opposite side of the river from reagan national airport and jon scott pointed out they often go in these blackhawks to refuel and they are back up in the air. when they take off and we are in one for several days when we are looking for survivors during the hurricane in the houston several years ago. and they kind of leaned forward. they are going up and while they are getting an altitude the back of the helicopter comes up. as soon as they leave the base they get a nose down position as they start to rise. is that a fair assessment? >> the aircraft was straight and narrow for a while. flying along the potomac and the aircraft was

>> it's hard to see above you in flying the helicopters so it's almost a perfect storm if you will, the two aircraft's, right on top of the other. >> trace: standby if you would we want to reset, we are at the top of the hour at 11:00 in the east, 8:00 here in los angeles, you are looking live at your screen in arlington, virginia,, there has been an airline crash, just short of reagan national airport, dca, as it's letters are and this happened at right before or right at 9:00 eastern time this evening, it was a see rj passenger jet, 700 and twin jet, 60 passengers on board. we do not know this, we are assuming with the 60 passengers you have two crewmembers and possibly, likely a flight attendant, possibly two flight attendants. the plane flight 5342 was from wichita kansas and landing at

reagan national airport, when we were told that it was hit, struck by a black hawk helicopter. three soldiers were on board the black hawk helicopter and we should note, we have been told that four people were pulled out of the water, the water is 37 degrees, we do not know, the condition of the four people who were pulled out, that is all we have heard from any potential survivors and we do not know if they were on the helicopter or if they were on the plane. we have this situation right now where we don't know what is happening inside reagan national airport meaning we don't know how many families, arrived there waiting to pick up their loved ones and are now being taken as a standard operating procedure into a room and being guided on what next steps, you can imagine how horrifying that must be. you look at the actual scenario

of what happened, we have been going over this, with our experts here, i want to bring back in -- first of all i want to read this statement because the president was advised about this, he just issued a statement, donald trump's at the following, i have been fully briefed on the accident with -- which just took place at the airport, thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders, i am monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arrive. it is also interesting because we got word of this, we got confirmation of this, not from the ffa, we got confirmation earlier from caroline levitt the press secretary who went on hannity and i don't know if we have that sound bite that we can play? we want to play what caroline levitt told sean hannity, the better part of one hour and 10 minutes ago, watch.

>> i can confirm that president trump has been made aware of this situation, and tragically it appears that a military helicopter, collided with a regional jet, at dca airport here in washington, d.c. that it's all i can confirm at this point in time, i can just say that the thoughts and the prayers of the entire trump administration are with all of those that are involved and we ask the public in this area to please standby for guidance from law enforcement and allow them to do their job as they attempt to save lives right now. >> trace: caroline giving the news to sean hannity and she was for the most part spot on. it's interesting because we have gotten a great deal of information from the white house, we have gone a lot of information from the ntsb and the ffa who are in the process of investigating this, they of course will take the lead. i want to bring back in aviation analyst and commercial pilot can christian centre, a former crash investigator for nasa, and ken

we went over this, the speed that they see rj 700 was coming in at, which was 140 miles per hour, it does not really leave, or does it? did they see this helicopter, is there room to manoeuvre? is there time to manoeuvre or in your opinion, would you make of the final crash scenario? >> trace, the altitude of 400 feet, and the airspeed, the aircraft, the american airlines aircraft is not extremely able to manoeuvre, it can make changes or stretch at that speed, the pilot eyes were on the runway and they were descending down on the helicopters so they were really not in a good position to get visual on the helicopter, the helicopter was underneath the aircraft, flying straight.

the helicopter crew looked up, and they had a good look until it was way too late, the aircraft would be on an issuing flight plan, atc is providing separation, they have checked in , they have been configured and ready to land. the atc, the tower would have communicated also with that helicopter. the helicopter's primary responsibility, to talk with the tower and to get visual on that aircraft. helicopter would have to provide separation between them and the aircraft because the aircraft would've had priority over the helicopter flying down. >> trace: i'm wondering, you look at this where you have joint base bowling on the opposite cut -- opposite side of

