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Medevac Jet Carrying Six Crashes in Philadelphia; Two Israeli Hostages Released by Hamas Now in Israel; Awaiting Release of Third Hostage; Israeli American Keith Siegel Handed Over to Red Cross. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired February 01, 2025 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
And we're covering two breaking news stories this hour.
Hamas has returned two Israelis who were held captive in Gaza while we await the release of a third hostage this morning.
But first, let's get to the latest on a deadly plane crash in Philadelphia. Now the incident was the second aviation disaster in a major U.S. city in less than 48 hours. As you're about to see, the moment of impact was caught on camera. Have a look.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Officials say a medevac plane with six people on board went down in northeastern Philadelphia several hours ago. The city's mayor says she has no reports on the number of fatalities yet.
A local hospital says six people were treated after the crash, even though it's not clear where or how they were injured. Earlier, two eyewitnesses described the crash scene to CNN's Laura Coates.
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GUSTAVO CHAVEZ, EYEWITNESS: So what I saw, I saw a bunch of parts scattered through my street --
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SAM CHAVEZ, EYEWITNESS: Yes.
G. CHAVEZ: -- and --
S. CHAVEZ: Like, parts of the plane.
G. CHAVEZ: Of the plane. And -- and I saw also -- I believe was like a part of the tank of the gas, saline or something.
S. CHAVEZ: Something on the plane. It was like this piece that was --
G. CHAVEZ: That was pretty big.
S. CHAVEZ: Like the breeze. You know, all over and, like, smoke. Smoke and fire. One of the houses was catching on fire as well. And they were trying to evacuate people, like, to everybody be safe.
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BRUNHUBER: Pennsylvania's governor says environmental officials are dealing with hazardous materials at the site. Federal aviation investigators are looking into the incident.
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BRUNHUBER: Our breaking news right now in Gaza City. We're waiting for Hamas to release an Israeli American man who's been held hostage since the October 7th attacks. Now a short time ago, Hamas handed two other hostages to the Red Cross. This is one of them, Ofer Kalderon.
Israel says Kalderon and the other released hostage, Yarden Bibas, are now back in Israel. So I want to go now to CNN correspondent Jomana Karadsheh from Amman, Jordan.
So listen, we have seen the release of two already. We're still waiting for the release of Keith Siegel. Take us through exactly what we've seen so far and what we're expecting.
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kim, as you mentioned, after 484 days in captivity, Ofer Kalderon, 52 year old, and Yarden Bibas, the father of the youngest Israeli hostages, they are now finally free.
Israeli authorities confirming that they have arrived in Israel. They are at the Reim military base in southern Israel, where they are undergoing medical checks and being reunited with their families.
Israeli media reporting that Yarden Bibas has already been reunited with his father and his sister and this comes after their handover. Their release took place earlier today, earlier than expected, really, in Khan Yunis in the south of Gaza. It was a very brief, very orderly handover to the Red Cross that took there -- took place there.
And then from there they were handed over to Israeli forces, to the IDF, that transported them to the military base to be finally reunited with their families.
And as you mentioned, right now, all eyes are on what seems to be Hamas' preparations, the Qassam Brigade's preparations, to hand over American Israeli citizen Keith Siegel. And we are seeing the stage set literally in Gaza City by the port of Gaza, we understand.
And it seems that at any minute now, we are going to be seeing that handover of Keith Siegel to the Red Cross before he is taken to that handover to Israeli forces.
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And so what we're seeing, Kim, today is a real contrast to what happened on Thursday, those chaotic, shocking scenes that took place with the handover of hostages, including the release of Arbel Yehud, that young woman, who was made to walk through large crowds.
And you could see how terrified she looked as she was escorted by the militants who handed her over. And that is something that infuriated and shocked so many in Israel. And we saw the reaction from the Israeli government, where they delayed the release of Palestinian prisoners on that day, waiting for assurances, they said, from the mediators, Qatar and Egypt, to ensure that those scenes would not be repeated.
We also heard the warnings yesterday from Israeli officials saying that they have made clear that, unless they see a very different scene today, unless they see a very different handover and release of the hostages today, that they will not be opening the Rafah border crossing.
Of course, this is one of two major events that are going to be happening today for the Palestinians, the release of 183 prisoners as part of the agreement -- that is, 143 prisoners who will be released in Gaza. More than 100 of them were arrested after October 7th.
You're also seeing about 40 prisoners who will be released into the West Bank. In addition to that, you will be seeing the reopening of the Rafah border crossing that has been closed since May of 2024.
This is a lifeline for so many. It is where we expect to see the resumption of medical evacuations taking place across that border, where you have about 12,000 to 14,000 people who are in need of urgent medical treatment, who will be using that border to cross.
