Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Fatal Midair Collision Between American Airlines Passenger Jet and U.S. Army Black Hawk Helicopter; 300 Responders Working Search- And-Rescue In The Potomac River. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired January 30, 2025 - 05:30   ET

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


[05:30:00]

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and I mean, we're here -- we're still hearing those helicopters buzzing above. But we have not seen the sign of the debris field just as yet. Obviously, that is going to be an area that investigators are going to be focused on.

We know that there are multiple entities investigating this midair collision. The Army says that it will be investigating, the NTSB, the FAA. And we know that the American Airlines CEO says that he will be coming here to Washington, D.C. with his go team. But it is an all- hands-on-deck approach.

As we know, this airspace is incredibly busy. Lots of military aircraft, police aircraft and, of course, obviously the commercial aircraft. So what investigators are really going to be zeroing in on is why didn't the pilots of this Army Black Hawk helicopter maintain that visual separation -- that safe distance from that commercial airliner.

We know from air traffic control audio that one of the pilots communicated to air traffic controllers that it had that commercial aircraft in sight and just 13 seconds later came that midair collision. And you actually hear that audible gasp of the air traffic controllers in that audio. So they will want to understand if the pilots saw this aircraft why didn't they have that safe separation.

The other key to all of this is going to be those black boxes. We talk about this whenever we have these aviation incidents because they are a treasure trove of information there. It will help these investigators piece out this timeline from beginning to end.

What were the pilots in the commercial aircraft saying? What did they see? What did they communicate that they were seeing? Did they make any efforts? Were their efforts futile? Was something on the aircraft not working?

Same thing with the Black Hawk helicopter. That will be an incredible source of information.

Obviously, right now it is dark. Again, we're not even seeing this debris field. So once the sun comes up, I would imagine that will be helpful for investigators to begin that search for those black boxes. And who knows how long that will take?

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Rene, we're supposed to have a news conference from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and presumably other officials at 7:30. Who may we hear from then? What questions do we have for the people who are investigating right now?

MARSH: I mean, I think that investigators are going to have a lot of questions themselves -- again, until they get those black boxes.

The facts that we know at this hour are that the pilots in this Black Hawk helicopter had visual sight on this commercial aircraft. We know that this midair collision happened within 30 seconds roughly after they communicated to air traffic controllers that they saw this aircraft.

It's unclear right now that much more can be gained and that is the troubling thing about all of these sort of investigations.

HUNT: Continue, Rene. I'm sorry.

MARSH: And that is the thing with these aviation investigations. They take a while. And sometimes we don't have all the answers right away.

But I think the key questions for investigators are going to be also going through that air traffic control audio and looking at the flight path and seeing what information that they can glean there. But again, those black boxes are going to be critical to piecing this all together.

HUNT: Absolutely. And, of course, we unfortunately are also looking to learn whether this search and rescue operation may have turned into a search and recovery operation.

Rene Marsh, thank you. I know you're going to be staying on this story throughout the morning and throughout the day.

All right. Coming up next here as we continue our breaking news coverage of this midair collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet, what does the Coast Guard know at this hour? What have they learned as these search and rescue efforts continue this morning?

Stay here on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of us are going to know people who know people, so it's a great time to double down on caring for each other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:39:10]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news. HUNT: Welcome back. We are following breaking news. We have been all night here at CNN.

A search and rescue mission underway in the Potomac River here near Washington, D.C. Last night an American Airlines commercial jet -- it was coming here from Wichita, Kansas. It collided with a military Black Hawk helicopter in midair near Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA). Both aircraft then crashed into the freezing water that is behind me here on the Potomac.

The jet carrying 64 people -- it was coming in for a landing at Reagan National. The soldiers -- three soldiers were on board the military chopper. They were taking part we know in a training flight.

