what he's doing is he's lowering vaccination rates by sounding this false alarm that vaccines cause autism, and he simply refuses to agree. i think the thing that got me about senator cassidy, who i thought was very thoughtful in this hearing, was when he told a story about a patient he was taking care of who had a hepatitis b virus induced cancer, and that that, um, rfk jr. has decried hepatitis b, rfk jr. has said the hepatitis b vaccine doesn't work, even though when it was introduced in 1991 as a routine newborn vaccine, hepatitis b vaccine, we basically eliminated the 18,000 cases of hepatitis b that would occur every year in children less than ten. he's a science denialist. this is not a man you want in a position of supervising science agencies like fda, cdc and nih. >> doctor offit, if he gets confirmed, what's your advice to parents, families and everyone?

>> to buckle up? because what's going to happen is i think vaccines are going to become more expensive, more expensive and less available. and i think that our children will suffer. i think what we are about to enter is measles land, and you're already starting to see evidence of we went from 50 cases in 2023 to roughly 200in 2024. there was just an outbreak yesterday in lubbock, texas, and that is the most contagious of the vaccine preventable diseases. it's the canary in the coal mine. when immunization rates fray. and that's what's about to happen. and i lived through the 1991 philadelphia measles epidemic, when over a three month period, we had 1300 cases of measles and nine deaths in our city. one city, i mean, philadelphia, became a feared destination. schools canceled trips to the city. and i just fear we're heading in that direction. >> doctor paul offit, thank you. a new hour of cnn news central starts now.

>> the investigation intensifying into why the passenger plane, an army helicopter collided over the potomac river. videos obtained by cnn offering new views of the tragedy and experts now saying the blackhawk may have deviated from its approved flight path. friends on a hunting trip. young figure skaters. the woman who just spent her birthday with her family. we're learning more about the 67 people tragically killed in that collision and hearing from their loved ones. i'm sara sidner with kate bolduan and john berman. this is cnn news center. >> all right. happening now. you can see these pictures, live pictures of the recovery efforts happening in the potomac river right now. that boat right next to what appears to be a piece of the plane's fuselage. as that's happening, there is new reporting on the. investigation. potentially key data points from the new york times. sources tell

the times. the helicopter, the blackhawk flew outside its approved flight path and was higher than it was supposed to be. the times also reports the airline pilots most likely did not see the helicopter, as they made a turn. now, cnn has obtained new videos of the crash in them. the helicopter approaches the jet from the left. you can see it right there. highlighted. it appears to be on a steady path before impact. some key questions there. given that steady path, given that the plane appeared to be in front of it, did those helicopter pilots see the plane? did they realize what it was? why not? why did they not alter their path? let's get right to cnn's rene marsh for the latest on the investigation this morning. you were at reagan national airport. rene, what is the latest? >> the latest, john, is that now that the sun is up, that recovery mission is underway, looking for four more bodies. we know that four of the, excuse me, 14 more bodies. we know that

four are still pinned inside of the plane. and the two soldiers on board that black hawk helicopter have yet to be recovered. we also expect the flight manifest from the passenger plane to be released today, revealing the names of the victims on that commercial flight and president donald trump saying that he will meet with some of the victims families. but it's unclear when that will happen. now, as for the investigation that is ramping up and well underway, we will say that we know that the black boxes have been recovered for both aircraft, and the process of beginning to read those black boxes is now underway. and we know that investigators feel good about the potential of getting critical data off of those black boxes. and we're expecting a preliminary report, at least within the next 30 days. they're also waiting for a crane to come in, which will assist in helping to remove some of the debris

from both aircraft from the potomac river. that those pieces of the plane are going to be crucial in piecing together exactly what happened after the moment of impact mid-air. they are also going to be talking to this air traffic controller at some point, because that is going to be a crucial piece of of this investigation. doing interviews with the air traffic controllers who were in the tower at that time, we know that hasn't officially happened at this point, but cnn has learned that one air traffic controller was working two different positions in the tower, controlling both local traffic as well as helicopter traffic, according to a source. but that source points out that that is not unusual for air traffic controllers. but this is something that investigators will want to know. they're going to want to know the work load of that day, what this air traffic controller schedule was the night before, or the last 72 hours, because this will help them to piece together all