And we are seeing and we're getting the reports from Gaza, where patients, including children, are being prepared, ready to cross into Egypt today and onwards to their medical treatment. So a lot hinges on what happens today with the handover of the hostages with their release and what has happened so far.
We have seen this large presence of Hamas militants, a very, very different scene. And with the release of Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas, it did seem that it was a very brief handover and an orderly one.
And now we're waiting to see the release of Keith Siegel. And it appears that this could happen at any moment now. Of course, so many in Israel are just waiting for that moment, to see the third hostage, who is also set for release today, returned back to Israel and to be reunited with his family as well after more than 484 days in captivity.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, exactly. And we will bring you that moment when it happens here on CNN NEWSROOM. Jomana Karadsheh, thank you so much. Just for our viewers, we're showing you some pictures from earlier of
the arrival of the two hostages. You see them there in the trucks as they are heading toward the Reim military base in Israel.
And then from there they will be flown to hospital to get more treatment and as well to be reunited with their families. So again, we are awaiting the release of the third hostage. We'll bring you that moment when it happens.
All right. We're turning now to our coverage of the plane crash in Philadelphia. The plane's operator says the aircraft was flying in excellent condition with experienced crew in the cockpit. All six people on board were Mexican nationals, including a young girl going home after medical treatment along with her mother.
Jason Carroll has more from the scene.
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JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you can see the area here is still cordoned off. There are emergency vehicles right down here. This is Cottman Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard. The impact of the crash several blocks in that direction.
This is a community in northeast Philadelphia that is simply in shock. When you look around and you see where this happened, this is a business district. The Roosevelt Mall here is in the area, a number of businesses, a number of residents as well. A number of row houses. This is an accident that happened just about after 6 o'clock.
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This is rush hour. And so you had any number of people in the area who were out and about, who saw what happened. Eyewitnesses say they saw a fireball upon impact. Some people saying that the sky simply lit up.
Not only did people see it but they felt it as well. Some eyewitnesses saying that their windows were rattling. They went outside to see what was going on and saw the fires that had erupted on the ground.
Philadelphia's mayor says, at this point, she could not confirm how many fatalities there are. We can tell you that some eyewitnesses say that they did see some victims who were here on the ground.
We can tell you that on board that Learjet 55, that medevac aircraft, were six people on board -- four crew members, two passengers, a young girl and her mother. The young girl was here in Philadelphia receiving medical treatment. She had been cleared to fly.
The aircraft was en route to Missouri, where it was going to refuel and then head on to Mexico. All on board, we are told, are Mexican nationals.
Now when this aircraft crashed here in northeast Philadelphia, the mayor says that a number of buildings, a number of vehicles were impacted. More than 100 Philadelphia firefighters responded to the scene, doing what they could to get those fires out just as quickly as they can.
At this hour, a number of agencies here at the scene, including the NTSB, the FAA doing the early stages of their investigation.
Already we're hearing from officials that, because the crash scene is such a wide area, they're telling people who live here in the area if they see any debris, any parts of the plane, not to touch it, to immediately call 9-1-1 so folks can get out there and do the process of beginning to retrieve pieces of the wreckage.
At this point, once again, the early stages of this investigation to try and sort out exactly what went wrong here -- Jason Carroll, CNN, Philadelphia.
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BRUNHUBER: I want to go now to Washington, where we're joined by CNN transportation analyst Mary Schiavo. And she's a former inspector general at the U.S. Transportation Department.
Thank you so much for lending us your expertise here today. To start, we have several angles of video from this crash in terms of the speed and the angle of descent. It's certainly notable.
What can we learn, do you think, from the video?
MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Well, from the video, particularly the video of the plane coming almost straight down, we can see that that aircraft is totally beyond control. And it has a slight twist to it as it's coming down there. It does spin a little bit.
And that's a kind of a classic fall of a plane that has stalled. But the plane was just fueled up for takeoff. It was going a long distance for that aircraft. So we can anticipate that the fuel tanks were full.
And, you know ordinarily for, you know, a takeoff, you've got full engines in -- you want to, you know, keep the keep the climb going. This plane only got just a short distance from the airport when it fell from the sky, literally just straight down.
And the fireball lets us know that, indeed, that plane was full of fuel. I mean, that was a -- that was a big fireball. And the pieces of the plane that are shown in the -- in the pictures that people have been sending in, it is just in small fragments.
So, you know, that kind of a descent, besides being a plane totally out of control, I mean, I've only seen a descent like that in very few of the accidents that I've investigated. If you have an engine failure, ordinarily you can set up a glide and try to get to an area and get the plane down without crashing. It's difficult but doable.
