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Laura Coates Live

Medevac Plane Crashes in Philadelphia, Injuries on Ground Unclear; 6 On Board Crashed Medevac Jet in Philly, Including Child Patient; Trump Tries to Remake Government With No DEI; Coach Remembers Figure Skater Killed in DC Collision. Aired 12-1 am ET

Aired February 01, 2025 - 00:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:01:17]

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's midnight on the East Coast. I'm Laura Coates and we are following breaking news in Philadelphia. Another aviation tragedy is playing out. A medevac jet crashed less than a minute after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport. Ring doorbell camera footage shows what appears to be the final moments of the aircraft just after 6 p.m. Eastern. The plane in a nose dive before slamming into the ground.

Within the last hour, the operator of the medevac confirmed six people were on board. Its mission, to help ferry a girl who had a medical procedure back home to Mexico. She'd been treated and the medevac company says that she was cleared to fly home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAI GOLD, MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR CORPORATE STRATEGY, JET RESCUE AIR AMBULANCE: This flight was a repatriation flight of a patient who recovered and was headed home. She was fit to fly, cleared to go back home and we were contracted by a third-party charitable organization to transport her back to Mexico. So the final destination was to Tijuana International Airport.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: I want to bring in CNN's Jason Carroll, who is live for us in Philadelphia. Jason, give us an update. What are you seeing? What do we know now?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are, just to give you a point of view from where we're standing, we are at the intersection of Cottman Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard. You can see some of the flashing emergency lights right down the street there. The crash impacted several blocks in that direction.

And you can see all around from where we are. This is an area, Laura, where you've got the Roosevelt Mall on one side. You also have residences down there, row houses on the other side. And you think about the timing of this, this happened at six o'clock. So we're talking rush hour here.

This is a busy area on any day at any hour, especially at rush hour at six o'clock when this flight ended up crashing. Crashing again shortly after six o'clock after it took off from Philly Northeast Airport. Again, what we're hearing about what happened here on the ground and there were a lot of eyewitnesses, as you can imagine.

Some described it as a fireball on impact. Some say that the sky lit up. Not only did they see it, Laura, but eyewitnesses say that they felt it as well. Some people said that their windows started rattling, ran outside to see exactly what was going on.

Philadelphia's mayor is saying that at this point they cannot confirm how many people have been impacted by this, how many fatalities there were. We can tell you, and you talked a little bit about this, that there were six people on board that Learjet 55 medical aircraft.

Four of them were crew members. Two of them were passengers. A little girl who was being treated here in Philadelphia and her mother on board cleared to fly. They were en route to Missouri where they were going to refuel and then go on to Mexico. All on board, all six on board, we are told, were Mexican nationals.

So at this point, as you can see, once again, the area is cordoned off. That's so investigators can get in here and do the job, the early job of what they need to do in terms of trying to recover some of this wreckage. The wreckage, we're told, is scattered over what we're told is a wide area. And so what they're telling folks here on the ground is, if they see any wreckage, any parts of that plane not to touch anything, but of course to call 911, say what they've seen, so people can get in there.

Because what investigators typically do in situations like this is when they have aircraft that have come apart, they actually go in and try to recover as many pieces as they can. And later on as they're putting together their investigation, they actually put those pieces back together.

[00:05:08]

So again, this is an area that's still cordoned off. Still very much an active scene. You've got the FAA out here. You've got NTSB, Philadelphia Fire as well. More than 100 firefighters responding initially when the crash happened, putting out fires here in the area on the ground. The mayor is saying that not only were there vehicles impacted by the crash, but several buildings impacted as well.

So now comes the task of trying to sort out exactly what went wrong here. And as you know from covering these types of -- these types of crashes, it could take some time before investigators have that answer.

Laura?

COATES: Stunning. It must have been so disorienting to everyone on the ground to understand what happened there. I want to bring in Stanley James III, who was an eyewitness to the Philadelphia crash. When did you see it? What did you think happened when you first saw this explosion?

STANLEY JAMES III, EYEWITNESS TO PHILADELPHIA PLAN CRASH: Well, the first time that I've seen it, I was actually driving in the parking lot trying to get to the store. I was coming to the Ross to get some pants for an interview that I have tomorrow and flew over the top of the car. Next thing you know, as we got up a little bit, I heard a boom and the whole car just shook.

And I was able to see things in front of me shake too, cars, buildings. And I looked back because my kids was just screaming super- duper loud. And so when I looked back, I just seen the big flame.

