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30g of protein. >> want a next level clean swish with the whoa of listerine? it kills 99.9% of bad breath germs for five times more cleaning power than brushing and flossing alone. get a next level clean with listerine. feel the. whoa! >> you know those fat hoka sneakers? nice shoes, but the price not as nice. however, skechers max cushioning are just as fabulous at a price that blows them away. get insane comfort and cushioning, including hands free sketcher slip n try skechers max cushioning. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> hello. i'm brianna keilar alongside boris sanchez here in washington. and we do begin with breaking news this hour. we're standing by for a new update from federal and local officials investigating the deadly collision between an american airlines jet and a u.s. army helicopter that's going to come here from reagan national airport. and you are looking here at live pictures of the recovery effort. a short time

ago, we heard from the white house, which sought to reassure the country that air travel is safe, while insisting that president trump was right to question whether faa diversity policies played a role in the crash, something he did without evidence. >> it's not safe to fly commercially, is it? >> the president was asked and answered this yesterday, and he believes that it is still indeed safe, and americans should feel safe traveling our skies. with that said, two things can be true at the same time, and we certainly have seen the deterioration of federal hiring standards at the federal aviation administration. and the president wants to increase those standards. >> meantime, american airlines says it will resume flight service tonight between wichita, kansas, and the nation's capital, while helicopter routes near reagan national airport are now shut down until further notice. all of this as two painstaking processes continue at the crash site. there's still an effort ongoing to locate the

14 victims still missing. and of course, the work of investigators to detail exactly how all of this happened. cnn's rene marsh is following all of these developments live at reagan national forest. rene, what can you tell us? >> well, boris and brianna, as far as the how. i mean, one of the areas that investigators will be looking at is were these aircraft at the right altitude? were they in the right position? we know the new york times is reporting a deviation of that black hawk helicopter, and that perhaps it was above the altitude. it should have been. and if that is the case, then that would indicate that the pilot of that black hawk was not flying with the flight. regulations at the time that were necessary. and so that is something that will certainly be a data point that will show up on the black boxes that they have yet to retrieve for that black hawk helicopter. that black box will have information

like the altitude. we do know that the investigators have already retrieved the black boxes for the commercial passenger plane. they have opened it. they have started the process of reviewing it. and we believe that it will take a few months to get the full picture. but we do know that the ntsb is planning on releasing a preliminary report within the next 30 days. also on their plate will be to interview those air traffic controllers. they are another crucial piece of this. as of this morning, we know the ntsb had not yet interviewed them, but they are going through the process through the air traffic controller union to to get those interviews all set up. and they won't only be asking these air traffic controllers about the day of the mid-air collision, but they're also going to be very focused on the prior 72 hours. how much sleep did they get? you know, what their schedule was on the prior 72 hours. any medications they have

may have been on? not for any reason other than this is the normal protocol for all ntsb investigations. we are expecting to get another briefing from the ntsb later on today. >> rene marsh, live from d.c. thank you so much, renee. the defense department has since launched its own investigation into how that army black hawk helicopter collided with the american airlines jet. >> cnn's natasha bertrand is at the pentagon. natasha, what are you learning? >> well, brianna, one of the really key aspects of the investigation, of course, is going to be that black box inside the black hawk helicopter, which, according to secretary of defense pete hegseth, that has not been retrieved yet. but we saw president trump post on truth social earlier this morning that he made basically a definitive assessment that the helicopter was flying too high. seeming to suggest that that was the reason for this collision. but pete hegseth again, who is newly installed as the secretary of defense, he would not go that

far. in an interview earlier today on fox and friends, saying that all of that is still under investigation. here's what he said. we do not appear to have that sound at this moment, but he said that this was not necessarily conclusive at this point. it's not only the altitude that is potentially at issue here, but also the course that the helicopter was flying on. was it deviated in any way, in a way that would actually bring it a little bit closer to reagan national airport? all of that is going to be investigated here, and it's important to note that these pilots, they were not necessarily inexperienced. the instructor pilot had about 1000 flight hours. the copilot had about 500. so these were not junior pilots that didn't have the requisite experience or, you know, experience on this flight path. so all of this really raises even more questions about what exactly happened here. >> and, natasha, the governors of georgia and mississippi went ahead and identified two of the soldiers on that blackhawk. what

