mesothelioma. call 1-800-217-1487 now or visit us at mso fund.com. >> cnn this morning with kasie hunt. tomorrow at 5:00 eastern.

closed captioning is brought to you by skechers. hands free. slip in footwear. i'm howie mandel, the newest ambassador for skechers. i went. >> to the. >> store to buy hands free skechers slip ins, and i said i was an ambassador. the owner called me and i said yes. skechers slip ins. this is cnn breaking news. >> welcome, everyone. i'm omar jimenez. you're watching cnn newsroom, the latest now on the breaking news. we've been covering all night here in the united states. the mid-air collision between an american airlines passenger plane and a u.s. military black hawk helicopter that was on a training mission. now, sources say there were. >> fatalities. >> but we don't know yet if anyone has survived. what we do know. 67 people were on board. total between the two aircraft that collided over the potomac river near reagan national airport. most were on an american airlines passenger plane flying from wichita, kansas, to washington. >> d.c. >> and three military personnel

were traveling in the army helicopter. it's too soon to know what caused the collision, but according to air traffic control audio, the chopper pilot reported that he had plane in sight shortly before the collision. 13 seconds later, gasps were heard on the recording. here's the exchange. >> pat 2-5 sara ganim flight pat 2-5 pam bondi dahiyeh 231 seven. i don't know if he caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approaching two, three, three. >> and we're also getting a ground level view of the collision from a camera at reagan national. you see that fireball in the sky as the two aircraft approach each other. and then, of course, collided. >> my prayers for these families. >> it's a heartache beyond belief. when so many people die. simultaneously. 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 will 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. 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 it's not a good situation here. >> and it's been more than seven hours since that collision. and at this point, no official confirmation of fatalities yet really. and authorities have scheduled another news conference for 7:30 a.m. local time, about 3.5 hours from now, i want to bring in gabe cohen, who joins us from washington. and gabe, you've been reporting on this really since the immediate aftermath of this crash. and you asked one of the

the fire officials how they balance investigative efforts with, of course, trying to find people that that may have survived this crash. what do they tell you? >> yeah. dc's fire chief pretty immediately responded and said, the investigation they prioritize life above all else. and so they are going to complete this search and rescue mission to their best of their ability in those brutal conditions out there on the water. and they are confident that the evidence will still be there as this investigation really gets underway. but they they said the search and rescue just has to come first. and look, we drove out to the scene just minutes after this happened as it was really developing, seeing dozens, if not hundreds of law enforcement vehicles, officers on the bridges around the area, shining flashlights into the water. and it was really as those first responders began to get the first images from the water, from their rescuers who were out there in

boats and the divers who were in the water, that they began to realize just how grim this situation was. images of that plane, like the one on your screen, just broken into pieces in the potomac. the helicopter upside down, bobbing up and down in the water, creating a really unstable and dangerous situation for the divers who are out there looking for survivors. and as you mentioned at this point, now, 4:00 in the morning eastern time, no survivors have been found in the water. we do know that there have been fatalities that they have pulled. some of the people who died in the crash out of the potomac. but the operation is continuing, though with a somber tone, knowing that at some point this will turn most likely from a search and rescue operation into a recovery effort. and you heard the senator there from kansas who was talking about the emotional side of things, how hard this is going to hit the community in wichita where that plane took off from before heading to dc,

and it's going to hit a lot of people here in the nation's capital. we know that family members of people who are on board that flight came to the airport, came to reagan national to pick people up, to pick up their friends and their family members, only to arrive to find out this news with officials then setting up an airport lounge with counselors who met with those families, who helped them through this providing information. and we know that is going to be a long road for them as as this is just night one of all of this unfolding. but you can still see that scene on your screen. the search and rescue operation still unfolding with countless agencies from across this region. still people on the water searching for survivors, divers underneath the surface where you really can't see much more than a few inches in front of your face in those icy, choppy conditions. officials have said they expect this could be the deadliest disaster here in washington in decades. and

now, once this search and rescue operation is finished, the focus will really turn to the investigation that will be led by the ntsb. and there will be a lot of questions. but, omar, as you mentioned, off the top, all of that has really been put to the side. that's what officials said during the press conference earlier, because they wanted to focus on the people who were in the water right now and the effort to get them out look, it's no no winners really here in this situation as of course, so many families are at this point hoping for the best, maybe preparing to hear the worst. >> gabe cohen, really appreciate the reporting. i want to expand this conversation now with cnn transportation analyst mary schiavo. she's the former inspector general at the u.s. transportation department. and going off of what gabe just said a little a few moments ago, where do you start as a as a first responder, as an investigator for for a scene like this?