aspects of this incident. what happened there, looking at the people involved there, looking at the systems there, looking at the aircraft and the decisions that the pilots made. again, all of that will also be on those data recorders. john. >> there is so much to do. the investigation already obviously underway. rene marsh at reagan national airport, thank you very much, kate. >> and that investigation continues this morning, as renee is talking about this morning. ntsb investigators and divers are back on the scene searching for aircraft components, searching for evidence, salvaging what they can. last night, brad bowman, former blackhawk pilot and member of the 12th aviation battalion, spoke to our pete muntean about the helicopter routes in the area. >> i've flown. >> this route. >> too many. >> times to. >> count. >> you. before you proceed. >> south along. >> the river, you called reagan tower at key bridge and you say. you say you're at key bridge. you don't proceed without their

permission. you stair step down your altitude and you're at 200ft, and you keep that 200ft, plus or minus, you know, ten, 20ft. and so as this investigation proceeds, i'm going to really want to see what altitude was that blackhawk at. and if it was well above 200ft, that might have been a decisive explanation here for what happened. >> but that investigation just getting underway. joining us right now is todd inman. he's a member of the national transportation safety board, lead spokesman on this investigation. this, of course, is the agency that is leading the investigation into this tragedy. todd, thank you very much for being here with all of the understanding that you all are just really one full day into this investigation, beginning your second day. are there any initial findings, readings, any aspect of this that you can share. >> in any. >> aspect of this that you can share? >> well, i know. >> something that developed last. >> night that will be of great interest is. the the recovery. >> of. >> what they. >> call the. >> black boxes. these are. >> actually orange. >> boxes.

>> but it was recovered. >> from the crash. >> this is the. >> psa flight. so we've recovered both of those boxes. one which has. >> the data. >> recordings and one which one. >> which has the voice recordings. >> those are at. >> our lab right now. they have been opened and we're starting the initial process in order to validate the information and download it. >> does the black hawk, do you know have anything similar, and what are you hoping to glean from the so-called black boxes? >> you know. >> the we've been told that the black hawk will have a data or, excuse me, a recorder on it. we don't know if it's a combined voice and. data or specifically, which because that's a military craft. but we are told that there is one on board. we have not retrieved it yet, but we feel comfortable with knowing where it's at. these will help paint all this information are a lot of different data points that paint a bigger picture and give us more granular information so that we ultimately come up with what we believe is the probable cause. but the most important thing out of all this investigation is we learn what happened and then make recommendations so that it

doesn't happen again. >> absolutely. todd, cnn obtained two videos overnight. and one thing that they appear to show is other aircraft lights nearby that some experts that we have spoken to think that the helicopter pilots may have mistaken those lights for the american airlines jet as if they had the wrong plane in their sights. how seriously is the ntsb taking that as a possibility? >> we take everything serious, every potential scenario. so it's helpful as we see all these different new pieces of evidence, whether it be eyewitness or video. in this case, those things help give us a lot more details. right now, it's too early to speculate on what exactly occurred, but you've got a lot of different moving parts. so we're in the early stages. we hope to have the preliminary report out in 30 days. the overall investigation will probably take a year, but that's because it has to be

accurate. we have some of the best people in the world doing this. we've done over 100,000 aviation investigations. we're not going to put something out quick just so we can end some speculation. >> and everyone appreciates that. we did hear from the secretary of transportation yesterday saying that bottom line, those two aircraft should not have been that close at the same altitude and on converging paths that someone had to have made a mistake for that to happen. is that accurate? >> well, obviously something bad happened. we have 67 people that have lost their lives, but to say it's on one specific aspect would be not understanding the system that's been put in place. we call it kind of a swiss cheese approach. there's multiple different layers where if something goes through one small area somewhere else could catch it. what's happened here is we've most likely had a multitude of different issues, whether it be from understanding where a plane is, what an

altitude is, what the speed is, every one of those will be contributing factors to what is ultimately a horrible tragedy. >> one thing that everyone appreciates is the independence of the ntsb that we have known for, you know, for so many years and need it in order to get to the bottom and the answers of what caused a tragedy and how to make it not happen again. we just had senator chris murphy on. he was just speaking with my colleague john berman, and the senator raised a concern about the investigation going forward. let me play this for you. >> all of our agencies and the organizations like the ntsb that sit underneath them, are really in jeopardy of becoming political tools of the president instead of independent arbiters of safety in this country. >> can you respond to that concern? todd, can you assure the investigation will be protected from any outside influence, no matter how high up