And so when I've seen the flame, the first thing I did was jump out the car. And as I'm running up towards it, I pull out my camera. 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 can smell the gas.

And it's the first thing that I could think about. The cops pulled up super-duper fast as soon as it hit. And all I could think about was them telling everybody to get back because of the fumes and stuff. And it was just a crazy scene, people running towards the flame, trying to yell and call their family.

Soon when we was pulling up through the parking lot, first thing that I've seen right there with a crash site was that it was a couple of people that were sitting there actually talking outside their car. I don't know what happened to them. And that was the first thing I thought about once I heard the boom and I turned around, I'm like, where did they all go?

COATES: You know --

JAMES: It happened so fast.

COATES: I mean, what did you tell them? What was that like for them? I can't imagine how scared they must have been.

JAMES: They were shaken up. I tried my fastest to get them out of there. We were stuck down there for maybe 20, 30 minutes. They just wouldn't stop crying. They just kept shaking and they just kept looking out the windows. And man --

COATES: It's emotional to think about that, to think about what could have. I'm so sorry that they were there and you were there and just how close you were. You could smell the fuel. Did you see buildings that had caught fire? Could you see houses?

JAMES: That's another crazy thing that started me because once I saw -- once I seen a crash, my eyes was concerned about that. When I turned back around to look and see what was going on with my kids and the family in the car, it was so much fire and smoke in back of us too, which shocked me because I'm like, the crash was in front of us. COATES: Wow.

JAMES: No lie, the crash site was probably about a block or a half a block long. Fire and pieces and people --

COATES: People were just running?

JAMES: And crying and yelling and running.

COATES: How did you get out? I mean, I can imagine it was probably just chaos.

JAMES: That's what I'm saying. It took us a little while to get out. People were stopping in their cars, taking, you know, videos, people trying to see where their family was going. People was in parking, waiting for their food in the drive-thru line. Like, it was so many cars just cluttered. And if it wasn't for the cops to clear us out of there, people would probably still be there now.

COATES: Were people being cleared out of the house? I know you were near the Ross clothing store and other places. I know that you said there's fast food, everything else. Were people just coming out? Were they being evacuated from there? Were those stores on fire as well?

JAMES: It was a few stores that were on fire. I can't tell you exactly what it was. Everything was happening so fast, but it was a couple of things on fire. Buildings, probably people houses. It happened like right on a small little block, like right where the Ross and stuff sign is, but across the street from apartment buildings. So cars got hit. It was so much stuff.

COATES: Do you have a sense of how many cars were hit or how many people may have been injured out there?

[00:10:04]

JAMES: Like I said, the accident was probably about a half a block or a block long, and these is residential areas and residential parking. So yeah.

COATES: It's unbelievable.

JAMES: A lot of cars.

COATES: I'm glad you're safe. I'm glad your children are safe and your family because I can only imagine as a mother how in that moment to get them safe and still understand what happened even around me.

Stanley, thank you so much for joining.

JAMES: Pray for Philly, man. I appreciate you.

COATES: I want to bring in Philadelphia Councilman Anthony Phillips. Councilman, you've just heard from somebody who was an eyewitness to what happened, the chaos, the residential area, stores, things on fire. You've actually been down at the scene. Give me information. What are you seeing? Are there injuries? Tell me about the damage.

ANTHONY PHILLIPS, PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL: Yeah, this is a very tragic moment in the city of Philadelphia. We haven't seen anything like this. And, you know, residents in that area, I just want to help people who are not from Philadelphia to really understand this area.

This is a highly dense area with hundreds of row homes, as well as there's a mall across the street there. Any given day, there's thousands of cars that are going across those roads, as well as that mall. There's thousands of people that are using that mall.

So what's happening right now in our district, the residents who have been impacted, homes, their dwellings have been impacted. We set up at our local high school, America Red Cross Shelter. So I just left there not too long ago.

There were several residents from that area that were there taking shelter. They didn't have anywhere to go. They're being comforted with love, as well as clothes.

One of the residents that was there happened to tell me, she said she was literally doing work in her bed, and she was also eating. And next thing you know, there was a huge kaboom, and everything in her hand just jumped out of her hand. And she immediately ran downstairs, because her dog was downstairs, barking and screaming.

And she saw that all her windows were out. So she can't go back to her home right now, because the plane literally knocked out all her windows in her downstairs area. So all of the elements are in her house right now.