reagan national airport and you talk about the tower having both helicopters, as well as the jet, in their preview and we would wonder, would they be speaking to the military, or with the helicopter be relying on the tower for guidance? >> well, the helicopter was down the potomac river, all the helicopters that fly down there use the same corner, there is no operating procedures, but again, the aircraft would've had priority being on a flight plan and that helicopter would have provided some separation from the aircraft. the typical tower communication would be talking to the helicopter at a point now where the traffic is giving the helicopter heads up and they have to acquire visually. because of the close proximity of where they hit, just timing,

the aircraft was actually right over the helicopter probably and they could not see it. they continued their flight path, looking for the helicopter but it was directly overhead so, if you look straight up overhead, you cannot look through your intermittent panel to see the aircraft right on top of you. it was a horrible misfortune here. >> trace: you talk about visual flight, and you go with the instrument flight and so, it brings up a good point which is, the weather, we checked the weather around the time of the incident, was not out of the ordinary. reagan national reported clear skies visibility of 10 miles, winds 16 miles per hour nothing interesting or out of the ordinary, gusting to 26 miles per hour again, certainly not unusual, and the temperature was 15 degrees.

the temperature appears to play no impact. >> that's a good point, that is correct. just because the aircraft is not on the flight plan does not mean they have to be in the weather. they have to be priority for a landing at the airport. they were clear to land or approaching clear land from the tower and, atc is responsible for providing separation from other aircraft, however, and aircraft flying under the visual flight rules, that would be the helicopter, their responsibility is to provide their own visual separation from that instrument flight rule aircraft being the american jet so, again, is because of close proximity and how the timing worked out, the aircraft was descending, they cannot lift the aircraft, they cannot look underneath the

aircraft, they can only look out, their windscreen and so, that helicopter would not have any time. so, they continued their descent, and the helicopter hit underneath the aircraft. >> trace: which is perfect sense when you go back to the recording, where the tower is asking the helicopter quoting here, priority air transport 25, do you have this see rj insight? we talked to john scott about this he went back and listen to the recording and we have at least found or maybe we haven't found it but it appears the warning was just issued to one of the aircraft's, to the helicopter. either they did not have time to issue a warning to the plane or we just did not hear it, but it seems like this was moments before the actual crash where they are asking the black hawk helicopter, do you see the plane that is above you.

>> that's correct. that is a very normal standard radio call from the tower to the vf far helicopter, and they are pointing out the ifr traffic to them, do they have visuals so they were asking to be... to confirm the helicopter does in fact have an american airline flight inside, if they do not have been at their responsibility to provide separation, may be scent altitude but, it was such a short time frame, i imagine the helicopter crew would be actively searching, looking up left and right, and trying to acquire visually that aircraft, that atc was going down, but at that time the aircraft was so close to them, it descended right on top of them. >> trace: we are getting new information here we are getting

the homeland security sector kristi he was only been on the job for a couple of days sing the coast guard is deploying every available resource to respond to the plane crash near d.c., american airlines or american eagle, flight 5342, they've given a statement saying it was in route from kansas towards washington, d.c.,, it was involved in an accident at dca the flight was operated by psa airlines, with a see rj 700 and they have now confirmed there was 60 passengers and four crew members on board the aircraft. they go on to say our concern is for the passengers and crew on board the aircraft, we are in contact with authorities and assisting with emergency response efforts and, i want to bring in mark meredith because he also has the statement but what's important to get a feel for, what is happening on the ground there, as american releases the statement, is it changing anything with the actual rescue effort?

are they changing teams, are they bringing in new teams? is there a different strategy based on the temperature of the watermark, are you learning anything about what is changing and not changing about this rescue effort? >> i sure moments ago we have learned that the ffa has issued a ground stop for reagan airport until at least 5:00 a.m., there is no aircraft that were leaving out of this airport in the middle of the night, that is the indication here that there can be a ripple effect from this crash not only for those people who were on board vote for anybody that is trying to get into d.c. or out of d.c. tomorrow. as you mention moments ago american airlines on behalf of their regional carrier put out their first formal statement about this crash confirming there was 60 passengers on board to see rj 700 as well as four crew, believed to be two pilots and two members of the cabin crew, they've also set up a 1-800 number so families that are looking for information,