in the government it comes from? >> yes, absolutely. the ntsb was founded on being a bipartisan board with different individuals. we have a lot of different people from different aspects and walks of life. so the board makes sure that we maintain that. that's the one reason why we are the gold standard across the country. there's a lot of people that have speculation and want to be heard in that regard. we understand that, but our job is to find ultimately what caused this and prevent it in the future. we've made 15,000 recommendations across all forms of transportation. we have an 84% success rate of getting those adopted. the reason why we've been able to go 24 years without a major crash like this is because we take our work seriously. >> and that is why it is so serious this time with this horrible tragedy before us. todd, thank you so much for coming in. thank you for your work. we look forward to

tracking it all along the way. as the ntsb continues its investigation. we also did just learn we want to bring to you that there's currently a ground stop in place at reagan national airport due to airport volume. we're going to continue to monitor that throughout the morning. >> sarah and kate, you know that there are two senators, i think, tim kaine and chris murphy, that we talked to yesterday were concerned about the amount of traffic that goes in and out of dca as they are trying to expand the number of long, flowing flights from that airport. i know we talked about this yesterday, so that is one of those concerns being addressed right now in real time. thank you for that, kate. this morning we're learning more about some of the 67 people killed in the collision. kia duggins was a harvard educated civil rights attorney, and in just a few months, she was supposed to start a new chapter in her life as a law professor at howard university. another victim, american airlines captain jonathan campos, who loved flying and had years of experience. but above all, he adored his family. they are just

two of the many lives lost in total, 67 cnn's eva mckend is in washington with more on what we are learning about the victims, and we're seeing some of their pictures up. now, we know that not all of the victims have even been recovered from the crash site. >> that's right. sarah. there are so many victims. but let's this hour lift up the name of a few. at just 26 years old, azra hussain raza was the daughter of immigrants and graduated with honors in 2020 from indiana university. she married her college sweetheart in august 2023. her husband was waiting for her at the airport and texted her minutes before the plane went down. she was a dc based consultant who traveled to wichita for work, and her family says that she went out of her way for everybody. that's the type of person she was ryan o'hara he was crew chief on board of that blackhawk. he trained to maintain them. he

leaves behind a wife and a one year old son. fellow service members say he was one of the finest, most disciplined, committed trainers. and elizabeth ann key, she was just 33, a cincinnati native and lawyer, she was her high school valedictorian and went on to graduate from tufts university in the boston area. her law firm says she brought fearlessness, humor and sharp wit to work every day, no matter the setting or the circumstances. in her high school, principal is remembering her as well. let's listen. >> she was. >> just such. >> a such an. outstanding student. >> outstanding young lady. >> you know. >> just the kind of person that we need. >> many, many more of. >> and sarah, we are repeating again and again that number 67. but when you hear these stories, it really puts into context who we lost on that plane, on those planes. so many lives with so many stories and so many

families reeling today. sarah. >> yeah, six of them from the skating community. and we're looking at some of their pictures as well. it truly is heartbreaking seeing all of this loss. eva mckend thank you so much for reminding us the most important thing, which is these families are suffering after this tragedy. over to you, john. >> all right. this morning is tulsi gabbard's nomination in trouble? what some republicans heard in the hearings that could sway their votes, and the race to rescue an elderly woman swallowed up by a huge sinkhole. >> can the support your. >> brain health? >> mary janet. hey. >> edie. no! fraser. frank. frank. fred, how are you? fred? support up. >> to. >> seven brain. >> health indicators. >> including memory. when you need to remember. remember? >> i don't. >> play for. >> money. >> before my mom.