So it's going to be a rebuild process for a lot of residents. But I know our city is going to be committed to helping our residents with that. But just letting folks know that this is not an easy thing for a lot of folks in the district that, you know, I represent, as well as the district that another council member represents in another part of the area. And we're going through it right now city, especially what happened two days ago.

COATES: I mean, just thinking about that blast zone being so extensive at taking out windows in areas, the amount of people, rush hour, do you know whether there are fatalities on the ground?

PHILLIPS: Currently, we have not heard about any fatalities in the ground. So that's not clear yet. But what I did hear was that there are several injuries. One particular injury that has been told to me is about a gentleman whose face has been really impacted by this devastating crash.

So I'm looking to get more details about what that particular person is going through. But we haven't heard about any fatalities as of yet. And we're praying that there's no more fatalities from the ones that we already know about, which is the individuals that were on the plane.

You know, initial reactions, neighbors have been calling me and messages, you know, folks are just, they're like, what is going on with aviation in this nation? You know, folks are just feeling like, you know, is this the end of the world as we know it? And I think folks have -- have a lot of questions about our safety and security, you know, here in Philadelphia.

COATES: I understand that the fear is the fact that this has happened. I mean, what is your community need most right now?

PHILLIPS: Yeah, right now, what our community needs is a lot of answers. Neighbors are at this point, they're -- they're fed up. I mean, they're just in shock. They're in disbelief. They want to know why have there been so many near plane crashes, this recent plane crash. There's been so many issues with aviation the past several months.

That's been kind of covered up, if you think about it, because people have been hearing about it, but it's never happened. And so people just want answers to like, what's -- what are we going to be doing to prevent these things from happening, because these tragedies are not normal, and we don't need to normalize them.

[00:15:08]

And then right now, our community is going to need to be rebuilt. So whatever the federal government can -- can provide for us, it's going to be really helpful. And I know our mayor is going to work with our administration with that. But, you know, we got some homes that are going to need to get rebuilt. We also got some roads that are going to need to be rebuilt to as a result of this. So there's been a full tragedy, but you know, Philadelphia ready to recover. But I think the shock factor is harder to recover from right now.

COATES: Unbelievable. And I -- I have some experts. I'm hoping to get answers from the people really want next. Thank you so much, Councilman. I'm so sorry for your community. And we will continue to try to understand what happened and get those answers. Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Keep us in your prayers. Thank you.

COATES: Absolutely.

Up next. What happened on board that plane before it crashed into this busy street in Philadelphia? I've got two aviation experts here to try to walk us through all of it.

We'll back in a moment.

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[00:20:38]

COATES: We've got breaking news this hour from Philadelphia. A medevac plane crashing into a neighborhood shortly after takeoff. At least six people were on board that plane. The crash setting off fires that damaged several homes. A councilman just told me that several people are now having to take shelter at a local high school. And one man described the chaos that unfolded right after the crash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VADIM OSIPOV, WITNESS: I was in shock. I'm still in shock. Like this is insane. Why can this happen? And before that, to be honest, in my mind, I thought, like, what if the rocket would like -- because I'm from Ukraine, right? And there's war. There's always rockets coming in and stuff like that. And then I see like things flying, like no way, the war started again? You know, and you say, you never know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Oh, my God. The fate of the people on board, still unknown. But we know that at least six people on the ground were injured.

Here with me in the studio, CNN Aviation Analyst Mary Schiavo, who is a former Inspector General for the Department of Transportation. Also here, former FAA Administrator Billy Nolen.

I'm trying to wrap my mind around what an investigation would look like now. An explosion. How do you try to understand or figure out what happened?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, the NTSB is already gathering data. It's looking for the maintenance records. It's looking for the fueling records. It's going to be important. You know, where are the manifests and what was loaded on that plane.

So already they're in the paper gathering process because they can't access the site. There's, you know, burning materials and fuel and contamination and people to take care of. But when they then go to the site, obviously they will collect all of these parts that people have said are all over and they will construct a debris field. They'll actually map out where they pick up the various parts and they will do their best to get them all.

Surprisingly, you know, when you work accident investigations and you go in later to do the private part for the families, sometimes you find parts that are strewn out, that they're so far and wide that they don't get them. And then people often think that the NTSB always puts the plane back together. They don't. It depends on if they have to and they don't want to unless they have to, because it's very expensive.

COATES: So they famously done that in the past.

