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.

9:00 in los angeles i'm trace gallagher in los angeles and you can see the flashing lights if you are just joining us. if you haven't been listening to the news it is awful and we are being told there is confirmation that american airlines flying under psa airlines under the banner of american and american eagle flight 53-42 from wichita, kansas, to ronald reagan airport dca crashed and apparently we were told it did as we saw the video it did collide with the black hawk helicopter and that the plane that american air was flying was a see rj 720 with 60 passengers and four crew members and the helicopter was carrying which was a training flight carrying three soldiers and you can see they collided and if you take a closer look at it that

helicopter which was taking off if the plane is a cayman from the back and the experts we've talked to so far as saying things as if that is what happened because the plane the last warning that came from the tower was directed towards the helicopter and saying approach from the rear end can you see this see rj in front of you. of course there was no response because the collision happened moments thereafter. minutes ago we talked to jonathan who was on scene first on scene the former navy seal first on scene for a couple of crashes with the hudson and another helicopter crash in around new york city and you see the response here it's fascinating that we have so much

information so fast from the scene of the crash and the information comes in in realtime while the rescue is still being set up. you do need to realize that when this occurs all the rescue entities arrive there they do not just jump in immediately. you need to pause and assess the situation. they might deploy the boats immediately they might be looking for survivors in the water and might have a helicopter in the air but it does take time to get divers suited up to figure out what exactly is happening in that situation and those are crucial moments. i think when paul was on earlier as we are both in the same place at the same time there on the hudson that the liberty i don't remember what the name of the boats are there in the hudson river but that is one of

the things in many cases actually saved people because there is a constant fluctuation of these going back and forth from new jersey over to new york so when something happens they are able to respond very quickly to that and assist in this case you are going to have that. so that a response had to wind up so they could actually get out there and unfortunately in this type of environment those are crucial moments ticking by especially in water just above freezing. >> jonathan thank you for your time we can show you the bottom side of the screen there it says plane crash press conference happening that is going to be at dca we don't know who is going to be involved in that but it happens at 12:30 so we're talking about 26 minutes from right now where we expect the news conference to begin we should let you know that sean duffy and this the

transportation secretary is on scene unclear if you will be a part of the news conference i do want to bring in our aviation analyst and commercial pilot ken christianson also a former crash investigator for nasa and him going to read this to you because first the breaking news that you should know about that cbs news is reporting 18 bodies have been recovered from the potomac river following the plane crash and we are getting some of the last few minutes over what happened to flight 5342 and to the black hawk helicopter i will read this to you and see what do you think as it was a few minutes before landing air traffic controllers asked the arriving commercial jet if it could land on the shorter runway 33 at reagan national and the pilot said they were able. controllers cleared the plane to rent land there and it adjusted its approach to the new runway at less than 30 seconds before the crash an air traffic

controller asked the helicopter if it has the arriving plane and site. they make another radio call moments later at p.a.t. 25 passing behind this see rj seconds after that the two aircraft collide and the rate planes transponder stop transmitting 2400 feet short of the runway roughly in the middle of the river and it began and diverting other aircraft from reagan. so a couple attempts were made to get hold of the helicopter and there was no response. it does seem to be that when you look at the video this was towards the rear of the airplane. what do you think of that scenario as it's laid out in that timeline? >> a listen to jon scott earlier and i agree with his statement that the departing aircraft the crew could have bit off and saw

that but the controller from what you are saying is in arriving aircraft. so the crews get eyeballs on the other one they can bite off on that and while they were looking for that maybe there was confusion in the cockpit and the collision occurred. so that's what i think was the most likely occurrence and it will become more clear as they sift through the data and clearly when they recover the wreckage the recover the bodies use shows that there is survivors and the temperature of the water only going to be there at 10-15 minutes before you just can't move anymore so the time passed is not a good sign for any survivors. yet but news conference happening in 23 minutes but i'm surprised at his you look at some of this as we have people