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beat. start watching at fubo tv.com. >> all right. cnn has obtained this new video of the moment of the crash over the potomac. you can see on the left there the black hawk helicopter. you can see the moment of impact. we know this is difficult to look at, but it is instructive as to what happened there. 67 people lost their lives with us now. les abend, a former commercial aircraft captain, and elizabeth

mccormick, former blackhawk helicopter pilot. thank you both so much for being here. elizabeth, we just got a chance to look at that video once again. and the blackhawk came in on what appeared to be a steady path there. what does a helicopter pilot see at that moment? >> the visibility in the blackhawk is pretty, pretty significant. the wind screens are quite large. windows on the door on the side. chin bubble window down low. so they have pretty good, pretty good visibility. >> in something like the crj 700. the bombardier flight that that was in the sky. what would that look like to a blackhawk pilot? >> well, they, uh, you know, they've got their lighting. um, but it also is kind of cluttered in general with the ground lighting, the reflections of the ground light against the river. there's it's a lot of lighting

in that area near the airport. um, that could have obstructed, um, seeing seeing the airliner. and that was also another airliner taking off. off the other off the other runway that i believe. but when air traffic control asked if they had visual, that's the one they had visual on. >> so again, it is confusing as to what exactly they saw and when or thought they saw and when. less to you? you flown in to reagan so many times on different approaches. again, we put that video up before. we don't need to see it again. it is hard to watch, but what do the airline pilots see? what is it that they're concentrating on well. >> you're it's. >> a very challenging airport. >> has been been said. >> you know, in previous. >> segments. >> but, uh. you're focused. >> on getting the airplane on the. >> ground. >> to. that particular runway. >> and in this. >> case, my understanding is that they were given clearance to runway one, which is more of.

>> a northerly. >> heading. and then the controllers asked them if they could accommodate a runway. change to three three, which was a more northwest heading, which would have required them to move out. over the potomac, potentially. and in order to line up with that. northwest runway three three. >> so it could. >> have drifted them. >> a little. >> bit further into. >> the path of that blackhawk. >> if there was. >> some altitude. >> discrepancy that the blackhawk wasn't holding, it's hard. >> to say. >> that's pure speculation. >> but, um, you know, you're when you're looking for a helicopter, um, i'm surprised to justify. >> that video how. >> well illuminated it is. it's normally very hard. it gets camouflaged. it's it melts into the into the ground clutter of lights. >> um, in elizabeth, we are learning from the new york times that it does appear that the helicopter was not at the altitude it was supposed to be at when flying over the potomac. right there. what? it's not supposed to go higher, really,

than 200ft. but there may be some signs that it was higher. it was higher than that. how does a pilot keep track of that? is that something? can your elevation change by a significant amount without being aware not that much. >> um, the altitude. our altimeter is quite large. it's one of the primary instruments straight in front of the pilot. so, you know, it's possible. flying under night vision goggles, you can kind of tunnel vision if they had the goggles in at that point. we don't know that. uh, you know, it's possible with all the, the reflections of the lights over the water being over the water that that they crept up, but really not knowing what altitude you're at, not being at the correct altitude is an either a pilot or mechanical error. >> unless, um, i've had a chance to talk to you over the years during so many investigations. um, yesterday was just the

beginning of this investigation. the ntsb really just getting to the scene while that was happening, the president of the united states came out with his opinion as to what he thought may have helped contribute or cause this crash. diversity efforts inside the faa. i just wonder what you thought of the sequencing there. his opinion at the very outset of the investigation. >> there's only. >> one government. agency that should be responsible for any sort of information about what occurred here. and this is it's pure speculation beyond that. and that's the ntsb. this is not a blame game. this is find out what the heck happened and let's not let it happen again. that's on the ntsb wall. there is there is no reason for anyone with with especially someone without expertise to be commenting on something after

you're talking 67 families are now mourning this terrible tragedy. it's just there's no purpose in it. um, we need to get to the bottom of it. and remember, john, as you aptly mentioned, uh, we have discussed this before, and the important part of this is we all know that there's there's contributing factors to all of this. there's not just one cause, uh, for for any accident that we've had experienced in reporting about. >> and as you say, the important thing is to make sure it doesn't happen again. lesabe and elizabeth mccormick, thank you both so much for your help this morning. kate. >> so three more israeli hostages are expected to be released from gaza tomorrow, among them an american citizen who has been held by hamas now for more than 480 days, and a hidden masterpiece found in the most unexpected of places, purchased for $50 at a garage sale and now may be valued at $15 million.