And so it's an alarming video to look at. And I suspect this one is going to give the National Transportation Safety Board, the investigators, some difficulty because, if there's no recorders, they don't have much information to go on if there's no black boxes on this plane. And as a private plane, it doesn't have to have them.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. I want to get to the investigation in a second. But just on something you said, I mean, obviously we don't know what caused this. But this is a term I've been hearing a couple of times tonight, a weight balance stall.
Explain what that is and how something like that could impact a plane like this, because it's something that you've seen before and investigated.
SCHIAVO: Yes. Yes, you know, aircraft literally have to be balanced very carefully, both horizontally and laterally.
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And that means they have to be balanced wingtip to wingtip and nose to tail. And every plane has something -- and it's calculated per aircraft -- everything has -- every plane has a center of gravity. And you have to carefully put your loads on the plane.
And this is especially true on some aircraft models and some kinds of aircraft and small planes, too, that you have to load your plane very carefully so it's not out of balance. You have to distribute the weight and you have to make sure you don't put the weight too far forward or too far back.
And if you do and, by the way, if you have a cargo or anything that is not secured when you take off, that cargo can shift to the back and that can cause a plane to stall and literally fall from the sky, as does this one.
However, we've already heard from the aircraft, the company that operates the aircraft, that if they even -- if they have gurneys on a plane -- and this child was apparently cleared to fly, may not have been on a gurney -- that they always are secured in the same location on the plane. And they doubted that it would have had a load shift.
Like I said, I've seen a few accidents that -- have worked on, that had a load shift. The loads went to the back of the plane and there was just no controlling the plane after that.
BRUNHUBER: When we're looking at those pictures, as you said, what's striking is just that fireball, the little pieces of the plane that are left. You talked about how this type of plane doesn't necessarily have to have those black boxes. That could be so crucial in explaining what happened.
Combine that with the hugely violent crash that we saw and how hard will it be for the investigators to find out what happened here?
What other means do they have at their disposal?
SCHIAVO: Records, the other means they have at their disposal and they're already gathering them. They do this immediately after a crash -- maintenance records, operational records.
Who's touched the airplane?
Who fueled it?
They will be taking a fuel sample from the fuel depot that last fueled the plane. All the maintenance records, service records. Now I looked on flightradar24 and this plane was making a lot of flights in the days leading up to this terrible tragedy, you know, two to three flights a day. And they were long flights.
And that's a pretty punishing schedule for a plane that was built in '81. But, you know, depending on how you maintain a plane, they can fly well into, you know, what's called tired iron age. They can they can fly a good long time.
But the kinds of flights I was seeing, it was just a lot of flights. But you know, if you have a out of center of gravity or a load shift issue, the age of the plane and the number of flights is irrelevant. That can happen to a brand new plane.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Well, listen, I always appreciate getting your expertise on tragedies like this. Mary Schiavo, thank you so much for speaking with us.
SCHIAVO: Thank you.
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BRUNHUBER: All right. We have breaking news. Right now in Gaza City we're waiting for Hamas to release an Israeli American man. Keith Siegel has been held hostage since the October 7th attacks. We're looking at live pictures right now of what's taking place in Gaza City.
We see the Red Cross there. They're expected to take Siegel from Hamas and take him to Israeli officials. Now a short time ago, Hamas handed two other hostages to the Red Cross. Israel says Kalderon and the other released hostage, Yarden Bibas, are now back in Israel.
So as we look at these live pictures of what we're expecting momentarily to be the release of Keith Siegel, I want to go now to CNN correspondent Jomana Karadsheh, who's watching from Amman, Jordan.
Again, the contrast with this scene that we're seeing right now compared to what we saw Thursday is absolutely striking. Take us through what you're seeing.
KARADSHEH: Well, as you mentioned there, Kim, what we're seeing now appears to be preparations for the imminent handover of American Israeli hostage Keith Siegel to the Red Cross. We have seen the ICRC representatives and vehicles arrive at the Gaza port, where Hamas militants had set up the stage there for the handover.
We have been watching these pictures coming out of Gaza for the past couple of hours, where those preparations were underway. And now it seems that we are expecting to see the handover happen any moment now. And as you mentioned, as we saw earlier today, in the past couple of
hours, the handover and the release of Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas separately at another handover event. That took place in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.
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It was a very controlled, very organized, very brief handover to the Red Cross and they were swiftly moved and handed over to Israeli military, the Israeli forces, and those two have returned to Israeli soil. They are back home. They are at the Reim military base, where they are undergoing medical checks, being reunited with their families there.
And so right now, all eyes are on the Gaza ports, where we are expecting the imminent handover of American Israeli hostage Keith Siegel to the Red Cross and then onwards, that they will be transporting him and handing him over to Israeli forces.
