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CNN This Morning

New Videos Show Collision From Previously Unseen Angles; Remembering The Victims Of The Deadly Plane-Helicopter; U.S. Middle East Envoy: American Hostage To Be Released Today. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired January 31, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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


[05:00:35]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Friday, January 31st.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

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JENNIFER L. HOMENDY, CHAIR, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: And we're here to assure the American people that we are going to leave no stone unturned.

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HUNT: Searching for answers. Investigators recovered data recorders from the wreckage of yesterday's disaster. Ahead, CNN will show you exclusive new footage of the moment of the collision.

Plus --

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NANCY KERRIGAN, FORMER U.S. SKATER: We just wanted to be here and be part of our community.

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HUNT: A nation in mourning -- family, friends, entire communities beginning to grieve. The 67 lives lost in this tragedy.

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REPORTER: To be clear, are you saying race or gender played a role in this tragedy?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It may have. I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: President Donald Trump suggesting that diversity may somehow be linked to the collision. Ahead, more on the president's comments on this disaster. (MUSIC)

HUNT: All right. It is 5:00 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here's a beautiful look at the statue of liberty in a darkened New York harbor on this Friday morning.

Everybody, we made it to the end of January. Can you believe that? Today is January 31st? It's only been the longest month of the year already. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

We do begin this morning with the latest on the tragedy in the sky over the Potomac River.

Overnight, CNN exclusively obtained two new videos. So these were shot on cell phone. But what it shows is surveillance camera replay of the moment that the collision occurred.

So let's look at this first video. You can see the Black Hawk helicopter. It's going to come in on the left hand side of your screen. And it's moving towards Flight 5342 on the right. Wow. A bright explosion erupts the plane and the helicopter both splashing out of control into the river below.

All right, let's watch the second video we have. Now, this seems to be surveillance video from inside the airport itself. You can see the helicopter is moving along the river on the right, with the plane on final approach to the runway. Excuse me.

On the left you can see the light from the helicopter and the plane shining onto the water below, and then the collision explosion occurs, sending both aircraft plunging into the Potomac River. That, of course, the moment when 67 souls were to lose their lives.

At least 14 of the victims are still missing. First responders are expected to resume those recovery operations this morning. They have already pulled dozens of victims from the water.

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DAVID HOAGLAND, PRESIDENT, DC FIREFIGHTERS ASSOCIATION - IAFF LOCAL 36: A lot of the effort has been focused on removing people from inside the plane, who they were not able to remove last night, as well as just continuing to scan the entire area to see who they can locate.

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HUNT: And new this morning, "The New York Times" reporting this quote, the military helicopter appears to have been flying too high and outside its approved flight path at the time of the crash, according to four people briefed on the matter, but not authorized to speak publicly.

A senior Army official also telling the times that the Black Hawks pilots had flown that route before. Crews recovered the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the plane, and special equipment is being brought in to pull the wreckage of both of these aircrafts out of the water.

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HOMENDY: You need to give us time. You need to give NTSB -- it's not that we don't have information. We do have information. We have data. We have substantial amounts of information.

We need to verify information. We need to take our time to make sure it is accurate.

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HUNT: All right. Joining us now to discuss is Mary Schiavo, CNN aviation analyst, former inspector general at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Mary, good morning.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Good morning.

HUNT: It's nice to see you again.

So what have we learned so far about how this happened? I mean, obviously, the times is reporting these new details about the helicopter.

SCHIAVO: And the new details are very helpful, as is this new video. But it does reinforce a lot of the details that we had yesterday. So first of all, we do know that the airplane, the PSA flight was on air traffic control, an approved route.

[05:05:04]

It was where it was supposed to be in the sky, and it was landing. It had priority and it was being completely advised by air traffic control. And that's what has to happen with commercial passenger service aircraft. They must be under positive aircraft -- air traffic control.

We've now learned, of course, as some of the things that we had looked at on radar and had had thought about yesterday, but that the helicopter was on the path where the helicopters usually fly in Washington, D.C., but it may have been too high. It may not have been at its assigned altitude or the altitude where they usually operate, which is below the landing path for the airport.

And then, finally, for this video and the other videos we saw yesterday, we do see other lights in the area, and in particular, one bright light of another aircraft. And when the air traffic control tower asked the helicopter, do you have the plane in sight? I know the first time that I looked at that video, I focused on the moving light, not on the stationary light, which wasn't stationary. It's just your vantage point.

HUNT: It appears that way from the way you looking them. SCHIAVO: And so, obviously, there's a concern that the helicopter

pilot may have looked at the brighter moving light and thought that that was the plane that he was supposed to have --

HUNT: Because on this approach, its possible that the light of the plane he ultimately hits would have appeared to be stationary to him.