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>> if i. >> had to do this. >> on my own. >> i may not have done it at all. >> to see if you qualify, go to koco-tv. >> today, the question seems to be what are the senators going to do about it? that is, after more than one of president trump's cabinet picks faced harsh questioning and hearings yesterday. we've already talked about rfk jr., but both

democrats and republicans are also demanding answers and assurances from more of president trump's nominees to be the director of national intelligence. also, his choice to be the next director of the fbi. cnn's lauren fox has much more on all of this for us. good morning. lauren. >> good morning kate. it really. >> seemed like yesterday several. >> republican senators. >> were. >> begging these nominees. >> to basically. give them. >> straight answers. >> on very. >> specific issues that are of great importance to some of the republicans on capitol hill. and i'll give two different examples of that. yesterday you had this really interesting exchange with senator james lankford and tulsi gabbard over whether or not edward snowden was a traitor. it seemed like in that scene of questioning that lankford really was setting her up to give an easy yes answer, and she just did not give that back to him. and last night, reporters caught up with lankford, and he made clear that he was a little surprised that she didn't just answer with a

simple yes, that he was a traitor. instead, she gave a much more circuitous answer that really sort of left conservatives and republicans on that committee with more questions than answers. we should point out that it's not clear that she would have the votes to get out of the senate intelligence committee, and that really imperils her path to becoming the next director of national intelligence. meanwhile, you had a very similar kind of moment yesterday with rfk jr.. in that hearing. senator bill cassidy, who's the chairman of the health committee, he repeatedly was trying to get kennedy to make clear that there was no link between autism and vaccines. cassidy is a physician, and he is someone who has talked about the importance of vaccines throughout his time on capitol hill, including during the covid pandemic. but it was really interesting because at the end of the hearing, despite trying to set this up multiple times, here's what cassidy said about how he's weighing his vote.

>> i recognize, man, if you come out unequivocally, vaccines are safe. it does not cause autism. that would have an incredible impact. that's your power. so what's it going to be? will it be using the credibility to support lots of articles, or will it be using credibility to undermined. and i got to figure that out for my vote. >> cassidy also said in his closing statement that he may have to talk to kennedy over the weekend to really gauge whether or not he can back his nomination or not. he said he still had questions about it moving forward, but it was just this really interesting closing statement, really unusual, that you would see a republican really lay all their cards on the table in terms of how they are thinking about these votes. we should note that cassidy sits on the senate finance committee as well, which will be the committee of jurisdiction to decide whether or not kennedy

gets out of the committee. it's possible if cassidy voted against him, his nomination could be doomed right there. so that just gives you two examples of moments where republicans were really trying to get these nominees to give them a very straight, easy answer. and those nominees just could not get there. kate lauren, thank you so much for that. >> you know, one thing that's interesting is cassidy is looking for assurances. i mean, that was so clear he was begging for rfk to give him assurances. here's the thing. he had hours to do just that, and he did not do that. so now my my question just from the outside looking in is now if rfk behind closed doors, gives you those assurances, what did he do for hours in in that hearing? we will we'll see something to watch very, very closely. a critical week for all of this. lauren, thank you so much for that. we'll be right back. after a quick break your gut is like a garden growing both good bacteria and bad fat. >> balance is. >> key to a healthy gut environment. >> benefiber is plant based.

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state will travel to panama as president trump continues to push for american control of the panama canal, threatening panama. joining me now is democratic congressman jake auchincloss of massachusetts. in 2014, the congressman led a special operations mission for the marines in the panama canal zone, working closely with the panamanian public forces. i'm going to start here, congressman, you say that it is china, not panama, that the united states needs to be hitting. you argue to keep china out of america's backyard. the next administration should get tough on china instead of panama. and on your mission. you said this. the panamanians were professional and pro-american. we were one team. even the implication from the next commander in chief that americans might fight against them is unserious. and unacceptable. he is now the commander in chief. do you think that president trump's threat to take back control of the panama