SCHIAVO: Yes.

COATES: There was a famous one. Tell me about that.

SCHIAVO: Well, TWA 800, which is a plane that it exploded off the coast of New York. It fell into the ocean. And at first they thought it was a missile. They thought it was a shoot down terrorism, a bomb on board. And they literally had to go to the bottom of the ocean and get all the parts. And they reassembled it in Virginia.

The NTSB had it to find out and to see literally where the explosion happened. And you could see the implosion going out rather than in. So they knew it wasn't a missile. It was an explosion from the fuel tank. And then they use this plane that they put back together for many years as a teaching tool. And they taught classes there. I took some of those classes.

So they don't always put it back together. They look for the key parts of the theory. But here, if there's no evidence to explain what happened, this might be one of those accidents where they have to try to reconstruct.

COATES: How about the breath of the debris field? What would that indicate to you? And of course, we think of black boxes instantly. Would they have had one?

BILLY NOLEN, FORMER FAA ACTING ADMINISTRATOR: Well, they might have had a black box here. This airplane is 44 years old, I believe. I think it was manufactured in 1981, as we heard at the top of the segment.

COATES: Does that give you pause the age of that plane?

NOLEN: No, not necessarily. You know, what you look at is how well a plane has been maintained. We heard from one of the executives with this company that the plane was well maintained. We don't -- you know, you take that at face value. They have to produce those records. They will produce records of the pilot's training, their last check ride. So you go back to see what was their schedule. You look at their duty, what we call their flight duty time. Were they well rested, et cetera, et cetera?

So there's a lot, to Mary's point, there's a lot that goes into an investigation. It's a very methodical. Sadly, we've had a couple of these in close order, right?

[00:25:05]

But if you go back and look at, you know, over time, we've gotten progressively safer. Why? Because what we're seeing is that operators, airlines, part 135 are required to have safety management system. The net result of that has made us somewhat safer.

But going back to your point, just quickly, on the debris field, you look at things, you know, is it -- is it a narrow field? Is it a wide field? Those can be signs that investigators can use to help determine the crash itself.

COATES: You know, I hear that councilman's voice in my head when I asked, what is community needed? And he said, answers. He described the skepticism and concern that people have about aviation safety. And I know you touched on this, but what is your response when people are wondering, how could this have happened? A plane blows up in the sky 40 seconds into takeoff?

SCHIAVO: And the one gentleman, and I was quite impressed, you know, sometimes they think in Washington, well, we can do this or we can do that, and the people aren't paying attention. What was really interesting is the one gentleman said, look, we have heard about this. We have heard these near misses, near collisions, you know, and these problems, and we've heard this going on for several years. And now they have this, you know, another kind of accident.

But, you know, it's interesting that the people who read about all these things, they're waiting for answers. And I think the NTSB has a lot on their plate, and they have to make sure they come up with recommendations that really will make change, because it's clear that the United States citizens are expecting it.

COATES: And I said blow up, but it was a nosedive first, right? Then causing this explosion. This is shocking. What do you think happened?

NOLEN: Yeah, that would be, I don't think it's the moment to speculate in terms when you see something like that, right? All I would say there, you've got a loss of control, because you don't expect that you're going to lose control. This plane has flown multiple times a day, right? It's doing multiple flights. It sounds, from all indications, you've got a qualified and current crew that is flying aboard. So how did that happen? That, of course, is what the investigation revealed.

I just want to go back to the point around, you know, how safe we are. You know, the FAA, the NTSB, the industry itself has come together during my time as FAA administrator sitting in the chair. I did an administrator's call to action where we brought the industry together and said we're seeing some near misses. Let's look at everything. Let's look at the data. Let's look at the trends. And let's work together.

And our goal was we had gotten to a point where, you know, fatal commercial passenger accidents, we haven't had one in 16 years, but we said, well, let's move that. Let's move the bar. Let's eliminate near misses. So this has been the goal and the aspirational goal.

And so I think, you know -- but to the guest's point is doing a better job of communicating that. You know, we talk internally a lot about the work, the progress and the success we've had in driving down the number of fatal accidents and also getting better at near misses. So we'll get --

COATES: Well, I certainly hope we -- I mean, less than 72 hours, two crashes, one in an urban environment. We don't know the fate of everyone on board. We have more on this. Please stand by. I need your expertise here tonight.

