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New Video Shows Collision from Previously Unseen Angle; FAA Indefinitely Closes Helicopter Routes Near Reagan National Airport; Families, Friends Pay Tribute to 67 People Killed in D.C. Tragedy. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired January 31, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. You are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Pamela Brown in Washington on this Friday.

And we begin this morning with the midair collision over the Potomac, an investigation intensifying, and the search for answers sharpening. First, a CNN exclusive, we have obtained two videos that show previously unseen angles of the crash. You see it right here on your screen. Here you see the U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on the left, apparently flying right into the path of the American Airlines flight. Now, here's another video capturing the moments before impact. The helicopter is traveling over the river as the plane makes its descent to Reagan National Airport. Some experts are wondering if the Army pilot was confused by the other bright lights and didn't see the approaching plane.

Also this morning, The New York Times is reporting that the Black Hawk may have strayed off course, 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, end quote.

NTSB investigators this morning analyzing both the voice and data recorders from Flight 5342 and hope to have a preliminary report ready within the next 30 days.

I want to begin our coverage with CNN's Rene Marsh. She is at Reagan National Airport. What are you learning, Rene?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela on that piece about the helicopter and whether it was flying at the proper altitude, if confirmed that deviation away from the altitude it should have been at would raise concerns about whether the pilot was following the flight regulations of that airspace of that time in the moments leading up to this collision.

Now, investigators have not yet retrieved the black box from Black Hawk helicopter, but it will indeed when they do get it, give them information about the altitude at which this helicopter was flying at. They do, however, have the black boxes from the commercial passenger plane. And we know that it is now at their labs. They have opened it and they have begun the process of doing a readout of those of those black boxes.

We also know that they are tapping, they meaning the NTSB, tapping into expertise of their members across the country. They have flown in a member of their NTSB Go Team from Alaska, who was a former Black Hawk helicopter pilot, tapping into his expertise, as far as the work that is being done. We talked about the black boxes. They're also waiting on a crane to arrive at the crash site so they can begin the retrieval of debris. We know that they do have already pieces of debris in hand that they've already started analysis on. And as far as the air traffic controllers at this point, they have not yet interviewed them, Pam.

BROWN: I want to also ask you, Rene, about this eerily similar incident at Reagan National the day before the collision. Tell us about that.

MARSH: Right. So, there was another aircraft again just the day before this midair collision, and the pilot had to abort landing because of another military aircraft flying within their path, just simply too close for a safe landing.

I want you to listen to the air traffic control audio from that incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this time, there's a helicopter over Georgetown northbound 300 feet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had an RA, Brickyard 4514 is going around.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have an RA with a helicopter traffic below us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARSH: I mean, the fact that this has happened before, it just highlights the danger of having these military aircraft in the same airspace operating with these commercial aircraft around such a busy airport. And I've heard from many in the aviation industry already having conversations about whether that needs to change. Pamela?

BROWN: Yes, that is a big question right now. I want to continue this conversation. Thanks to Rene.

Let's continue this conversation with Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat representing the state of Washington. She is the ranking member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Senator, thank you for joining us.

So, you have received briefings from the NTSB and the FAA. What have you learned from them? SEN. MARIA CANTWELL (D-WA): Well, data is starting to flow in, but it's most important to give the NTSB the time to do the investigation.

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Ultimately, the NTSB will find the facts that, right now, people can have conjecture about, but so important to let them get that information because ultimately the NTSB will And I think the facts will lead us to the changes we need to see.

BROWN: But can you confirm any of the information that's out there based on the briefings you received about the Black Hawk helicopter and that it may have veered off its flight path and been at a higher altitude than it should have been?

CANTWELL: Well, I represent a big aviation state. You know, the Seattle Times is a Pulitzer Award-winning newspaper on aviation. So, a lot of experts in a lot of people giving them data and information. So, there's a lot online that suggests that it was at the wrong altitude. I think the president may have even said something this morning confirming that it was at an altitude that people didn't expect it to be at.

But let's get the data from the NTSB. They have the black box, as your reporter just said. It will take them some time to analyze it. Yes, they might be able to play it today, but the point is, they're trying to piece together so that we get to the real facts of a situation, and that's what I think is so important, because every aviation change that we need to make needs to be based on the real facts.