canal is actually creating a threat to the united states, not alleviating one, by making u.s. allies potential enemies? >> thanks for having me on, sarah. the threat is making the united states look feckless and reckless, not strong and tough, which is how we want to look oriented against china, particularly in the western hemisphere. uh, donald trump is right to want to support the monroe doctrine, which is a 200 year old american policy that says that no foreign power can interfere in central or south america. but his track record in his first term suggests that he doesn't actually understand the monroe doctrine. his ambassador to panama in his first term, resigned in frustration. panama then went on to join the belt and road initiative, which is china's overseas economic development project, and then the trump administration allowed two chinese communist party controlled companies to renew their bids to control the marine

terminal operations on the pacific and atlantic sides of the canal for 25 more years. so trump has had a bad track record on the monroe on the monroe doctrine to date, and he's trying to clean it up, but he's trying to clean it up by threatening to use force against a small ally as opposed to getting tough against china. and it's just making him look like he doesn't understand foreign policy. >> i do want to ask you about that, because it is a hong kong based company, as you just spoke about, that operates two ports at the canal's atlantic and pacific entrances. secretary of state rubio is now arguing he has and this is these are his words. zero doubt. china has a contingency plan to shut down the panama canal. if there was a major conflict with the u.s., do you share his concerns? and if this was such a big threat, why do you think that president trump nor republicans did anything about the panama canal in their in his first term? >> well, not only did they not do anything in their first term, he actually allowed this hong kong domiciled company, which is majority controlled by the

chinese communist party, to renew their bids for the mtos on either side of the canal. uh, so the the treaty that we have with panama already allows the united states navy and u.s. military to defend the canal should its neutrality come under threat. there is no evidence to date that the chinese have forward deployed any military assets to the canal zone, but if they were to do so, we would be well within our rights under the current negotiation to defend the canal's neutrality. trump has also been stating that the united states is being adversely treated by rates, uh, going through the canal. that's not true. we account for more than half of the trade that goes through the canal zone. and actually the united states navy gets preference for transiting the canal zone. they change their rates depending on the volume of the ship, not depending on the on the flag country of origin. so trump needs to get his facts right. he needs to get his foreign policy, uh, oriented against china, not against an ally in central america. and it's not just about the panama canal. it's about tiktok, too. he's rolling over on tiktok to china. they're not

going to take him seriously on the panama canal. >> that's an interesting point. i do want to move on to what is happening in in the senate, where you have very heated questions when it comes to rfk and his bid to try and become the head of hhs, what are your thoughts on what you heard in some of his answers? as he was being grilled over some of the conspiracy theories he has put out there, and whether or not he is against vaccines. >> the reason senator cassidy was so frustrated that rfk would not distance himself from conspiracy and quackery is that rfk is a conspiracist and a quack. this is someone who does not think that hiv causes aids. this is someone who thinks that covid was, uh. bio engineered to target black and caucasian americans. this is someone who thinks that no vaccine is safe and effective, despite the fact that vaccines have saved 150 million lives in the last 50 years. and it's not academic, he went to samoa in 2019. he

derailed their measles vaccination campaign. 83 people died, the majority of them children. there are five states in the union right now where herd immunity levels for measles are hovering right about where you could see an outbreak. if rfk comes into office and he uses his personal social media following with the organs of state power, and he lowers vaccine adoption for new parents, you will see measles outbreaks and this will affect children. and so senator cassidy, who has in his power with his single vote to tank his confirmation. senator cassidy needs to decide whether he's a physician first or he's a republican first. and i know bill and he's a great legislator, and he's a highly intelligent physician, and i trust that he's going to remember that he's a physician first. >> just quickly, do you think that rfk is in real trouble here and may not get the nomination. >> if democrats hang together? because if democrats hang together, senator cassidy can tank this confirmation. but if there are onesie twosie

democrats who stray off and vote for rfk one that's a shameful vote. and two, that is going to demonstrate senate democrats spinelessness to the trump administration, endangering children's public health and undermining our party's commitment to science and evidence. >> congressman jack ross, thank you so much for coming on and walking us through all of that. appreciate it. kate. >> back to the breaking news. with the investigation into the mid-air tragedy that happened in dc today. divers are heading back into the potomac river to try and bring out the remains of the last 14 victims of that deadly collision of the american airlines jet and the army helicopter, and also bring out critical evidence for the ntsb's ongoing investigation into the crash. the conditions that these divers have faced from the beginning have been described as extreme. frigid, murky, muddy, zero visibility. dc fire and ems chief john donnelly said that the ongoing recovery operations are no