[05:40:00]

A CNN law enforcement source telling CNN late last night that no survivors had yet to be recovered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ROGER MARSHALL (R-KS): You know, when one person dies it's a tragedy but when many, many, many people die it's an unbearable sorrow. It's a heartbreak beyond major. And I know Sen. Moran and I are here just to say we care. We wish that there was more we could do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The CEO of American Airlines says he is planning to travel to D.C. to support employees -- watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT ISOM, CEO, AMERICAN AIRLINES: We are actively working with local, state, and federal authorities on emergency response efforts and the American Airlines Care Team has been activated to assist our passengers and their families. Anything we can do now we're doing. And right now that means focusing on taking care of all passengers and crew involved as well as their families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, and joining us now is CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem. Juliette, good morning.

Terrible circumstances for us to be talking this morning but I do want to ask you about the latest that we know about this investigation. This recovery effort is -- rescue-recovery effort is encompassing so many agencies -- among them, the U.S. Coast Guard.

What do you know at this hour?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, HARVARD PROFESSOR: So the search and rescue -- we're not at recovery yet. It will be pretty aggressive when the sun comes up. The Coast Guard's main area in D.C. is at the base Anacostia-Bolling,

so it's just right across the way. So this is where you're going to see, sort of, a flotilla come forward when the sun comes out.

One of the challenges is our weather. Folks are saying the ice is also impacting sort of the boarding and other areas. And so the who area is sort of covered in ice right now. It's very hard to maneuver people let alone boats, but the sun is going to help out.

But we should plan on at least sort of search and rescue. It's going to get more grim as the day passes by for at least through the day and the hopes that there might be any survivors. The recovery and, of course, the investigation will come later.

I should say something about muscle memory. This -- a midair collision is exceptionally rare in the United States. The Potomac, where everyone will remember several decades ago in 1982, had a -- had a landing.

But, you know, to the extent that first responders get used to familiar things this is less familiar. They are prepared for it. They've trained for it. But it is not like, say, a shooting or other disasters that we get more familiar with. Midair collisions are just rare.

HUNT: Yeah. And Juliette, I think our viewers are seeing on their screen video of the 1982 crash.

KAYYEM: Yeah.

HUNT: And I know when I first heard of this, of course, we all remember the hero Capt. Sullenberger who landed --

KAYYEM: Yeah.

HUNT: -- a plane on a river in New York. Obviously, in the case of a midair collision, as you note, the rarity of it -- that just desperately not an option.

KAYYEM: Yeah.

HUNT: Juliette, we were also talking a little bit earlier about what the FAA traffic was like ahead of this. Their conversations with the Black Hawk helicopter pilots that they did have. I want to play that for the viewers at home and then we'll talk about it on the other side. Let's watch.

KAYYEM: Great.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: PAT 2-5 do you have the CRJ in sight? PAT 2-5 pass behind the CRJ. (INAUDIBLE) Oooh.

I don't know if you caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approaching the 3-3. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Juliette, what's your interpretation of how this happened based on the limited information that we have?

KAYYEM: So I won't surmise at this stage but clearly there was a misunderstanding of what visual the helicopter had at this stage.

I want to pick up on what Mary was saying in terms of the context of a crash like this. For several years now we have been monitoring what we would call these near misses either on the runways or at takeoff and landing throughout the country. The system seemed to be under stress. Too many aircraft. Too many private aircraft. Too many other aircraft.

And these near misses were telling us something about both capacity -- the crowdedness of some of these airlines -- excuse me, these airports, but also whether these airplanes and helicopters were equipped with the right technology to be able to avert this kind of crisis.

[05:45:00]

We are going to -- you know, as we mourn -- I mean, look, family unification -- family notification is going on likely right now. So we're so early right now. These families are waking up or learning of this in just the last few hours.

But as we also have to look to make sure we avoid this in a country with massive amounts of air travel daily, these near misses need -- and now this tragedy needs to tell us about whether we need to assess the kind of technology that would avoid this.

The air traffic controllers were calm and focused, but it is clear from that gasp they too had not anticipated or had ever encountered anything like that -- like this before.

HUNT: It's so tragic.

Juliette Kayyem, thank you so much for your expertise this morning. We really appreciate your time. We may be back with you throughout the show.