>> well, the. >> first responders. obviously always. >> start with, with saving lives, looking for the humans, trying to save every life that they possibly can. they're selfless individuals, but the investigation, of course, has already started. the investigation starts by preserving everything that that they already have. the air traffic control tapes, they have already statements from several witnesses. they have eyewitness statements. they have video, um, they have a lot of communications that they have been able to recover and save. and they have eyewitness reports, um, the go teams are already there. and what's interesting about an accident? well, they're they're all just horrific and interesting. but here you're going to have the ntsb and you're also going to have the military investigation. the military has their own investigation division, much like the ntsb, but they will have to work together. the ntsb will take the priority role, by law to civilian airliner. but

the defense department does have their own defense investigation agency, and they do lots of investigations every year because obviously they do lose some military helicopters. so already the investigation is rolling. it's just that front and center right now is dealing with the human life on board the two aircraft. >> and look, i mean, we are more than seven hours after the point of impact. and obviously we've been showing the live images of first responders still working through what officials have called to this point, a search and rescue operation, seven hours in. what do you assess as the state of where we are in either first responder efforts or in regards to any initial investigation? i guess my question is, what is what is your outlook right now based on what we know so far? >> well, i certainly, uh, you know, feel for the families and also the first responders. so they don't want to say this is a

recovery operation now. and, and, you know, that's that's probably important for everyone involved. but there are lots of charts and tables and studies that show what the time after an accident, what the time in cold water, uh, gives you for, you know, sustainability of life and hypothermia can set in very, very quickly. i flew into dc last night about 730. it was cold. it was windy. it was very dark. and that water is unforgiving when it's cold. and even in water that you think is warm in some caribbean locations, when you know, in the winter time you cannot survive, you know, more than a few minutes. sometimes they say the window is perhaps up to an hour if the water is warm. more than that, but the hypothermia charts say that this is sadly past the time when people could survive hypothermia. >> yeah. look, it's it's it's a grim limbo that i'm sure many

families are in right now where we don't have official word, but but of course, there's a lot of a lot of science that doesn't put good fortune on their sides at a moment like this. um, based on what we know from the flight path and of course, what we've heard from the air traffic control tower and from cell phone video on the ground at this point, what are your initial impressions of what happened here? >> well, my initial impressions, of course, come from, you know, what the world has seen, mostly through the recordings and through the eyewitness videos and eyewitness accounts. but air traffic control, this is a first of all, we have to say this is a total, totally controlled airspace. you cannot fly into the dca airspace unless you are totally under air traffic control. it's instrument flight rules, whether it's severe, clear or bad weather. um, anybody operating in that vicinity had to coordinate with air traffic control. and we know that happened here because air traffic control talked to the

helicopter and said, do you have this aircraft in flight? now, what's interesting is there were other aircraft and you can see it on the video. there were other aircraft in the vicinity. so i wonder i certainly don't know. but i wonder if perhaps when the helicopter reported that they did have the flight in in sight, that they were actually seeing another helicopter. and, you know, i've been working in aviation a very long time, and i remember an accident. the senator hines accident, which was a plane and a helicopter, and the helicopter got too close to an aircraft, the aircraft, and actually sucked the aircraft towards the helicopter. i'm not saying that happened here, but there are a lot of things that can go wrong when you have too many aircraft in a very close airspace, and that is dca. uh, dca is just a very busy airport, which when dulles airport opened decades ago, was supposed to close because it was too close to the city, it was very crowded and dulles was supposed to take its

