>> i'm rick bonnet, fire chief of ny fire and rescue. our unit as chief donnelly alluded to at 2048, we received a alert from the faa tower of an aircraft incident involving a commercial aircraft and a helicopter. our units immediately responded and deployed three boats and immediately called for mutual aid resources. again, as chief donnelly said, this is an active operation that's going to last many hours as we continue to work through recovery efforts and rescue operations. this will be ongoing for quite a while. um, our thoughts and prayers are with the families and our communities, and we appreciate all the support to our agency and our federal partners. >> thank you. >> so with that, i wanted to turn to the the senators who are from kansas, who wanted to say a few words. first, senator moran and then senator marshall.

>> mayor, thank you. and, mr. secretary, thank you. and to our first responders, thank you very much for all that's taking place here. i'm jerry moran, i'm a united states senator from kansas. and i chair the subcommittee and commerce committee on aviation. so we have really a serious and sad circumstance that we want to be here to be helpful. and we're praying that our responders are safe. and the folks who are on that flight are recovered. the. circumstance i would describe is that, um, i know that flight. i've flown it many times myself. i lobbied american airlines to begin having a direct nonstop flight service to dca. that flight has been in existence about a year, and it is certainly true that, uh, in

kansas and in wichita in particular, we're going to know people who are on this flight, know their family members, know somebody. so this is a very personal circumstance as well as an official response. and again, we're we will do everything we can to make certain that we're supportive of the rescue efforts, and we'll do everything we can to make certain that, uh, our subcommittee and congress is engaged in what needs to take place following, uh, the outcome of this evening and this this month's kind of investigation. i've talked to ntsb, i've talked to the white house. uh, i've talked to the department of defense, and i've talked to the ceo of american airlines. and there is all of us pulling together for the best outcome possible. i'm honored to be here with my colleague, senator marshall. uh, as we try to try to make certain that we'd care for those, certainly back in kansas that were on that flight. but it's a reminder that there are people here in washington,

dc and this region and in virginia and maryland and many places else that fly to and from kansas. and so we're we're rooting and supporting all those, regardless of where you're from. and, mayor, i appreciate the the gathering here for us to try to provide information to those in kansas and across your city. >> thank you. thank you, senator. thank you. >> thank you. >> senator moran and mayor, secretary, you know, when one person dies, it's a tragedy. but when many, many, many people die, it's an unbearable sorrow. it's a heartbreak beyond measure. and i know senator moran and i are here just to, um, to to say we care. we wish that there was more we could do, but unfortunately, there doesn't seem much at this time. i want the folks to back home to just know that we care, that we love them, and that this is a time when when we'll have to join arms together and and help

each other out. we've been through things like this before, through tornadoes and floods and things, but it's really hard when you lose, you know, probably over 60 kansans simultaneously. and i don't want to forget the pilots and the and the flight attendants. you know, we're doing, you know, do their job. and the military personnel we lost all those lives are so valuable. and it is such a tragedy that we lost him. you know, i think often in times like this, i try to find a scripture that, you know, is apropos. and this is from the book of psalms. it says the lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. certainly we're crushed in spirit. tonight we mourn with the families who lost loved ones. and and we truly are joining them in prayer and wrapping our arms around them in love and compassion. thanks for everybody for coming out tonight. and thank you for your thoughts and your prayers.

>> thank you. >> so certainly i speak for the people of washington, 700,000 of us who are extremely sorry for the families who are experiencing loss tonight. and so we want you to know that we will continue to work with american airlines to share information as frequently as possible and make sure that we're getting accurate information out to the public. but my sorrow for all of the people and crew on the plane and our military personnel on the helicopter is very deep. i do want to turn to jack carter, who is the ceo of our airports authority, responsible for reagan national airport and dulles international airport, to talk to you about how the airport responded and what we're

looking, what what's going to happen next. >> good evening. as was said, i'm jack potter, the president and ceo of the metropolitan washington airports authority. thank you all for being here tonight. and under these very, very grim circumstances. uh, first of all, i want to let you know that we're providing support to all the families. uh, who are involved. american airlines has established a phone number for them to reach out. it's been published. but let me repeat it. it's one( 800) 679-8215. so families of folks that were on the plane are asked to contact them. we did have folks who were at the airport to pick up loved ones. and so american has set up a center in their american in their lounge at the north end of the airport. and we've directed the families there, and there are folks there to counselors

there to work with the families. we did have aircraft that were in the air. they were diverted to dulles airport, some 19 aircraft. we had personnel united and others had personnel. we want to thank ramada for extending their hours on the metro to make sure that those folks were accommodated. right now, as was said earlier by the chief, we're in a rescue mode. we will continue in that rescue mode. i want to thank all of the mutual aid responders, all the counties, the district folks from maryland and virginia. everybody is on site doing the best they can, and numerous boats out in the water right now, ntsb is on site. i want to thank all of the folks behind me, the secretary, the mayor, two senators, for all of their support. and we're going to continue to work through the night. i do want to make an announcement. people are, you know, concerned about what's going to happen in the morning.