SCHIAVO: That's right. And the first time I saw that video, I looked at the brighter moving light. And you know, when you fly it light at night, that's what you look at. I mean, night flight is wonderful and beautiful for a pilot, but the movement of the lights is where you focus first, and you have to learn that, that, you know, that may be a distraction.

HUNT: Right. It may not actually be what -- what matters.

Let's we spoke with a former Black Hawk pilot who has flown this route through Washington, D.C. before. I want to show you what he had to say about this and we'll talk about it. Watch.

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BRAD BOWMAN, FORMER BLACK HAWK PILOT: I've flown this route too many times to count. You -- before you proceed south along the river, you called Reagan tower at Key Bridge. And you say. You say you're at Key Bridge. You don't proceed without their permission. You stair step down your altitude and you're at 200 feet, and you keep that 200 feet plus or minus, you know, 10, 20 feet.

And so as this investigation proceeds, I'm going to really want to see what altitude was that Black Hawk at. And if it was well above 200 feet, that might have been a decisive explanation here for what happened.

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HUNT: So how does a mistake like that happen in a helicopter flying this much? I mean, it would have to be relatively twice as high, almost.

SCHIAVO: Right. Well, I mean, in many ways, you know, first and foremost, you have to watch your instruments, but you also have to be aware of your surroundings. Your situational awareness is very important.

But sometimes, there's so many things that could be. And the NTSB will figure out what was really going on. It could be, you know, a lack of situational awareness, losing, just losing your focus on on where you are and what you're doing and what you're supposed to be looking at, not paying attention to your instruments.

And in this particular flight operation environment, keeping that altitude exactly where its supposed to be is very important. It might also depend what equipment they had in that helicopter. They -- they, you know, commercial passenger service jets in the United States, by law, have to have collision avoidance. They have to have a lot of equipment.

And the Black Hawk helicopter does not have that same civilian equipment. So it will also depend what equipment they had, what they were paying attention to. And of course, we know that they were practicing, or at least it's been reported that they were practicing with night goggles.

What equipment did they have on that they were focused on as opposed to their altitude? The other traffic in the area, the controls and commands from air traffic control. So there are a lot of things out there that could have distracted them. And it could be as simple as they focused on the wrong aircraft to follow.

HUNT: Mary, we -- we know that the staffing was, quote/unquote, not normal in the tower, that there was one person doing the planes and the helicopters, when there are typically two people who do that, how did it end up that way?

SCHIAVO: Well, and that is a very good point, because I won't say that it's not normal. You should have one person assigned to every job in air traffic control, be it a tower or TRACON and en route center, but it has become practice. It's not unusual for the FAA at less than peak hours. It's not supposed to interfere with their duties, but to assign one person to work two roles.

Now, of course, there's a lot of focus right now on the shortage of air traffic controllers. Again, there's lots of explanations for that. But the top one is that during COVID, the FAA reduced hiring and training, and you constantly have to have people in the pipeline because training for an air traffic controller fully experienced, fully authorized, one can take up to two years.

And so there was this gap of people in the pipeline. So one of the measures that that the FAA did and air traffic control does is to assign in less than peak hours, one person to do two roles.

[05:10:08]

But, you know, sometimes just extra eyes on the situation is very important. But I don't know if in that environment with all the other lights, they could have seen that coming. That will be something the NTSB will look at.

HUNT: All right. Mary Schiavo, thanks for starting us off this morning. I appreciate it.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, confirmation showdown. Several of President Donald Trumps cabinet level nominees facing a bipartisan grilling on Capitol Hill. Could any of the nominations be in jeopardy?

Plus, playing the blame game. President Trump lashing out at his political opponents in the hours following the disaster over the Potomac and remembering those who were lost in this tragedy, including young figure skaters and their parents returning home from a U.S. skating event.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seemed like the flight had landed but their phones weren't on, and they weren't, like, popping up anywhere. It just said small plane in the Potomac. And I was just like, oh, my god. And my heart just started, like exploding out of my chest.

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[05:15:14]

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was just such a -- such an outstanding student, outstanding young lady. You know, just the kind of person that we need many, many more of.

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HUNT: That was a former high school principal from Cincinnati talking about one of his former students, Elizabeth Keys. She was one of the 67 people killed in the collision between an American Airlines plane and the military helicopter Wednesday night. There were no survivors.

The figure skating community also devastated this morning, having lost several of their most promising young athletes.

CNN's Ed Lavandera shows us how they are being remembered.

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NANCY KERRIGAN, FORMER FIGURE SKATER: We just wanted to be here with each other.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Six members of the skating club of Boston died Wednesday. Olympic medalist Nancy Kerrigan came together with the Boston skating community after the unimaginable tragedy.