can you tell us? >> that's right. so we are learning about the identities of two out of three of those soldiers. one of them was chief warrant officer two, andrew eaves, and he was the instructor pilot who i mentioned earlier, who had about 1000 flight hours. so fairly experienced pilot. and the other soldier that we're learning about was ryan o'hara, and he was the crew chief in the blackhawk. so he would have been responsible for maintaining the black hawk, for ensuring that everything was proceeding in a technically correct way. so it again, we're still waiting to see exactly what the full breadth of experience was of this crew. we don't have their full service records yet, and we are still awaiting the identity of that third soldier, the copilot who was on board at the time. and we should note that it's unclear at this point whether all of the bodies from that black hawk helicopter have actually been recovered. >> all right. natasha bertrand, thank you so much. let's talk now with former faa safety

inspector david soucie and also chad kendall, a former commercial airline pilot and now an associate professor in aviation at metropolitan state university in denver. david, i do want to ask you and we'll talk about the elevation or the altitude issue, but let's talk about these black boxes, because two have been recovered from the american airlines jet. but we don't know. nothing has been recovered at this point from the black hawk. they seem confident they will. but what we do know is that there's some kind of recorder we just don't know. is it going to have data and voice? is it just going to have data? how essential is it that that has voice? and what all can we glean from these recorders? >> it looks like we're having it looks like we're having trouble with david's audio. i think i think we can hear chad. chad,

what's your response to to that question about information that's gathered from these recorders? this is part of the ntsb s mission to gather as much data as possible. and, um, and certainly they found the black boxes from the jet aircraft. they will pull as much information as they can off of the military helicopter. they will look at radar data returns from the air traffic control facility and use all of that as part of this meticulous investigation to determine the final cause for the accident. i believe we have david's signal back. david, if you want to take us through your thoughts. >> yeah, just real quickly on the black hawk. the military is not required to have anything by federal regulations, but they are by the military. now that black hawk carries a a health and usage monitoring system, um, system. and that does monitor things. various versions of that will have audio or not have

audio depends on whether they're using the night vision goggles or not, because that integrates with those helmets. so we'll have to see how much information is in there. but it is pertinent that they get that information. we need to find out why that helicopter made the moves that it did and what discussions went on. because the main character, the main problem here is when they said we have the aircraft in sight at that point, where were they looking? were they looking straight out? if they have a heads up display, night vision, it's only 70% 70 degrees wide. it can't. it can't see everything around them. it's very focused. so i think that may play a contributing part to this, this tragic accident. >> we do have some news into cnn and that is that the flight data and this is brand new. we're just getting this in flight. data appears to show that the black hawk helicopter was 100ft above max altitude, and that it was off course. so, chad, you know, tell us, as a former commercial airline pilot, knowing that this is a route

that it comes very close to this final approach of this particular runway at reagan airport, which obviously, and for those of us who have flown in and out of reagan, uh, it's right there. i mean, you can see over the river, this is a very, uh, there is not much altitude on the airplane. it is landing right off of the river. and then knowing that this helicopter was in on the wrong route and appeared to be flying higher than it should have been. what that says to you, what questions that raises. >> i've flown into washington reagan, hundreds of times, landed on that runway as well. it's a very tight corridor, tracking from both the commercial pilot side landing at reagan and the helicopter operations that are happening along the river. and, um, certainly vigilance needs to be, uh, made during this approach. certainly. communications with atc is occurring, and the

specific tracks that the helicopters are to follow, specific altitudes and and again, that's the data that the ntsb and the faa is going to look at is the the radar signature, the radar altitude tracking of of the aircraft, uh, to, to use that as part of their findings for the why this accident occurred. i do want to dig into some of this new reporting. it's from cnn's oren liebermann, and it is fascinating. it specifies that just two minutes before the midair collision between this black hawk helicopter and the american airlines flight, flight tracking data shows the helicopter was at 200ft as it crossed over the potomac, which is the maximum allowed altitude. but then it made two sharp turns over the park and appears to have gotten much closer to the airport than it should have been, and also much higher. it went up from 200 to 300ft. i wonder when you hear that, chad, given your expertise in aviation, what would be some of

the reasons for that aircraft to not only go off course, but also go up in altitude? i want to start with what we've heard first from air traffic control, and that's air traffic control. asking the helicopter pilot if they had the other aircraft in sight and assuming they did, then air traffic control stating fly behind that aircraft. now, what happened from that point to the collision is part of this investigation. you know, we're there. distractions in the flight deck. uh, limited ability with technology being used. um, did they see something else? and the information that can be gleaned from the helicopter data, we can get any is going to be used to determine the answer to that specific question. >> yeah. because, david, that's we have to think about what we don't know at this point in time. right. and that is that air traffic control transmission and the black hawk helicopter