reagan national airport will be closed until 11:00. that's when the first flights will take off. but we're going to continue to do our best and work through this situation. uh, over the course of the night. and we hope to have more news as it develops. but for right now, it's very difficult situation out there with the cold. it's very dark, but there are numerous boats out there. there are dive teams out there. so again, we'll continue to work this situation and i'll turn it back to the mayor. thank you very much. >> thanks for that update. and i do. you've heard that in the national capital region, the district, of course, is washington, d.c. is at the center. but we are a close region. we have heard from the governors of maryland and virginia, the mayor of the city of baltimore, all who have sent u.s. personnel to help in the rescue operations. the last thing i'll note is just to our

our local viewership and just please let our first responders do their work. um, try to let our vehicles get to scenes and through scenes. we don't want anybody else to get hurt. um, because of moving vehicles. okay? so we will be able to take a few questions. there is not a lot that we can say. we won't be able to say anything about an investigation. as you know, once fire and ems completes the rescue operation, then the investigation goes over to the national transportation safety board. and i'm sure the safety board, ntsb, will provide information about when they will be briefing about an investigation. so we'll take a few. yes. >> can you confirm that both aircraft are in the water and perhaps chief donnelly can explain what's involved in

conducting an operation like this in these conditions? >> yes. both aircraft are in the water. the focus now is rescuing people. and that's what all of our personnel are focused on. and, chief, i think he's given a pretty good description. but if there's anything else you want to add, chief. >> i would just say that the boats are out doing searches. we have divers on both aircraft and they're they're searching those. those airports, the the aircraft at this point. >> right? >> yes. >> if any survivors have been found and how many bodies have been recovered? >> all we can confirm tonight is the number of people on each aircraft. 64 people on the american airlines plane and three people on the military helicopter. and we can't provide any more information about recovery efforts. >> people have talked about lost loved ones. so how do you know that there might be people who have lost loved ones? >> i didn't say i didn't know,

people have lost loved ones. i said, we can't talk about any of the recovery efforts in specific tonight. yes. secretary soto, i'll call on who's next. yes. >> thank you. mayor bowser. um, will this affect operations at dulles and bwi? will the potomac river traffic be closed to boats? >> yes. um, and so jack has talked about. jack, can you talk about dulles? i'm not sure we can talk about bwi, but we can talk about dulles. >> there is no impact at bwi or at dulles. as i said earlier, our airport here, ronald reagan national airport, will be closed until 11:00. obviously, that will be fluid. we'll learn more. but we wanted to advise passengers who might be coming to the airport in the morning that we will be closed until at least 11:00. >> a question for secretary. secretary? >> yeah. one second. your next hi. thank you so much. uh. >> just other than the current situation, like, you know, the

water is extremely cold and it's very dark outside. although, you know, senator is saying that there are numerous boats in the water, but what is the still, you know, the biggest challenges for the rescue team, what best scenario we can expect in the coming few hours? >> chief? >> so the challenges are access, um, the water that we're operating in is about eight feet deep. um, there is wind, there is pieces of ice out there. so it's just dangerous and hard to work in. and because there's not a lot of lights, you're out there searching every square inch of space to see if you can find anybody. and divers are doing the same thing in the water. the water is dark, it is murky. and that is a very tough condition for them to dive in. the question about the river will make that decision later. the coast guard is on scene, and i would expect that. it's not a high use time in the river, and we should not expect to have commercial. uh, recreational traffic on the river tomorrow. >> okay. three questions. one, two, three. >> secretary, have you been in touch with the air traffic

controllers in the tower at the time of the crash? >> i have not. >> we have not. and second question, this is your first several hours in this position. what are your thoughts? what are you feeling right now? >> listen, my focus is on, um, those who are impacted on this flight and um, again, i've been the secretary for, a little over a day, and, um, the tragedy that we're going to deal with with this recovery, i think, is touching everyone's hearts, whether it's here in, in the greater d.c. area or in kansas. and again, i think everyone here is thinking and praying for those who potentially have lost a loved one. and, uh, thank you. >> for your question. >> can any of you give us any sense about how. >> an accident like this could have happened so close to the airport, right in the heart of d.c.? there have been reports that the d.c. tower contacted

the helicopter moments before the crash to ask if they had sight of the aircraft, and apparently the helicopter reported that it did have sight of an aircraft. is it possible that it had the wrong aircraft in sight? do you have any sense of what went wrong in those final moments? >> i know that the national transportation safety board, in its investigation, will be able to to search on all of those questions. we wouldn't be able to talk about that tonight. yes. >> two parts for secretary guffey. first, meta you were talking about how you were in the situation room with the president and pete hegseth both being there. can you tell us more about the president's initial reaction to this, as well as you guys have gideon sa'ar the military helicopter? >> so i was not in the situation room. i did have a conversation with the situation room where the president was located, as well as with secretary hegseth. um, we were exchanging information. i would just note that, uh, not just the local team, but the federal team has, uh, performed very well in this

crisis. i know the president is incredibly concerned about what's happened here today. i'm sure we'll continue to hear more from him, and i'll continue to consult with him and secretary hegseth. >> when it comes to the resources that you would be able to provide on the federal level, do you feel like you're getting what you need? >> i absolutely, we the president has committed to to this team and to the ntsb through the dot that we will provide all resources necessary as we go through this recovery, but also the support from faa and dot, as the ntsb investigates. >> mr. secretary, do you do we know the condition. >> of these aircraft? >> are they are they cold? are they split into pieces? >> again, i don't think we can comment on that. our focus is on getting the passengers and crew out of the water. >> and just one more clarification, because earlier we had gotten guidance that dca was going to be shut down at least until friday at 5 a.m. i