maybe either on the kansas side or here, that number reading here 1-800-679-8215, that is the number for american airlines if you are trying to get information about the specific flight. you were asking moments ago about the search and rescue effort underway, we are here on the virginia side just south of the runway here, and the indication or what we can tell as the search and rescue is happening on the other side, the d.c./marilyn side of what i am seeing is the multiple helicopters that continue to search over this area looking for any sign of either survivors or any indication of what could happen either from the helicopter or this regional jet itself, these helicopters have been flying about 300 to 400 feet as i'm looking down they have their search line and they are going up against the coastline of the potomac going back and forth, sweeping formation for at least the last hour and a half. we have not seen any of those helicopters get low, we have not seen them at 50 feet or 100 feet

were they would be dropping people and are trying to get people out instead they have been keeping their distance as they are about 300 feet above and we are looking to see as more air resources come in, more helpful after the sun rises, but the reagan airport is closed overnight tonight, not really a surprise we are still waiting for a formal news conference from the nts or even the folks that run the two major airports here in d.c., the one at reagan national, as i look across the potomac i still see the searchlights as well, the emergency vehicles on the south sides of the two runways, that would be this area where this would've happened and i have seen the number of emergency vehicle to grow exponentially ever since being out there, when i was racing up to the scene myself i was shocked to see how many police cars, ambulances, fire trucks racing and from all over the city so certainly it was an all-hands-on-deck situation but as i look across the potomac you can see these

different staging points at least three, one, the military facility across the river, but we can also. >> a little bit closer to the d.c. side of things and the reagan airport itself, where we are, and if it's possible i will show you what is happening, people at this time of night, we are in the middle of the night, i want to show you people have been coming out here just for themselves to witness what is happening not only members of the media, of folks out here from the dmv, trying to figure out what is going on simply looking out here and it is getting substantially colder, right now it's about 39 degrees but it feels colder out here, you mentioned the weather a few months ago, it was actually the most beautiful day we have had in d.c. for the month of january, temperatures have been beautiful -- have been brutal this month. visibility was good at the time of the crash, yes there will be a formal report coming out that will detail what the weather was like, weather it had an impact as a d.c. resident myself i

would say the weather certainly was not the main factor going into tonight, you have been talking about how busy this airport is on a typical day, you will see aircraft lines up for several feedback as well as an aircraft on approach and they tried to pump it in and out as quickly as possible. there has been a lot of talk about whether or not reagan airport is over congested, whether there is simply too much air traffic coming in. the problem is, you have so many members of congress as well as the general public that like to use this airport trace, this is right next to the city centre at the very easy to get to the rest of the city. were as if you go to baltimore you are looking at 30 or 45 minutes. this airport has been in demand, even though it is very much space constrained, the terminal facilities certainly need an upgrade, and they have been talking about whether or not it simply saved have all of these aircraft are you going in and out, as i can hear the helicopter backing up, i can see probably about 300 feet or so

with the searchlights going up and down and there is another one but it looks like more of a d.c. police helicopter providing some logistical support so you were asking about what happens next with the search and rescue, at this point we are looking to see whether or not they are able to pull any survivors that weather its an indication that they have to move their location, closer to where this wreckage is or where the current may be taking the wreckage but for right now at this point, just like everyone we are standing here in disbelief as we see what is happening in the potomac >> we are waiting for information right now expecting a news conference, we are expecting it will come out of wichita kansas, we do not know exactly the timing on that but when that happens we will bring it to live. you can see right there, the plane and helicopter colliding near dca if you are just joining us, it was a commuter airline, a psa airline and it flies under the matter of american eagle, american airlines and it was a

see rj 700 twin we now know there was 60 passengers on board, the twin engine jet, along with four crew members, a pilot, copilot and two flight attendants we should note he was talking about the weather there, and at the time the weather incident was no incident, it was ordinary! the airport clear skies the visibility of 10 miles, wins out of the northwest 16 miles per hour gusting towards 26 miles per hour, simple, nothing unusual for pilots to handle. the temperature as mark said is the nicest day the d.c. area has had in january, the temperature is 50 or was 50 degrees, i'm going to bring in fox news producer because she was in the air! she was 30 minutes from dca when the crash happened, her plane and then got diverted to baltimore and i'm wondering, clearly you are now in baltimore may be making your way back to d.c., but what did they tell you and what were the circumstances

when you landed? >> hey,, when i was in the air i was flying back from miami supposed to land in dca at 9:30, when i heard, i checked my email, i bought the wi-fi on the flight and i checked our itinerary and nothing had changed. on the american airlines application but if humans later, the pilot came on, very calm, did not cause any kind of a panic and said we were going to be diverting, towards baltimore because of an aircraft incident, the pilot told us that the entire dca airport was closed, and all flights were being diverted, we obviously landed then at baltimore and, we waited on the tarmac for quite some time because the pilot told us there was several other aircraft that landed so we waited on the tarmac for a little over an hour