around the country going to these websites where you can actually listen to air-traffic controllers talking to the various aircraft and we have yet to hear any message. the last heard was a few minutes before landing to flight 5342 saying could you land on runway 33 but so far we haven't heard any outreach to the aircraft from the air traffic controller about emergency situation or watch over the black hawk helicopter for anything like that do you find unusual or did they simply not have time and you have one controller trying to handle two aircraft in that scenario. and that was the final approach being distracted by that and they had responsibility for a separation on the american airline traffic and tried twice

gathering eyeballs on the aircraft and we appreciate it and he has flown out of there for 16 years he's very familiar and you know that faa procedures you know the whole thing we are talking about here. so i am wondering if you find any of the conversation the warnings to the black hawk helicopter and the final conversation in regards to the regional jet anything unusual about that at all? doesn't strike me as unusual and they would tell you about for

pilots familiar as i was in all the years out here a couple of times with larger jets landing on 33 and i wasn't sure when it was asked who is more difficult to see here and the city lights can actually drown out the lights of an aircraft. so both aircraft at the moment of impact were what we call the far because at the american after aircraft would be doing that instrument approach to do a

visual approach and landing the 33 but i'm not convinced looking at the video that it was a strake or an impact from behind where the jet would be going significantly faster than the helicopter little more familiar with the helicopter operating speed there. >> speaker-01: you asked the question so i just wanted to get clarity as it says on the release a few minutes before landing they asked the commercial jet if it could land on the shorter runway 33 at reagan international and the pilot said they were able. so in talking about readjusting to land on the shorter runway do you readjust the strategy to land. are you coming in a little bit lower were a little bit earlier that it happens to be shorter they don't have the benefit so they want to land as soon as they crossed the threshold.

and they are getting instructions requesting the landing a couple minutes before and it is normal for the air controller to ask them and with the landing speeds and they took it that's particularly normal and that the way it works and day or night not seeing a helicopter. and that geometry works so and going very low towards the maryland side with 33 or one. always several hundred feet separation and based on what

i've heard so far with the traffic insight behind is quite typical and was a helicopter there reported the aircraft in sight. looking at something that wasn't the aircraft. and not sure the helicopter ever responded just for clarity there and going to the back of the thing and do you see the jet as there was no response. i don't believe there was any response here with the transmission between the tower and the aircraft. there was as far as we know no response from the helicopter at all saying do you see the

aircraft trying to get this thing off. so i am wondering now as you are reporting that he could see some of the lodge out of the water in the potomac and now we get information from nbc news it crashed near reagan airport broke into two pieces. in the roughly 7'0 of water as the helicopter station upside down in the water very unstable. you have a plan and two pieces and 7'0 of water with a helicopter upside down and very stable. looking at that what is the thought there? another rescue effort by any means i think that the time from notification and these rescue

folks a real professional and do a wonderful job and i imagine they do this as fast as they can. >> speaker-01: dan thank you for your time. and if you see the scene there this is brand-new information to give you a rundown of where we are at the bottom half of your screen on the right-hand corner we are expecting a news conference in about 15 minutes. we aren't sure who will be involved in the news conference but we were told earlier that a press conference would happen in wichita but now it's being shifted over to dca. we know sean duffy is on scene and we know that others are also on scene as we got information with the search-and-rescue teams have now confirmed that this aircraft broke into two pieces in the potomac and is now in 7'0 of water. the helicopter also landed upside down very unstable from

the potomac following this crash. i do want to bring in the former army special operations flight surgeon. we do know that you know this aircraft very well having to get out of it when it comes to the water what can you tell us and what you know and when you see at 7'0 of water in the black hawk helicopters upside down. what do you think about the scenario? >> most of the time when an aircraft goes in the water the engines are on top we do training once a year to prepare for this and it is extremely difficult to get out of you pretty much need to memorize your way out of the aircraft it's nice and so this is exactly

what i would expect 7'0 of water if you can't get out of the aircraft that is more than enough and getting out of the aircraft and hopefully they did. as it is a tragedy. and those nontrained passengers in the aircraft in the american airlines aircraft. those seat belts are buckled even if that part of the aircraft is intact when it hits the water rotates and it's horrifying to think about. it's a massive tragedy. >> congressman it is interesting you can watch the coverage on line and just clarifying we were told that the transportation's