acknowledging, i mean, if one second or two seconds passes between that and the crash, that's going to be really informative, right? if it's a very brief period of time and if they said they saw an aircraft, but it becomes very apparent that they were referring to another aircraft, that is also an important question to ask. david. >> i'll tell you, that's easy to do. i've flown in and out of in the cockpit, on the jump seat, observing pilots with the faa, uh, hundreds of times. and that airport can be very tricky with how much, how many lights are coming from where. and if you look at that video, you'll see that the the blaring light coming at you is still because that means it's coming directly at the camera, and you can see the helicopter approaching from the left. but before you hear him say, i have it in sight, there's another aircraft that passes and you have to really pay attention to see it. there's another aircraft that passes from right to left from that camera view, and it's very possible that that's what he saw when he said, i have the

aircraft in sight, and i can see how that can happen in a dark night above that black black river. um, and there are other aircraft out there and it's really hard to do vfr following in when it's night and no moon, and all you see are some flashing lights. >> chad, i also imagine as a commercial airline pilot, when something like that happens at such a relatively low altitude in the conditions that david just described, there's not much you can do at that point. no, the airline crew was seconds from landing. their their minds are focused on the runway environment, maintaining aircraft control. they're listening to atc, but they're in a critical phase of flight to transition to land the airplane. so certainly not a lot of time to make any significant changes. chad kendall david soucie, very much appreciate your expertise on this. thank you so much for

joining us. >> thank you. thanks for having me. >> still to come, we're awaiting a press conference from d.c. officials on the recovery efforts from this mid-air collision. we're going to bring this to you live. >> plus, the white house says president trump will move forward with new tariffs on canada, mexico and china starting tomorrow. what that means for you next here on cnn news central. >> this part changed my life. >> superman is now nominated for a bafta award for best documentary. >> chris wanted to change the world. >> people are literally walking because of him. >> superman the christopher reeve story. sunday at eight on cnn. >> watch your step. oh, that's why visionworks makes it simple to schedule an eye exam that works for you. even if you have a big trip to plan around. >> thanks. >> i could see you right now. that's convenient. visionworks. see the difference? >> if you're living with dry amd, you may be at risk for developing geographic atrophy or

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>> take a look at this. the dow jones. and specifically notice when it starts getting red right around 130 or so. yeah. in the last hour, wall street investors appear to be rattled after the white house said that president trump is sticking to his february 1st deadline for new tariffs on canada, mexico and china. tariffs that could raise prices for many products that americans buy, potentially stoking inflation. let's get the latest from cnn's matt egan. matt, what can you tell us about these tariffs and what it could mean for the price of everyday goods? >> well, boris, we could be on the verge of the first shots being fired in what would be a trade war in north america. because remember, it's not just these 25% tariffs that have been threatened by president trump on canada and on mexico. it's also the retaliation that they have promised as well. and as you pointed out, this did not go over so well on wall street the moment that this news came out from the white house, that the tariffs are still on track to

happen. we did see a noticeable dip in the stock market with the dow moving solidly lower. now look we don't know exactly what's going to happen here. it's still possible that president trump decides to delay when these tariffs get implemented or cancel them altogether. but we do know that he views these tariffs as sort of a magical negotiating tool that can solve almost any problem. of course, this would be a risky gamble because the united states imports a lot of goods from canada and from mexico, not to mention from china as well. last year alone, the u.s. imported $400 billion of goods from canada. everything from oil and minerals to cement, wood and paper goods. this is also a major place where the united states imports food from mexico in particular, roughly 90% of the avocados that get imported into the united states come from mexico. same thing for tomatoes. the auto industry in north america is also very closely linked together. that's

why analysts have said that tariffs like this would be devastating to the auto industry, and would lift the price of the average cost, sold. the cost of the average car sold in the united states by $3,000. now, meanwhile, there's also the risk that all of this could lift gasoline prices, because canada is the biggest source of foreign oil into the united states. the u.s. imports about 4 million barrels of oil from canada every single day. look at that. that's four times as much as what is imported from opec. mexico is also a major source of foreign oil and big oil. the oil industry is pleading with the white house to shield oil and natural gas from these imports. they're warning that canada is just such a crucial source of oil into the refineries that what could happen is you could see gasoline prices go