, they got us a gate and i'm actually on my way back to d.c., so honestly a minor inconvenience all things considered about the tragic scene as we are seeing out of reagan tonight >> >> trace: when you got on the ground anybody no? was there a bit of activity about what had happened? >> yes, people started immediately looking, calling family, texting, i got to know the women sitting next to me, they were wondering what was going on but, everybody stayed really calm, nobody was really frustrated about being delayed or diverted in -- in any way because it was so sad to hear what happened and people were getting a lot of information but, they did not really panic or anything like that, everybody was calm and nobody was upset that we had been diverted. >> trace: thank you for the information be appreciated, we

will get back to you, if you get more information we would appreciate that, i want to bring back in john, he is a licensed pilot covering aviation on fox news channel for the better part of 29 years. john, what information are you learning? >> i have to correct myself from what i was talking about earlier, it appears the plane that is taking off was actually taking off from runway one, that is the primary take off runway at dca and it's the longest one, almost 7200 feet long. the inbound american flight was going to land on runway 33 which is 40 degrees separate from runway one, so they are heading in the same general direction, about a 40-degree angle, of difference.

i spoke to a good friend to has been a top gun pilot for years, and he said he can guarantee that the chopper crew was looking at the wrong aircraft. that they were... the tower was asking them if they had the regional jet insight, will we know there was a regional jet taking off from runway one. you can always distinguish a regional jet, so they may have been able -- they may have been looking at the wrong aircraft and thought they were behind, which is what the tower was instructing them to do. they may have thought that's what they were doing. >> trace: for clarity you talk about 33 and the different numbers, they are basically compass points, basically telling you what direction they are flying, so 33 would be...

>> taking off roughly 330 degrees left of north, and runway one is 10 degrees, so a little bit right of the north. >> trace: and i'm wondering because jennifer and others have been telling us that this boeing airbase, is right across the river from dca so clearly these helicopters taking off has to be routine and they must be taking off from the same direction, or do they switch it up? do they take off in different directions or is there a standard operating procedure when you take off, that you go a certain way just like the airplanes have to go and land, a certain way, is it the same for the helicopters or do they have more latitude? >> it's my understanding that the helicopters have a zone on the east side, of the potomac,

if i am remembering what my buddy told me. that is kind of where the traffic is, not restricted necessarily but that is where they are expected to be. and, again, if the chopper was flying under visual flight rules, then it's really just like driving your car, you are supposed to look at other traffic and make sure you don't bump into somebody and, that is what this chopper crew would've been assigned to do the two have been talking about -- >> trace: we have been talking about how we are in this amazing age of aviation safety, there has been some 737 crashes in recent years, those have been fully investigated and it's put up a dent in boeing but in this country, the last major air

crying crash was also a commuter plane, 49 people killed and prior to that, it was just months after 9/11 in early november, of 2001 when american airlines flight 587 crashed at kennedy killing 260 people in that case and beyond that, it is extraordinarily safe and part of the reasoning is, do you think because we have got it to the process of moving to the next generation of air traffic control, and how to get planes in and out safer? >> absolutely, the systems that i was talking about earlier, ads traffic collision avoidance, airplanes are now able to talk to each other in the air! and identify, even in my little fairly humble aircraft, i can

see all the other planes around me, which way they are headed, what their altitude is -- and comparison to mind, the system has been developed in the past 20 years or so, are spectacular and have really enhanced safety! that's why this collision is so upsetting, because it seems like most pilots should have been able to be aware that they were on a collision course, well before it actually took place. >> trace: i want to read this to you because maybe this is kind of repetitive and what the information you have been telling us but, this is from the associated press giving us a last few minutes of the flight is says, and i'm quoting here, a few minutes before landing air traffic control asked the arrival commercial jet if it could land on the shorter one-way as you were saying, runway 33, and the pilot said

