>> 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. secretary,

thank you. and to our first responders, thank you very much for all that's taking place here. i'm jerry moran. i'm a united states senator from kansas, and i chair the subcommittee in commerce, committee on aviation. so we have really a serious and sad circumstance that we want to be here to be helpful. and we're praying that our responders are safe. and the folks who are on that flight are recovered. the circumstance i would describe is that i know that flight. i've flown it many times myself. i lobbied american airlines to begin having a direct nonstop flight service to dca. that flight has been in existence about a year. and it is certainly true that in kansas and in wichita in particular, we're going to know

people who are on this flight, know their family members, know somebody. so this is a very personal circumstance as well as an official response. and again, we're we will do everything we can to make certain that we're supportive of the rescue efforts, and we'll do everything we can to make certain that our subcommittee and congress is engaged in what needs to take place. following the outcome of this evening and this this month's kind of investigation. i've talked to ntsb, i've talked to the white house, i've talked to the department of defense, and i've talked to the ceo of american airlines. and there is all of us pulling together for the best outcome possible. i'm honored to be here with my colleague, senator marshall, as we try to try to make certain that we care for those, certainly back in kansas that were on that flight. but it's a reminder that there are people here in washington, dc and this region and in virginia

and maryland and many places else that fly to and from kansas. and so we're we're rooting and supporting all those, regardless of where you're from. and, mayor, i appreciate the gathering here for us to try to provide information to those in kansas and across your city. thank you. >> thank you. thank you. thank you, senator moran and mayor. secretary. you know, when one person dies, it's a tragedy. but when many, many, many people die, it's an unbearable sorrow. it's a heartbreak beyond measure. and i know senator moran and i are here just to say we care. we wish that there was more we could do, but unfortunately, there doesn't seem much at this time. i want the folks to back home to just know that we care, that we love them, and that this is a time when we'll have to join arms together and help each other out. we've been through things like this before,

through tornadoes and floods and things, but it's really hard when you lose, you know, probably over 60 kansans simultaneously. and i don't want to forget the pilots and the and the flight attendants. you know, we're doing, you know, do their job and the military personnel, we lost. you know, all those lives are are so valuable. and it is such a tragedy that we lost him. you know, i think often in times like this, i try to find a scripture that, you know, is apropos. and this is from the book of psalms. it says the lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. certainly we're crushed in spirit. tonight we mourn with the families who lost loved ones. and we truly are joining them in prayer and wrapping our arms around them in love and compassion. thanks for everybody for coming out tonight, and thank you for your thoughts and your prayers. thank you. >> so certainly i speak for the people of washington, 700,000

of us who are extremely sorry for the families who are experiencing loss tonight. and so we want you to know that we will continue to work with american airlines to share information as frequently as possible and make sure that we're getting accurate information out to the public. but my sorrow for all of the people and crew on the plane and our military personnel on the helicopter is very deep. i do want to turn to jack carter, who is the ceo of our airports authority, responsible for reagan national airport and dulles international airport, to talk to you about how the airport responded and what we're looking, what what's going to happen next.

>> good evening. as was said, i'm jack potter, president and ceo of the metropolitan washington airports authority. thank you all for being here tonight. and under these very, very grim circumstances. first of all, i want to let you know that we're providing support to all the families who are involved. american airlines has established a phone number for them to reach out. it's been published. but let me repeat it. it's one (800) 679-8215. so families of folks that were on the plane are asked to contact them. we did have folks who were at the airport to pick up loved ones. and so american has set up a center in their american in their lounge at the north end of the airport. and we've directed the families there, and there are folks there to counselors there to work with families. we did have

aircraft that were in the air. they were diverted to dulles airport. some 19 aircraft. we had personnel united and others had personnel. we want to thank ramada for extending their hours on the metro to make sure that those folks were accommodated. right now, as was said earlier by the chief, we're in a rescue mode. we will continue in that rescue mode. i want to thank all of the mutual aid responders. all the counties, the district folks from maryland and virginia. everybody is on site doing the best they can. and numerous boats out in the water right now. ntsb is on site. i want to thank all of the folks behind me, the secretary, the mayor, two senators for all of their support. and we're going to continue to work through the night. i do want to make an announcement. people are, you know, concerned about what's going to happen in the morning. reagan national airport will be closed until 11:00. that's when