significantly higher up. gasbuddy has said that if these 25% tariffs go into effect, gas prices in the great lakes region could go up by up to $0.50 per gallon. similarly, go significantly higher in the midwest and in the rocky mountains as well. and so that's why we've got to pay very close attention to what happens next and whether or not the white house ends up putting the tariffs in place, but perhaps having some sort of a carve out so that it doesn't impact gasoline prices. because, boris, if we've learned anything in the last few years, it's that people care very much about how much the price of gasoline is. >> it's perhaps part of the reason the price of everyday goods, why donald trump got elected. and we should quickly point out karoline leavitt, the press secretary, was asked about exceptions specifically for oil and oil products, and she didn't have any specific. she said that we would find out within the next 24 hours. so matt egan will check in again once these tariffs are rolled out to see whether there was a carve out or not. thanks so

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credit associates now one( 800) 610-1468. live better. debt free. >> we are awaiting a live update from reagan national airport. that is what you are seeing there on the right side of your screen. officials will be bringing us the latest on their investigation into the mid-air collision between an american

airlines jet and an army helicopter. in the meantime, recovery efforts are continuing on the potomac river. and this is a live picture of that where we have seen some adverse weather conditions that have been coming in and out of the area. at last check, there were 14 bodies that were still missing. experts say divers are facing big challenges. that includes thick mud on the bottom of the river and zero visibility underwater. i'm now joined by tim taylor. he is an ocean logistics and technology expert. he's also the ceo of tiburon subsea. and it's really interesting to talk to you, tim, because you have discovered a number of wrecks, including world war ii submarines, and you are no stranger to diving in dangerous conditions around. uh, around wrecks. so tell us a little bit about what what you are seeing here as challenges to these divers, especially

considering this very cold water i tell. >> you, probably the biggest. >> thing and. >> people don't understand. >> is the mud. >> all right. you if anybody that's ever walked in a in a boggy area and tried to walk through mud, uh, it knows it is a substance, that is, it will reach out and grab you and hold on to you. water, even low visibility water. these guys can feel around and work and. but the mud is is is treacherous and hard to work. and lots of this wreckage is in that mud. and without the ability to dredge that or coffer dam it off. coffer dam is a surround the site with walls and pump out all the water. and then then kind of archeologically dig it out. uh, these guys are are working, going to be working at a very slow pace and they're going to probably try to use, uh, enhanced imaging with sonar and that type of thing to identify the smaller parts that are within the mud or in under the water to find them and, and piece them back together, at

least recover them for, for the, for the forensics. >> is part of that a positive though, in that the mud will keep some of these items in the right place rather than dealing with the currents. a lot of people don't know this, that the potomac is tidal, so it goes in and out because it goes into the chesapeake bay. the currents are quite strong. is that something that is actually going to keep stuff where they can find it? >> it could. yes. the lighter, lighter things obviously no. but, uh, heavy metal and any type of object in the mud. yes, that would be, that would be. and you can you can see through mud with sound and and, uh, even ground penetrating, uh, sonar, um, is, is you can map these things so you can know where they are and then you can target them. so they're not just reaching in and looking around groping. they can they can use technology to to scan the area and create a map and then target

these anomalies and you know, and this is years of other stuff that are in here. it's not just you don't see it, but rivers contain trash and trash sinks and people throw bottles overboard and cans go here. and so there's layers of of other things that are in guarantee you a wrench that fell overboard while someone was working and that are all going to show up nice and shiny on sonar targets, and you're going to be pulling a lot of junk out of that area as well. and so it's this is a this is so, so different than a terrestrial or even a deep water salvage where, where it's a sandy bottom or less sediment. rivers are, are notoriously, uh, very muddy, uh, boggy bottoms. >> so yeah, no doubt. >> it's going to be different. >> so talk to us a little bit about, um, how they recovered two black boxes. so they have been able to kind of go inside of some debris you would expect.