they were able to, controllers then cleared the plane to land on runway 33, flight tracking sites show the plane adjust its approach to the new runway, less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it had the arriving plane insight and as you were pointing out the controller makes another radio call, to the helicopter moments later and it says priority air transport 25 past behind the cr jay, we have only been hearing priority air transport 25, do you see the jet, now we are hearing for the first time priority air 25 past behind the cr jay, seconds after that the two aircraft collide. the radio transporter stopped transmitting about 2000 feet short of the runway, roughly over the middle of the river, the tower immediately began diverting other aircraft's from reagan, it's a pretty good second by second thing there but it shows that the plane was

moving to get on another runway and, they were saying go behind! so tell the helicopter the black hawk helicopter to go behind the airplane, and then you have real visibility issues on both sides. >> yes, as i was saying earlier, the alignment of those two runways, is not that far off so it would have not been a stretch , the pilots obviously said they could land on 33, turning their nose a little bit to the right, or i'm sorry, to the left. coming in at 40 degrees off from where they had intended to be, but that is not a difficult thing to do. if they were still a few miles out. apparently that is what they were going to do, but why the helicopter ended up in the middle of all of this, that's going to be for the msp to

decide. >> trace: we have new information, we can confirm the aircraft involved in tonight's incident was an army you h60 helicopter, out of davidson air, army airfield, during a training flight, we are working with local officials and will provide additional information once it becomes available. of course, everybody is going to look at the words training flight and a lot is going to be made out of that, it doesn't necessarily mean that an unexperienced pilot was at the controls of the time. >> no of course not, they have to go through frequency checks, every six or six months, getting new proficiency checks, with a check pilot so i am guessing there would have been as the

army said, three soldiers on board i'm guessing there was a pilot and sitting sort of behind and in between them would've been a check airman who was making sure that they were following procedures and doing it by the book. and, perhaps they may find that was part of what led to this accident, perhaps the two pilots are so worried about her occupied with trying to do the right thing, maybe they did not spot the plane when they should have. the ruling aviation is, eva, navigate, communicative so whatever you are doing, you were supposed to fly your aircraft first, and worry about everything else second and third >> trace: john, if you get new

information we will go back to you immediately, thank you for your time and your analysis be appreciated but i want to go back to the senior congressional correspondent who happens to be live near reagan national airport covering this story. again it's all hands on deck for everybody, there is were you can see part of the fuselage of the plane, what can you tell us? >> let me kind of orient you where we are right now, if you are here and you are approaching the runway from the south, which is where this plane from wichita was coming, if you fly into reagan national airport, what you see is a bunch of lights, this is kind of an extension of a landing strip, when you fly into a larger airport that has a longer runway, you see those lights in a way -- lights way in advance. if you look out here over to the right, we see what we think appears to be a little bit of that fuselage in that peer, near those blue lights out in the

distance, short of that runway probably by about a half mile or so, and that is where we think that collision took place. that is where that fuselage seems to be semientangled in those runway lights that are actually out in the water, on that peer you can always see those when you fly into reagan national airport if the approach is from the south. the other thing we have been told in the past few minutes is that the cockpit and the main portion of the helicopter seems to be in the water, and is kind of bobbing up and down and we don't know precisely where that is, again you can imagine an impact of that we have seen some of the videos and possibly the extent of the explosion and the impact, so we don't know where they are looking exactly. we just see an array of lights, you talked about this helicopter being out of port belvoir, that

is just south of here. if you fly out to the north you virtually fly over the pentagon as you make this hard bank to the left, going north over the potomac river, if you were to drive south of washington, d.c., on the george washington parkway you would eventually get to port belvoir, it's down to the south past mount vernon. that is not very far, i drive across what is called the 14th o washington, d.c., every day or i take the metro in which goes across, but you see constant very low helicopter traffic, usually military, sometimes going to the white house for the president, under the biden administration, under the trump administration, these flights coming and sometimes they are going to the pentagon, also going to fort belvoir certainly, they live very low compared to those aircraft because they go out, they bank immediately to the left is not much of a concern, but that is where that

accident appears to have happen tonight and to do a reset, we are south of the airport, the bulk of the airport is over here, that is where you see all of these emergency lights if you look over in the distance across the way, a lot of the emergency response has been on the d.c. side, of this and again they have called emergency rescue outfits from all over the region, maryland, washington, d.c.,, and virginia and we have heard constant helicopter traffic above you can hear one right now and every so often i talk about this several times, where they come in they shined this big light, it's almost like a signal over the water as they are looking for debris, looking for survivors, and we are about to... this happened just around 9:00, we have not gone anything definitive, pulling people directly out of the water, survivors, maybe those who might have been killed unfortunately