And ahead, President Trump responding tonight to the plane crash in Philadelphia. And it's frankly quite different than how he's responding to the collision in Washington, D.C. We'll discuss next.

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[00:33:04]

COATES: Trump tonight praising first responders in the Philly plane crash. He writes on "Truth Social," "So sad to see the plane go down in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. More innocent souls lost. Our people are totally engaged. First responders are already being given credit for doing a great job. More to follow. God bless you all."

That's a much different response to what we've been hearing from the President since Wednesday's midair collision in Washington, D.C.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT: I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put policy first. The FAA's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing. But they actually came out with a directive to white. And we want the people that are competent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Now, I want to bring in CNN Senior Political Commentator Scott Jennings and former Obama White House Senior Director Nayyera Haq.

Glad to have both of you. But what tragedy has occurred since the last time any of us spoke to one another? I mean, I'll begin with you, Scott. President Trump's initial response to both of these tragedies is sympathetic. But within 24 hours of the D.C. tragedy, he turned to culture wars, to political attacks. Why do that at a time when people want answers and really the compassion for what has happened?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, I mean, he thought he had a point to make. I think, you know, ultimately he may have a point to make. I don't personally think it was the right time to make it because it was in the immediate aftermath.

And there's always time for finger-pointing and policy debates after something bad happens. I think it might have been too soon, truthfully. I think his tweet tonight on the Philadelphia situation, which is terrible and tragic, these people were on a mercy mission, obviously, is the correct tone.

[00:35:00]

And ultimately, at this point, with two major crashes and investigations going on, all people really want to know right now is are we up to handling these investigations? You know, can we figure out what's going on? Are we safe when we fly?

I mean, these are the kinds of questions people want answers from their government. And ultimately, they'll be looking to the president and the administration to get those answers. I think the NTSB and the other people communicating from the federal government are doing a great job right now, including a friend of mine.

I actually have known for 25 years, Todd Inman, who's been on our air, who's on the NTSB, who I think is doing a yeoman's work. So, overall, I like what's coming out of the federal government in terms of giving people reassurances that they're handling these investigations. And now they even have the opportunity to have even more work on their plate. COATES: Yeah, I don't envy those who are trying to give answers to really what has been unthinkable these past several days and the questions that are ahead.

Nayyera, do you think today's response was a course correction or just the newfound insight?

NAYYERA HAQ, FORMER OBAMA WHITE HOUSE SENIOR DIRECTOR: I think it's news, apparently, that President Trump did something that we all recognize as normal in the wake of a tragedy. We'll see what tomorrow brings. This has been a few weeks in which the federal workforce, which includes the Federal Aviation Administration, all of the air traffic controllers, have felt deeply attacked.

They've been offered to resign. They've been told that they are part of a deep state. And I think we are all seeing now in action the value of what many of our civil servants bring to the rest of us. It's keeping not only our air safe, our airplanes safe, it's also keeping everyone safe, right? And keeping everyone safe.

So there's a basic function of government here that we're seeing at play, and I hope we continue, as Scott just said, to honor that workforce for doing what they do.

COATES: I mean, Scott, great point in terms of morale and what we ask of people necessarily in our federal government and our bureaucracy, which, of course, there is criticism to go around when you're talking about a bureaucracy more broadly. But there's also what's happening in the periphery as we are covering these tragedies. President Trump is currently trying to remove all traces of DEI from the government.

And I wonder if the focus on the talk of DEI is distracting from a focus on the more pressing problems in this country, even what's before our eyes these last several days.

JENNINGS: Well, just speaking more broadly, not specifically on FAA or anything having to do with these crashes, I actually think the focus on DEI, the issues surrounding it, the policy, the debate that was had during the campaign, I think Trump's right on track, truthfully. I think what he's doing is what people want him to do. His approval rating is quite high.

And I think this is just part of a larger argument that he made during the election that we were emphasizing certain things over others, and people bought into it. They voted for it, and he's executing on that agenda. So not tying it necessarily to these crashes, but just broadly speaking, I do believe this is a key part of the program that he ran on. I do believe people want him to do it, and I do believe there's widespread support for rejecting the idea of DEI programming in favor of the most competent hiring you can do in a government structure.

COATES: Everyone wants competent people working in these positions. There's no indication, Nayyera, whatsoever that I have seen that we do not have competent people in these positions. And so the idea of the focus is a little bit jarring, although no one should be blindsided. He did campaign on a lot of the discussions he's been having in the last just 10, 11 days. But I think a number of CDC websites, for example, data sets related to HIV, LGBTQ people, youth health problems, and more, those have been removed. What's your take on the timing and the why?