BROWN: I want to go back to that video we've been showing that CNN has obtained, and it shows the moments -- if we can just show that here -- it shows the moments just before the midair collision. And, you know, you watch that video and hopefully, again, we can pull it up, but it does raise questions about the Black Hawk helicopter and whether it was focused on the wrong plane.

Here it is right here. You can see this video from a different angle, and there it happens. And it's just so hard to even watch that because we do have to remember, as we talk about the investigation, 67 lives lost. But what questions does that raise for you? And do you know from the briefings you've gotten? Have you learned anything about the helicopter pilots in terms of where they were in their training? Because experts I've been speaking to are asking, could it have been an issue of fatigue? Were they done with their training? They were heading back. Was fatigue an issue?

CANTWELL: Well, Pamela, first, let me express my condolences to all the families. These are such horrific events and they take devastating tolls on people's families that they may never recover from. And so what the best thing we can do for them is get them answers.

And so what the video shows is that they were flying at the same altitude at a moment when that shouldn't have happened, that somewhere in the process of what is now established as these two routes, which I think will raise a lot of questions for lawmakers to discuss, how are those two routes and even the level of separation that is expected, how are we even doing that? So, I think we'll get an answer from NTSB. But from appearances, it looked like they were at the same altitude.

BROWN: Do you think helicopters should be flying there near the airport in that busy airspace?

CANTWELL: I think that we have to ask a question, what kind of oversight do we have of a plan that allows maybe a cap at 200 feet and a flight coming in on that Runway 33? Is that even enough to have separation? Is that enough separation? So, if the pilot just deviated by 100 feet, was that enough separation?

So, all these are things we're going to have to get from the NTSB and be -- you know, I know it's hard. It's hard to wait for that, but Jennifer Homendy is an excellent, excellent administrator. I think she's spending her time today briefing the families, which I think people forget that's an also very hard part of this.

BROWN: A hundred percent.

CANTWELL: The administrator, we had a seaplane accident out in the northwest and she personally came and took over the investigation. And you have to be able to communicate to the press, but you have to also communicate to the families and they want answers too.

BROWN: Of course, just to follow up on that, though, because Rene just talked about the near collision the day before between an airplane and a helicopter. Should airplanes be flying in that crowded airspace near DCA, particularly at night where there are just more complexities?

CANTWELL: I think there has to be a review of this policy. And how did we get to this point? Obviously, our airspace here with a military presence and, my senses, movement of dignitaries in and out of D.C., what is the right level of interface between those two entities, the FAA and DOD? And we need to get clarity on this.

BROWN: Right. Yes. So, the helicopters and whether they should still be flying in that airspace at night, I think that's continuing piece of scrutiny after this collision.

Something else that is under scrutiny is this bill that you supported. It was a bipartisan group of senators supporting more flights being added, more long distance flights, five being added. As you well know, some of your fellow colleagues, Senator King, Senator Warner, Senator Van Hollen, they were against it. They said, look, this airspace is way too crowded.

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It's too complex. DCA is already maxed out. It's supposed to take 15 million flights. It's now 25 million and we're adding more? Was that the wrong move in hindsight following this collision, which, by the way, we don't know if it played a role with this, but does it raise questions for you? CANTWELL: Well, the FAA has the ultimate authority to always monitor the flight paths and systems and say what is safe and what is operational. That rests with the FAA administrator. I hope we will get an FAA administrator very soon because I thought Mike Whitaker was doing a good job at trying to address our safety issues and now we don't have an administrator.

But I think all of this will be discussed because the question is, how do you build capacity? There's a lot of members who don't like the perimeter rule, that is that we're allowing a lot of short flights from various places into DCA. So, it's -- I guarantee you out of 100 members of the United States Senate, they all have an opinion. They're just not the same opinion.

So, I think what you have to do in any instance, you need a continuous safety improvement regime. We're fighting for that. That bill gave us more air traffic controllers. It funded the NTSB when people didn't want to reauthorize and fund it. They're the North Star. Whatever they say, that's what we should do.

Unfortunately, the FAA needs to be a more aggressive oversight agency. And in this case, what did the FAA think of this inter flight pattern between DOD And the air traffic controllers' management at the airport? And what else were they dealing with? What else were the air traffic controllers dealing with?

So, after the Challenger explosion, we put a bigger safety office at NASA. And it may be that there's a need for a bigger safety office at the FAA to monitor these airport issues and give us an understanding of whether they think that they have the capacity to deal with this or they don't. But, ultimately, it's the FAA administrator's determination. Does that airport have a problem? Does it need to change?