And he is the third hostage, one of three who are -- who were part of this agreement to be released today. And, you know, we're talking about how this looks, so different to what we saw happening on Thursday, those really chaotic and shocking scenes with the release of the hostages, with the young Israeli woman, Arbel Yehud.
As she was walked through the large crowds with the terrified look on her face, while she was escorted by the militants.
And that was something that really angered and shocked so many Israelis, leading Israeli officials to first delay the handover and the release, the -- sorry, the release of Palestinian prisoners on Thursday until they received assurances from the mediators, Qatar and Egypt, that this scene would not be repeated.
And then again, another warning from Israeli officials yesterday that, if they saw a repeat of what happened on Thursday again today, they will not go ahead with a moment so many have been waiting for and that is the reopening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
That lifeline, for so many who are in need of urgent medical evacuations, this would be the moment where we're going to see the resumption of these medical evacuations through that crossing, something that is meant to happen today.
We know that at least 50 patients or so are getting ready, prepared now to move out to the Rafah crossing as soon as it's open. And that includes many children who are in need of medical treatment abroad.
So there is a lot at stake today. And it seems that is why we are seeing this very different scene today. Hamas aware that, unless they have this sort of more controlled, more orderly handover and release of these hostages today, that there will be consequences.
As Israeli officials made it very clear. And something that, of course, many in Gaza will be bearing the brunt of really. So right now we are still waiting for the what appears to be the imminent handover of American Israeli hostage, the last of the three to be released today.
We are awaiting his imminent handover to the Red Cross in that area in the Gaza port, where we have seen these preparations for the past couple of hours, for that to take place. And then he will be moved, handed over to Israeli forces, who will take him back home to be reunited with his family after 484 days in captivity.
BRUNHUBER: Unbelievable. Listen, I think the moment is here, in fact, that we've been waiting for, Keith Siegel getting out of the car. Now that the documents have been signed -- you see him there being held by the Hamas fighters -- as he's being brought toward the Red Cross.
And as this moment that so many people have been waiting for happens here, I want to read you some words that we got from his wife, who said on Instagram, "I believe the big day is here."
And she said, "There's no one happier than me. I'm ready with all the things."
She said that as she was carrying a bag of things for him -- as he waves to the crowd, Keith Siegel, Israeli American, that's been held captive by Hamas for all this time.
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And you see him there with a bag as well, that we've seen some of these hostages being given in these highly choreographed moments by Hamas.
Jomana mentioned how different this moment is from the release that we saw on Thursday, which was -- which was absolutely chaotic. Although there are crowds there, they are being held back at a safe distance, as we see Keith Siegel being taken toward the Red Cross vehicle.
And he'll be taken then to Reim military base and be flown to hospital and to be reunited with his family, who must be just absolutely wild with joy right now, as we heard already from his wife celebrating this moment.
And we see -- I'm seeing in another screen here just tears. There. We see it -- in what I believe would be Hostage Square in Tel Aviv.
People just clapping, shouting with joy, tears as well, because this is, of course, such a bittersweet moment for so many, celebrating the fact that Keith Siegel, the third of the three hostages released today, is being set free, finally.
But the knowledge that so many people still being held and unfortunately so many more who will never be coming home. But for his family, a happy day and for all these people who are watching, you can see them clapping and crying with joy.
And we'll just watch and listen.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): And you see some of the people in the crowd there, literally breathing a sigh of relief as they see the images of Keith Siegel being released into the care of the Red Cross. And he'll be taken now to Israel.
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BRUNHUBER: I want to bring in Daniel Levy, who's president of the U.S.-Middle East Project, who's joining us from London, watching these images with us here.
An emotional day for so many people. Bittersweet, as I said.
As you see this taking place right now, what goes through your mind?
DANIEL LEVY, PRESIDENT, U.S.-MIDDLE EAST PROJECT: Another good day, another moving moment. Anytime, Kim, that we're seeing people on the precipice of being able to rebuild their lives, Keith Siegel coming home. The other two this morning, the fourth round.
We're seeing Palestinians not facing the devastating bombing as long as the ceasefire holds, being able to go back. Often it's to rubble, not homes. We're seeing simultaneously, by the way, as your correspondent mentioned earlier, for the first time, the Rafah border crossing.
Gaza has been hermetically sealed from the world by Israel. The Rafah border crossing opening. So some of those who are most severely wounded or cancer patients can get medical attention, because all the hospitals in Gaza have been destroyed by Israel.
So any day that we see people, rebuilding their lives, not losing their lives, is a really good, moving, important day.
Couple of things, if I may. Kim. What we were hearing in the background in Hebrew, in the shouting, in that square in Tel Aviv, in Hostage Square, was the crowd saying, "Bring them all home."