HAQ: We're seeing also images of the FBI motto being painted over in the buildings where the word inclusive was included, because inclusive, I guess, is not appropriate for what we want to see in American society. I mean, this is part of what we're being told now straight from the White House.

The idea of DEI being a problem in aviation is actually something that's been an online right-wing chatter for quite some time. And it's interesting to see how that ecosystem, again, now is directly connected to what we hear coming out of the official government statements of policy.

But this is not a new thing. It is new to us and the broader public to hear very explicitly the questioning of people who are Black women, of any other persuasion other than white and male being questioned for their credentials and being called DEI hires, rather than the idea that people are in the jobs because they competed for them and earned them.

[00:40:03]

COATES: You know, I bet we can all agree on this point, Scott, Nayyera, myself, we want answers. The people who've lost lives, the loved ones, they don't want to hear about policy and politics, they want to know why they've lost their loved ones.

Scott Jennings, Nayyera Haq, thank you both.

JENNINGS: Thank you.

COATES: Crews have found the black box from the military helicopter in that collision near Washington, D.C. My big question is, how will it help the investigation? What might we learn? What might we not learn from them? We'll discuss, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:45:03]

COATES: Tonight, investigators studying new evidence from the midair crash at Reagan National Airport, the NTSB recovering the black box from the Black Hawk helicopter, and no signs of exterior damage to it. Crucial evidence in piecing together what caused the deadliest collision in nearly 24 years.

I want to bring in CNN Transportation Analyst and former Inspector General for the Department of Transportation, Mary Schiavo, and former Acting Administrator of the FAA under President Biden, Billy Nolen.

Let's get right to the black box. What clues would they be looking for, and what data is contained on them?

SCHIAVO: The black box would depend on how many parameters it has and how much it records, but let's assume it's a current one and has as many parameters as possible. It literally can reveal every setting on the plane, speed, nose up, nose down, attitude, as they call it, all your different control settings, engine performance, you know, on the helicopter, the blade settings, literally any kind of mechanical thing that is capable of having electronic lead on it to record on the data.

They will print it out. It's a computer printout, bits and bytes and all sorts of data, so the flight data recorder has to be interpreted. People have to go through and figure out what all that data means.

The voice recorder's very different. It literally is just the voices. They will do a transcript. They will check the transcript against the original, and then the transcript only will be made public. The actual voices of the people are protected, and the NTSB protects them, and they're protected by law.

COATES: So we won't hear the actual voices, which gives me some people pause to think, well, would you be able to understand the emotions behind it? Were they afraid? Were they trying to evade? We won't hear that part of it. How long will it take to actually analyze this data?

NOLEN: So the public won't hear that. As part of the investigation, they have access to that. So what, you know, to Mary's point, what we want to be able to understand is what was happening in the moment, right?

You know, hindsight is perfect. It's always 20-20. You have to look from the aspect of the pilots, what they heard, what they thought they heard, and what they -- how they interpreted that and what they did with that action, right?

So this case is happening very, very quick. They're told you have the traffic in sight. Yes, we have it passed behind the traffic, right? It's night visual. Maintain visual separation. So as an investigator, you're going to, you know, so why didn't that happen?

And the FS suggested they were off the altitude. Why? Was there something going on in the cockpit, you know, on the flight, that they suddenly were inside and having a discussion? So those are the kinds of things you want to unpack and understand in this last critical moment and get to the bottom of it.

COATES: How about the staffing issues that have been -- I mean, the idea of staffing for air traffic controllers and beyond, this is not a new phenomenon, but obviously this is making it top of mind. What's your reaction?

NOLEN: I would say, you know, the FAA's -- has hit their staffing target the last couple of years.

COATES: Is it enough?

NOLEN: Is it enough? No. Our airspace continues to grow, but this is a good point, right? The FAA can only do what Congress gives it dollars to do. That means that it has to be appropriate. They were given money in this last bill. So what we need, you have to make sure you've got continuous, sustained funding that is appropriate to be able to have the kind of resources that the FAA needs and the personnel it needs to manage our nation's very complex airspace.

COATES: How long should we expect an investigation like the midair collision to take? Is this something with years or months in the making?

