to wednesday's deadly midair collision in d.c. other white house news of the jvc spent "washington journal" joint in the conversation live at 7:00 a.m. easter friday morning on c-span, c-span now or online at c-span.org. ♪ c-span, democracy unfiltered. funded by these television companies and more including cox. >> went connection cox is there to help. bringing affordable internet to families in need. tech to boys and girls club and support. whenever and wherever it matters the most we will be there. >> cox support c-span as a public service along with these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> members the national transportation safety board gave an update on the investigation of the deadly midair collision between a military helicopter

and a passenger jet near reagan national airport. this is about 20 minutes. >> thank you for joining us. my name is jennifer i'm the chairwoman for the national transportation safety board. national transportation safetyat board with investigate every civil aviation and serious accident and incident and other modes of transportation going to start by expressing her deepest condolences who those who lost loved ones in this terrible tragedy.

we are thinking of you bryce estate senior aircraft accident investigator the national transportation safety board. he'sb. going to serve as investigator in charge of this investigation. we have todd is going to serve's post person for this investigation. all of the board members will be here. alvin brown, member mike graham who lived in wichita for 20 years. we have tom chapman. ntsb headquarters is just 1 mile from here. and so we are all here this is

anth all hands on deck event. and we are here to assure the american people we are going to leave no stone unturned in this investigation. we are going to conduct a thorough investigation of this entire tragedy.s looking at the facts. now, with that i want to level set. when we go to the scene and we were here last night. we allow the responders to do their important safety commission in this case was search, rescue and recovery we stand back to allow them to do their important safety mission. and so this for us is our first full day on scene with our entire crew coming together we haveit nearly 50 people on scene in addition to resources back at

headquarters in our labs and throughout the agency. so, with that said we are not going to get into specific facts in this press conference. i want to level set here. we are going to get into investigative process as t we ae able to confirm factual information we will provide that. w i do want to say this is a whole of government effort. i was able to brief along with others the president of the united states and the vice president this afternoon. i want to thank them for their leadership. for their tremendous support of the ntsb. for our investigators and for the responders that are on scene doing important mission. i also want to thank secretary sean duffy who i was communicating with early on

after we first got word of this tragedy. we have been working together throughout the day along with his team at the dot and within faa. i want to thank secretary pete hegseth also integral in working with us today. chris the acting administrator different from many members of congress on both sides of the aisle. i would sayot this is a tremends i will say once again a whole of government effort. i also want to thank a moment to thank the many, many responders that have been on scene. incredible effort. i will have a full list i will provide, we will provide tomorrow. i do look to thank them for all of their work. with that i'm going to turn it

over for additional remarks. >> today is the first full day on scene. our investigative team will be on scene as long as it takes to obtain all the perishable evidence of the fact-finding that is needed to bring us to a conclusion of probable cause. our mission is to understand not just what happened but why it happened. and to recommend changes to keep it from happening again. we are just beginning our investigation, we don't have a great deal of information to share right nowt . we'll keep you informed by giving regular act updates as we learn more. the intentionon is to implement reports within 30 days. the final reports will be issued once we have completed all of her fact-findingce investigatio. now, we will not be determining

probable cause of the accident what we are here in scene. we speculated what may have caused this accident. today will be having an organizational meeting establishing our parties to investigation. psa airlines faa, which represents air traffic controls, the pilots. the army, asa at which represents a flight attendant. the transportation safety board of canada would be an accredited representative under annex 13. will be supplemented by fhirg as a technical advisor. their person is bombardier's. i'm sorry. ntsb offers party status to

government agencies and associations have employees, activities or equipment involved in an accident. we offer that that will provide technical expertise and relevant information supporting theth development of the best possible factualma record. since i joined this investigation they are not permitted to release documents publicly about the investigation without the consent. so, i want to stress this, it is only the ntsb that will provide information related to this investigation with one exception, regarding the fatalities that occurred, that notification will be handled by the d.c. medical examiner. we will not be discussing fatalities or names for they'll be handled by them as the proper authority. so, we had talked a little bit about a process. analyze the facts and determine the problems that cause the accident and issue a report in those determinations. i also want to talk a little

