been more than a decade since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 mysteriously vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Tomorrow morning, an American marine robotics company is set to launch a new deep-sea search for the missing airliner. An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any clues to the location of the Boeing 777 or the 239 people on board.

Apart from a few small debris fragments that washed ashore on the East African coast and Indian Ocean islands, no bodies or wreckage have ever been found. Let's discuss with David Soucie. He's a former FAA safety inspector and a CNN safety analyst, also the author of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, "Why It Disappeared, and Why It's Only a Matter of Time Before This Happens Again."

David, thanks as always for being with us. So 10 years on, what questions in your mind still remain?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, one of the things on this search starting up again that struck me is what is actually different about this search compared to the other, and it's quite different, actually. The first search in searches covered an area about the size of Florida. Now we're talking about the size of Connecticut. So you would think that a smaller search area would be less results. But after investigating this a little bit further, I found that there's a lot of new technology that they'll be using to look for the aircraft this time. So I think it's very probable that they're going to find something in this area. SANCHEZ: What do you think they might be able to find?

SOUCIE: Well, I'm hoping that they're going to find the main body of the aircraft and included in that would be the flight data control or recorder and the voice recorder. Those would still be intact. Even 10 years later, they're designed to withstand that type of pressure underwater and this type of time over time. So it's possible that they could recover all of it and get some answers that we've been all waiting for victims and the families especially.

SANCHEZ: Yes, no doubt. There are a lot of theories out there, none of them to this point explicitly confirmed. I wonder what you have heard from the Malaysian government about this.

SOUCIE: Well, primarily what we've learned is that what they're doing now is they're looking back at what they did before. What did they do in the search before? And what new technologies can they apply? So they've reanalyzed all the data, all the satellite imagery that they have, all the what they call the handoffs and where they located, what happened during those handoffs. All of that's been looked at.

Of course, 10 years ago, we didn't even have artificial intelligence to help manufacture or use the data that we had. So now they've done that. Now they've narrowed this area as I said, to just about the size of Connecticut as to where they're looking. So I'm really confident about where this is going at this point.

SANCHEZ: It'll be interesting to see the results.

[14:40:00]

Lastly, David, switching back to that deadly helicopter crash in New Jersey, the NTSB, as we heard from Rafael Romo, opening an investigation. What will you be looking for?

SOUCIE: Well, I'm very familiar with the he civil rights movement of the 1960s offered a powerful promise, racial equality and freedom for all. But realizing that promise has never come easy. And every day new threats to our rights confront us.

Speaker 1

Lastly, David, switching back to that deadly helicopter crash in New Jersey, the NTSB, as we heard from Rafael Fuomo, opening an investigation. What will you be looking for?

SOUCIE: Well, I'm very familiar with the Hammonton area. I spend a lot of time there. So there's not a lot of air traffic there. But as you noted earlier that these pilots knew each other they were flying in some kind of formation.

Now that's something new you can do if you're experienced of doing that. But in this case with those instrument helicopters, they do -- they are smaller helicopters. They're harder to keep on the straight path. And so, it looks to me as though there was an unintentional, of course, collision. And it looks like the main rotor on one which crashed immediately struck the tail rotor of the other and pilot tried to maintain control, but without a tail rotor and without a lot of forward speed, it's impossible to do so. And you can see how it crashed.

But it's sad to hear that that second pilot survived the initial impact but has now passed away. So I would be looking first at just the air traffic control, the satellite views or images of that area, which there are some, to see why they were flying that close together. But it seems as though it may have something to do with wind or other unplanned circumstances by those two experienced pilots.

SANCHEZ: Yes, it appears to have been a tragic accident. David Soucie, thanks so much for the time.

SOUCIE: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We'll be right back.

[14:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The countdown is on to the new year, and Scotland is already getting the party started with Edinburgh's world-famous Hogmanay tradition. 15,000 torch bearers are expected to form the famed River of Fire, kicking off four days of festivities. And that is where our Max Foster is, right there in Edinburgh. Max, happy almost New Year. Tell us what you're seeing and hearing. It sounds awesome.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: We came just in time for the rain. I can tell you that. It's just started, as you'd expect in Scotland. We've got a piping band up there. This is a procession of fire. And the people in charge of the fire are the Vikings that have come down here from the north of Scotland in the Shetland Isles.

So these guys represent the Norse history and heritage really of Scotland. And the pipers are representing the Gaelic history. And what this is, starting off Hogmanay celebrations as they're known here in Scotland, which will last four days until New Year's Day.

So we were chatting to a few of the Vikings earlier, and this is very much part of their heritage. There's lots of different groups of Vikings up in the north part of Scotland, and they were invited down to bring their fire. And then we've got 10,000 people, roughly, who'll be following them, who've also got their own torches. So I think officially what we've got here is the beginning of the Global New Year celebrations.

KEILAR: Listen, Max, everything happens on this show 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Eastern but never have we had Vikings. So that is a first, and I thank you for bringing that to us. What can we expect here in the coming days?

FOSTER: Well, there's a series of different events really building up, because I think lots of people come to Edinburgh for New Year, for Hogmanay, as it's called. One interesting thing, one mission I had was to find out why it's called Hogmanay, and I've managed to discover that literally nobody knows where the word comes from. But it's synonymous with Scotland, it's synonymous with New Year, and they're going to be celebrating it for four days. I'll be here throughout.

KEILAR: All right, why do people eat haggis? Why is it called Hogmanay? We just don't know. We just don't know. Max Foster Live from Edinburgh. Thank you so much for that.

And you can soon count down to 2026 with our favorite duo. New Year's Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen starts at 8 p.m. Eastern on CNN. And you can also watch on the CNN app. Take it with you.

Still to come, the leader of one of America's largest banks just doled out some fresh optimism when it comes to the economy in the new year. But does the data back up his predictions?