of that, in fact, happened, we know the stats of how many were on board, the military, the helicopter, approximately 60 people on the aircraft out of wichita kansas, they're going to have to go to this water, the water is so cold in the hour and a half i have been here, the air temperature has dropped from about 41 degrees to about 38 degrees. is not going to be as cold here in washington, as it was a few days ago, temperatures kissing 10 and nine above zero, that probably helped with the water, but the water is much colder. >> trace: we will get back to us we get more information, we appreciate it so we can be clear, what chad is saying, the nbc affiliate earlier was reported and we have heard nothing else about this, for people were pulled from the water after the collision we don't know the status of those people again they say people now anything is possible.

they did not say bodies so that is the last we have heard from that, but we are expecting a news conference very shortly, on that note the water temperature is 37 degrees, that is what we are being told, i want to bring in armand because he is a search and rescue expert and as you look at the scene, and you listen to chad in the boats are out there, the water 37 degrees, we are almost three hours, approximately from the time of the crash. what do you make of the rescue effort right now? >> trace good evening, under unfortunate circumstances what strikes me as one thing that you look at any search and rescue is the first responders will make sure the area is safe before they go and obviously. but considering the water temperature and the human body can withstand, a few minutes of

that exposure before losing consciousness and maybe another five or 10 before you lose your life, i am willing to bet they did not care whether there was anything out of the water them i damage, the probably went in there to find anybody. the violence and the rapidity, you have to think about that, they had no time to react, you watch that video, they were in the water, i very much doubt that even realize what was actually happening to them, either the crew in the helicopter or the crew and passengers in the aircraft. zero time to prepare, by time that aircraft at the water, possibly broken have, very likely the cabin filled with water quickly, now pilots in the helicopter have to go through a certain type of training, when helicopter goes into the water, on how to escape, in terms of you cannot see, you could not hear so basically trying to escape by feel, passengers don't

have that kind of training unfortunately so if they did pull anybody out of the water, i am hopeful at least some people are alive, they might have been torn free, they might have been in a particular part of the aircraft that was spared, the violence of the asset, we don't know, it could be how the aircraft actually crashed but what i really did like to see was that the response was so fast and so rapid and quick to come in. trying to do whatever they can to save those individuals. that water is obviously a very challenging effort, we saw fire engines trying to help. diving into the water, trying to rescue, is very dark. >> trace: i'm wondering very quickly, they are holding out all hope, they are down there,

the teams are on this, when do you think and at what point of time, libby tomorrow morning before we turn this into a recovery mission or will list a rescue mission for the foreseeable few hours? >> there is one very interesting scenario, if the cabin did not break up or stay, part of the cabin broke up but just in terms of how it fell down there is an air bubble inside that they might be able to sit in there, with air, but you don't know. if you think of a submarine disaster, it could be intact, so that is something that we could hold out hope for if they are exposed to the natural elements, there is no chance but, until absolutely every possibility is zero doubt those guys are going to be looking for them, by the morning we will know what happened. >> trace: standby if you will very quickly, these people, when

this crash happened, it is unlikely they would have time at 400 feet when the crash happens, have time to recognize with spatial disorientation to recognize what is happening to be able to help themselves, should they survive the initial crash. >> however, once they do crash they will know what happened and hopefully it is designed to withstand some type of rapid dissent and we did not see a fire afterwards so that is actually a blessing, the fact that there was an explosion of some kind you know how big it was, but the fact that there was not a fire means they did not have to deal with smoke inhalation so, it's water and mechanical trauma, i have dealt with -- i was on the trauma team at ucla just down the street here in los angeles about 20 years ago and we had the victim of the helicopter crash, a pilot in catalina island to fill a few

hundred feet and he survived. he was banged up a lot but these things are survivable, and many of these aircraft are built to try and keep people alive, is just a matter of how quickly can they get to the people, i think by this point, if the aircraft is filled with water, i don't think there is much hope for survival but the fact that people were pulled out and potentially, could be alive suggests that there is some type of survivable event and maybe they did get an emergency exit door open which could mean other people may be out as well. >> trace: we have talked about this before, going back to 1982 when you had the crash on the potomac were some people did survive and there was famous pictures of people jumping in the water and saving those who made it out of the plane, that plane was on takeoff, only relatively a few feet off the ground when the crash happened. we also talk about the miracle on the hudson when somebody landed that plane on the hudson, and on that note i would like to