about additional people are here with us. they're very important to us. that's our family assistance group. later today we will be briefing the families that we normally try to do this before a media event in this case there still arriving.ca family assistance specialist are already working closely with local officials and others to help assist them in their efforts to support everyone that's affected by this accident. let me reiterate what the chair said. a loss of life in aviation accident is very unusual in the it affects us, it affects everyone around us. there's a lot of people hurting today. will help find out what happened. we'll do it tactfully, will do itua accurately. as part of this will be standing up some specific working groups. those working groups will be

operations, looking at the history of the accident flight that crewmembers duties. many days before the crash as it appears relevant. we'll be forming a structured ss group was to be the documentation of the airplane wreckage in the accident including calculation that impact angles to help determine planed pre-impact course and altitude. we have a power plant group that will do the examination of engines and while accessories. will have a systems group. they will study the components of the hydraulic, electoral, pneumatic and associated systems. together with the interments and elements of the flight control system. willaf of air traffic control group that will do reconstruction and review of air traffic control systems provided to and including acquisition of pertinent flight track surveillance information. you might typically think is radar or along with controller pilot communications.

we will also have eight survival group. they would during the documentation of impact forces and injuries. all crash and fire rescue efforts. also, due to the unique nature of this crash will be having a helicopter group as well. lastly will have a human performance group but this will not be its own group part of the operations air traffic control and helicopter groups. they will study true performance and the factors that might be involved in human error including fatigue, medication, medical history, training, workload, equipment design, and work environment. now, or going to take a few questions. i will again stress, we don't have a lot of information. we will continue to gather that and release it as we can.

will he talk about the facts of the case that we know now. will call on a few people i ask you state your name and affiliation. [inaudible] cooks unfortunately i did not hear the remarks. >> as part of any investigation we look at the human machine and environment. we will look at all the humans that were involved in this accident. again we will look at the aircraft. look at the helicopter thel environment that is standard in any part of our investigation.

what is the difficulties in a water disaster like this in a very difficult environment? >> the question was on the flight data recorders. we haveve not recovered the flit data recorders yet. we know they are there. they are under water. this is not unusual for the ntsb. we have many times t recovered flight data recorders and water. we have our labab right here tht is about a mile from the ntsb. it's not unusual. once we get those we will get those red and information from them to be able to provide further information torm you. i'm going to turn it back over. earlier today secretary pete hegseth. [inaudible]

initial investigation of pulmonary findings mechanical failure? >> the question was is that human error mechanical air question we don't know what we know just yet. not know enough facts to rule in or out human factor, mechanical factors. it's part of the ntsb investigative process. all these groups will come together. it's what the reasons why the ntsb is known as a gold standard pre-will take the time that is necessary. i like to also reiterate if we find something that is a significant issue that warrants immediate action will not hesitate to make those recommendations to make them public. there's a good track record on that we want to continue doing so. cooks nbc news. investigative process suggests probable causes. [inaudible]

cooks tom, with all the respect i think the press also likes to state what probable cause us before we get to the probable cause. so what i'm going to say you need to give us time. it's not that we don't have information have information. we have data we have substantial amounts of information. we need to verify information. we need to take our time to make sure it is accurate. that is best for you that it's important for the families. it's important for legislators who are seeking answers to try to figure out what they're going to do about this. it will take time. we do have a lot of information but we need some time to verify that. [inaudible] were there any performance issues in the past question.