secretary sean duffy was on scene he's not at deviancy he just informed us he's not there we don't know if he's going to be there so just for clarity we don't know who's going to be at this news conference and from the airline and that we don't be at the news conference and what is something about the joint hearing and what observations of using and we checked them for various substances and things all of that happens when there is a crash. and 90% of the time, 95% of the time it's multiple different things landing up. it's not just one specific

thing. people talk about that the black hawk pilot see the aircraft with a fixation on the and you hear people talking about atc with the actual collision and it wasn't enough of a warning time. this is probably many different ways in it. there are ways it could've gone differently. and one particular point and and back in the days when you had those flights is not just one thing it's a series of events and they get to see even for things you go back to the

collision for the psa airlines and it hit some way above planes was sears different changes and a change of person applying the small plane so you're exactly right we are the safest in american history and the only goes back for the better part of a hundred years but we are in the safest time frame in american history for aviation and that this is the second fatal commercial airline crash in the past 16 years and only the third since 2001 and for the country one of the highest penetrated controlled air spaces

and over the white house and the capitol building and at the amount of radars and things monitoring the airspace. it's probably the thickest in the country. and they have to get to the bottom of this. if you think of anything else come back and we see it and they're gearing up for this and the news conference may move up or slide a few minutes and we look in the past minutes it's all hands on deck we've been told reagan national won't open until 5:00 in the morning on friday.

it's close to around 36 hours before this thing reopens again giving them time to do the investigation and give them time to process how this will go with anybody taking off over crescent the plane is in two parts that's why and with the tail section in this together water it's upside down we are being told it's very unstable and we're learning more about the final transmissions there's been confusion on the releases and we'd read the last few transmissions from the tower to the helicopter pilot and asking

questions but as far as we've learned so far there was no response at all. and this is video of what we are hearing. and the ceo of american airlines released a statement and this was the first comment we have is a difficult day for all of us american airlines and with first responders and their loved ones my heart goes out to them. >> we don't know if american airlines will have a representative at the news conference. true social the president posted the following that the airline was on a perfect routine approach and the helicopter went straight at the airplane for an

extended period of time. the lights on the plane were blazing why didn't the helicopter go up or down or turn. why didn't the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. a bad situation that looks like it could've been prevented. not good. i think the tower did try to tell and try to inform the helicopter pilot to go behind if they saw it that was the transmission we got. it's not clear if there is a response and and the experts would want to bother the plane right now and at that time they were just checking to make sure the black hawk helicopter pilot saw the jet and were telling them guiding towards the back of

the plane where they cleared the air. and flight 5342 coming out of wichita and before crewmembers and two pilots and two flight attendants. and the helicopter and add it nothing about their experience and it was a trained to do routine training which they do training every civil day and what the expertise of a was on board and coming in at 140 miles per hour and and that's a live

look and it was inside dca i don't know if those are the people and waiting for them media conference to begin and that would've started some time in the next 4 minutes. three or 4 minutes it was started on time. we still of armand? we don't. i will bring in former virginia senate captain who served in navy special operations. and it was a salvage wreckage before. working tells about situation and also upside down and with

the ship from rescue operations and mobilized the expeditionary stuff using planes for a strong point so we can and and it was an open investigation and and with a salvage operation was until they started diving again

and when you get into a salvage operation there's no rush because you have to be careful is only 17 feet of water and embolism is the biggest fear for that shallow depth. >> and you would know this better than anybody. that the people on scene already know. and if divers have been out there they've been in the water around 7'0 there is a good chance i'm assuming that they have been either in the fusillade your close enough there to realize what exactly that is and what it looks like and very good assessment in the very short amount of time. with that initial search with the aircraft.