question dangerous. joining me right now is rescue trainer and diver butch hendrick. he's also the president and founder of lifeguard systems. he's been teaching and performing water rescues for more than 30 years. butch, thank you so much for coming in the cold and the ice seem to be some of the biggest dangers that these divers are facing. and i heard that the first teams that were in the water were in the water, just in the immediate aftermath of the crash, for five hours straight. what are they up against? what does this feel like? >> well. >> first of all, we have to understand that water will steal the body temperature 25 times faster than air. now. >> we now. >> put on a dry suit and therma it. but very few of the teams in our country have heated thermals. so when they get in their water, they're cold to begin with. and now they're moving very slowly. they can't

move at a pace that allows the body to move blood through it. well. so we're crawling, feeling everything is braille. they don't know what kind of debris field is in front of them, or what specific dangers. so you've got all the pieces. >> of the cold are incredible. >> and then on top of that, if i may, we have an overhead environment. there's ice and then there's going into a fuselage and around a fuselage. that's reasonably a confined space. so we're working with a combination of two dangerous situations and the thermal concerns five hours. they probably couldn't take off their own equipment. they wouldn't be able to even save themselves because their hands won't work anymore. >> oh my gosh. and i also heard when you talk about the confined space, very, very sadly, i heard it described as some of the victims were found and they were working to to bring them out, but they were still buckled in their seat belts in the water.

when you think about the the confinements that these divers are working in to try to carefully and respectfully bring these victims out. can you add in one additional factor i wanted to get your take on as well. this crash is not in deep water. i think i heard it described as kind of waist deep water. initially, my untrained mind thinks that should be helpful. is it? how does that impact things? >> it's not going to be helpful. there's so much mud and we're working in braille. there's no visibility. so they're keeping it at near the surface. the current is going to affect them more than it would have been if it was in 35ft of water with less current, because the surface current is always stronger. and it's now impacted in mud. so just trying to move it when they get ready to lift it, it's going to be a mathematical equation, not to

destroy any of the existing fuselage to give as they crawl around inside. there it the current from the surface is affecting them. the ice is right there. it just seems as you said it seems. oh, wow. it's only in shallow water. shallow water means nothing. it's still just as dangerous and possibly greater. >> and all of those sharp edges, metals, their suits. what? how it could be impacting them altogether. tearing their suits is also a concern. i know i heard someone else say, but thank god for them and the work that they're doing and continue to do, even this morning. butch, thank you so much for coming on and for your help understanding this more. thank you. thank, thank you so much, john. >> thank you. >> all right. this morning, the figure skating community in the united states and really all around the world mourning those lost in american flight. 5342 cnn sports anchor andy scholes is with us this morning. this is really just a devastating blow. andy. >> certainly, john, you know,

the global figure skating community is just devastated as several of its members were on board of that plane that crashed. they were returning from the u.s. figure skating championships and a developmental camp that was being held in wichita, kansas. now, yesterday, the european figure skating championships carried on in estonia in what was a very somber atmosphere please join us. >> now in. >> a moment. >> of silence. as we think of those. who have. >> been lost and their loved ones. >> you see the competition pausing for the moment of silence before the free skate pairs event. now the skating club of boston named six victims in the crash, including a pair of teenagers that were representing the future of the sport. 16 year old spencer lane took first place at the 2025 intermediate eastern sectionals. his mother, christine lane, was also killed. jenna hahn was only 13 and described by the executive director of the

skating club of boston as a great performer, great competitor, a great kid. her mom, jin han, was also on board. that plane. also killed were were evgenia shishkova and vadim naumov, who won pairs. the pairs title at the 1994 world championships and competed twice in the olympics. they represented russia, but moved to the u.s., where they had launched successful coaching careers. now, legendary skater nancy kerrigan, she trained at the skating club of boston as a youth, and she just broke down in tears over the lives that were lost. >> i feel. >> for the athletes. >> the skaters and their families, but anyone that was on that plane, not just the skaters, because it's just such a tragic event and we've been through tragedies before, as americans, as people, and we are strong. and i guess it's how we respond to it. and so my response was to be with people i