just heard 11 a.m., 11 a.m. tomorrow. tomorrow, tomorrow. okay. >> yes. okay. we can take we can take a few more questions. a question here, a question here and here. yes. >> mayor, can we just confirm. >> has anybody. >> been transported to the hospital since? >> again, i can't say anything about the rescue operation right now. uh, who was next? yes. >> chief donnelly, can you speak a little bit more about the unified command who leads this phase of the rescue and recovery? at what point do you then change phases? and can you describe to us the scene as best you can when first responders first arrived? >> so, um, i happen to be listening to the radio this evening when the call came out, um, i listened to the responders come in and the initial response, they they were, um, very professional trying to locate this. this is, if you can imagine, the river is a large black spot at night with no

lights on it, except for a few buoy lights. so they were out there looking, uh, the boats pretty quickly were able to locate the one of the aircraft and get there. um, so that's what's going on right now. everybody's working on that. we will reevaluate where we are with the rescue operation in the morning when we get a better sense of it. but we are still out there working, and we're going to continue that throughout the night. >> do you sense that there are survivors? >> we don't know yet, but we're working. >> is there any part of the search happening over land? >> no, we're all in the water. >> yes, yes. oh, you got a question? somebody didn't get a question. hold on. yes. >> i just wanted to ask. do you have an estimate? an estimate yet? >> on how long the recovery efforts will take, chief? >> so, uh, experiences like this go. we expect to continue our operations in the fire department for multiple days. and then i would expect the investigation goes longer than that.

>> okay, you didn't get a question, and you are next. i think. >> thank you. uh. >> thank you mayor. >> my question is, do we have any plan to prevent future uh, crises or future accidents? do we have any any like to reform the authority, the airport control, to calm those people who are flying in the next few days? and also how long the rescue is going to last? are we going to stop rescue after tomorrow at 11 a.m.? the like, like, diverse team because they are still in the golden hours now? >> no, i mean, i think you just heard the chief said we're going to be out there as long as it takes, and we're obviously trying to to get to people as soon as possible. but we are going to recover our fellow citizens. yes. >> this is for the chief. >> and secretary. guffey. um, how do you how do you balance the search and rescue operation with preserving the scene for

the investigation that's now underway? >> so, um, from the from the fire department's point of view, we are always going to put people first. but i don't think that i think our operations, because we have a unified command. we are all working together. and the ntsb is in contact with us, and we will work together to make sure that if there's crucial evidence that it's not, that it's preserved. and that's something we do every day with our police department on crime scenes and things. so life comes first and everything else after that. >> okay. >> last question. >> yeah. >> secretary, i just want to ask i know it's early, but are there any immediate actions you think the faa should take to prevent helicopters and commercial airplanes from getting too close to one another? >> so obviously there'll be a review of what happened here tonight. and after the faa studies what happened, we will take appropriate action if necessary, to modify flight paths and and permissions. >> okay.

>> you have one. >> do you have any more details about the helicopter issues with the blackhawk and mario melgar-adalid? >> i rikers island president trump. >> um, i spoke with the president's national security advisor and i have not talked to the president yet, and i do not know what the mission was. so let me close by saying again, thank you to the members of the press to help us get information out to the families. the american airlines number is 806 798215. ( 800) 679-8215. and i expect the airport will likely provide additional information in the morning. thank you. >> mary. >> you have been listening to officials here in washington, dc giving the first update to reporters and the public on the plane crash that we saw earlier, where an american airlines plane collided with a blackhawk helicopter and downed in the potomac, where a search and

rescue effort is still underway. the mayor there of washington, dc, muriel bowser, saying that this is very much still a rescue operation. she also noted that officials in the airport are meeting with families right now. american airlines officials are meeting with them. they expect there to be another briefing when the sun comes up and there is more daylight, and they get a better picture of what is happening right now there in the water. but you heard from the dc fire and ems chief talking about what these first responders are dealing with at this moment. he referred to it as a large black spot essentially inside the potomac river, where there are about 300 responders or so on the scene. as of this moment. he talked about the conditions that they are battling high winds, rough water, pieces of ice that are still in that potomac from those very cold temperatures that we saw in washington earlier this week. the new transportation, transportation secretary, john sean duffy, has just been sworn in. a few hours ago. he said he had conversations from the faa

headquarters with president trump, who was gathered with his team inside the national inside the situation room at the white house. the national security advisor, also speaking with the d.c. mayor. so far, no word on casualties or survivors that we got from officials there, though they maintained several of them that this is very much still a rescue operation. we did hear from one of the senators from kansas saying that he does believe many have been killed here. we are still waiting for an official update. the airport ceo noted that families have come to the airport to pick up their loved ones, and are now waiting and standing by for this news that airport will be closed until at least 11 a.m. tomorrow, according to officials. as they say, the search effort is going to continue throughout the night as we are waiting to learn more. laura coates, who is live outside the reagan airport, it was difficult to to listen to kansas senator moran there, saying he personally lobbied to

get this airport, this, this, this flight, a direct flight from wichita, kansas to d.c., obviously, a flight that lawmakers here know all too well and that he expects that they are going to know a lot of people who were on board that plane. >> it is unbelievably devastating to think about what we are about to learn. and when the daylight breaks and the light goes on, the potomac river, shallow in many areas, we will know possibly the fate of 67 very important people to their loved ones, their families. tonight, what started out as an otherwise normal day, a normal wednesday, wednesday evening here in washington, d.c., just close to the pentagon. i want to orient the audience. for those of you who are not familiar, we are just along the river in an area that is populated by many apartment buildings. there is a mall over here. there is, of course, the pentagon. there is also the amazon headquarters, a number of businesses. this collision happening near all of those