and with that system with that response that happens when you stopped breathing that's what your stories of kids pfeifer the ice it's an automatic thing god gave you at some point ethical and recovering that and we will go to alive when it does getting

in there and it's a very different strategy altogether as the helicopter understanding for that on the scene and i'm not sure if that makes it accessible do you have to go underwater to access and up there and with air pockets and are ready difficult of a situation the group i would use the crane pulling up and it's floating crane on the barge and with the fusillade just any question you think should be asked at the news conferences if you were on scene are part of the search-and-rescue team. what would you want to know can

you give you an event on how you proceed and it was taken out the water slowing remains in science and we have paul morrow who had information gets from that situation. we have now learned the fusel lodge that he says he saw and we saw some of its together water looking for clarity it's 76 feet wide and a hundred feet long and

with the miracle on the hudson earlier and sing in the middle the hudson is minuscule and you have to realize how large the field to search is. i'm sure they will continue to endeavour with welfare crafts as they will have those cockpit conversations we have those technical data is what the tempter was and what was going on in the cockpit and that gave

us clarity in terms of the rescue operation going on right now i wish i had better news as i don't really have any news. what i would say right now as time goes on hopes begin to diminish. >> the water is at 37° inside the fusel lodge because they are telling us some information pulling 18 bodies out of the water we don't know if those were in the water when they were recovered or if they were inside the airplane that's unclear. we hope to find out during the news conference but there are things we don't know about the final seconds as we saw the video and it seems to be farther away. but as the hours and days come through we are going to see better video. video cameras everywhere and you will see better video of this

and from this vantage point you can see the explosion in the contact and the explosion it's just really hard to tell at which point on the aircraft the explodes occurred in the contact happened. one of the things going on land here is an element of search and rescue is that you are trying to make order out of chaos here in one of the things you're getting from american airlines is the manifest. we want to see what was on that plane but that doesn't mean it was entirely accurate. we have plane crashes were people are reported to be on the plane and players already take off with those who missed a plane changing flights at the last minute involved in investigations where people were on planes that weren't supposed to be and were stopped while the plane was taxing. so this stuff can be a little bit loose trying to match up that manifest with. unfortunately the 18 bodies we

so there's no so far is going to be left likely to bc police with those notifications. they will be in contact with other agencies in various local areas sometimes the local police were the people are from as obviously this is about the toughest job any police department or federal agency asked every do. and with this information hardened up with the right name of the person and that's as part of the whole aftermath. and with where the plane is and with people coming from wisher time to d.c. and in the next of immense and hours and and with

mentors of the government a lawmaker is the list goes on and i'm sure they are being very meticulous with notifications. they want to make sure they got the right people because god forbid you do the wrong thing. what other thing we should mention is this going to be as we said they were the busiest airports in the world. so you have a lot of people stranded one of the things you won't hear about going on here is you thousands of people at the airport expecting to leave and they are stranded there. very often you can't get them to hotels so what happens to their care and feeding it falls to local cops as well. and large-scale disasters a building collapse or something like that.

and they show up you take over a local high school start putting people in there. it's a tangential thing the local cops will be doing and certainly going behind the scenes. let's bring in jon scott the host of the fox report also a licensed pilot with more information on this. have you gone over the trans-get sort tower's would've you understood. any tone are tender you heard from the people speaking there? >> i would just echo what you said as i've listened to the audio. and the helicopter pilots were being asked to turn behind the inbound jet. and you never hear a response from there. you never hear a response from the helicopter pilot talking to the chopper pilot and not the jet crew. the flight path there is perfect

it appears everything was normal from their standpoint. getting to a final approach it was a nice easy curve for one-way 33 and what appears to be the appropriate rate. and it was somewhat higher than it was supposed to be at 300 ant down there as it was there. this collision took place at 35f the 35-story building and you'll get the collision it's preaugust aircraft that it plunges merely down to the water flying into

riggins gift numbers at times and if that fell from a height thinner 50 feet into the where the chances of anybody surviving the impact is virtually none. >> speaker-01: exactly and going over the transcripts and i do see this very clearly with a couple of reports where you have the tower calling and saying priority air transport 25 past behind the cr jay. there were reports earlier they say do you see the cr jay they haven't seen deni replication of that yet. i did hear that on the control tower audio.