bring in former nypd inspector of fox news contributor, with the latest on because he was out there, he knows what happened on the hudson, on what agency he thinks has responded to this or knows who responded to this and comparisons you make clearly that was a plane that was landed, expertly landed, on the hudson, this was a totally different scenario so, it is probably unfair to make comparisons, but it is interesting when you talk about the cold weather, the frozen weather, and the frozen water that actually these things have in common. >> in the case of the hudson, just to be clear i was on land and he came over the radio and it was along the hudson river, i saw the plane intact simply floating by me way out in the river which struck me at the time, was how minuscule it

looked. people were standing on the wings of the plane and you could see it was a relatively controlled situation by then the nypd harbour boats were responding and that is actually something else that was different, here in new york the nypd's very large, they have a ton of assets, an active unit that was out there very quickly with assets and so, search and rescue went on right away and unfortunately there was no loss of life, in this incident in d.c., there are a lot of overlapping agencies. d.c. metropolitan police they have two choppers in the air, and they have divers, they have people in water, boats in the water but who you also have, you don't hear much about, they are underappreciated is the parts police, a large chopper in the air that has swapped out the

crew to keep them in the air permanently around the clock to make sure, all of this has to be coordinated, the coast guard is arriving, you will have a d.c. fire and the arlington fire department as well. [please stand by]

but we haven't had any type of update at all on anybody brought out of the water alive or otherwise. i spoke to somebody on the ground with the nbc report there. that person told me that they hadn't heard anything relevant to survivors. they were monitoring the live radio broadcasts. we haven't necessarily heard every frequency and haven't necessarily heard all the agencies. and we can cross our fingers that somebody got pulled out but

as of now we aren't hearing that on the radio. >> it is interesting because you look at that and think well you are talking about a couple other factors here with more information let us know we will put you back on talking about the scenario there and not just the explosion. you look at the videotape in the explosion looks to be significant it's the fact that the plane at the time was at 40. 400 feet is a very long fall. even if you are protected it is a very long fall into very cold water. in that since it lowers those odds significantly when you have that kind of scenario there. they aren't drawing conclusions whatsoever because we have heard nothing from first responders and people on the scene and it's a very tough situation. going back to mark meredith we

have some information from the transportation secretary sean duffy who is now on the scene. >> reporter: a good evening once again. two updates. first what we know from government response with the transportation secretary and they have spoken to the governor of virginia and the governor of kansas as well as the d.c. mayor bringing all available resources as that they lead the investigation in addition to the search and rescue the coast guard and all the other federal agencies that have resources already out. that's update number 1. also hearing from folks inside reagan airport in the last hour all screens whether you're talking about the parks board or the metric centre or at the gate itself they have been replaced. instead of seeing american airlines flight to atlanta all aircraft are being held so please contact your airline representative now it's getting so late in the evening.

but now very ominous sign of what's happening with the departure boards being scrubbed and the indications being that it will have a huge impact throughout with the ground stop and they have a that getting out close to on-time i can hear from one of the searched choppers just over my shoulder right now sweeping up and down the potomac for more than two hours looking for any debris or anybody who survived the crash and continue as some of the maryland state police as well as d.c. police helicopters are all part of the search. we were wondering if we would get an update tonight we heard rumblings of a press conference there is nothing official yet that you can imagine the immediate focus is on search and rescue efforts as at they are trying to find out what happened inside the water and we will get you an update there. officials in kansas have tried

to put together an update as well. there were local affiliates on the ground in d.c. we had a chance to speak to some of the people waiting at the airport for information and are confused whether or not their loved ones were actually on the aircraft or not. reagan airport being in the heart of d.c. on a wednesday night some people were heading there for business and people are waiting for information about their loved one. reagan airport when you were coming into the scene was completely blocked off because of course the emergency vehicles were blocking people from accessing around the point which is an area rate outside the airport where you could see the airplanes coming and going on a beautiful day. with dozens of people have come out and brought their kids and basically you get to see all the aircraft takeoff and land right in front of you. but tonight as i was coming in that area was completely courted off as you saw police and firefighters they weren't rushing anything but those station points were set up all