That's important in terms of the dynamic and the momentum of whether this deal can be carried through to another phase. And what we saw in the images of -- in Gaza was, of course, the transfer to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the ICRC.
And that's something, by the way, that is under threat. The ICRC are being defunded by the new U.S. administration. And we're seeing today just what a vital role, indispensable role they play, not only here but in many parts of the world.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, that's a good point as well. I appreciate you bringing us those details about what the people were yelling there in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, something that they've been -- a chorus.
They've been shouting for months and months, as many have been protesting against the Netanyahu government as well, to try and pressure him to bring home more hostages. As we see the crowds now, moving around and dispersing, as we saw the release, finally, of Keith Siegel, the third of the hostages to be released today.
I want to ask you about this process here. This is now the fourth successful hostage transfer and release of Palestinian prisoners. Next week, Hamas and Israel are meant to begin negotiating the second phase of the ceasefire, which calls for the release of the remaining hostages and to extend the truce indefinitely.
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Many thought we wouldn't even get to this point.
Are you any more confident, based on what we've seen so far, that we can get to that second phase?
LEVY: Yes. If we if we step back from the emotion of the moment, Kim, this week, there's going to be some important staging posts because, as you say, the negotiations are due to commence in just a couple of days on the implementation of the further phases of this agreement.
We're also anticipating the visit of the Israeli prime minister to the White House to meet with president Trump. This has gone, despite, you know, some of the difficult images, in many directions, this has gone about as well as could be expected.
We know -- and that's partly why those shouts are heard in the Tel Aviv square. We know the reluctance of the Israeli prime minister to have gotten into this deal. We know that his coalition looks a lot more rocky, a lot more unstable when the deal is being implemented.
We've seen Netzarim corridor, that cuts north from south Gaza, opened. We've seen the hundreds of thousands streaming back, an important image for Palestinians. We're now seeing this Rafah crossroad -- Rafah crossing open. We've seen these four releases.
But Kim, we now have 13 of the hostages out. We're anticipating 33, according to what was agreed. The expectation is about 25 of those will come out alive. So we're going to have days when it's not live hostages who are coming from Gaza.
Every day there are tensions in terms of the implementation of this arrangement. But the really hard part, if we can get to the end of that first phase, is that the agreement talks about a permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal of the Israeli forces from Gaza. That's what the Israeli prime minister committed to. However, the Israeli prime minister has at the same time told us and told his coalition allies that Israel will not leave. The war will be continued. And those two things simply cannot coexist.
And let's be really blunt: what we're seeing every day or every time there's a release in the different locations -- and this is not coincidental, whether the scenes are more orderly like today or more chaotic, like 48 hours ago, you're seeing this in central Gaza Square, in the seaport right now, in Jabalya, in Khan Yunis.
What we are seeing is that Hamas is still very much the dominant force on the ground. It's taken hits but it is far, far from defeated. That total victory, the idea that this could be resolved militarily without a political plan, has been shown to be magical thinking on the Israeli side.
And that's where the rubber hits the road.
Will we see a transition to politics, political solutions over military?
That's what getting beyond phase one will require. We're still an awfully long way from that.
The Trump-Netanyahu meeting, Netanyahu, taking the measure of, will this president go along with what I've asked for?
Will he really continue to call for the mass deportation of Palestinians from Gaza?
Or, as happened with this first deal, I think, will he force me to make tough choices?
That is a crucial variable.
BRUNHUBER: Yes.
And just to explain to the viewers, we're seeing some pictures of wounded Palestinians in Khan Yunis being transferred into ambulances because they're obviously being ready to hopefully cross that Rafah border into Egypt to get medical treatment.
As you've been talking about, so vital an element of this deal. You've touched on two things I wanted to ask you about exactly is that Trump meeting with Netanyahu and his comments as well, that have been taken by many as an encouragement for, you have to say, ethnic cleansing, to get rid of all of the Palestinians who are in Gaza.
Some say, you know, listen, we can't take his comments at face value. But certainly that would give a lot of encouragement to many on the Israeli right wing, who have -- who've called for exactly such a thing.
LEVY: And that's the crucial point.
You know, did Mexico pay for a wall to be built?
No, of course, not.
So should one anticipate that this is a deliverable and achievable, even a priority for the president?
It's hard to believe that this is a priority.
What American national security interest could it possibly address?
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How are they going to do this? This would certainly be against the will of the Palestinians. The countries that he envisages taking these Palestinians from Gaza have all said, you know, this is not going to happen.
By the way, someone who is rather unclear when it comes to U.S. immigration policy seems to be very generous with the immigration policies of other countries. So I don't think we should see this as something implementable, however. And that's the crucial point.
Who does this empower inside Israel?
What impact does this have in the region?