place. but obviously everyone loves the airport so close to dc, but it is. one of the runways is the busiest runway in the country, and we put a lot of planes and we put a lot of aviation in a tiny little spit of land next to our nation's capital. so i think the air traffic control tapes and the videos may give the investigators tremendous hints as to what happened. but of course they will have much more. they'll have the black boxes, they'll have command reports from the army. um, they'll have many more transmissions that could have been sent by the plane to the airline. and of course, remember, the airline under federal law, must have its own disaster assistance team. and so the airline behind the scenes has already put its disaster assistance team in place to assist these families. so a lot's going on behind the scenes as well. >> and as we show live pictures of the scene to this point, i mean, these hundreds of first responders have been working in the dark in these frigid

temperatures, trying to do everything they can to to provide some answers to some of these families that, of course, are anxiously waiting. mary schiavo, really appreciate the time perspective. thanks for. >> thank you. >> as we've been talking about, temperatures in the potomac river are currently hovering around 35°f, just above one degree celsius, according to the national weather service. and at that temperature in the water, a person might lose their physical abilities in as little as three minutes and become unconscious within 15 to 30 minutes, not to mention hypothermia and other dangers that usually increase with prolonged exposure. as we're learning, u.s. figure skating confirms that several members of the skating community were on board american airlines flight 5342. the group says in a statement. these athletes, coaches and family members were returning home from the national development camp in wichita, kansas. we are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims families closely in our hearts. we will

continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available. and the russian news agency tass cites a source who says two world champion russian skaters were also on the plane. and if you believe you may have have loved ones on board, american airlines flight 5342, there's a number you can call toll free 800 679 8215 for more information. if you're in the united states, canada, puerto rico, or the u.s. virgin islands, or you can visit american airlines web at. khuza'a dot com. for more phone numbers. all right. when we come back, we're going to have the latest on the breaking news. of course, the search for survivors after that collision between a passenger plane and a military helicopter in the u.s. capital. stay with us. >> this part changed my life. >> superman is now nominated for a bafta award for best documentary.

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>> 4973606. call or visit. get monkey magnets.com. so call one 800 4973606 now. >> cnn this morning with kasie hunt today at 5:00 eastern. >> it was bank all the way to the right, i would say maybe past the right, past 90 degrees. um, i could see the underside of it. it was lit up a very bright yellow, and there was a stream of sparks underneath it. it looked like a roman candle. >> you've been listening to a witness describe what he saw when a passenger jet collided with a military helicopter just hours ago in the u.s. capital. a massive search and rescue effort is underway. these are live pictures you're seeing here involving hundreds of emergency personnel. 60 passengers and four crew members were on american airlines flight 5342. it was inbound from wichita, kansas, just before 9 p.m. eastern time. a crew of three was in the u.s. army blackhawk helicopter, which was on a

training mission. now, despite hours of frantic efforts, rescuers still haven't pulled any survivors from the water. and a source tells cnn there are confirmed fatalities. u.s. figure skating says several members of its skating community were on that flight. russian state media add that two world champion skaters from russia were also on the flight as well. i want to bring in richard quest, cnn airline and aviation correspondent, who is with us from london. and richard, i mean, look, flying overall, incredibly safe. however, when you see a situation like this, how does the airline industry react? how does the wider aviation industry react to something like this? >> obviously, with a great deal of sorrow and sadness, and even though everybody in the industry realizes and knows that accidents and fatalities are an

inherent part of this, it doesn't make it any easier when it happens. because for the simple reason, so much time and money and expense and blood, sweat and tears is put into the industry to avoid exactly this. but that all said, they will approach this with a calmness and determination and a rigor to actually work out what happened. this is not the time to be running around screaming and getting excited about it. from the industry's point of view. you start by looking and saying, okay, which aircraft was doing what at exactly? you know, in the immediate moments before the accident. who was being told what to do? what did air traffic control say? and on this particular case, we do have a pretty good idea. i mean, we have the american eagle small plane coming into land at quite a delayed moment. not unusual,