areas, thinking about the water, that recovery and rescue efforts that are happening right now. and just moments ago, while we were listening to the briefing, learning about the expected devastation, an interesting thing happened with park police. >> that's right. a very rare instance where the media is actually asked to work with responders in a given situation like this. that is what just happened a few minutes ago. we were here doing some reporting, listening to the news conference when a park police officer came over here and asked us to not shine our lights toward the water because it interferes with the night vision of the divers and the boats and the other rescuers. so we have done what he asked, and we have turned our cameras with the lights away from the water. but now what we can do is ask our photojournalist, nick leimbach, to turn off his lights. so you're going to see us go dark. but what you will see as he turns off his lights, he will pan to the left. and here's a new visual that we can show you. nick, if you can train your camera to the new flood lighting that we just saw pop up across the river that is right near

joint base anacostia-bolling, a joint naval and air force base. those flood lights that you see over there just came on in the last few minutes. now, the question is, and we don't know the answer to this, is that the location of where the plane and the helicopter are, or is that a location where they're bringing items and first responding equipment back on shore near the base? we don't know that. we do know that there were boats to the left of those flood lights. um, and i cannot see those boats there now. actually, they appear to have moved. so, you know, laura, the boats are moving all around this area, as is that one chopper who has hovered right near us for several minutes. >> and at one point, when we were asked by park police to turn off our lights, you had actual fire department boats that were going along the actual bank of the river, very close to the various docks, looking, searching. and again, the area right along the shore, very

shallow. you can actually with some minimal lighting, you can actually see to the bottom of the river in these areas along the dock. it's not unheard of for boats that are sailing in this area across the potomac river to be grounded at different areas. and here we have them asking you continue to see little skipper boats actually surveying the area. they appear to be with lights on them right now. looking at. >> approaching near where we are. >> yep. a boat is approaching where we are yet again, really near the dock area. remember, this is a river. there is a current. the river is river is cold, but they are continuing to try to use their lighting. that's why they've asked us to turn off, not to interfere with their night vision. they are still searching. >> yes they are, and they need this. water is pitch black. they need every bit of light they can get, every angle that they can find. and if our cameras are interfering with that, then of course we're happy to turn those cameras off, turn the lights away from the river. nick is going to turn the lights back on as he comes back to us again to point out we're facing.

you're facing away from the river. we're looking at the river. we've been asked not to train our lights on the river. a couple of other things we heard john donnelly, the chief of the dc fire and ems department, say that the first responders arrived at 858. i believe that was that's only maybe less than ten minutes after when they got the first calls, they got there quickly, he said. they were able to find the location of where the plane was pretty quickly and start to to do their work. he also commented on the conditions. it's cold, he said. it was windy. now it's not windy where we are, but i can imagine where they are across the river it's probably windy and again, the current and the brackish water is working against them. >> the conditions for the divers also cannot overstate the conditions that they themselves are facing. the idea of a mid-air collision of two separate aircrafts, one being a black hawk helicopter, one being a more than 60 passenger plane in the sky. to try to navigate

these waters in pitch blackness, in the cold water that we're told hours ago is about in the 30s. you're talking about a race against time, temperature, and of course, the desperation to try to get some information. and again, we can't overstate where we are right now in the proximity. this is in the nation's capital, right along the river at the intersection of three different jurisdictions. it's known as the dmv washington, dc, maryland, virginia. the whole of government approach. but if this were to have occurred even a half mile in, we're talking about residential areas. we're talking about shopping centers, we're talking about the pentagon as well. and on the other side, of course, we're looking at the washington monument, the capitol. this is unbelievable. >> and what we also want to point out, laura, is some characteristics of the river that we're talking about here. this is information that we just got a short time ago from the u.s. geological survey. this helps us kind of understand the scope and the difficulty of their operation. this is according to the u.s. geological survey. the potomac river has an

average depth of 24ft. and it's about, averaging about approximately 400 miles long from the headwaters of the north branch to its mouth in the chesapeake bay, 24ft on average. and you and i have been talking about this near where we are. it's a lot less than 24ft. 24ft is at it's its greatest depth over here in the middle of the river. that is an incredibly shallow bottle body of water. now, is that an advantage for the responders? possibly. but it also possibly could work against them because it's very brackish. a lot of sediment kicks up visibility very, very difficult. >> the conditions working against. and yet here we are hoping that there will be more information in the light hours to come. caitlin, a devastating evening as we are learning about 67 lives. what has happened? how could this have happened? >> yeah, laura, it's just awful to hear and to hear that loved

ones were there at the airport, some of them to pick up their their family, their friends from this flight that that crashed with the black hawk helicopter at about 8:48 p.m. eastern. earlier, when that first alert went out, emergency crews arrived on the scene. about ten minutes later, officials said. joining me now is kansas senator roger marshall. you just heard him speaking at that news conference at reagan national airport. and, senator, let me first say i'm so sorry, because obviously, i know these are your constituents, some of them on this flight of 64 people that was on its way from wichita. i know you grew up. you grew up not far from from wichita itself. just tell me. tell me how you're feeling this this evening. >> good boy. i i'll break up. you know, if i really tell you how i'm feeling. but just my prayers for these families. it's a heartache beyond belief. when so many people die simultaneously. um, it's just a tragedy. and i just. my. my heart just aches. it aches. you know, these aren't constituents.