And that's where words can sometimes matter. And so what this does is it encourages those very factions inside the Israeli body politic; in fact, the factions that have voted against what we're seeing on the screens right now, against this agreement, against getting the hostages out, even against getting their own Israelis home.
Those factions are now saying, great, we don't have to do any of this other stuff. We can work with the American president to clean out Gaza, to have another mass transfer of Palestinians.
The history of this conflict is so tied up into a Palestinian collective memory of being forced from their homes. So we can keep doing that. That's ruining (ph) powers. And across the region, what it tells people is America can't be trusted. Only resistance can stop those plans.
So this sends the worst possible signal at this moment. And one can only hope that it's not serious that the president, someone tells the president, desist from using this language.
And if this features prominently in the meeting on Tuesday, that would be -- that's the meeting between Netanyahu and Trump -- that would send a very bad sign indeed.
BRUNHUBER: Yes.
LEVY: By the way, Kim, I have to say that it would be helpful if the media stops raising this, I mean, in direct questions to Trump, that is.
BRUNHUBER: Stopped raising it?
How do you mean?
LEVY: So for instance, I don't know how much this is a priority for the president. He's said it. So it's legitimate to ask him about it.
But it was repeated on Thursday in questions to the president. Now I understand that there are gotcha moments in press conferences. But every time the president is asked about it, he's likely to double down on it. What we haven't seen is the president himself initiating speaking about this again. That was the point I was making. BRUNHUBER: Oh, I see. OK. But it certainly is a legitimate question.
And we have already countries Egypt and Jordan responding to those comments and saying, in no way will they cooperate with this.
And then we had Donald Trump doubling down on, saying that, well, we, you know, fund your military. You know, you might have to listen to what we say. So certainly, you know, it goes beyond words when you have these reactions and international consequences to his comments.
Listen, we do have to go but always appreciate getting your perspective, Daniel Levy, thank you so much.
LEVY: Pleasure, Kim. Good to speak to you on another happy morning.
BRUNHUBER:
All right. Well, I want to introduce you again to Efrat Machikawa. Now we're going to show you a picture here, shown here with her uncle, 81 year old Gadi Mozes, a hostage who was released on Thursday.
You can see their emotional, emotional reunion there. And we're happy to bring her again to you, live from Tel Aviv right now.
OK, well, we will bring you her picture when we can. But we'll stay with these images as we see that that emotional, emotional reunion.
Before I get to your reunion, just with Gadi, you've been watching today the release of three hostages. Go through the emotions when you see that happening on this, this happy day for three other ecstatic families.
EFRAT MACHIKAWA, GADI MOZES' NIECE: This is a really joyful moment. But you know, as we all became one big family, it's, on one hand, we were so joyful. But we are not in a euphoria. We know that there are many. There are 79 more people waiting to be reunited with their families, whether they're alive or dead.
And we're very worried. We really do want to make sure that this is happening. But the moments of joy are just incredible. It's really beyond every possibility.
BRUNHUBER: Yes --
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BRUNHUBER: We can imagine, certainly.
How is Gadi doing right now?
[03:40:00]
MACHIKAWA: Oh, he's great. As it seems outside, he's weak but he is powerful and he is so strong and wonderful. And there is a long way to recovery. He has been through a lot. But we know, we know the spirit. You saw him. As we always said, he is an incredible man and he is proving that to the world just as we speak. BRUNHUBER: Yes. And he was proving it to the world with some images I
want to bring you. It was a really sweet moment where we saw Gadi shaving the beard of his son and grandson. If we could bring up those, those pictures.
So take us through --
MACHIKAWA: Yes.
BRUNHUBER: -- the importance of that.
What did that mean?
MACHIKAWA: That is showing the very, very long wait. We waited to see it without the beard as well. And, you know, it's been so long. It has been too long. And we are just grateful for this, reunion of the family.
But you know, it's important to be happy. But really, I have to tell you, we are all together in the fight to bring every single hostage back home. And we are grateful to the United States, to the Qataris and to the Egyptians. We know that this could not have been done without you guys.
And we are grateful. We are grateful this atrocity has to come to an end and a new start for a better beginning for us, for our region, for the world itself.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. Well said for sure. You expressed your gratitude to the U.S. in part to help. Both administrations were involved in the release of these hostages.
What about the Israeli government?
Is there any anger there at the government for not getting a deal done sooner?
MACHIKAWA: You know, in those moments, of course, there is. But in those moments, we really do have to make sure that we put the past on hold, on hold, not forgetting but on hold. And we concentrate on bringing everybody back.