care about and i love and need i needed support. so, um, so that's why i'm here. >> it's such a tragedy for the skating community, which is a tight knit group. and, you know, john, it's going to have a profound impact on the world figure skating championships in march, which those are going to be held in boston this year. >> yeah, not far from the boston skating club. it is such a tight knit community. andy schultz, thank you very much for all that, sarah. >> all right. new information this morning on the hostages being released by hamas. hamas expecting to release a 65 year old american citizen. details on that ahead. and how do you turn $50 into 15 million? maybe choose wisely at a garage sale. that story ahead. >> hey, hon. sometimes you just need a. >> moment. >> self-care has never been this. >> easy. >> gummy vitamins from nature

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the insurance. >> was a huge relief. >> to see if you qualify, go to irokotv. >> the situation room with wolf blitzer tonight at six on cnn. >> this morning we are learning the identities of the new round of hostages set to be released by hamas. keith siegel is a dual israeli american citizen. he will be released along with two others yarden bibas, the father of the youngest hostages taken in the attacks and afa calderon, who is all for calderon, whose daughter and son were released during the november 2023

ceasefire. this morning, rescuers are trying to reach the driver of a three ton truck swallowed by a sinkhole in japan. the hole is about 40 miles wide, 40m wide and still expanding. the 74 year old driver has been trapped under rubble for days now. there's been no communication for days. the area is an evacuation zone. so this morning, a painting once worth about 50 bucks could now be worth 15 million for years of forensic analysis has confirmed a portrait of a fisherman sold at a minnesota garage sale in 2016. a garage sale it may very well be a vincent van gogh work. lmi group worked on the analysis. the portrait, they say it was painted by van gogh and they call it emotionally rich, profoundly personal and created during the final and tumultuous chapter of van gogh's life. that's an understatement. it was really tumultuous. they don't get to decide if it was really

painted by van gogh. that honor goes to the official van gogh museum in the netherlands, and they're pretty stingy about saying things were painted by mr. van gogh. they were approached first about this painting in 2018. kate. >> emotionally rich is exactly how i describe you often. >> emotionally vacant. >> but still priceless. john. thank you. and he walks away. yep. that's how he feels about me. move to this. during his two days of questioning on capitol hill, senators repeatedly pressed robert f kennedy jr. to declare that he accepts accepted science, especially when it comes to vaccine science. but rfk jr. did not give many of the senators the assurances that they were looking for. cnn's meg tirrell joins us now. two days of confirmation hearings. hours and hours of questioning, very direct. we've highlighted senator and doctor bill cassidy in his take. what are your takeaways from what you heard. >> just as you said, it. >> was really. >> what kennedy. >> didn't say. >> that was so notable.

>> versus what he did say. because this health hearing that we saw yesterday was. >> a little bit. >> different in tone. >> from the finance hearing that we saw the day before. this was bill cassidy, the physician who is the chairman of this committee. who started it out by asking for reassurances on robert f. kennedy jr.. stances on vaccines. >> and. >> sort of a pleading with him to. >> accept. >> published and accepted science. >> take a. >> listen to one of those. >> exchanges. >> if you are approved to this decision, to this position, will you say unequivocally, will you will you reassure mothers unequivocally and without qualification, that the measles and hepatitis b vaccines do not cause autism? >> senator, i am not going into the agency with any. >> kind of a yes or no question because. so if you're because the data is there and that's kind of a yes or no. and i don't mean to cut you off, but that really is a yes or no. >> if the data is there, i will

absolutely do that. >> now there is the data. just because i used to, i used to do hepatitis b, as i said, i know the data is there. >> well then i will be the first person if you show me data, i will be the first person to assure the american people to take that. they need to take those vaccines. >> now, what concerns me is that you've cast doubt on some of these vaccines recently. i mean, like last few years, but the data and i could quote some of it, um, the data has been there for a long time. >> and this is notable because, you know, there are so many different topics that they covered in these hearings. vaccines, abortion, his knowledge of medicare and medicaid, which a lot of senators found wanting. but the issue is going in saying he doesn't have any preconceived notions. well, you should have some preconceived notions about established science. and bill cassidy, as our colleague lauren fox pointed out, is a key vote on the senate finance committee, which will decide whether this gets even out of committee at all. syb