SCHIAVO: No, I think the midair, we will have answers from the NTSB fairly soon. They will have the preliminary out at 30 days, and they're pretty good at that. At 30 days, they'll put out. It's kind of just the facts, what they know at that point, and it's on a form.

On the midair, because they have, you know, three black boxes, everything's recorded, lots of videos, witness statements, I would -- I would be surprised if they don't finish that up in a year.

COATES: Philadelphia, perhaps much longer.

SCHIAVO: Much longer.

COATES: Mary Schiavo, Billy Nolen, thank you both so much for your expertise tonight.

We lost 67 lives when the passenger jet and Black Hawk helicopter collided over Washington, D.C., and every day we're learning what their lives meant to their communities. More than a dozen figure skaters, their relatives and coaches, they were on board American Airlines Flight 5342 among them 13-year-old Jinna Han and her mother, Jin.

Jinna was a member of the skating club of Boston. She'd been skating since she was just four years old, and her coaches say she was dedicated, disciplined, and a ray of sunshine.

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Joining me now, Skating Coach and Choreographer Matthew Lind, he was one of Jinna Han's coaches.

Matthew, thank you for being here. This is -- it's just so tragic to think about the lives that have been lost, including Jinna, who had such a promising life ahead of her. What do you want people to know most about her?

MATTHEW LIND, COACH & CHOREOGRAPHER, SKATING CLUB OF BOSTON: Jinna was a special student. She was -- in figure skating, we required these kids to be athletes and artists, and Jinna was an artist in the most pure sense of the word. She could hear music, and it just came through her soul and out her body on the ice, and it was one of the things that just made her so special and so unique.

COATES: It must have been such a pleasure to work with her, to coach her. LIND: Yeah, you can't ask for better than Jinna. She was just always smiling. She learned that from her mom, Jin. Jin, every once in a while, would take a break from smiling, but pretty much was smiling all the time, and so was Jinna. They're just a really wonderful family. My heart goes out to her dad, June. I spoke to him earlier today, and he gave me permission to share the videos of Jinna skating from Wednesday.

COATES: How is he doing? I can't imagine what he must be thinking.

LIND: You know, it's obviously very hard, but he's a very strong man. He is -- if the Skating Club of Boston had a dad, he's the dad at the rink. He's there all the time, not just for Jinna, but for all of the kids and all of our team and our community at the Skating Club of Boston.

This family is the heart of our club, and Jin, June, and Jinna are all a big part of that. And June's a strong man. He'll be OK.

COATES: I understand that hours before the flight, Jinna was doing exactly what she loved doing most. She was skating, and you were with her at the airport. Can you share what those final moments were like with her and how you must be processing all of this?

LIND: Yeah, so these videos are from the camp on Wednesday morning. It was an elite track camp, so there were maybe 80 skaters at the development camp. And then the last day, they asked, I think, 16 of us to stay. So I had four athletes there, and Jinna was one of them. So these were from the edge classes in the morning. And, you know, as you can see, you just put on music, and she looks like an angel. And the last thing I remember her skating to was "Halo" by Beyonce. And I have felt her presence. So I think we have an angel.

COATES: Matthew, I am so sorry. I just can't even believe that this has happened. And I'm sure you are continuing to be so stunned, not only of what has happened here, but you work with another skater who was on that plane, Spencer Lane, I understand. And I know this community is so tight. Many of the skaters that you work with are very young. We are honoring those lives that have been lost. But how are you coping with all of this? How are the young skaters that, you know, you were working with coping?

LIND: So I'm OK. Spencer was not my student. Spencer was a student of Genia and Vadim, who were on the plane with him. I team teach with Genia and Vadim, but I didn't teach Spencer.

COATES: OK.

LIND: Spencer was at the camp. Spencer was a prodigy in every sense of the word. He learned in the past year, what a handful of people would take a lifetime to learn. He went from just beginning skating to working on the hardest elements in skating. He just learned so fast.

And I spoke to his mother at the camp and she just wanted to do right by him and was asking advice. And I gave her advice that was given to me and my parents when I was younger, which was just put him in good hands and stay out of the way. And I assured her that with Genia and Vadim, he was in very good hands.

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And I just kind of feel like now they're all in very good hands. And that's how I like to think about it.

COATES: Matthew Lind, thank you so much. And thank you for sharing what they have meant to you and to their loved ones and really to our entire nation. Thank you.

LIND: Thank you for honoring them.

COATES: Thank you all so much for watching. Our live coverage continues right after this.

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