how do they do that? and then talk a little bit about the tools they use for that. but also the risks to they're wearing dry suits. right. so talk about the risks as there's a lot of sharp stuff for them to tear their dry suits on. >> yeah. so so dry suits are designed to basically keep you dry, but they keep you warmer as well. you wear an insulation underneath the dry suit and you wear a shell suit over it. it has seals. it seals out the water around your neck and around your hands. uh, but if it tears and you take on water, all that weight is in, in your suit and. it could it. but besides the fact that you're now not thermally protected and the water is in there, you are now a very heavy object underwater. now, i have to say shallow water. it's safer than if this happened at depth. so they, they they can get some help. and they're not they're not suffering long exposure times and decompression or anything of that nature. but it's more of an environmental suit. the dry suit

right now for them is to be able to stay underwater longer and do the work, but you can't catch it on stuff. you can't. it's it's it's delicate in a lot of ways. you don't want to puncture it. um, and there are a lot of sharp objects. and if you're working as a diver in a zero visibility, um, you typically, if this was this is like a confined environment, which it is, you're laying a line so you know where you are so you can follow that line back out because you have to if you go anywhere in a larger piece of records, you need to be able to turn around and find your way back out. and zero visibility that's feeling your way or following your line back out. if they're using that, you know this is the bigger pieces. >> tim, thank you so much for being with us. this press conference at reagan national airport is beginning. let's listen in. >> welcome and thank you for being here. joining me today, or. >> i'm john donnelly. >> chief of the district of columbia. >> fire and ems department, and i'm representing the unified command team that is operating

today. i'm joined today by deputy mayor lindsay. epa metropolitan police department executive assistant chief jeff carroll, clint osborne, the homeland security and emergency management agency director for the district of columbia, the military district, washington. the metropolitan washington airports authority, and both the fire and police chiefs. the united states coast guard guard, the maryland state police, the virginia department of emergency management, and the virginia state police. and i'd like to thank all of them for being here as well. we are here at reagan national airport with our unified command team, and we will provide an update on where recovery efforts stand. we'll also give more information about the cadence of updates from unified command going forward. i'm joined today by terry lyric from the metropolitan washington airports authority and the other members of the unified command

team. as we continue to learn more about the victims, we are sharing our prayers and condolences with the families of the loved ones and those who were lost in this tragedy. and i want to thank again our response teams for their heroic efforts over the past 30 or so hours, including the team on this site, as well as the teams that are supporting the families. this is heartbreaking work. the national transportation safety board is leading the investigation into what happened, and they will be providing updates later this afternoon. we will not be talking about the investigation in this conference. so terry lyric from the metropolitan washington airports authority will now provide an update on airport operations. and then i will update you on the activities since our last briefing and the activities over the next operational period thank you chief. again, my name is terry lyric. i'm the vice president airport. manager of reagan national airport. i just kind of wanted to give an update on where we stand. as we know,

the airport is open and operating. >> we are in a reduced capacity and a reduced arrival rate due to the proximity of the recovery site. we do have two of our three runways that are closed. so as always, we do want to encourage passengers to reach out to their airlines for any potential flight delays. um, typically a full schedule here at national airport would encompass about 800 flights a day. um, using those three runways. we've had several obviously cancellations yesterday. uh, airlines are resuming as much as possible normal operations. i think we have about 100 flights or so canceled today. i do want to just recognize a lot of the airport teams who work behind the scenes, and we are here to support and coordinate with the ongoing recovery efforts, as well as working with ntsb in their investigation. um, with

that, i'll just turn over my remarks to the next speaker. thank you. thank you so overnight, our teams continued search operations and surface work, including site sonar scanning, shoreline searches and aerial searches. >> also, two coast guard cutters have arrived on station, and you may be able to see them out there on the water. um, other efforts off site included the ntsb, american and pal airlines, and district officials, officials meeting with families at the family assistance center and providing the support that they need to get through this horrible event. we've identified 41, or we have recovered 41 sets of remains and 28 of those victims have been positively identified. and as of 6 a.m. this morning, next of kin notifications have been made to

18 families. going forward with our recovery operations, search teams will continue to work the site. we'll do side scan, side sonar scanning, searching the shoreline and aerial operations. our dive teams are working in targeted areas and additional coast guard assets will arrive this afternoon. the salvage crews have begun to arrive on the scene, and they're assessing the work that's going to be needed to recover the aircraft from the water. we expect those operations to begin no later than tomorrow afternoon. the teams are also working the shoreline down the river, as we do expect some debris to be dragged by the current. and if members of the public believe they have information or have discovered potential wreckage, we're asking you not to touch it and to call 911, and we will send somebody out to get it. um, supporting the response team. this has been a tough response for a lot of our people. we've

had over 300 responders operating at one time, and i think we've got about 500 people that have worked through the site. so the unified command has activated peer support for its first responders to make sure that everybody has somebody that can help us get through this. and the outpouring of support. people like the world central kitchens relief team and many of the local restaurants and restaurants here at the airport have supported the the people working, making sure they have food so they don't have to stop. and i want to thank the rest of the community for their outpouring of support and the the messages that they have given to the firefighters, police officers, military officials and everybody else that's working. if you want to help the greater washington community foundation has a relief fund, you can donate at the link above. we also be careful, avoid your fundraising scams. only trust verified sources and ways you can help is to amplify that message using

