perry, you are watching or special programming incoming data from washington vfleagain her; beagan here on national reagan airport here on a date when an is a date when an investigation is into the continuing into the biggest crush that has happened here on american soil, biggest aviation for 7 7? for more than for more thafri720 years. it cash for more than 20 years. it happened just before 9pm last night, just beside us here, as american airlines aircraft an american airlines aircraft approaching the runway, it was approaching the runway, it collided with it military helicopter. there were 64 passengers and crew on the american aircraft. there were no survivors. night has fallen here, it is cold and darkjust as it was this last night, a

�*than 77 �* than now 7 �* than now when that later than now when that recovery — that crash happened. and recovery is still under way here with responders in the river, for t’f’bsfiiez 7 ' .. {bodies those 7 7 bod|es "mg; ' £58" ' bod|es "$55; ' {581m ' the bodies of those 67 who lost �* lives. the bodies of those 67 who lost �*lives. the the bodies of those 67 who lost �* lives. the latest update their lives. the latest update we have received is that 28 of the have been the bodies have been recovered, 27 of were in the american and one who airlines aircraft and one who was in the helicopter. it is not clear what caused the accident at this and planes, a job normally done by two people at that time news. senator maria cantwell told reuters news agency that has recovered a data recorder

from the american airlines jet. published within 30 days. a further report would come after that as unknown time after that as an unknown time they had completed all of �* work. at the news conference. but in this case, they are still arriving. our family assistance specialists are already working by this accident. and let me just reiterate what the chair said, a loss of life in an aviation accident is very unusual

out to everyone that is affected. there are a lot of people hurting today. so what do we know, about what happened next? here's ros atkins. the first question is whether either was off course. from the south. the helicopter, marked in red, was flying along the river. the trump administration says both were on a standard flight pattern.

to the helicopter, referring to it as pat—25 this is the audio. in another recording, we hear what appears to be the helicopter�*s pilot. there is a question here about which aircraft there was another plane nearby. we don't know if the helicopter pilot had this plane in the seconds before what had happened, wouldn't there have been an automated warning?

is at low altitude. airspace in washington? runways in the us. that question still requires an answer.

67 people lost their lives in collision. the amertican airlines plane, with at least 15 of involved with us figure skating. on the tight knit skating community. but this picture was the last he posted. skating community had feared — that he had been on board flight 5342. jinna han. so too had fellow skaterjinna han. both had been accompanied on the plane by their mothers which has been left reeling. we were informed of

a pretty horrific tragedy. two coaches, two teenage athletes, this will have long reaching impacts for our skating community. couple yevgenia shishkova and vadim naumov, who, in 1994, and competed at the olympics. in boston since 2017. the loss of their athletes, and spoke of their unimaginable the main lesson i think learned in skating is you get back up. even when it's hard, you get back up. even when you're crying, hurt, in pain, you get back

up and move forward. please join us now in a moment of silence, as we think- of those who have been lost and their loved ones. -

as the sport reflects on lives and talent taken too soon. laura scott, bbc news. in a news conference thursday morning at the white house, for the crash victims.

and claimed without evidence that �*diversity programmes' at the faa contributed to the crash. later in the afternoon afternoon, trump signed an executive order, directing the faa to assess what he care what race they are. all i am talking about is competence, and we want in that particular position, we have to have the most about lives.

level as the aeroplane. the plane was at 300 400 feet, or the plane should have been stopped, or the helicopter should it was on a long track, it was the same track or turning left or turning right at a quicker time, a tragic, a tragic story. maybe the pilots fault,

they should've seen it, i think they should have seen it. he appointed chris rocheleau, a us air force veteran, who has worked at the faa for 20 years. the previous faa administrator stepped down early from his five—year term on inauguration day to allow president trump to appoint his preferred appointee for the role. a democrat from maryland. talk to us a little bit about what you've been told and, you know, our hearts go out to the loved ones.

so first and foremost, we are working to provide that assistance that people need. fact finding investigation. it needs to be transparent. it needs to be done in a way that people have confidence in the outcome. i do have confidence in the ntsb. bridge in baltimore. we don't see these kind of tragedies happen again. this was avoidable. getting the facts as to what went wrong is essential. when there was a vote on the the reauthorisation bill concerns about just the pressure that this airport was already under and efforts to make it even busier than it is.

do you think is this is a reagan airportjust beyond capacity at this time? it is definitely beyond capacity. there's too much congestion. from virginia and myself opposed one of the faa reagan national airport, already the most congested when you look at the times, planes have to hover in the air before they land. they have to hover for longer times, on average, at this airport than any other airport in the country. so congestion is a problem.