>> the question is about controllers. as i said we are just now forming the groups. controllers do have huge representation they are entitled to. they'll be work with our party system and a party groups will be conducting interviews. those interviews will need to be analyzed, transcribed other team members will look over it. it will be along the process we will go through the entire history. [inaudible] >> sure. the question was about my briefing for the president and the vice president. as a standard we offer briefings on our process andie what we kn. and this was a briefing when the president vice president and secretary duffy and secretary pete hegseth. and also the acting administrator of the faa.

there was discussion on what we know so far. in our process and that was aboutat it. cooks chairwoman,. [inaudible] cooks ntsb we conduct an important safety mission where we take a very careful approach. i'mrr sorry the question was on speculating investigations which we often hear about. but we will say as we look at facts on ourur investigation. that will take some time. and at some point we will be able to provide the factual information.

and provide that hopefully tomorrow. [inaudible] the military the side. [inaudible] cooks the question was about black boxes which are referred to as black boxes typically aren't. we have not recovered any of the boxes involved yet. we feel comfortable and confident we will be able to write out recovery of a life is probably most important for those involved. there is still ongoing recovery efforts involving the fatalitie. involved hurt along with some debris is coming out as well. we will make sure the perishable evidence is maintained. there's a great process for that. they will probably have more than one blackbox sweep it. it's our understanding the helicopter is equipped with some

form of recording devices for those ugly red either by the dod or us. we have a good starting relationship with them we've made agreements in order to be able to do that. with a comfortable and what we will be doing for the other questions by air traffic control but we received a very large package of information from the faa about 3:00 a.m. i believe this morning. that is still being reviewed and analyzed. i was at this a lot more information initially comes in that than you might find online. that is the overall process you take the time get the information correct. to make sure all of the parties are engagedd and involved in fat check that information. kirksey and. [inaudible] the ffa internal report cited by the "new york times" controller on duty the time of the crash.

[inaudible] >> we have not reviewed any specific reports about the controllers at this time. at least from the leadership team. our investigators are continuing to go through all that information for the personnel records where they were at to be in the opportunity to validate and understand how it impacts investigation. we areat going to take just a fw more questions. [inaudible] what is the process are they coming to the airport? the sensitivity. [inaudible] cooks the question is about the families. many of those families are in route, some are still being notified from the military and from the commercial crash.

there is a family assistance facility being stood up by american and psa airlines. they've already been working on that standing up our team for mart disaster assistance the team. it's also been coordinating with them for the finalst briefing it is customary at that at some point at the families wish to go to the accident site we would arrange such a thing. it's only would beat what we know that it is safe. when the have the evidence and we can do it and they proper modesty that it should be for those family members will be a little bit of a process and will take some time. >> to follow up on the air traffic controller? >> no. [inaudible] >> again we will not speak to the fatalities the d.c. medical examiner oil. the d.c. fire chief this

morning's a single he said correctly we believe there are no survivors. [inaudible] hang on a second period right now we are going through the debris field. nothing we have seen what indicate slides or shoots were deployed. as a quick at rapid impact. we have seen nothing in that regard so far from the evidence we have we still need to verify all of that information part one more question. [inaudible] [inaudible] cooks the question is about the helicopter procedures. in d.c. it's a unique environment. we've been getting brief more and more by the faa. gota. it air traffic control specialist there helicopter zones if you will or tracks. this was transiting from track

124 as part of their normal procedure. if you see if you're an dce see a lot of helicopters going down into this area it's a well-defined system in that regard. until we get additional information we cannot validate or corroborate any of that until we get more of the electronic data and the data that was on the plane. you want to point out one question it also came about cell phones. today find a lot of electronics and other devices contain a lot of information but we found a number of accidents we are notified through a smart phone. as part of the process we will obviously treat all of these effects of the deceased with dignity. we started to pull that information together. if we feel it iso necessary to pull some of the information we will work with the families and make sure we do it in a manner that's respectful to them and their privacy. but right now we do not have any

plan specifically on that area. thank you very much. >> friday eight democratic national committee meets national harbor maryland for its annual winter meeting. outgoing dnc chair will address the conference dnc members will vote on rules for the upcoming leadership elections. live coverage it's underweight at 8:00 a.m. eastern on a free mobile app or online at c-span.org. ♪ saturday watch american history tv first 100 days look for the early months of the presidential administration with historians, authors and through the c-span archive. look at accomplishments and setbacks the nation up to the

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