do you have the regional jet insight from the chopper and it makes me wonder frankly. it reminds me of a crash that took place in new york city in 2009 that i covered. that was when a light plane collided with tourist helicopter there about 15,000 feet and the cherokee plane involved has low laying -- low wings and the pilot had difficulty seeing anything much below the horizon line. the helicopter was sort of overtaken from the rear and the two just didn't see each other. that seems to be what happened

here and the jet was on an instrument flight path and the other thing is my friend who flew for the airlines for years says the traffic collision avoidance system it will tell commercial jetliners when it's an imminent collision the computer will instruct what to do to avoid a collision. the question there with a very experienced pilot is does the army equip its helicopters with the system. because you can't have one talking to an aircraft that doesn't have it. they both needed. >> and that's what we talked about earlier just try to fit

the timeline. i am also wondering to the tower transitions and there were runway of the warnings or do the regional jet insight is yes parity or transport what was said first and did they say do you have insight. >> i would have to go back and listen to it again like when i talked to you before. the order i believe was do you have the jet insight and then a few seconds later do you past behind the regional jet and a happened almost immediately after that.

>> was the second instruction given in the warning tone did they have incite and past behind at the regional jet. was there a sense of urgency in either of the messages? >> of course i've been flying for around 20 years and plenty of air traffic control transmissions there and when there is stress in the boys you pick up on it. i would say there was stress as did the atc controller as they were trying to talk to the helicopter. they did seem to get the sense they had a problem. thank you for your time if you more information i'd like to bring you back on thank you. we are live near reagan national

there were planes flying around you at the scene what can you tell us about it? and its two or three that have come through in this inlet of water and this remarried over the last few minutes was certainly going back and forth going left to right and the closest it's ever gotten in here and with those distinct debris field from the helicopter and the potomac river this time a year down to around 7'0 at the lowest in this year up around up to 21 feet at the highest so you get very low areas near the runway and i talked earlier about how they had those lights going out into the river on a

pier so the planes contract the runway and they got to dispatch us off the runway all night long. and that was heading towards the southeast on the western shore and then looking up at another helicopter again at a higher altitude then coming at another lower output to only 150 feet off the ground just behind it and then getting all this other areas where something would've drifted again and just before 9:00 heading into the fourth hour this and with debris in the water and then looking at this region just before nine eastern

time this close to the western shoreline in the washington, d.c., mayor as well as the kansas senators as well as the claim had emanated from wisher tall and they will take part in the news conference later tonight. again what submit amazing about the scene right now is the girth of information in the idea that they've been out here for so long and as reported earlier with 18 bodies we haven't heard much more than that. and you can read that as a good sign or a bad sign but what i've been told here is the radio traffic with the airport getting

ready to depart or had just come back in and they couldn't take them into the airport. and getting this people into the airport figuring out hotel rooms and figuring out bush booking agents as they indicate it will be closed until 5:00 friday but there are thousands in the airport right now that they have to deal with in figure out what the next step is. >> speaker-01: thank you we are talking about live atc we talked from john scott and you mentioned in the conversation between the tower and black hawk helicopter they were a hundred messages sent as fox news is reporting that they did respond to the tower reading the quote that they did not respond and they asked at the other regional jet insight and it appears and

as jon scott was laying it out for us on the atc transcript right now getting the clarity on this and the warning was a bit strong but there were two directions given from the tower with did you see the regional jet that's the transcript that what country did not respond and i want to bring jon scott back in if you didn't hear any of that fox is reporting that they did respond but on a different

tower frequency. they were on a frequency for helicopters and it does appear that the tower controller was working both frequencies which is why in the conversation you are listening to you probably didn't hear her response nor did any of the pilots we talked to today. >> we used this frequency primarily for their communications and some of them are equipped with these frequencies will where jetliners and the aviation aircraft used. it could be was on a helicopter frequently there and may be talking to the tower and not getting the transmission through. that is all part of the investigation. and speaking of the investigation i know you probably heard this but we will play it twice this is the air

traffic controller talking to the black hawk helicopter we will play for you a couple times and we will listen to thisit took a little bit to hear their and did you see that and did you see that. it is a bit surprising.