the first flights will take off. but we're going to continue to do our best and work through this situation. over the course of the night, and we hope to have more news as it develops. but for right now, it's very difficult situation out there with the cold. it's very dark, but there are numerous boats out there. there are dive teams out there. so again, we'll continue to work this situation and i'll turn it back to the mayor. thank you very much. >> thanks for that update. and i do. you've heard that in the national capital region. the district, of course, is washington, d.c. is at the center. but we are a close region. we have heard from the governors of maryland and virginia. the mayor of the city of baltimore, all who have sent us personnel to help in the rescue operations. last thing i'll note is just to our our local viewership. and just

please let our first responders do their work. try to let our vehicles get to scenes and through scenes. we don't want anybody else to get hurt. because of moving vehicles. okay. so we will be able to take a few questions. there is not a lot that we can say. we won't be able to say anything about an investigation. as you know, once fire and ems completes the rescue operation, then the investigation goes over to the national transportation safety board. and i'm sure the safety board, ntsb, will provide information about when they will be briefing about an investigation. so we'll take a few. yes. >> can you confirm that both aircraft are in the water and perhaps chief donnelly can explain what's involved in conducting an operation like this. and.

>> yes, both aircraft are in the water. the focus now is rescuing people. and that's what all of our personnel are focused on. and, chief, i think he's given a pretty good description. but if there's anything else you want to add. chief. >> i would just say that the boats are out doing searches. we have divers on both aircraft, and they're they're searching those those the airport, the aircraft at this point. right. >> yes. >> have any. >> survivors been found. >> and how many bodies. >> have been recovered? >> all we can confirm tonight is the number of people on each aircraft. 64 people on the american airlines plane and three people on the military helicopter. and we can't provide any more information about recovery efforts. >> the two people have talked about lost loved ones. so how do you know that there might be people who have lost loved ones? >> i didn't say i didn't know people that lost loved ones. i said, we can't talk about any

of the recovery efforts in specific tonight. >> and secretary duffy. >> can i? i'll call on who's next. yes. >> thank you, mayor bowser. will this affect operations at dulles and bwi? will the potomac river traffic be closed to boats? >> yes. and so jack has talked about. jack, can you talk about dulles? i'm not sure we can talk about bwi, but we can talk about dulles. >> there is no impact at bwi or at dulles. as i said earlier, our airport here at ronald reagan national airport will be closed until 11:00. obviously, that will be fluid. we'll learn more. but we wanted to advise passengers who might be coming to the airport in the morning that we will be closed until at least 11:00. >> secretary duffey, a question for secretary duffey. yeah. >> one second. you're next. >> hi, mayor. thank you so much. so just other than the current situations, like, you know, the water is extremely cold and it's very dark outside. although the senator

is saying that there are numerous boats in the water, but what's the still, you know, the biggest challenges for the rescue team and what best scenario we can expect in the coming few hours till morning. >> so the challenges are access. the water that we're operating in is about eight feet deep. there is wind. there is pieces of ice out there. so it's just dangerous and hard to work in. and because there's not a lot of lights, you're out there searching every square inch of space to see if you can find anybody. the divers are doing the same thing in the water. the water is dark, it is murky. and that is a very tough condition for them to dive in. the question about the river will make that decision later. the coast guard is on scene, and i would expect that. it's not a high use time in the river, and we should not expect to have commercial recreational traffic on the river tomorrow. >> okay. three questions. one, two, three. >> secretary duffey, have you been in touch with the air traffic controllers who were in the tower at the time of the crash?

>> i have not. >> you have not. and second question. this is your first several hours in this position. what are your thoughts? what are you feeling right now? >> my focus is on those who are impacted on this flight. and again, i've been the secretary for a little over a day. and the tragedy that we're going to deal with with this recovery, i think, is touching everyone's hearts, whether it's here in, in the greater d.c. area or in kansas. and again, i think everyone here is thinking and praying for those who potentially have lost a loved one. and thank you. >> for your question. >> could any of you give us any sense about how an accident like this could have happened so close to the airport, right in the heart of d.c? there have been reports that the dca tower contacted the helicopter moments before the crash to ask if they had sight of the

aircraft that apparently the helicopter reported that it did have sight of an aircraft. is it possible that it had the wrong aircraft in sight? do you have any sense of what went wrong in those final moments? >> i know that the national transportation safety board, in its investigation, will be able to search on all of those questions. we wouldn't be able to talk about that tonight. yes. >> two parts for secretary guthrie. the first being you were talking about when you were in the situation where with the president and he had said, quote, being there. can you tell us more about the president's initial reactions to this as well? as you have said that this was a military helicopter. >> so i was not in the situation room. i did have a conversation with the situation room. where the president was located as well as with secretary hegseth. we're exchanging information. i would just note that not just the local team, but the federal team has performed very well in this crisis. i know the president is incredibly