but late, late on. it is asked, can you change runways from runway one to runway 33, which it says yes, i can. runway 33 is a lot shorter. this was a small plane. so it could 1001 reasons why that might have been necessary for traffic management. and then you hear the helicopter being asked, do you see the canadair regional jet? the helicopter seems to say yes and is then referred to go behind it and then you have the accident. so you know, within within the short story that i've told you there you have the seeds of what happened, and there you have the explanation. once you actually drill down into who was told what to do and when to do it. >> and even within those those very crucial details. look, this is this is a busy airport, like many across the world. what

factors are air traffic controllers, pilots? what are they dealing with in a busy airspace like this? how different is it from a much calmer, smaller town airport? >> sheer numbers, sheer numbers of atms. air traffic movements. that's what this is all about. so you have multiple runways at national airport or reagan national. you have multiple air. um, runways. you have civil aviation traffic, commercial traffic entering and departing. you have general aviation. that's private jets leaving, departing and arriving. and then you have military traffic. and there is a heck of a lot of it going up and down the potomac, never mind the presidential flights, which are also involved in all of this. but the helicopters tend to go up and down the potomac. they tend to

follow the route of the river because the pentagon is just on the other side of it. you've got joint base andrews not that far away. so you have an enormous amount of traffic crisscrossing each other. by the way. um, you know, reagan national has one of the most stomach churning approaches of any airport for commercial passengers on one particular runway. they're coming into land. you do a very, very sharp, late right turn just as you pass the washington monument. it's quite a normal arrival procedure, but for passengers not familiar with it, it can be a little stomach churning. so here you have an extremely busy, very experienced, very well managed airport. and i think what you're going to find here, this isn't like the florida air crash of many years ago with deicing or anything like that. technical failures. i don't foresee any issues of those. this is going to be a clear cut case of air

traffic management in one shape or another, who was told to beware and who was confused or understood where the other aircraft was because you know, perhaps, as the president said last night, you know, this shouldn't have happened. somebody was where they shouldn't supposed to be, but it will be very quickly established as to what went wrong. >> and even alongside the investigative efforts, as we continue to watch these first responders on on the frigid potomac river right now, many of these airlines, they also have victim services. and i mean, they are they are the ones that will likely be the front lines of interfacing with these families. what types of services are typically available, and how do airlines try and approach delicate situations like these? >> glad you asked because it's a it is. it is not spoken of, but

it is absolutely there. and every airline has a major incident plan. they practice it. american airlines i know absolutely has exactly this. and there is a special room at the american headquarters in dallas where when you have a major incident like this, everybody goes into the room. it is depending on the airline, it is made up of concentric circles where the people managing the crash and the crisis are in the center, and all their assistance and all the other information's flow out and the information flows in and the information flows out. and the reason they have this is to manage the many. so let's just take, you know, unfortunately, this first of all, you actually have to manage the information of telling the families. you have to make sure that you have people on the ground who will be there to assist, to, to give comfort to, in some cases to transport the

families of victims who are not there, you know, to bring them in, to make sure that they have the care and comfort, the religious necessities that they may require. all of that away from the public gaze. so that has to be put in place. and it's a well practiced, very well managed, exceptionally important part of aviation crisis management. but you also have to have those people who are running the airline, which has to continue, and the two sides have to work in tandem. you know, american airlines still has thousands of flights today that it has to get in the air. and it cannot allow the operational side to become distracted by the crash and the crisis. at the same time, it must ensure that the crash and the crisis is given the seriousness, the attention those involved, given the care,

comfort and management that they demand and are required. so it is a very practiced you notice this particularly in, in, in mature, experienced airlines who have this and have people on contract that go into play versus those that i, you know, i always say to every new airline ceo, god forbid, when i ever meet them, i always say, god forbid it ever happens, but you think you're prepared for the day when you lose a plane. i'm telling you, you're not, because it is the most horrendous responsibility when you realize what your company has been involved in. >> and we've even on the passenger side of things, started to see reports of of people reading last texts that they sent people, people. yeah. >> never gets that. never, ever, ever gets any easier. i covered lockerbie back in the late