>> i do believe it to be another aircraft who saw the explosion and what happens is i took a minute to listen to that exchange after the last time we spoke and yes, he does first say to that do you have the crg insight and almost immediately going behind and fly behind the regional jet. and the collision takes place in less than five seconds with the last transition. >> you didn't hear it but the helicopter pilot or one of them didn't respond being resumed in that window before this

direction's there's instructions in the tower are so are so rapid-fire and he gets on basically immediately if he was on a different frequency or even on a different band uhf band and the tower was in hearing whatever the chopper was saying in the years covering aviation analysis for a very long time, thank you we appreciate your

time. and just so we can get a clear vision of this the helicopter hits the plane and they both go down. now we know as we are waiting for a news conference on the right-hand side of the screen set for 12:30 and 24 seconds east coast time and we haven't had a word of that being moved upper back or cancel. it still appears to be not on schedule per se but happening at some point in time. the plane however was hit by the helicopter and they both go into the water. now we learn that those aircraft are both in the potomac and at the helicopter is upside down and you have the plane which is broken in at least two pieces which are being told from people on the scene at least two pieces and there are visible as pieces

there. that appears to be those gathering from the news conference visible and they were on scene to actually go through and assess that. so as soon as we get a shot at the front of this news conference as we have it right now let's listen in very quickly i am the mayor of washington, d.c. i am at reagan national airport joined by the united states transportation secretary sean duffy senator jim moran and senator roger marshall as well as jackpot or the ceo of the

metropolitan washington airport we are reviewing the tragic events of this evening we know we know the passenger plane coming to the airport here and the fire department with police departments all across the metropolitan region with rescue operations in the potomac river. they are working diligently in dark and cold conditions and cold water to execute the rescue operation. we have had the opportunity to be briefed by all american airlines officials as i am told american airlines

leadership is on the way to washington as well and officials are in the airport actually talking to families now. we do have a 1-800 number for families to contact us a rather contact american airlines with more information providing that shortly. we will turn to a number of officials to provide as much information as we have this evening and we expect to have more frequent briefings at daylight. so if that i will turn to secretary duffy. >> for all of us we want to extend our thoughts and prayers to those individuals impacted by this tonight. their families as this is a very

difficult time. and say thank you to the first responders in this difficult situation searching and attempting to rescue people. i spoke with president trump and is team in the situation room and had a conversation with the defence secretary there and others such as a governor from and governor from kansas. and from the faa perspective we will offer our full support and to the gsp to conduct the investigation. we will provide all support

necessary last from ems to provide this. >> good evening everybody as this evening at 848. and alerts sounded initiating large regional response after the crash on approach to the airport. and this response includes the washington airports authorities with the metropolitan police department and getting into the area and at 8:58 the first unit arrived on scene and began rescue operations and there is currently about 300 responders working here as well as boats throughout the region police and fire boats we have the national

capital region mutual aid agreement which works with washington and baltimore and virginia operating under that under unified command everybody is together and we also requested state police helicopters from maryland and others working so it's a state and federal response as well the u.s. coast guard has boats in the water as well its highly complex operation and conditions are very rough for responders as it's quite cold and they are dealing with quite windy conditions and it's quite hard out on the river so they are there working and doing everything we can keep them safe with that i turn it back over to the mayor. >> and chief bonnet now.

>> our unit as alluded to at 20:48 begotten alert from a tower of an aircraft incident involving commercial aircraft into helicopter are units responded and immediately called for mutual aid resources. it's in active operation for many hours working for recovery efforts rescue operations ongoing for quite a while our thoughts and prayers are with the families and communities and were working for federal partners. >> with that i wanted to turn to the senators from kansas who wanted to say a few words for senator moran and thank you. and, mr.