BROWN: Really quickly, I want to get your response to President Trump basically blaming DEI and Democrats on this collision.

CANTWELL: Well, I think he was off base. The standards for air traffic controllers haven't changed, so they're the same standards and people have to meet them or you don't get the job. What is a problem is that we haven't had enough air traffic controllers. So, you have been stretching the people that do work there, sometimes making them work six days in a row. We fought to improve by adding 3,000 new air traffic controllers. So, we're not going to cut back on air traffic controllers. We want to have more. We want them to have enough rest. And we want to make sure that the FAA does its oversight job of the airspace and air traffic controllers. And do we have what it takes to monitor any situation?

BROWN: And as we know, our reporting from Pete Muntean is that the air traffic controller on duty was doing the job of two, covering both helicopters and the planes at the time of this collision, even though that's not uncommon, apparently, according to experts.

CANTWELL: Well, I don't know, and I'm like you. I know we've had some briefing yesterday by NTSB and they'll keep us up to speed is -- I know Chairman Cruz is planning to have a member meeting with NTSB probably next week or early next week. And so we'll get some more information there.

But, yes, that question of what is the standard practice for staffing? And if they moved it by an hour, which it sounds like they did, if they basically said, as traffic slowed down, did they release people from having two different systems in place at the same time?

All of this is the oversight role we are supposed to play, but the bottom line is the FAA has to be more aggressive, particularly in an era of new technology. They have to be more aggressive about monitoring all of this and not just letting, if your incident showed that there was a go-around yesterday, or maybe two weeks ago, or I've even been on a go-around at National.

BROWN: Me too.

CANTWELL: So we have said to the NTSB, you publish the trend report. You publish the safety trend report. Why? Because we believe you. Why? Because you have to investigate accidents. Why? Because you have to listen to those tapes over and over again, the last minutes of someone's life. So, listen to what the NTSB says. And if they say that is not enough staffing or that's not enough flow, then fix the problem.

BROWN: All right. Senator Maria Cantwell, thank you very much for your time.

CANTWELL: Thank you.

BROWN: Two young ice skaters and their coach, a Harvard trained civil rights attorney, just some of the 67 victims from the midair collision. We'll bring you their stories up next.

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BROWN: Breaking news, the FAA is indefinitely closing helicopter routes near Reagan National Airport after the midair collision.

I want to go straight to CNN's Rene Marsh. I was just talking about this with Senator Cantwell whether that should happen, and now it is Rene. What more are you learning?

MARSH: Yes, certainly. This was the conversation that a lot in the aviation industry were having. And now we see that the FAA is taking swift and this is pretty major action here where they are essentially closing these helicopter routes near Reagan National Airport, this coming from CNN's Pete Muntean. Again, the breaking news is that they have indefinitely shut down the low altitude helicopter corridor that was in use at the time of Wednesday night's fatal midair collision.

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That is what an FAA spokesperson tells us a little bit more detail on these routes. It says that it has closed the route north of Wilson Bridge that connects D.C. and Virginia and the FAA has also closed another helicopter route, south of the key bridge that connects Georgetown neighborhood to D.C. and Rosslyn.

Just in layman's terms, you know, this airspace, and we talked about it so much and just how complicated and busy it is, simply because it's not only military aircraft but also police aircraft also traversed this airspace, and in light of this midair collision, the FAA taking this stance.

And we heard from the NTSB yesterday where they said that during the course of this investigation, if they identify a safety issue that they feel needs to be corrected in real time, they will do that. And so we see the investigators find that this situation about this busy airspace around Reagan National Airport being occupied by military aircraft and commercial aircraft is just too dangerous to continue to leave that open at this point. And so that is the top line here, they are closing off the airspace to these military helicopter aircraft. Pam?

BROWN: All right. Rene Marsh, thanks for bringing us that breaking news.

And we're learning more this morning about those who died in the horrific crash among them, world class athletes, a group of friends who were returning from their annual hunting trip and a pilot looking forward to his wedding this fall.

CNN's Eva McKend joins us now. Eva, so many passengers with promising futures, it's just so devastating.