at that factor as well. particular collision. they said in 30 days they'll issue their there preliminary report. seek to prejudge some of those findings. earlier on, when he made comments, he described them to lay the blame for this, some of it anyway, at the feet constituents of yours. what did you make of what the president said? i was actually watching that news conference on television live, and i was absolutely appalled that president trump

in fact, he conceded in response to a question, he had no basis for making those claims. and yet, he recklessly and irresponsibly did that. to get to the facts. what we don't need is president trump making now, we've seen him in recent days signing executive orders to do with how federal agencies are funded. to be recovered. are you confident that there are enough resources to allow the various agencies to do what they have to do to bring those people back to their loved ones?

i'm not at this point in time. they need to hire more people. for around the country in terms of freezing federal funds has had a very harmful impact on communities overall. to politicise what has been a merit—based civil service. and through something called

schedule f, try to replace and particularly in this area. well, we're in the immediate aftermath of this tragedy. those who lost their loved ones providing assistance. i will say that it was really gratifying to see the first responders from throughout the of columbia, mayor bowser. she was grateful for

the resources maryland recovery operation. so this is a case where we're all in this together. it's one for all and all for one. together in this really terrible moment senator chris van hollen speaking to me a little earlier. eight more hostages have been released under crowds in the occupied

west bank welcomed the release released from captivity, into chaos. hostages to the surging crowd. 80—year—old gadi moses, his face contorted in pain, five thai farm workers. after 15 months in captivity, the short walk to freedom —

your hands together. for kidnapped soldier agam berger, highly back home in israel, agam's childhood friends watched her appear. it's felt like something is missing inside of us, of our hearts. because she's really, really a good friend of ours. she's, like, one of the group, and, just, she wasn't here. in exchange, israel released 110 palestinian prisoners. among them, dozens of teenagers

and the former head of an armed palestinian group in reunions here seen by many as a triumph for hamas... ..seen in israel as the price it pays to get its hostages home. they seek to be confirmed as they seek to be confirmed into their positions. into their positions. kash patel, tulsi gabbard, kash patel, tulsi gabbard, and robert f kenneder and robert f kenneder each defended their records during separate confirmation hearings on thursday. ms gabbard — who was ms gabbard — who was tapped to be director tapped to be director of national intelligence — of national intelligence — was probed by democrats was probed by democrats over accusations she's by democrats of promoting over accusations she's repeated russian propoganda and justified the

invasion of ukraine. repeated russian propoganda while mr kennedy — president trumps pick to lead the department of health and human services — faced more questions about his faced more questions about his anti—vaccination stance. anti—vaccination stance. and kash patel, who was nominated to serve as fbi director — was accused director — was accused by democrats of promoting conspiracy theories and being supportive of the january sixth us capitol rioters. here's one of the combative exchanges from mr patel�*s hearings.

now president. the bbc has apologised to staff who felt they could not they stayed silent". the apology came as the bbc published the findings of an internal review into brand's time as a radio presenter. the defence minister called it a signal for supporting kyiv.

long—range missiles and drones. sweden is also giving assistance to moldova, describing this as part of a policy that aims energy the huge predators need, and how they're being affected the bears hunt seals across the arctic ice, melts more quickly. that means a poorer diet, affecting the health of mothers and cubs. polar bears head for shore. through the summer. when we joined a team of conservation scientists late

already struggling with rising temperatures. for them to truly adapt. season is shrinking. now, by working out how much energy a bear needs, be as long as 150 days here hits polar bear mothers for a bear of a given size that comes on land, in energy, based on our understanding of how they're burning their limited energy reserves. to provide milk for their cubs. of the best studied in the world. when they're on land.

and sea ice loss is what's caused the polar bear population here to halve since the 1980s. in a warming world. victoria gill, bbc news. that it for the moment, you can keep to date with the can keep up to date with the store and all of the news store and all of the days news on our website. i am caitriona perry, thank you for that's come our way over the last couple of weeks, things for the next few days look a good deal quieter. not completely dry, some rain for friday morning, but a fair amount of cloud.

eastwards, but it is a very weak affair, particularly it may linger for some of these eastern and southeastern coasts but there will be some sunny spells. northern ireland. scotland not doing badly either, temperatures around 6—10 degrees. now, during friday night we will see this zone of clear there could be some mist and murk around as well, and another zone of cloud pushing in towards northern but where we do see some clear spells, temperatures will drop for some on saturday morning. for the weekend.

so a lot of dry weather around on saturday, but a fair bit area of high pressure. so watch as we go through saturday night and on into and so what will be left with for sunday is, yes, a band of clouds and bits and pieces of rain, but nothing too significant. and eastern england — we should see some spells of sunshine. as we look ahead to next week, a decent amount of dry weather around once again.

this is bbc news. will have the for you at the top of headlines for you at the top of the hour which is this programmei i'm stephen sackur.

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