1980s, and i had to go to kennedy airport to to see the relatives of pan am 103 who had who did not know what had happened and were at the airport. and i've seen this on numerous occasions at airports and plane crashes. it never, ever gets regular, usual or normal. but there is a procedure that has to be put into play and and my heart goes out to everybody this morning that is actually going through that process, from the families, from the airline staff, from the religious comforters, everybody from the rescuers who are going to see some awful things in the water. it never gets any easier, never. >> yeah. um, no winners here. richard quest, really appreciate the time and perspective. i want to bring in keith tonkin. he's an aviation expert and the managing director of aviation projects. he joins us from brisbane, australia. you know, we was just talking with richard

there. uh, look, there are a lot of different factors going on here. obviously, at the core of this, there are family members hoping to get some semblance of any news really about their loved ones, which we haven't seen in a concrete fashion to this point. however, there is also there are also many questions over how this could have happened to begin with. and that's where i'll start with you. based on the video, we've seen the air traffic control audio that we've heard and the flight path. what sticks out to you about how this happened? >> it's good to be with you, omar. yeah. >> it must be terribly distressing for the family. >> and friends of the people involved in this horrendous accident. and the information available at the moment indicates that the american airlines aircraft, having changed runways, was on final approach when the pilots could reasonably expect to be concentrating singly and only on landing that aircraft safely. and the army blackhawk has been

asked to maneuver to avoid that aircraft, and for some reason hasn't done that. that's inexplicable at the moment, and we desperately interested in finding out what happened and why that occurred. >> and, you know, typically in in helicopters and commercial planes, planes of of all different classifications. but there might be an automated warning system based on, based on what we know about the types of aircraft involved here, what types of warning systems would have been typically on some of these aircraft, and would they have made a difference in, again, what we know based on the factors available so far yeah, different aircraft have different systems on board traffic collision avoidance systems or airborne collision avoidance systems. >> and they are designed to detect and provide indications to the pilots that they should

conduct some sort of maneuver to avoid another aircraft, or at least to draw attention to another aircraft. and some of those systems are inhibited when the aircraft is close to the ground, particularly when it's configured to land with gear down and flaps out when the aircraft is not as responsive as you might like it to be. to be able to conduct those avoiding maneuvers. and i don't know the specifics of this aircraft or the systems on board, but it's probably unlikely that that that system on board was very helpful at the time, particularly because the helicopter was being asked to visually avoid the airliner. the helicopter pilots would really have been relying on, see and avoid by looking out the window, seeing the aircraft, identifying it, and attempting to avoid it. >> and on that portion of the air traffic control audio, again, based on that audio, it does seem that even if even if it was just a matter of seconds, that the black hawk did acknowledge in some way that

there was another aircraft there, if there is that acknowledgment again, i believe the time is about 13 seconds or so. why would it have been difficult even at that portion, to try and move visually out of the way? >> well, for the helicopter, they've probably got a better chance of being able to maneuver because they'll be lighter and they'll be configured to fly in the cruise configuration as opposed to the the landing american airlines aircraft, which would have been flying slow, have high drag devices out, high lift devices out, and landing gear down with the engines at a pretty low setting so that they wouldn't have been in a position to rapidly provide thrust, and then to be able to be maneuvered out of the way. so they were really up against it. if they were able to identify and and respond in time to that collision. >> keith tonkin, really appreciate the time perspective.

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then the burst of light. that, of course, is the moment of impact. emergency teams are conducting search and rescue efforts in the frigid potomac river, where the aircraft crashed. officials say there were 64 people on board the plane and three soldiers in the helicopter. u.s. figure skating, the national governing body of the sport, confirmed to cnn that, quote, several members of the skating community, unquote, were on board the plane, and russian state media, citing a source, said that two world champion russian figure skaters were also on board. cnn's natasha bertrand has more on the incident. >> if you live. >> in washington, d.c., you see these blackhawks flying around all the time. it is extremely common for them to be flying around, going in and out of joint base anacostia-bolling, which is just across the river. they can carry, you know, a significant amount of weight, a large number of people relatively to other helicopters. they can carry up to 14 people. and so something really had to

have gone very, very wrong here for them to be involved in an accident just because, again, it is so common to see them flying around. it is such a heavily trafficked area with military helicopters, with dc police helicopters and given the number of different aircraft at various levels of government, it is one of the most complicated airspaces in the united states. >> and as this happened or after this happened, i should say the ceo of american airlines now says he will be heading to washington, dc to assess the collision and support families of those who were on the plane. >> american eagle flight 5342, operated by psa airlines, a crj 700 aircraft traveling from wichita, kansas, to washington reagan national airport, has been involved in an accident near washington, dc. it appears to have collided with a military aircraft on approach. flight