And coming up next here what are we learning from the first images that we are getting of this horrible crash between an American Airlines jet and a Black Hawk helicopter? Sixty-four people on that plane, three on that helicopter.

Stay with us right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:50:35]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK POTTER, CEO, METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON AIRPORT AUTHORITY: We did have folks who were at the airport to pick up loved ones. And so American has set up a center in their American -- in their lounge. We've directed the families there. And there are folks there to -- counselors there to work with the families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The unimaginable anguish. Families waiting in the pickup line at the airport just to learn that the American Airlines plane carrying their loved ones had collided with an Army helicopter and crashed into the icy Potomac River.

One man says that his wife who was on the plane texted him just minutes before the disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAMAAD RAZA, WIFE WAS ON PLANE THAT CRASHED: "Landing in 20 minutes." The rest of my text didn't -- did not get delivered. That's when I realized something might be up.

I'm just praying that somebody's pulling her out of the river right now as we speak. That's all I pray for. I'm just praying to God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Law enforcement sources say that search and rescue teams have not found any survivors so far.

CNN's Tom Foreman took a close look at the wreckage to learn more about the moment of impact.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you look at the wing coming out here, the configuration of this plane, you see the little tip over the wing out there. Maybe that's simply damage out there. But if you look at the wing that would typically suggest on a similar plane that this plane -- at least that part of it is upright in the water. However, look at the immense damage over here. We've talked a lot about the idea of looking for people in the water there.

This plane would be coming in at about 150 miles an hour when the impact would have occurred. That would have been a tremendous shock to the cabin itself. And then contact with the water coming down -- that's where all this violence would come from here. Even if it lost half of its speed it would be hitting the water at a speed that is typically considered the upper limit of how much a human can survive simply hitting the water, let alone being inside a vehicle -- being mangled in this fashion.

So we have this look at this. We don't know which portion or -- they say it's in pieces. We don't know how far the other pieces are.

This is the airport back here, by the way. You can see that's one of the other planes from the airport. That's it right there. So hard to hazard a guess as to how close that is. But the water is only we're told about eight feet deep where this

happened. And then when you look at this other image we have this is -- this is the helicopter. You have to look at it very closely.

If you look at an image of a Black Hawk helicopter you see this configuration of the tires down here. And see this little rail over here? And this is the main sort of body of it. And then back here under the tail section.

If you look at this image you can see that this part is upside-down. And this is that little railing -- this is the back end of the tail -- and you see it sort of torn in half just to the back end of that front section we were looking at a minute ago.

Where this is in relationship to the plane, we don't know either. But that gives you an idea of where all that was.

And it's important -- we've been talking a lot about the impact itself. If you look at the way they were coming in -- and think about those speeds. We don't know how fast the helicopter was going. We know the plane needs to be going about 150 miles an hour.

If that is the case, to cover this distance from here -- which Laura mentioned earlier is over houses or buildings here and that sort of thing. To cover this distance up to here is probably only about 20 seconds. And from the time it turns here to -- we have a rough sense of where the impact happened here. This may have only been four seconds, maybe five -- not a lot of time even if you saw something and you weren't sure what it was what to do about it in the darkness there and with now background lights that you're trying to separate whatever it is you're looking at from.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNT: That was our Tom Foreman reporting. Tom, thank you very much for that.

All right. Coming up here in our next hour I'm going to speak live with a witness to this horrible crash between a commercial American Airlines jet and a Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River.

[05:55:00]

We're also going to take a look at the devastating impact this has had on the U.S. Figure Skating community and what they're saying.

That's all next. Don't go anywhere. Stay right with here with CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know that flight. I've flown it many times myself. We're going to know people who are on this flight -- know their family members, know somebody. So this is a very personal circumstance.

(COMMERCIAL) ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

HUNT: Welcome to CNN THIS MORNING where we are tracking the latest out of the nation's capital following a tragic midair collision between a passenger plane and an Army helicopter.

I'm Kasie Hunt and I am here in Alexandria, Virginia on the shores of the Potomac River where there is a frantic search and rescue operation underway looking for survivors.