[14:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. Police in Texas are searching for a missing 19 year old from the San Antonio area, warning that she might be in imminent danger. Camila Mendoza Olmos vanished from her home on Christmas Eve, and surveillance video shows her rummaging through her car on 7 a.m. before then walking away. Adding to the mystery, investigators say she left her cell phone behind.

Police and volunteers have been searching the area, but at this point they say there are very few clues to work with.

Also, take a look at this powerful wind gusts near Lake Superior as a winter storm slammed Michigan overnight. As much as two feet of snow fell in some places, leaving more than 100,000 people without power today. The city of Marquette seeing a record breaking 11.5 inches of snow on just Sunday alone. Frigid conditions like this, making for dangerous driving as well.

Sadly, one person in Iowa was killed in a car crash when blizzard like conditions struck there.

KEILAR: Also, hockey fans enthralled by the national anthem at the Islanders game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(STAFF SERGEANT DOMINIC CRITELLI PLAYING NATIONAL ANTHEM)

ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, Staff Sergeant Dominic Critelli.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now that is some lung capacity, I will say, for a 104-year- old. That is Dominic Critelli on the sax. He was at the Battle of the Bulge during World War II, and after his final note, the crowd began a chant of USA in his honor. And so they should have. What a moment.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: For weeks, polling has shown most Americans will be heading into the new year feeling pretty uneasy about where the economy is and where it's heading under President Trump.

SANCHEZ: Yes, but despite those concerns, the CEO of Bank of America says there are some positive signs, something he calls solid spending.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:55:00]

BRIAN MOYNIHAN, CEO, BANK OF AMERICA: At the end of the day, people are spending, they have good credit quality, they are employed, and we can see wages growing as people's paychecks come in at a 3 percent clip. So it's pretty solid right now.

SANCHEZ: CNN Business and Politics correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich joins us now. Vanessa, what does the data say?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, the data certainly shows that wages have been outpacing inflation, and they have been for a couple years now. Since 2023, wages have been growing at about three and a half percent. The latest inflation numbers from the World Bank show that are that inflation is at 2.7 percent.

So you can see inflation in red there and hourly earnings in blue there. So that is good news for Americans. Brian Moynihan, who you heard from there, but shared some concern about wages as it related to low income Americans not being able to keep up with prices as well as some high income earners.

Also, he shared concerns about small business owners being able to keep up with rising prices, as we know that they've been having a harder time weathering a lot of the tariff pressures that we know some businesses have been seeing.

But on holiday spending, he's right on track there. Bank of America, Visa, MasterCard, all seeing holiday spending increases from about 4 percent to 4.5 percent, compared to last year, though. The thing to note there, guys, is that doesn't include adjusting for inflation.

So some of those increases that you're seeing year to year actually may just be the higher prices that everyday Americans are paying, not that spending has increased. We know that Americans, yes, are spending, but they're putting a lot on credit cards. Credit card debt in the third quarter rose to $1.23 trillion. That's a 5.75 percent increase from the previous year. So credit card debt certainly building for Americans.

Putting this all together, how are Americans doing? How are they feeling right now? Well, December's consumer sentiment number showed that, yes, there was a mild increase in how people were feeling. But overall, December of this year, compared to December of last year, look at that, down 30 percent.

And this is the biggest issue that Brian Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America, brought up in that interview, was that if consumers continue to feel sour about the economy heading into 2026, that's a sign that they could possibly pull back in spending. And that is the biggest concern for him, because consumer spending is the biggest driver of the economy.

And if consumers continue to feel bad, they just may not be shelling out as much for things in the future. And that is a concern for the overall economy.

KEILAR: And President Trump, Vanessa, expected to name a new Fed chair in coming weeks. What does he want to see out of the next person that he's putting in charge?

YURKEVICH: Well, President Trump has been very clear about what he wants to see with the next chair of the Federal Reserve, someone who will continue to lower interest rates. He is expected to make that announcement in the next couple of weeks. He says he has his nominee.

Most people think that it will be the head of the National Economic Council at the White House, Kevin Hassett, who has been very much out there promoting President Trump's agenda on the economy, saying tariffs are good for the economy, good for the American people, that inflation has come down substantially, which it has, and that overall the economy is in good shape. We know that this person, if it is Kevin Hassett or someone else, will replace Jerome Powell, who has been in this position for four years. He's leaving the post in May, as designed by the four-year term.

But whoever it is, whoever is nominated, is going to have to face a Senate confirmation vote. And no doubt this person will be questioned by both sides, I believe, whether or not he is going to be an independent chair of the Federal Reserve or if he's going to just follow suit with what the president wants to do, which is to lower interest rates.

One thing I'll leave you with is interest rates are at a three-year low right now, actually. They just lowered the Fed funds rate in December. The tricky thing with interest rates is you don't want them to get too low, guys, because then that signals that the economy is in trouble and a recession is on the way. A tricky dance for whoever is the next chair of the Federal Reserve.

SANCHEZ: A tricky dance, indeed. Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much.

Hey, be sure to start the new year with comedy icon Chevy Chase in a revealing new CNN film.

KEILAR: This has candid interviews with Chase's family, friends and co-stars. And here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHEVY CHASE: These are for Janie, my wife. I love her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If she doesn't love me, tell me, but I guarantee she'll love him.

CHASE: Do you want me to sign something?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, you're good.

CHASE: What do you mean? I'm good. I don't know what they cost.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're 400.

CHASE: Four hundred dollars.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CHASE: What? For a little thing of flowers?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a big thing. I can give you a little thing.

CHASE: I'll bet you can. Yes. OK, never mind. Oh, they really are pretty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, these these are particularly special. We don't have these in regularly. Can't always get those.

CHASE: Peonies.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

END