these are friends. these are family members. um, i'm not sure who was on the flight that i know, but i know there'll be many that i did. and i just want those families to know that we're here doing everything we can. i wish there was more that i could do, but we're going to be here for you. we're going to be here with you and help you get through this. and and we're just mourning with each and every one of you. >> and, senator, the mayor of washington referred to this as still a rescue operation that's underway. obviously, we know a lot of these first responders are still in the water at this hour, and battling some really difficult conditions. you talked there about mourning. have you had fatalities confirmed to you, sir do. >> you think? no, i'm not, but i'm a physician and i'm not stupid. um, there's been no ambulances going out of here. this is a dire situation. um, it's a it's a tough situation right now, and i just from the films that you've all seen the films as well, i think it's a

tragic situation. um, it's been hours now with that plane upside down in the water divers in there, and i'm so grateful for the rescuers risking their lives. really? on a on a dark, cold night as well. so thank you to those people. but it's not a good situation here. >> yeah. it's been nearly five hours since that plane. since the plane in the black hawk collided. right now we are looking at a rescue boat that is still in the water. we can see several of the first responders on board, obviously doing heroic work. senator, can you just. what time did you get a call? and can you just describe what that scene at the airport looks like right now yeah. >> so it would have been shortly after 9:00 that everybody's ex feeds on my office were blowing up and they reached out to me. i don't follow any of the social media myself. my my staff reached out to me to say, here, this, this is going we don't know if it's true or not. and then certainly by 930, we knew there was a serious, serious problem. what the scene looks

like out here, it's hard to see i'm not on the water. we got close to to the to to the site, but it's just hundreds and hundreds of emergency vehicles here and it is so dark. i have no idea what they're doing out there, but a full response by the by all the rescue people and the federal government is helping all the communities. and we appreciate that. i just i wish we could do more, though. i wish there was more we could do. and i'm just afraid that that that it's it's just not a good situation here. >> and we heard from your other colleague in the senate there, i mean, senator, you personally must have flown this flight from wichita to washington before. >> yeah, yeah. so there's only one nonstop flight from wichita to washington, dc. it's something that senator moran fought so hard for. and congressman estes as well. um, so it was a great relief. otherwise, we were having to stop in dallas or atlanta. so there was one trip a day that was a direct flight. very

grateful for it. um, and we'll investigate the situation here. we'll figure it out. it doesn't sound right to me. and i just want to i should add, i'm just as concerned. and my prayers for the the pilots and all the, the airplane attendants and the military personnel that lost their life in this as well. and i just want those families to know that we love them as well. >> have you had a chance to speak with anyone who has a loved one on that flight? i know they've been given a number by american airlines to call, but have you personally heard from anyone who knows someone on this flight? >> um. >> you know, i'm not, and i that was one of the reasons i wanted to come here to the airport to see if we could offer any comfort, but so far, we've not interacted with those people. >> have you had a chance to speak with anyone from the administration? >> um, i've been in contact with with the with the white house constantly throughout the day. and of course, sean duffy new secretary duffy is here as well.

so we've had our contacts on and off with the white house all all evening long. >> what are your biggest. >> questions as this investigation is going to get underway? i know we'll get more briefings once it's daylight. it is still it looks a lot brighter out there. and from this view of the camera that we can see from wusa that we're looking at right now, what are what are the biggest questions you have this evening. >> sir? >> yeah. i just want it to be a transparent investigation. i think that really within 24 or 48 hours, that american people, americans that are flying across the country, deserve to have some type of a meaningful update. so i think timeliness is important to me as well. could this have been preventable? i don't want to pass judgment quickly, but there's some facts out there that i hope that we can share sooner than later. and i know that's not typically the process, but the investigation will will happen soon enough. and and my priority is going to be those kansas families. >> yeah. >> and we are waiting to see

what investigators have to say about this, as well as fatalities and survivors. senator roger marshall, thank you for joining us from reagan national airport, where we just heard from officials. i want to bring in cnn's tom foreman. tom, i know you've been analyzing a lot of the pictures of the debris, and we are getting up close looks of this plane, the american airlines plane inside the water in the potomac. >> yeah, they're tough to look at. the senator said that he referred to it as being upside down. when you look at this picture, because i'm not sure if you can see that here or if that is the case. if you look at the wing coming out here, the configuration of this plane, you see the little tip up of the wing out there. maybe that's simply damage out there. but if you look at the wing, that would typically suggest on a similar plane that this plane, at least that part of it is upright in the water. however, look at the immense damage over here. we've talked a lot about the idea of looking for people in the water there. this plane would be coming in at about 150 miles an hour, when the impact would have

occurred. that would have been a tremendous shock to the cabin itself. and then contact with the water coming down. that's where all this violence would come from here, even if it lost half of its speed, it would be hitting the water at a speed that is typically considered the upper limit of how much a human can survive simply hitting the water, let alone being inside a vehicle of being mangled in this fashion. so we have this look at this. we don't know which portion, or they say it's in pieces. we don't know how far the other pieces are. this is the airport back here, by the way. you can see that's one of the other planes from the airport. that's it right there. so hard to hazard a guess as to how close that is. but the water is only, we're told, about eight feet deep where this happened. and then when you look at this other image we have, this is interesting. this is the helicopter. you have to look at it very closely. if you look at an image of a black hawk helicopter, you see this configuration of the the tires down here. and see this little