concerned about what's happened here today. i'm sure we'll continue to hear more from him, and i'll continue to consult with him and secretary hegseth. >> when it comes to the resources that he would be able to provide on the federal level. so you feel like you're getting what you need. >> absolutely. we, the president has committed to this team and to the ntsb through the dot, that we will provide all resources necessary as we go through this recovery, but also the support from faa and dot, as the ntsb investigates. >> mr. secretary. >> do you do we know the condition of these aircraft? are they are they are they split? are they pieces? >> again, i don't think we can comment on that. our focus is on getting the passengers and crew out of the water. >> and just one more clarification, because earlier we had gotten guidance that dca was going to be shut down at least until friday at 5 a.m. i just heard. 11 a.m. tomorrow.

tomorrow? tomorrow. okay. thank you. >> okay. >> we can take we can take a few more questions. a question here, a question here and here. >> mayor bowser, can you just confirm, has anybody been transported to the hospital? >> again, i can't say anything about the rescue operation right now. who was next? yes. >> yeah. chief donnelly, can you speak a little bit more about the unified command? who leads this phase of the rescue and recovery? at what point do you then change phases? and can you describe to us the scene as best you can when first responders first arrived? >> so i happen to be listening to the radio this evening when the call came out. i listen to the responders come in and the initial response, they they were very professional trying to locate this. this is, if you can imagine, the river is a large black spot. at night, with no lights on it, except for a few buoy lights. so they

were out there looking. the boats pretty quickly were able to locate the one of the aircraft and get there. so that's what's going on right now. everybody's working on that. we will reevaluate where we are with the rescue operation in the morning when we get a better sense of it, but we are still out there working and we're going to continue that throughout the night. >> a sense that there are survivors. >> we don't know yet, but we're working. >> is any part of the search. >> happening over land? >> no, we're all in the water. >> yes, yes. >> oh, you got a question? somebody didn't get a question. hold on. yes. >> i just wanted to ask, do you have an estimate? an estimate yet on how long the recovery efforts will take, jake. >> so experiences like this go. we expect to continue our operations in the fire department for multiple days. and then i would expect the investigation goes longer than that. >> okay. >> you didn't get a question. and you are next i think.

>> okay. >> thank you mary. my question. >> is do we have any plan to prevent future crisis or future accidents? do we have any any like to reform the authority, the airport control, to calm those people who are flying in the next few days? and also how long the rescue is going to last? are we going to stop rescue after tomorrow at 11 a.m? the like, like diverse team because they are still in the golden hours now? >> no, i mean, i think you just heard the chief said we're going to be out there as long as it takes, and we're obviously trying to get to people as soon as possible, but we are going to recover our fellow citizens. yes. >> this is for the chief. >> and secretary duffy. >> how do you balance. >> the search. >> and rescue operation with. >> preserving the scene for the. >> investigation that's now underway? >> so from the from the fire

department's point of view, we are always going to put people first. but i don't think that i think our operations, because we have a unified command. we are all working together. and the ntsb is in contact with us, and we will work together to make sure that if there's crucial evidence that it's not that it's preserved. and that's something we do every day with our police department on crime scenes and things. so life comes first and everything else is after that. >> okay. last question. yes. >> secretary duffy, i just want to ask. i know it's early, but are there. >> any immediate. >> actions that the faa should take to. prevent helicopters and commercial airplanes from getting too close to one another? so obviously, there will be a review of what happened here tonight. and after the faa studies what happened, we will take appropriate action, if necessary, to modify flight paths and permissions. >> okay. do you have any. >> more details about the helicopter mission with the

black hawk? >> and have you heard directly from president trump? >> i spoke with the president's national security adviser, and i have not talked to the president yet, and i do not know what the mission was. so let me close by saying again, thank you to the members of the press to help us get information out to the families. the american airlines number is (800) 679-8215. (800) 679-8215. and i expect that airport will likely provide additional information in the morning. thank you. >> you have been listening to a very important news conference just moments ago here on fox news channel. kevin corke, jonathan hunt with you as we continue our live coverage of the devastating air crash just

outside of reagan national airport. kevin in washington. jonathan over in los angeles. jonathan, just very quickly, what did you most notice from that news conference there, led by the mayor of washington, muriel bowser? >> yeah, interesting, kevin, to listen to all of the officials there. i think listening to the fire chief saying that this remains at this point, a rescue operation was extremely significant that they they simply do not know if there are any survivors. but juxtapose that with one of the two senators from kansas who was there, senator roger marshall, who said, and this is a direct quote, it's hard when you lose 60 kansans simultaneously. plus the crew for and the helicopter crew. so no fatalities, no word on fatalities, nothing confirmed from those officials. yet all that mayor muriel