trusted sources on social media. exercise patient through the transition as this impacts the region. things like the delays at the airport. people are going to need your grace. um, i know we've got a lot of vehicles around. we've got some areas closed that are normally open to the public around the river, and we need your patience in that. um, check in on your friends and neighbors. and if you're feeling anything about this event, please call the crisis hotline. talk to a medical professional, and you can use nine, eight, eight on your phone. what have we got here? is that the last one? catching up? so with that, i'm we're going to be able to take a few questions. i'm going to start over here and we'll work our way across. 123. yes, sir. hey. >> this is campbell roberts with the new york times. >> can any of you talk about the faa's decision to restrict helicopter flights in and around national airport?

>> so the question is, can anybody talk about the faa's decision to restrict flights in and around national airport? i don't believe we have any. so that's probably beyond the scope of this interview. you'll have the ntsb later. and that's something i might ask them. yes, sir. >> steve skylar with cbs news. given the time that has passed, can you describe the conditions right now as it relates to the recovery process and whether you all think that y'all will be able to recover more bodies? >> okay. the question was, given the time that has passed and the conditions outside, do we believe we're going to be able to recover more bodies? and there's a lot of challenges with that. so i'm going to answer that one. i'm going to say that yes, we expect to recover all of the bodies. we have a that's why our teams are still working. we're going to have to work with the salvage company to do some of that work, though. yes, sir. >> if i may ask a question on behalf of the reagan national airport, uh, this is alex caprariello with news nation. a

lot of questions now circulating about the crowded airspace surrounding this airport. also reports about other close calls, including 24 hours before the fatal accident. we've seen the faa take the position of restricting the airspace. airspace, specifically route one and four for choppers in this area. what is the airport's position about potentially toning down some of the air traffic around this airport? and should this have been done sooner, specifically, the restrictions on the airspace for choppers on route one and four? >> you can restate the question. >> yeah, sure. the question was regarding air traffic. helicopter routes up and down the potomac, right. that is an faa responsibility. the airspace is controlled by the faa. the airport does not have any responsibility outside of the surfaces of the airport itself. >> but most certainly this has been conversations that you've had. and when it comes to safety for the airport, for the passengers that come in and out of dc, absolutely. >> the faa does regulate the airport and we follow all faa safety regulations. um, again,

all i can say is the faa is responsible for the airspace. >> very briefly, a question for the chief. sir, how long do you expect it to take for the salvage to be removed from the river to recover the bodies and do everything that's necessary to bring closure for these families. >> so we're working as fast as we can. i'm not going to be able to give a timeline on that, as there's a lot of unknowns. um, but we are we hope that we have better. we have not better, but we have more salvage equipment here tomorrow. and that that operation can begin. then. so next, three questions. one, two, three. >> yeah. chief perry russell vought, abc news. how is weather affecting recovery efforts? rain today. rain forecast later. what are the elements inside the river? how is all of this affected? recovery? >> so the question is how does the weather affect the recovery operation? i think in my view it may slow it down slightly, but we are all of the units out here, all of the people working

work year round in all conditions. we're going to be careful. we're going to make sure we don't hurt anybody else. but, um, the weather we've seen so far is whether we can work in. if that were to change, that would affect it. but we haven't seen that yet. one question at a time. yeah. >> chief. you talked earlier about access to the site and to gain access to that to that area. um, we don't think that ice was a real problem that day, but the the john glenn has been out of service for some time. do you have an update on when that vessel can? put back? >> so the question is, uh, access to the site and the john glenn is the fireboat for the district of columbia. so what i referred to on access to the site is things like gravelly point being closed and that being lost as a local recreation area while we're working. um, there was some ice on the river. we made good access to the site with everybody else, the john glenn, as has been reported, is

the one of the district's fireboats. um, it is not the primary asset for this type of operation. and so while it's in the shop, it didn't affect anything. and we hope to have it back by the summer. yes, sir. >> i have a follow up question about the runway closures. grady trimble with fox. um, so you said two of three are closed because of their proximity to the the crash site. can you explain why they remain closed? >> sure, absolutely. so the question is, why are two of the three runways here at national airport closed? so if you're familiar with the runway configurations here, we have a main north south runway. and we have two what we call crosswind runways. uh, the two crosswind runways. if aircraft were to, uh, take off or land over the aircraft recovery sites, that is out there right now. those would be impactful to the operation. so we've elected to keep those runways closed. >> and to follow up, how long do you expect that to remain the case? and are you saying that if

