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CNN International: NTSB Examining Flight Recorders from American Airlines Jet; More Hostages to be Freed; Investigation Intensifies into what Caused Fatal Crash; Trump Baselessly Links Diversity Initiatives to Collision; Conflict Takes Growing Toll on U.S. Volunteer Fighters; Flight Stimulator Shows Challenges Near Reagan National Airport. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired January 31, 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]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone, and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, and this is the CNN Newsroom. Just ahead, new footage of Wednesday's deadly plane collision in Washington, D.C., as investigators try to piece together how it happened?

67 people are presumed dead, and 14 bodies are still believed to be missing. Israel has received the names of three hostages due for release from Gaza on Saturday, among them an American Israeli citizen. And why Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel is taking aim at her own party?

We begin with stunning new video of Wednesday's deadly midair collision near Washington, D.C. The videos may be disturbing to some viewers. In this first video, you can see the Black Hawk Helicopter and the American Airlines jet flying toward each other, and then right there, a bright explosion erupts, both aircraft spinning out of control, splashing into the Potomac River.

This second video showing the helicopter moving along the river with the plane on its final approach to the runway, and you can even see the light shining from the helicopter, and then there the collision sending both aircraft into the Potomac.

67 people killed. Of those 67 a source tells us that all but 14 bodies have been recovered. Recovery crews are expected to be back out in the Potomac River today. Divers have been battling mud and zero visibility in the painstaking recovery of these victims. This as investigators try to figure out what went wrong? The plane's data and voice recorders have been recovered. Transportation officials say they are not ruling out anything.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD INMAN, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD MEMBER: We don't know what we know just yet. We do not know enough facts to be able to rule in or out human factor, mechanical factors, that is part of the NTSB investigative process. JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATIONAL SAFETY BOARD: We

will look at all the humans that were involved in this accident. Again, we will look at the aircraft. We will look at the helicopter. We will look at the environment in which they were operating in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Meanwhile, CNN has learned that on the day before the deadly collision, another plane had to abort its landing at Reagan National Airport because a helicopter was near its flight path. On board the American Airlines flight were four leading figure skaters, along with the mothers of two of the young skaters. Figure Skating Icon Nancy Kerrigan sent her condolences to the families.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY KERRIGAN, FIGURE SKATER: The kids here really work hard. Their parents work hard to be here, but I just feel for the athletes, the skaters, their families, but anyone that was on that plane, not just the skaters, because it's just such a tragic event.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Eva McKend joins us now with a closer look at those who lost their lives in this collision, Eva?

EVA MCKEND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, there are so many victims, but let's this hour lift up the name of a few. At just 26-years-old, Azra Hussain Raza she was the daughter of Indian immigrants and graduated with honors in 2020 from Indiana University. She married her college sweetheart in August of 2023.

Her husband was actually waiting for her at the airport and texted her minutes before the plane went down. She was a D.C. based consultant who traveled to Wichita for work. And her family says that she went out of her way for everybody. Ryan O'Hara, he was Crew Chief on board of that Black Hawk. He trained to maintain them. He leaves behind a wife and one-year-old son. Fellow service members say he was one of the finest, most disciplined, committed trainers.

And Elizabeth Ann Keyes, she was just 33 a Cincinnati native and lawyer. She was her high school valedictorian and went on to graduate from Tufts in the Boston area. Her law firm says she brought fearlessness, humor and sharp wit to her work every day, no matter the setting or the circumstances. So, it just gives you a sense of the lives that we've lost here. So many families, dozens of families impacted by this horrible tragedy, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much, Eva McKend. All right, both black boxes from the planes are now being examined. Divers have been essential in the investigation so far. They'll soon get extra help in the recovery effort when a crane arrives at the scene. Rene Marsh is at Reagan National Airport to give us the latest and she talked to Kate Baldwin earlier.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We know that recovery efforts will resume soon as sun comes up this morning. Now, we also are expecting the flight manifest with the names of the victims, all of them who were on board the commercial aircraft, to potentially be released today.

[08:05:00]

And we also know that President Donald Trump has plans to meet with some of the victims' families. It is unclear when that meeting will happen. Now, as for the investigation that is ramping up this morning, you mentioned the black boxes have been recovered from both aircraft, both the airplane, as well as the Black Hawk helicopter.