EVA MCKEND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, Pam. And these young attorneys, you know, they had such great promise. They were just starting their lives. I want to lift up the name of Kiah Duggins. She was Harvard trained, a civil rights attorney. She worked for Civil Rights Corps. She was returning home to see her family in Wichita, Kansas, before coming back to D.C. for work. At Harvard, she was the president of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. And this fall, she was set to become a professor at Howard University's School of Law.

She was a White House intern during the Obama administration and she was a Fulbright scholar in Taiwan teaching English. So, just an incredible life that she live, right, someone you would want to have been friends with.

BROWN: I just look at the picture of her and there's so much like brightness and light and promise.

MCKEND: Yes.

BROWN: And it's just --

MCKEND: It's devastating.

BROWN: It's devastating. MCKEND: Sarah Lee Best and Elizabeth Anne Keys are other names I want to lift up. They were associates of the same firm. They are being remembered as cherished members of their community. Keys was 33 years old, a Cincinnati native and went on to graduate from Tufts University in the Boston area. Sarah Lee Best is being remembered for her boundless curiosity, kindness and intelligence.

And we heard from Keys' high school principal. Let's listen.

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RAY SPICHER, FORMER HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL FOR VICTIM ELIZABETH ANNE KEYS: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: And Pam, what strikes me about this entire episode is that so many of the people were so young. They were just starting their lives. They had so much promise. Some of them were remarkably talented as we learn about their careers and their work. And all of that was cut short.

BROWN: Yes, those two ice skaters, right, their coaches.

MCKEND: Yes. This was part of the University of Delaware figure skating club. And what we know about them was that this was an incredibly tight knit group. These were young people that were working very, very hard and were dedicated and disciplined athletes. I know. I know. And so this is all we can do in this moment is just to remember them and lift up their names and remember them for how they lived.

BROWN: And just think about their families right now and the heartbreak and grief, the unimaginable grief that they are going through as they process this, as we all are.

Eva McKend, thank you.

Joining us now is Democratic Kansas State Representative John Carmichael. So, you represent the city of Wichita. How are you and your community coping right now?

STATE REP. JOHN CARMICHAEL (D-KS): I am one of about 20 state representatives who represent Wichita, and obviously it's shock. This is the third major air disaster in my lifetime involving people from Wichita. But I have to comment though on this segment just a moment ago about Kiah Duggins. You know, her father's a friend of mine. I've known the family for years, went to school with them.

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She is amongst the best and the brightest. She's a person of color. And it really offends me when Donald Trump campaigns and insults people of color and people with disabilities, saying that they're affirmative action hires. Has the man no compassion? BROWN: This is a picture here of Kiah. Like I said earlier in our last segment, I mean, she just -- she embodies everything that you would want, right? I mean, she just has so much promise and brightness and lightness and just -- it is a life cut short, so many lives cut short.

You mentioned President Trump, the comments that he made blaming DEI and Democrats, baselessly blaming before even all the bodies have been pulled from the water. What would you like to hear from President Trump in this moment of grief?

CARMICHAEL: What I would like to hear is the same type of thing that our senior senator, a Republican, Jerry Moran, a friend of mine from law school, has said and done, number one, an outpouring of genuine compassion and help for the families of the victims. And, number two, just like Senator Cantwell, a commitment, to once the facts are in, once the NTSB is determined what happened, to then investigate and see what if any changes need be made.

But to go off on a half-baked attack on people of color, that's just -- it's unacceptable in my view. And I really wish the president wouldn't do those sorts of things.

BROWN: What does that do to you in a moment of grief? I'm hearing that from the president. I'm just worried -- I'm just wondering what that does to this community.

CARMICHAEL: The lead editorial in this morning's Wichita Eagle addresses that very issue. And the editorial editor there expressed it very clearly that this is disrespectful. This is not helpful. There are things that can be done that are helpful. And obviously closing those low altitude helicopter routes until we can determine what happened is an example of something that's important for aviation safety.

Wichita is a place where we build airplanes. Everybody in Wichita has a tie to airplanes. I've flown for 50 years. We have a commitment to aviation safety in this community. And it's important that people like Senators Cantwell and Senator Moran get to the bottom of it once the facts are in.

BROWN: Kansas State Representative John Carmichael, thank you.

CARMICHAEL: Thank you for having me.

BROWN: And coming up, what do pilots actually see when they fly into the D.C. area at night? Commercial Pilot and Flight Instructor Aaron Murphy will take us inside a flight simulator just ahead.

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