throughout the airport and the potomac near the virginia side as well as the d.c. and maryland side across the way. i've seen three or four of these search and rescue points set up here where you can see the flashing police lights but no other indication of those resources that are shown up over the last 20 or 30 minutes. it seems like it was the same folks out there so they might want to get out of here pretty quick and god willing anybody here will survive. so getting you updates the transportation secretary spoke with local officials on the ground like the governor of virginia and kansas as well as the mayor of d.c. the circuitry of homeland security also there talking about the plain federal resources at that disposal out to the airport and there is an emergency here with no other updates please contact as it will be a rough update for those

on the potomac when you find out what's happening for them. mark meredith life rest at the airport back to u.s. the news warrants. let's bring in dan elwell a former faa deputy administrator as we see the emergency response and we know the boats are on the water and we know everybody including the new transportation secretary is on scene here. what else is happening. what is going on behind the scenes what can he expect for the next steps in the investigation and they have a network and sensitive there and people will be talking about the event and the particular place

and it and the faa lee taking on the tapes and all the information as soon as that's on scene and it is a tragedy of the people who arrived at the airport and they got something on their phone that there had been an incident. it's interesting right now because this would be the first time you go back the last crash we had in 2009. those were not as sophisticated as they are right now. that was in 2001. that american airlines flight crashed coming out of kennedy there and it is a different

world that these people are living in and it is unknown how the faa and the airport and others deal with the families who showed up to pick up their loved ones and instead were given this horrifying news. >> obviously it's terrific to think about coming to the airport to meet your loved ones to pick up a visiting friend or relative. and you are correct trace the information travels faster than normal protocols. in that sensitive way you would normally reach out to somebody. and i know that right now it is a search and rescue operation with all of those involved particularly folks trying to rescue anybody there to be rescued and piecing this

together. and we might be able to answer this for a long time and it's fascinating to see how much information we are doing. and it's a new standard in the white house press secretary just minutes after went down confirming what happened in that seems to be unusual and with all the information it safe to get out and with that getting out there. an interesting point there and

we would have a decade or so ago of the event. and back when the event happened in buffalo and we not those days to listen to we have flightaware so folks could see that track of the aircraft and i would caution everybody to take a look at the information in that it eventually could add to the confusion and especially videos and tsb experts telling you that not even your eyes can be trusted looking at a collision at night it's very difficult to get the perspective a direction. and it's most certainly the aircraft landing descending upon approach and could very likely

have never seen the helicopter and vice versa. and if they were underneath the aircraft's might not have seen the aircraft coming down. it's looking at tapes and sometimes the information can be more confusing than helpful. >> speaker-01: dan thank you very much and grade analysis is always i appreciate your expertise. we want to bring a jonathan a former navy seal the first agent at the u.s. airways lauder there's water landing talking about that on the hudson back in 2009 his first mission in the seals team at a water rescue mission and we are now learning that it appears cbs news reported 18 bodies were recovered from the potomac river following the plane crash to give people correct clarity on those numbers they have confirmed the numbers for us at

american airlines on flight 53-42 as well as 64 members on board the black hawk helicopter as we have also confirmed there were three army soldiers and it was a training flight with 18 bodies recovered from the potomac what is your thought about this? >> when you combine this with the video we are seeing here of this impact that both of those aircraft and probably not survivable and in excess of 100 miles per hour from what i

looked at the flight tracker it was almost like a side impact and with combined speeds of these aircraft and also an impact in the water being very traumatic. i have been the first fbi agent on three different aircraft's in new york and hudson on the river that was a controlled landing. it was also the first fbi agent on the scene with the liberty city's helicopter colliding with a commuter jet descending from behind the helicopter which was going up and just didn't see each other and in this case at night it's very more difficult and it such a controlled

environment there as i am just shocked it was able to occur. the flight environment in that location is so tight and so regulated it's beyond me how this could occur. the impact of the two aircraft in the water i don't know if that's survivable myself. >> and very quickly i have 30 seconds until the top of the hour and we reset less than that now. we now know it's not going to open until 5:00 on friday morning. jonathan if you can standby i will reset and then we will bring you back in quickly to give clarity here. this is as we wind down until the top of the hour.