5342 was under the command of four crew members, and carried 60 passengers, for a total of 64 people on board we are actively working with local, state and federal authorities on emergency response efforts, and the american airlines care team has been activated to assist our passengers and their families. we're cooperating fully with the national transportation safety board in its investigation, and will continue to provide all the information we can. our cooperation is without pause, and we want to learn everything we can about today's events. that work will take time, but anything we can do now, we're doing and right now, that means focusing on taking care of all passengers and crew involved, as well as their families. members of our go team will be on their way to washington, dc, and i'll be heading there shortly as well. >> i want to bring in mark martin, ceo of martin consulting. that's an aviation safety firm that works with airlines and governments on improving safety. mark joins me

on the phone from new delhi. so, mark, based on what we know to this point, uh, look, you work with airlines and governments on improving safety. well, we still don't know exactly the cause of this. what what alarm bells are ringing for you based on what we know so far. >> morning, umar. certainly. >> this is a dark. >> day in aviation and and probably a black band event for aviation over the last hundred years. you know, nearly, you know, nearly $20 billion are spent on improving safety for aircraft, including airspace management technologies to prevent this very same incident for juba invented and created 60 years ago. there's 1 in 1,000,000,000,000. percent chance of this. some an incident like this occurring. and it's unfortunate that we see something like this happen in

2025. now, we also must understand that, you know, that airspace from dulles over to fort worth to sorry, from dallas to andrews air force base to reagan is one of the busiest, most intense, heavily flown, highly patrolled helicopter and air transport airspace. and when you have something like this with a, with a with a helicopter impacting an aircraft, i mean, you know, the odds of that even occurring, you know, the speeds are going to be low. the altitude has got to be the same altitude. um, and clearly something has gone catastrophically wrong. catastrophically wrong, because visibility was fine. it was only temperatures that were pretty low. there. but for, you know, for, for the pilots, this oriented to disregard an aircraft on collision course, whether one was climbing or

descending. um is just, is just crazy, you know, and it's something unheard of. and we should never hear of something like this. and, you know, one would expect something like this to be to, to occur more commonly in, in third world countries, but certainly not the u.s.. and i think the ntsb, the faa, the u.s. military aviation safety board, um, everybody need to come together to establish why this occurred. and whatever the reasons, whether it's, you know, human factors or whether it's what we know in aviation or we call the shell. approach, which is software, hardware, equipment. livewire. livewire or whichever element is to be blamed. um, you know, this is this is the time to ensure that we fix this because we should never see something like this occur again. >> and, you know, you mentioned

the unique circumstances here of a plane actually colliding with a helicopter and how unique those circumstances have to be. i mean, we know this plane was in its final approach, likely seconds from actually touching down. um, is there a difference? aviation safety wise, in either training or mechanically or defense system wise within an aircraft in protecting against collision with another plane, for example, at a higher altitude versus collision with with a helicopter, which of course would be at a lower one. >> oh yeah. absolutely. and in fact, it's the same technology. and mind you, this is a helicopter with a passenger jet. not even a prop driven turboprop or a piston aircraft. okay, so we've got enough technologies in place. we've got espn, ads-b out, we've got tcas airborne collision avoidance system we have air traffic control

surveillance. we have primary radar, secondary radars. we've got enough technologies to prevent something like this from occurring. we've got tcas resolution, conflict advisory, resolution advisory. the levels of safety intervention are immense and each are layered and tiered. so but for for something like this to happen where, you know, like i said, it's a 1 in 1,000,000,000,000 chance i mean a helicopter that flies at about 60 to 80 knots and a descending landing aircraft which touches down at 120 knots. you know, the speeds typical speeds are like, you know, are at least 300 knots separate when one aircraft cruises at nearly 300 knots and the other one does 100 2030 knots. it's it's impossible for this to happen. and and i think clearly, um, something has gone i mean, you know, there's just like i said, i don't want to speculate. you know, the guys on the helicopter are no more.