KERRIGAN: Not sure how to process it.

LAVANDERA: Among the 67 victims of the deadly collision, two teenage figure skaters. Spencer Lane --

ANNOUNCER: Would you please welcome to the ice, Jenna Han.

LAVANDERA: And Jenna Han.

DOUG ZEGHIBE, CEO, SKATING CLUB OF BOSTON: We watched Jenna just grow up here from just a tiny little tyke into this amazingly mature 13- year-old, and we talk a lot about the athletes, but I think were going to miss their moms as much. Just really good people. LAVANDERA: Their mothers were also on the plane, along with two

coaches, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov from Boston, seen here winning the 1994 World Figure Skating Paris Championship.

DR. TENLEY ALBRIGHT, SKATING CLUB OF BOSTON: I really can't believe that it happened because I picture them right here, the coaches always stood at that entrance. The skaters just flew all over the ice doing remarkable things, inspiring all of us.

LAVANDERA: They were just a handful of a larger group of skaters on American Eagle Flight 5342.

ZEGHIBE: Fourteen skaters returning home from the national development camp at Wichita, Kansas, put on by U.S. figure skating, were lost in the plane crash.

LAVANDERA: The Russian couple's son, Maksim (ph), returned home on an earlier flight, just medaled at the U.S. men's figure skating championship over the weekend.

An eerie silence at the Wichita ice center, as the magnitude of the loss keeps growing. A mourner left a simple tribute on the bare ice days after an intense three-day training took place here.

JEFF WINCH, FRIEND OF VICTIM: They're some of my daughter's best friends.

LAVANDERA: One of the crash victims was playing a video game with this mans ten-year-old daughter from the plane, just before the accident occurred.

ALEXIS WINCH, FRIEND OF VICTIM: She would always be there to talk to me.

LAVANDERA: Tragedy has struck this skating community before -- in 1961, when the entire Boston Club's team was killed in a plane crash heading to the world championships.

Other victims in Wednesday's crash over the Potomac River were three U.S. service members aboard the Black Hawk helicopter and four crew members on the plane that left Wichita, including American Airlines flight attendant Ian Epstein, First Officer Samuel Lilley and Captain Jonathan Campos.

MAYOR LILY WU, WICHITA, KANSAS: This is a terrible tragedy that will unite those in Washington, D.C. and Wichita, Kansas, forever.

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HUNT: Just absolutely heartbreaking.

All right, coming up next here, were going to turn to politics. Kash Patel hit back at Senate Democrats at his confirmation hearing. What he's saying now about some right wing conspiracies.

Plus, a U.S. hostage held in Gaza could be released later today after this chaotic scene during yesterday's hostage release.

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[05:23:19]

HUNT: All right, 22 minutes past the hour. Here's your "Morning Roundup".

At least six senior FBI leaders were told, you have to retire or resign or be fired by Monday. Sources say that those include those who oversee cyber, national security and criminal investigations. Trump transition officials had signaled that the leaders promoted by former FBI Director Christopher Wray, could be pushed aside.

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REPORTER: What efforts are underway to make sure the Americans get home as soon as possible?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much, sir.

STEVE WITKOFF, U.S. MIDDLE EAST ENVOY: We're on top of it all. One is coming out tomorrow.

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HUNT: That was President Trump's envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, telling reporters in Tel Aviv that an American hostage will be released today. It's unclear who he was referring to. Two Israeli and five Thai nationals were released from Gaza on Thursday.

The FDA has approved a new pain relief drug for the first time in 25 years. It will be sold under the name Journavx. It is not an opioid, so doctors say that there's not a risk of addiction, unlike the one that does exist with opioid painkillers. It's taken every 12 hours after a large starter dose.

All right. Still coming up after the break, could confirmation of one of President Donald Trump's most controversial cabinet picks be in jeopardy? One key Republican senator expressing uncertainty about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Plus, President Trump suggesting without evidence that federal diversity programs could be linked to Wednesday night's deadly mid-air collision.

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REPORTER: That's why I'm trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash.

TRUMP: Because I have common sense.

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[05:29:24]

HUNT: All right, it's 5:28 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at the Washington monument here in the nation's capital, which, of course, has been in mourning since that horrible plane crash a night or so ago.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

There are no survivors. There are only questions after the deadly collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter near Reagan National Airport. Overnight, CNN obtained exclusive new footage of the moments leading up to and after the tragedy.

This cell phone video, it recorded surveillance footage. It appears to have been taken from the airport grounds, and you can see the helicopter approach from the left of the screen as the plane.