rail over here. and this, this is the main sort of body of it. and then back here into the tail section. if you look at this image, you can see that this part is upside down. and this is that little railing. this is the back end of the tail. and you see it's sort of torn in half just at the back end of that front section we were looking at a minute ago where this is in relationship to the plane. we don't know either. but that gives you an idea of where all that was. and it's important. we've been talking a lot about the impact itself. if you look at the way they were coming in and think about those speeds, we don't know how fast the helicopter was going. we know the plane needs to be going about 150 miles an hour. if that is the case, to cover this distance from here, which laura mentioned earlier, is over houses or buildings here is that sort of thing to cover this distance up to here is probably only about 20s. and from the time it turns here to, we have a rough sense of where the impact happened here. this may have

only been four seconds, maybe five. not a lot of time. even if you saw something and you weren't sure what it was, what to do about it in the darkness there and with now background lights that you're trying to separate, whatever it is you're looking at from. and as pete has mentioned so many times tonight, you're very focused on landing at this point. so this was a very fast, fast unfolding events. and now we're getting these looks at the wreckage itself. these are going to be very, very important to investigators to get a sense of what it looked like at the time. and then as they remove all this wreckage, as we know from many investigations in the past, what has to happen is, aside from the tremendous human loss and all the suffering of that, getting the answers about what went wrong, all of this has to be lifted out of this water. carefully transported, probably to some kind of hangar not terribly far from here, where they will then lay all the pieces together to sort of

reconstruct the plane and say, what happened here? what part failed first, where was the impact? how intense was the impact? that will tell us an awful lot about the way that this accident unfolded, how both of these aircraft were affected. and it will tell us, sadly, about the fate of the people inside, too. it will give us some clues as to actually what happened, whether this was an. instantaneous thing or something that lingered a little bit longer. it's hard to talk about these things, but that's exactly what they have to look at. these pictures will be very important, and they are, of course, terrible, terrible things to look at right now and to know it was that close to the airport itself. >> yeah. and to know their loved ones are waiting nearby at reagan national airport for news of this. tom foreman, thank you for showing us those images and that analysis. joining me now is bill whedon. he's a pilot with knowledge and radar and a certified flight instructor. bill, thank you for for joining me. when you see those pictures there and we can put it, we're

looking at live images right now of the search and rescue. but when you see this photo taken by andy harnick of getty images of this plane where you can see the wing on your left side of the screen here, the fuselage over on the right. tell me just what your first thoughts are looking at this. >> well, good evening. and first of all, my my prayers and my thoughts go out to the the victims and the families that have suffered this unbelievable tragedy. um, this is really a gruesome scene and not something, something we haven't seen really since 1982, uh, when we had a similar type of accident in that same area. uh, but boy, what a gruesome scene. and, uh, i really feel bad for, uh, you know, for the victims of this and the families. and it's really an unbelievable tragedy. >> can you just so many people tonight are racking their brains trying to figure out how something like this happened. we've been watching the the

videos that we've seen from from bystanders of the crash and also listening to the air traffic control audio warning and asking, do you see this go behind? do you see this plane? do you see this plane go behind? uh, what are your takeaways initially, and what are the biggest questions you're going to have for this investigation that is underway right now? >> well. >> the first thing is, you know, that comes to mind as a pilot and as a as a flight instructor. and i'm not an airline pilot. i'm a i'm a private pilot, um, you know, and but one of the things is kind of we have a code as pilots is that no pilot ever wants to be known as being wrong, especially in this type of, you know, situation. um, you know, nobody ever wants to make this kind of a mistake. and, you know, to, to judge somebody, their decision making is a really it's a hell of a thing. it's a really a tough thing. um, but the investigators are going to look at a lot of things. and one of them, you know, certainly being who had the right of way in this

situation that's going to come into come into play as well as a number of other things, and we can talk about, um, different technologies that might have aided the pilots in this type of situation, such as radar. they had radar advisories from the from the tower, and they were operating in a visual environment in apparently in a visual approach to runway 33. uh, the airplane was and they were both inside of controlled airspace, which known as class bravo airspace, which is the highest and most restricted form of airspace. um, so the tower was very much in control with them. the tower had them on radar. um, but as well, you know, in addition to the ground based radar from the tower, there's also something known as ads-b, uh, automatic dependent broadcast service, which is the airplane's broadcast their positions automatically up to a

satellite, and the satellites have a system networking system that that makes the airplanes aware of of of the other airplanes in, you know, in the area. and the investigators are going to look at, you know, did they have that ads-b turned on, for example, in the helicopter that yeah. so, so for example, some of the military aircraft that we're familiar with like c-130s, for example, um, where i'm from, sometimes they they they don't they're not allowed to use that because they don't want to broadcast the maneuverability and the, you know, and the positions of these military airplanes. so that's something that that's going to be looked at very carefully is, you know, did they have their ads-b turned on because that would have given, you know, the pilots, you know, an indication on their heads up display, uh, right in front of them. what. you know, where if there was another airplane right in their vicinity and there's a lot going on when you're landing an airplane like that. um, you have a lot going on. you've got checklists that you have to do.