The NTSB telling us yesterday that they expect to have a preliminary report with a readout from these black boxes within the next 30 days. Investigators are also waiting for a crane to arrive on this crash site. That crane will be helpful in trying to remove much of this debris that will be critical in this investigation, as well as the debris will hold clues for investigators.

And Kate this morning, we're also learning about staffing in that air traffic control tower. We heard that air traffic control audio in which they warned the pilot of the Black Hawk Helicopter about the commercial regional jet. And now CNN has learned that one air traffic controller was actually working two different tower positions, directing traffic for both local traffic as well as helicopter traffic. However, this source tells us that that is not out of the norm.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you so much, Rene Marsh. Natasha Bertrand, from -- at the Pentagon, is with us now with the latest on the Defense Department's investigation. What are you learning?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well Fred, Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said just yesterday that there was a mistake that was made here. He didn't spell out what exactly that was, but he did indicate that there was some kind of, quote, an elevation issue.

And so, this is part of what the Army CID Criminal Investigative decision -- division, as well as the broader department is going to be looking at, in conjunction with the NTSB as well as the FAA. Now we should note "The New York Times" is reporting, according to four people briefed on the matter, that this Black Hawk Helicopter was flying above the approved altitude at the time of the collision, saying that it was flying at above three -- above 300 feet.

In fact, these helicopters are supposed to stay below 200 feet. And we should note that CNN has reported that at the time of the collision, ATSB, which is the radar that provides information about a plane's particular location, altitude, was putting that helicopter at 200 feet. So, the question is, did it make a sudden descent? Was that data incorrect? All of this is going to be looked at as part of this investigation.

Now we're also being told that this was a routine training mission, that these pilots were not inexperienced, that between them, the pilots had about 1500 hours of flight time, and so there were not junior pilots on board. This is something that they would have been experienced conducting this kind of mission over the last several years, at least.

And so, the issue now is trying to figure out what went wrong? Did they not see the plane? Were they wearing night vision goggles, which some people say may enhance vision, but others that we have spoken to say could actually impede vision? All of this is being looked at.

And we should also note that the FAA briefed members of Congress yesterday and also apparently raised some questions about whether this helicopter was in the appropriate flight path. Here's a little bit of what Senator Tammy Duckworth told Jake Tapper yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): Need to know -- you know, from the FAA and from the NTSB investigators who departed from their route, because that airport, that Black Hawk needed to be hugging that Eastern River Bank of the Potomac and the regional jet, of course, was on short final for, I believe, runway three, three. And so, at some point, they converge on each other and lost that lateral separation. And we need to see who drifted into whose flight path.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERTRAND: Now, the NTSB did say in a press conference yesterday that that helicopter was shifting routes at one point, which, again, is not abnormal. That is pretty standard. They shifted from what is known as route one to route four. The question is, did that have anything to do with them getting into the flight path of that passenger plane that has yet to be determined.

The Black Hawk, according to the NTSB, does have a recording device inside of it that could shed some light on some of this, but as of right now, it's our understanding that has not yet been recovered Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: I see. All right, Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much. All right, Geoffrey Thomas is an Aviation Analyst with more than 40 years of industry experience. He is joining us live now from Perth, Australia. Jeffrey, great to see you. We just heard Natasha say they haven't retrieved the black box from the Black Hawk Helicopter, but they have from the airplane.

So, what kind of information might come from that Black Hawk a black box -- black box that would help illuminate whether elevation -- you know, or if there was any kind of mechanical problem on that aircraft, any of those things?

[08:10:00]

GEOFFREY THOMAS, AVIATION ANALYST: Look the black box from the Black Hawk should give the NTSB enormous amount of data about the exact altitude of the aircraft, the exact course of the aircraft, and of course, it'll also hopefully give us the cockpit conversation between the pilots.

The only thing it would not give us is if it would be the Black Hawk pilots said that he had the CRJ in sight. Now, did he see the CRJ? Or did he see another aircraft? That's the part we're not going to ever understand. We will assume that he got them mixed up, possibly, but they won't. They probably will not never be a confirmation of exactly which aircraft he did site.

WHITFIELD: Would there be, I guess, any documentation or recording, or customarily, would there be some specification of -- you know when you're asking if you see the aircraft? I mean, would it say specifically? I mean, he may -- if that pilot thought they were seeing one aircraft and responding in the affirmative, they see the aircraft, but they come to find out it was another aircraft. I mean, how do you settle that? What would customarily happen?