there's if there are still recovery teams in the potomac, then there's no chance that these two runways are going to open? and how does that impact. >> sure. so so the question is asking how long we anticipate those runways to be closed. that's a dynamic situation. we've worked with the faa. i think what we've communicated is we anticipate our expectation is is week. however we'll reassess on monday. and as the recovery efforts go, um, it's a fluid situation, obviously. yeah. >> okay. uh, paul, here and there. >> chief, by talking to salvage. can you confirm that you're not going to be able to recover the remaining bodies until you're able to get the fuselage off the the floor of the river and on to a barge, and and then my follow up to that is, are you making an effort today to get into the helicopter and recover those two bodies. >> so, um, the the question is, do we believe we have to lift

the aircraft out of the water in order to finish and find the the rest of the remains? and the second part of the question was, are, are we focused on the helicopter today? and the answer to the first question is, yes. i believe for us to recover the rest of the remains, that we are going to need to get the fuselage out of the water. the second part of the question is, yes, a lot of our operations, not all of them, but a lot of our operations today are focused on the helicopter. um. yes, ma'am. >> this question. >> is for mr. um, i'm about to fox five dc. can you confirm sufficient staffing moving forward in the tower? i don't know if that's in your scope or if that's okay. >> it's not. so the question was regarding staffing and the air traffic control tower. that's outside my scope of responsibility. >> john donnelly. >> can you talk a little bit about the toll this is taking on your team, and specifically how many people still remain? i know on day one there were upwards of 300. mutual aid was still out there. >> so, um, you know, this is an

incident where even if it doesn't affect you right now, it's probably going to affect you later. it'll be something that you think about. so the in emergency services across the board, we have support teams. the national capital region, all of the departments do. so there have been activated the international association of firefighters regional peer support team has been activated to uh, to help support. and we, the incident management team, as they rotate responders through the scene, are making sure that there are opportunities for them to get the assistance they need. i'm going to ask the virginia state police to talk about the peer support. he's doing a little bit. >> um, first sergeant blank with the state police in virginia. um, we are working with our partners. >> is leading. >> the support for the effort for peer support. but i'm here to in support of that effort. and we have several regional partners that are contributing to that, including mental health professionals who are on site from inova and from the from a

nonprofit in the in the area that are providing support. the virginia law enforcement assistance program is also planning to send support and all of the most of the public safety agencies in the region are providing personnel to assist with that effort. >> yes, ma'am. >> mary elkhart with dc news now. i know that this is an unpleasant question for you, chief, but we've been hearing reports from people that live along the river. are potentially seeing partial remains coming up on shore. that people are seeing these. is that anything you're hearing, or is that why you're keeping people away from some of these shore. >> so we're not keeping anybody away from the shoreline for any of those reasons. if we've closed off an area like gravelly point here, it's because we have emergency access vehicles coming in and out, and we need the access to the river. um, we have received some 911 calls about either debris or remains. i don't know that we've actually found any remains. we've certainly picked up debris

from those 911 calls. so we're going to do three more and go one, two and three in the back. yes, sir. >> thanks, jake. jonathan kearsley from channel nine australia. this is a question for terry. and terry is vice president and manager of this airport. what concerns have you had specifically about the congested airspace. and have you ever raised those directly with the faa? >> so again, the united states airspace is the safest in the world. safety is our one of our top priorities. and we continue to ensure that the airport is safe for operations. >> follow up on that. he wasn't in this instance. there have been near misses here before. you would have been made aware of those as manager of this airport. have you raised concerns with the faa about the congested airspace around washington? >> yeah, i can say again, we work with the faa. we're regulated by the faa. we comply with all faa safety regulations. >> but that doesn't.