um, and so you really have a very high workload. so there's a lot to sort out. >> yeah. pete likened it to, to a surgeon in the middle of their practice. obviously. bill weeden, thank you so much for that expertise. and pete muntean is back here with me. pete, you were listening to that press conference with officials. they said that at 8:48 p.m. was when the first alert went out that this collision had occurred. it was about ten minutes before the first responders and rescuers were on the scene there at reagan. what stood out to you? from what we heard or didn't hear from officials. >> that it was the control tower that initially alerted first responders to this taking place. and you have to think about the helplessness of the air traffic controllers, who apparently tried to warn the pilots of that black hawk helicopter to pass behind that commercial flight, that american airlines psa flight that was on final approach at only a few hundred feet. you have to think about what was going through their

minds and the probably the trauma that they're experiencing right now. um, you know, a few other things stood out to me. and just the challenge of the operation that is taking place right now. and, uh, dc mayor muriel bowser underscored several times that this is still a rescue operation. but we have heard over and over again in our breaking news coverage tonight that the opportunity for rescues to take place here would be very grim and very slim. and this is becoming very likely what will be a recovery operation and that no survivors have been pulled from the deep, dark, cold potomac river tonight. >> yeah. and it's been five hours now since this collision occurred. and there are a lot of people in that water right now not just looking for for debris, but also obviously looking for survivors. the head of dc fire made it clear that that the investigation obviously is important, but the priority is the people and finding them and

obviously loved ones are waiting at the airport to to some of them to pick up their loved ones. american airlines officials are meeting with them and just speaking to how complex this situation is in the water. rough waters, high winds, he was saying earlier, and also large pieces of ice that they are still dealing with in that water from how cold it was here in washington just a few days ago. >> the fact that that divers are in the water right now, you have to think about just the challenges that they are facing. and it is a moonless night. there is not a lot of lights out there. in fact, no lights. dc fire chief donnelly said. um, and he said it's an eight feet of water. it's very dark. uh, this is a really, uh, frankly spicy situation that they are in, and it's not easy for them to, to make these big discoveries. we have seen the large parts of wreckage that are in the water of the potomac right now. and you can see that the the mangled nature of it, it is dangerous. and we know from

the bridge collapse when divers were searching for survivors. in that case, they were hampered primarily by large, mangled pieces of steel and aluminum that they could catch an air hose on and could be to their peril, too. so they don't want to compound this. >> well, if we could pull up that image of we saw the one image with the plane, but there's the other with what looks like that blackhawk helicopter. >> this is the airplane. >> this is the first image with the airplane. but then tom foreman was showing us a second that had what appeared to be that blackhawk helicopter here. um, right now this is looking at the plane itself. that's the wing of the plane on the left. there's the helicopter. and if you know what a blackhawk looks like, that is the tail of it there. and it appears to be on its side, split almost directly in half. >> that looks like the bottom of the fuselage to me. and the tail boom. that goes back to the tail rotor. critical to flying a helicopter. you can see one of the tires of the landing gear there, sort of at about a third in from screen. right. um, and and the, the firefighters there

on the boat essentially illuminating that scene with floodlights. the a midair collision is in a way, not unlike when you see the scene of a car wreck and the how. >> fast is the plane going when. >> it's landing? well, usually on final approach, maybe 130, 140 knots. i've flown a crj simulator at embry-riddle aeronautical university. it's not particularly easy to fly, actually. um, and, you know, it's about 150 miles an hour. so we're talking three times highway speed. um, and that is an incredible amount of force when a collision happens like that. um, it is not. and you see the fireball there. um, but unlike an automobile collision, everything. gravity is the final authority and everything goes to the ground. we know from first responders in their press conference that they held at the midpoint of this hour that. uh, both pieces of wreckage, both aircraft, the helicopter and the regional jet are in the potomac river. they are not on land. um,

and so that is also sort of compounding the risks here. they have to get out to it, find it. it is dark. it is not easy to see. now we have the split screen both side by side. and you really get the full totality of the picture here you can see in the background of the image on the right, that is the airplane. that is the american airlines flight, and it's just offshore of national airport. that's a 737 up there on the top left of that screen. so, you know, they were so close to success. and this was a tremendous failure. this was the story that we really hoped we never had to cover on this beat. and there has been just warning after warning that this could possibly happen. um, and this was very clearly a near miss and was obviously a very fatal collision. >> yeah. it's remarkable to see the washington airport just

there in the background with those planes behind it, and also just heartbreaking to hear senator moran from kansas saying that he personally lobbied to get this direct flight from wichita to washington, that he personally has taken it many, many times as so many people are still waiting to hear more from officials who have not yet confirmed on the record fatalities or any survivors. laura coates is live outside the reagan national airport. and laura, obviously, as the moments go on, it's just harder to hear these updates from officials who say they're not ready to speak yet about survivors or about fatalities. as of this moment. >> it's impossible tonight not to tap into what we are all feeling, how often we have been on flights, how often you have gone to an airport waiting to pick up a loved one, a child waiting for their parent to come home, a spouse waiting to hear when they might land so they can circle the airport just to pick them up and have them back with them. how often have we thought

of this moment? and here we are in the nation's capital, on the banks of the potomac river, looking at what appears to be the wreckage of two aircraft collisions, just just shy of where they could have successfully landed on the runway of one of the nation's busiest airports. and for some, this is not even a imagined tragedy. there was a man named mr. hamas raza who spoke with affiliate wusa about his wife, who was a passenger on this plane. he says. in the last communication was her telling him she was about 20 minutes from him. listen. >> i'm just praying that somebody is pulling her out of the river right now as we speak. that's all i can pray for. i'm just praying to god. >> when was the last time you spoke with her? >> she texted me. we were laying that they were landing in 20 minutes. >> can you show us a text message that you got from her?