The Israeli government has a say in that and I think they have, during the last few days, they're showing their determination to bring everybody back. And this is what we concentrate on. Everyone must be back home.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. We can agree with that. Absolutely. As we see those, emotional images of the reunion with Gadi there. Listen, we wish you all the best. Certainly wish him all the best. It's no doubt a long road of recovery but we certainly hope he gets all the help he needs.
And he'll certainly get the love of his family, as we can see those, again, those emotional pictures of the reunion.
MACHIKAWA: And thank you. Thank you very much for the media because your role is highly appreciated as well. I wish the best to everybody.
BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. Thank you so much for speaking with us again. Efrat Machikawa.
MACHIKAWA: Thank you. Thank you.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: All right. We want to bring you the latest on the plane crash in Philadelphia. It happened several hours ago. And this video shows you how heart wrenching it looked on the ground. Have a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allahu akbar. Allahu akbar.
What the hell?
What the hell?
What the hell?
Oh my God, oh, my God, (INAUDIBLE).
It's a plane, bro. That's a plane. I caught that on camera.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Officials say a medevac plane with six people on board crashed near a busy shopping mall last night. Philadelphia's mayor says she has no reports on the number of fatalities. A local hospital says six people were treated after the crash. But it's not clear where and how they were injured.
Everyone on board is a Mexican national, including a young girl headed home after medical treatment, along with her mom. Earlier, one witness described the fiery crash to CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STANLEY JAMES III, WITNESS: I heard a boom and the whole car just shook and I was able to see things in front of me, shake two cars, buildings. And I look back because my kids was just screaming super duper loud.
And so when I looked back, I just seen a big flame. And so when I seen the flame, the first thing I did was jump out the car. And as I'm running up toward it, I pull out my camera and I'm just thinking, I'm like, I hope it ain't a bomb or I hope we ain't getting hit.
I don't know what's going on in the world right now. And next thing you know, you can see the plane fragments. You could smell the gas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[03:45:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: All right, for more analysis, we're joined by Billy Nolen, a former acting FAA administrator, speaking with us from Potomac, Maryland.
Thank you so much for being here with us. Again, another tragedy in the skies. We have, as we've shown, several angles of this.
What stands out to you when you see the videos?
BILLY NOLEN, FORMER ACTING FAA ADMINISTRATOR: Well, you know, the departure phase of any flight, especially a jet aircraft, is one of the most critical departure landings. When you see something like this, from my point of view, it feels like, you know, a loss of control.
Now what led to this loss of control?
I don't want to speculate at this time.
Of course the NTSB is on the scene. They will be assisted by the FAA and other authorities and certainly they'll get to the bottom of this. But it is certainly another tragic event here in just the span of a couple of days, this being a, as you said earlier, an air ambulance or a medevac type flight.
So really horrific to look at. But you know, my sense is hopefully we will get some answers here within the next few weeks.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, I wonder how that happens. I mean, when we look at those pictures, that huge fireball, which presumably meant that there was a full, you know, fully loaded with gas. And as well, it might have involved the oxygen tanks from this medevac plane.
And we know that these planes don't necessarily -- they aren't, you know, forced to have these black boxes.
So how will they get any answers, given the high level of destruction and the -- and the lack of information possibly being stored on the plane?
NOLEN: I think, you know, if you look at some of what's been -- what's been happening on the ground, of course, the law enforcement -- and one of the things that they typically tell folks, especially when you've got this broad a debris field, if you will, is to make sure that folks on the ground don't touch anything.
You know, that -- associated with the aircraft, because you want to preserve that. It, you know, whether there will be a recorder to be, you know, extracted from this debris will remain to be seen. So you know that in some ways might make it more problematic.
But what I will say is the NTSB is very good at what they do. So they will certainly make every effort to retrieve it, to make sure that they can get that information. And absent that, then, and try to piece together -- and I was looking at the history of this flight. It had flown two flights a day over the last, you know, three days
leading up to this incident with no abnormalities associated with those other flights. So there is something for, you know, that the board will -- National Transportation Safety Board, that will give them just one more thing to look at.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. Listen, since you're in the area there, I want to ask you about the other plane crash, the mid-air collision that we saw, which was as well just absolutely tragic.
We saw that, I believe three of the black boxes were found from those two aircraft. In terms of what we're learning, there are some new details that are emerging, especially about the location of the Black Hawk.
What more are we learning?
And is that filling in some of the picture about what might have happened here?
NOLEN: I do think so. And I think, you know, certainly, as we just spoke to the horrific crash in accident in Philadelphia, this one -- I hope and I believe it will be a little bit more straightforward.
You know, this is a clear night, with what appears to be fairly straightforward communication between air traffic control. The American Eagle flight has clearance to land. It is 30 to 40 seconds away from its onshort final.