>> answer the question. >> yes, sir. >> chief david shepardson from reuters. can you talk about how much debris has been removed to hangar seven? and at some point that operation be transitioned to a private company? the ntsb will will hire a will to actually put all the debris. >> so that's an investigation question and appropriate for ntsb this afternoon. >> we'll take two more. >> yes, sir. >> tom raza, channel seven, had a question for terry as well. um, as far as, uh, the airport took a position against adding extra long distance flights out of here. and one of the concerns was there's just too much already going on. do you maintain those concerns because they're supposed to start in the next few months? are you concerned about safety as those extra flights start? >> yeah. thanks, tom. so the question was regarding the additional slots to dca. uh, as you know, the slots are federally controlled, federally mandated, and we have to follow federal regulations. >> are you still concerned about them? i think that the airport

authority was concerned at the time. >> yes. again, we we have to follow the federal regulations on the slot controls. thanks. >> okay. hi there. >> i have one more question for you. >> you're talking about the. >> faa, congress, federally mandated. et cetera. where does the buck stop with this accident? and ensuring that the next flight to take off from this runway is safe. >> so, again, the question is really directed to the faa and congress, i believe. >> yeah. one last question is right here. >> you have 41 victims recovered. are you confident in the location of the others? where are they? are you confident that you know where they are? >> so, um, i think we think we know where they are. we won't know until we're done. i mean, we're going to continue this search operation, but we've searched a large portion of this river, and we are right there. so. oh, i didn't read. so the

question let me answer the question again or let me restate the question. sorry. uh, the the question was, are we confident we know where the other remains are? and that it it couples with the question about removing the aircraft. i believe that when we remove the aircraft that that will help us resolve this number. if it doesn't. we will continue to search. okay. >> that's the process. you take to salvage the fuselage out. you're going to put it on a. just reiterate that process. what that looks like removing it putting it on a barge. is that right? >> um, so some of that isn't decided yet. we'll have to see what the salvage team is doing once they get all of their equipment here. so we may have more on that tomorrow, but so i don't know the exact process today. so thank you all for coming today. we, um, hopefully we answered your questions. we are going to do this again tomorrow. i don't have the time yet, but we will push that out so we can provide the some type of update. thank you. >> thank you.

>> we've been listening to chief john donnelly of d.c. fire and ems, along with some other officials, regarding the ongoing effort in the potomac river just outside of reagan national airport. some of the headlines there, chief donnelly revealing that they are still working to recover 23 bodies, 23 people who were killed in this mid-air collision between a blackhawk helicopter and this american airlines flight. the chief there saying that the salvage effort is set to begin tomorrow. salvage crews are now on site and they will need their help in order to recover. those that have yet to be recovered. he said that 28 of the victims have been id'd. 18 families have been notified that their next of kin was killed in this tragic accident. >> that's right. and they still are asking for help at this point in time. two members of the public. this is a tidal river, actually, with the

currents that go up and down. but down river. they are asking people if they see any remains or debris to call 911 so that they can get assistance with that. they said they've already taken some calls that they have not received any calls that pertain to remains, but they actually have found some debris based on those calls. and they're really confident that they're going to recover all of the remains, but they're going to need the help of that salvage crew that's going to start tomorrow. let's bring in david soucie and chad kendall back to talk about this. and also david, noteworthy that you have the airport operating at this reduced capacity. significant. they said 100 flights canceled so far today. i was there yesterday and read was just lighting up the board. you could see it and there were so many people who were waiting to get out who couldn't. but what do you think about what you heard there? what stood out to you? >> well, what stood out to me is the fact that the faa has

restricted all helicopter operations in the area until they could determine what actually happened here. and and that tells me that they could be looking at a lot of different things. if the helicopter was using some kind of flight guidance system. typically, when there's a large aircraft accident like this, when i was the eic, the investigator in charge on it, when there's some question about altitude or location or off course, we need to look at all of the all of the equipment that's used on the ground to guide the airplanes and to guide those helicopters. so that's one of the things that concerns me, i'm sure, certain at this point that they've made made certain that that equipment is operating properly. but i just wanted to convey to the listeners that there's a lot that goes into this all the way from those antennas at the end of the runway, all the way to the aircraft, the communications between them. this is a very, very large undertaking. it seems simple on the front that, hey, this just happened. it's not that simple at all. it will go on for weeks. >> yeah, no question about that. chad, i wonder what stood out to

you from this briefing. yeah, i agree with a lot of david's points there. i want to speak kind of to the operations right now that, you know, as two runways remain closed, runway four, two, two and 3315, that it will take some time to get the airport back to normal operations and normal capacity with those runways closed and being used in the recovery efforts as well, it may cause some arrival delays into d.c. as we move forward. but this this recovery effort is going to take some time. this is a meticulous, um, time for the the efforts of the personnel working through these very difficult situations to to be able to, um, to get through the recovery period and, um, that, that is going to take some time to do. david, one thing that stood out to me during this press briefing, there were a lot of questions about the airspace around dca