>> landing in 20 minutes? the rest of my text didn't didn't did not get delivered. that's when i realized something might be up. >> it is heartbreaking to think of how many people may have had similar correspondences are waiting to get information not only for daylight to break, but to know where their loved ones might be. the devastation here really is immeasurable. when you think about the tragedies, the idea of this being could could have been a near miss. the idea of all the different steps that possibly could have avoided this. and here we are tonight. pitch blackness. the only lights on the potomac river are those from the floodlights from a nearby military base. a helicopter that has been circulating for hours with the spotlight on select areas. we were even told by park police,

please do not have your cameras and your lights on the actual water. it will impede their ability to get night vision. they are still very much searching. there are cold conditions, hypothermia related conditions that could occur on a river that is as cold as about 30 degrees. the idea of that so-called golden hour, a period of time when people are able to be to survive the the cold temperatures. here we are, just a week from the inauguration, as we all recall, to cold here in washington, d.c., to even have it outside. and now, although the temperature has increased over the last several days, now our hearts are all in our stomachs as we're waiting to have more information. brian todd is still with me here tonight as well. i want to bring you back in, brian, because we've been here literally for hours waiting for any word whatsoever. we now know there are images of the wreckage, the dangerous conditions of a rescue operation, let alone a recovery. and just where we are right now

in a populated area. this landing in the water, a collision of a black hawk helicopter with military personnel and 64 people on board a passenger aircraft. >> that's right. and those images that we saw, those still pictures that we saw, laura, indicate that a good part of the plane's fuselage is above water. now, what does that how does that affect the rescue and recovery operation? we don't really know. we do know you and i talked about this, the conditions for the divers are very, very dangerous. john donnelly, the chief of the dc ems and fire department, has talked about how it's the visibility is very, very bad. it's very cold. it's windy where they are. and it's just a huge black spot with no lighting on it. and we did observe that they have thrown a lot of flood lighting in that area across the river from us not long ago. what we don't know is whether that area that we're looking at with the flood lights is the area where the plane is. we can't really see that with our naked eyes right now, or whether that's where they're bringing in equipment and responders and

kind of staging from. >> where the helicopter may be. >> that's right. and the helicopters, we now we can see none of them, uh, they were here just a short time ago, again using their lights to to probe this area around us in the, in the river. but. and the boats, we had actually a couple of boats come right near us. so they've been really canvasing a large part of this river, possibly looking for, um, things and possibly people who could have drifted away from the site. >> i'm almost afraid of daybreak for what the light might truly bring to show the expanse of the devastation and the tragedy that has befallen the nation's capital, and the people who were aboard the plane and the black hawk helicopter as well. i want to go back to gabe cohen, who has been at the airport. gabe set the scene. what are you seeing there tonight? >> stand by. >> well, laura, it's it's a somber scene, for sure. hearing from officials a little while ago, that was the tone. and i just spoke with a law

enforcement source who's at the scene of the search and rescue operation, who said, it's really a somber night there as well. they still have not pulled any survivors out of the water. these are icy, choppy conditions and the images that we've been showing, but also the images that those first responders have been seeing captured by the rescuers on boats, by the divers of the scene, on the water. the images, my source told me, are stunning. and it's it's hard to even make out what pieces of the plane they're seeing because it is broken up into pieces. the area is unstable for those rescuers. we reported earlier that the helicopter was upside down and bobbing up and down in the water, so those rescuers have really have their work cut out, and it feels like it is moving toward a recovery effort, though at this point, of course, officially it is still a search and rescue operation, but they've pulled, uh, according to my source, some 19 bodies or

so out of the water, although that count is unofficial, especially working with a scene like this. and so, you know, as you mentioned, i think seeing this in daylight will bring really powerful images. but those who are seeing it up close tonight are just stunned by what they're witnessing. >> gabe cohen an absolute nightmare for these families. caitlin. >> yeah, absolutely. laura. thank you. outside of reagan national airport, as we are waiting to hear more from these officials on the ground there. i'm here with our aviation correspondent, pete muntean. and, pete, this plane collided in the middle of the air with a blackhawk helicopter. we have been looking at different angles of this throughout the evening. we just got a different one. i want to take a moment to to look at this and get your take aways here. as you see that explosion in the sky. this is clearly here. you can see a jet bridge. this is from the airport that someone took. another plane is

taxiing. as you can see, the helicopter coming in from the left and then hitting that flight. obviously we don't want to play that just repeatedly. but. but what are your takeaways from seeing that? >> i know that view so well because i spend so much time at reagan national airport doing live shots. i watch the arrivals take place on runway one and runway three three. um, clearly. i mean, i just cannot imagine the idea of waiting for a flight at the airport and seeing what is clearly a mid-air collision take place. that's probably one of the better views we have had so far. and and you see the fireball there it is. the video doesn't add a ton to the narrative here. there's not a ton of new information to share that is gleaned from this, but this is definitely going to be something that investigators will want to look at because they will be able to pick apart frame by frame video like this. and parts of the other video that we have been showing you all night to see exactly the distance and the relative motion

of the two aircraft. as that airliner was about to land on runway 33 at national airport, and that helicopter was apparently going south down the banks of the down the banks of the potomac. >> when we're seeing this, this air traffic control audio, where the helicopter pilot was saying that they had the aircraft in sight. is there any way they were looking at another aircraft that was in the sky? i mean. >> it's a great question. it's totally possible. and, you know, it is in a in a. helicopter. um, this is just an exemplary blackhawk. but oftentimes in helicopters, the pilots are looking down at the ground. and we've seen this in other mid-air collisions. there was a really landmark 1 in 2009 over the hudson river, involving a general aviation airplane and a helicopter, and sometimes they just there's a different viewpoint. the pilots are maybe looking at the runway. they're locked in trying to land, and that helicopter may have just not seen it or the other way around. so y j