they've lost the crew. uh, everybody out there are mourning the loss of a family member, a friend, a colleague. and i think we should not speculate. the best thing we can do is push and urge for that investigation to take place. and, um. and it should be a fair, balanced investigation because we have a military aircraft involved as well. and i think collectively everybody needs to come together to stop something like this from happening again. ever. >> yeah, yeah. i mean, the scenes that we're seeing right now, absolutely horrific as these search and rescue first responders continue to try and work through the scene on these frigid waters. mark martin, really appreciate the time and perspective. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. thanks for having me on. see you. thanks, buddy. >> of course. meanwhile, the u.s. president posted online that the crash quote, looks like it should have been prevented. donald trump wrote that the

plane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport on a clear night. he asked why the helicopter didn't turn and why the control tower didn't tell the helicopter what to do. now, it's not immediately clear whether the president's post was based on information that he's seen, or that he's been officially briefed on. but cnn is reaching out to the white house on that front. earlier, the president said, may god bless their souls and thank the first responders involved in rescue operations. now we're also following other breaking news out of gaza, where the release of more hostages is underway. right now, the first to be freed is 20 year old agam berger. the israeli soldier was captured at a military base during the october 7th attacks. and you're looking live at the scene in khan yunis, where 80 year old gadi moses and 29 year old arbel yehoud are expected to be released at any moment. we're continuing to watch that they were taken hostage at the nir oz kibbutz. five thai nationals are

also expected to be freed. israel will release 110 palestinian prisoners in the coming hours as well. it's all part of the hostage and ceasefire deal agreed to by israel and hamas earlier this month, four female israeli soldiers were released on saturday. and remember, this is phase one of the plan. the phase one calls for the release of 33 hostages held in gaza and nearly 2000 palestinian prisoners. all right, back to the breaking news we've been following for hours now. we're taking a close look at the first images of the jet and the helicopter in the water. when our breaking news coverage of the mid-air collision continues after the break. >> kobe didn't want to be one of the all time greats. he wanted to be the best. >> he may be the one to self-sabotage everything he's ever wanted. >> that's when the black mamba was born. >> kobe the making of a legend. saturday at nine on cnn. if you're only maxing out a 401 k, you could add a robinhood ira

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follow the facts. follow cnn. >> all right, everyone, welcome back. a quick update on the mid-air collision near washington right now. divers are combing through the freezing potomac river, hoping to find more victims. i should note we are now past eight hours since the incident, and sources told us the prospects are getting more grim after rescue workers confirmed some fatalities. but to this point, we've had no reports of survivors. earlier, when american airlines passenger jet collided with the military helicopter seems to be captured by this video. and that fireball you just observed as the two aircraft collided. it seems to show that helicopter ramming into the plane before both aircraft went down into the river. the passenger jet. the passenger jet is similar to this one that you're seeing here, but it had 64 people on board. the helicopter had three crew members who were on a training flight. the jet was headed to reagan national airport, which will be closed until at least 11 a.m. today. and if you believe you may have have loved ones on

board, american airlines flight 5342, you can call this number toll free( 800) 679-8215 for more information. if you're in the united states, canada, puerto rico, or the u.s. virgin islands, or visit the american airlines website at. news dot. a.com for more phone numbers. we're expecting a press conference from officials in about 2.5 hours. i'm omar jimenez, thank you for joining us this hour, cnn this morning. we'll have more live coverage just ahead. >> it's the news. welcome back. but it's also kind of not the news. >> can dana bash do. >> that? >> you know, there's no. >> there's three. >> lesbians on this panel. >> am i one of them? >> if you drink tap water and your balls still work, please clap. >> no, michael. >> we don't fact check it. we don't care, man. >> why is all the information on this show so terrible? >> have i got news for you returns february 15th on cnn and

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