So really, there's really nothing from my perspective on the part of the American Eagle flight. For the Black Hawk helicopter, you know, I think what the board will focus on is, number one, that the crew was asked whether or not they had the traffic inside. They acknowledged that they had.
They were told their clearance was to pass behind the jet.
So what happened there?
And so that's going to be the focus, to your point. Now that the black boxes have been recovered from both the American Eagle aircraft as well as the military Black Hawk, this -- you know.
[03:50:00]
I think the board will move very, very quickly to be able to analyze those, get those and the voice recording as well as the flight data that shows the altitude, et cetera. And I think, you know, the sense is they should have at least some preliminary, you know, outcome within 30 days.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Well, let's certainly hope so. Appreciate getting your expertise on this, Billy Nolen, thank you so much for speaking with us.
NOLEN: Thank you. Absolutely. (END VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: All right. An update now on the breaking news in Gaza. Hamas has now released all three hostages that were scheduled to be freed today. You're seeing pictures of Israeli American Keith Siegel. He was abducted on October 7th. The other two released today, are now back in Israel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): This video shows police escorting the convoy transporting released hostages Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas after they entered Israel. At some point today, Israel is supposed to release more than 100 Palestinian prisoners.
And this was the scene at the Reim military base moments ago. A helicopter taking off, we believe, with at least one of the first two hostages released on board, taking them to a hospital near Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: I want to go live now to Tel Aviv and Miri Eisin. She's a senior fellow of the International Institute For Counter-Terrorism and retired from the Israel Defense Forces.
Good to see you again. Again, I'm happy to be talking to you on a day when more hostages have been released. You were watching along.
Your emotions as you see these, first those two and then the one single hostage released today?
COL. MIRI EISIN, SENIOR FELLOW, INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR COUNTER- TERRORISM: Just when you're asking me, I'm getting goose bumps again. My reaction today is very mixed, Kim, because Yarden Bibas came out and his wife, Shiri, the ginger haired woman that we've seen so often with the two ginger-haired, red-headed kids, she has not yet been heard of.
Her two children, not yet heard of and Yarden is back. And in the psychological terrorism that Hamas did, in addition to everything else, they released months ago a video, where they informed Yarden in captivity that his wife and children had been killed.
So just to see her then come back and not to see Shiri and Kfir and Ariel, wow. That's like a real tough one.
And then I saw Keith Siegel. And Kim, Keith is more or less my age, very similar type of backgrounds. My parents emigrated to Israel. He emigrated himself. So you know, that mixed U.S.-Israeli background. He was snatched from his home with his kids.
And his kids were released when they released some of the children over a year ago. But just think about that. He's been in captivity for so long, his daughters have been waiting for him to come back and now he's back. So I'm so happy for all of them.
And it's so hard just to understand the ones that are still left there and everything that's gone on in these last 485 days.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. We're seeing -- we were just seeing pictures of Keith being released there. Those scenes that we we're seeing today, very different from what we saw on Thursday, those chaotic scenes, where you could imagine that the hostages' safety was in danger as they were surrounded by so many people there.
Did that retribution by Israel work in terms of, you know, the warnings?
Well, first they delayed releasing some prisoners and then the warnings, that unless they saw a different handover, they wouldn't open the Rafah border crossing.
Do you think that worked?
EISIN: Just think of the difference, Kim, between the way that we're -- I mean, we're talking about Israelis and non-Israelis. A few days ago, the Thais, who were Thai workers working in Israel and were taken in the exact same terror attack, were held in the exact same tunnels.
And amazingly enough, Hamas didn't stage their release because what they want to do is they want to continue to terrorize us. They want to continue to show as if their own strength -- and all they're showing is the horrific thing they are.
When they did with that staging of a few days ago, what they were doing is showing their lack of control, not their control. They were showing how much they are just a brutal terror force and not, you know, the resistance out there to help any Palestinians in the actions that they've done over the last 15, almost 16 months.
Oh, my God, it's just worst in the world for every single human being, certainly for the Palestinians, for Israelis. The only ones who feel that they've won are Hamas. And so those chaotic pictures show that, first of all, they can control the little bit of crowd when they want to.
And on the other hand, all they are really brutal terrorists. I say that as an Israeli. It's clear cut to me that everybody loses in this war. There's nothing happy right now and we want to get to the end of it.
[03:55:00]
But the end of it is when brutal terrorists are not the ones who stage releases of hostages.
BRUNHUBER: All right, well, let's hope that this can certainly lead to a longer lasting peace but certainly happy scenes today, as we saw those three hostages released. Miri Eisin, thank you so much for being here with us. Appreciate it.
EISIN: Thank you.
BRUNHUBER: All right.
I want to thank you for joining us. I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back with more breaking news coverage here on CNN NEWSROOM. Please do stay with us.