bowser would confirm is that 64 people, including those four crew members, were on the plane. three people were on the helicopter. so what we know now is that both of those aircraft, the chopper and the regional jet, sit in about eight feet of water. and according to officials, this remains a search and rescue operation. let's go now live to our correspondent on the scene there. mark. meredith. mark, what are you seeing from where you are? >> jonathan and kevin, good morning to you both. we have seen the search and rescue operation underway for the last several hours here on the banks of the potomac. we are just shy of reagan airport, one of the runways that was being used earlier tonight. it obviously has now been shut down. and as we heard in that news conference moments ago, reagan airport will remain closed until at least 11 a.m. so roughly 11 hours or 10 hours away from now. what we have also seen is a number of the search and rescue teams and their helicopters that have been going up and down the

potomac using their spotlight, looking for any sign of anyone that could have survived this crash, as well as any debris that may have floated away from the original crash site. just a few moments ago, police officers actually came up to us here in the media, including our crew, and they told us to move our lights off of the water because they're using night vision, trying to look for anybody who may be out there, and that the lights were distracting to the crew, of course. excuse me, we complied. it's a pretty cold out here. i apologize. and that was one thing we also heard from the mayor. is that how difficult the search conditions have been for the people that have been out here all night long, even though the temperatures today reached into the 60s, at nightfall it got much colder. i was talking with a coast guard person who was out here simply witnessing what was happening. he talked about he would be really worried for anybody out there because it wouldn't take long, maybe eight minutes or so in the water and that it would just simply not be survivable. so yes, in the news conference, we heard multiple times from officials that they were still hopeful that this is a search and recovery operation. at the same time, there didn't seem to be any good news that came out

of this news conference. we were waiting for hours and hours, hopeful that maybe they would be able to say that they were able to pull somebody out of the wreckage. and of course, that's not what we heard. instead, it was about deploying all of the federal resources, state resources, local resources that are in this area to try to bring out any sort of good news you heard in the news conference. also, questions about how this could happen in the first place, how a helicopter would be able to collide with a commercial airliner, especially one that was being cleared into land at a very busy airport in dc. we heard from the newly installed transportation secretary, who said, right now simply, they have to focus on the search and rescue operation. but there will be that investigation led by the ntsb, the national transportation safety board, as well as the faa. but it simply was too soon to tell what may have gone wrong. yes, there's a lot of theories out there, and a lot of people are pointing jonathan and kevin to the video that has come out of this, because what was so surprising is that that's not usual for us to see in real time what happened. but because this airport is so closely watched in dc, all the local tv stations have cameras on it. a

lot of people also, i've seen dash cameras from ubers and stuff like that. there have been multiple angles of this crash caught on camera that yes, will be a huge help to investigators, but it also helps all of us piece together exactly what happened and where it happened. just south of the airfield where we are is just about a quarter of a mile to a half mile away from one of the runways. we have seen a number of those emergency vehicles that have been stationed out there for hours. but i will say it appears just from our vantage point, things have calmed down a little bit. yes. you still see the helicopters going back and forth, but you don't see the emergency vehicles racing. you don't hear the sirens. instead, it's mostly media and a few people that have come out to see what is going on. let's talk about the airline's response. american airlines, which is a the basically the company that is licensed out its name to this regional carrier that was running this flight out of wichita, says they have set up a go team, which is a team that is responsible for crisis response. their idea is to come out to a disaster site, deal with families, deal with

workers, deal with the government, the investigation, the media. we know that american is dispatching their team. i would imagine this regional carrier would be doing the same. as we also heard from the congressional delegation out of kansas, they personally talked about how they believe that this is such a catastrophic incident, that they realize there's going to be so many folks in kansas that are going to be demanding answers. and they also promised, based on their position of power, that they are going to get to the bottom of it. we also heard from d.c. mayor muriel bowser saying she has been in touch with the president's national security advisor. president trump was briefed about this. he's been posting about it online. kevin and jonathan, everybody, of course, wanting to know how did this happen? how could it be prevented? but right now, as we heard from those people working through the night in these cold temperatures, the focus right now is trying to see if anybody can survive this crash. guys, back to you. >> yeah. mark, thank you very much for that. and kevin, it is just horrifying to think of those people being thrown into the water from i believe the plane was at a height of about

400ft, and those who did survive that then going into eight, four, eight feet of dark water. and as mark was saying, that's very cold. the air temperature is one thing. the water temperature in the potomac, a very different thing. when that plane went in there just before 9 p.m. kevin. >> yeah, i can guarantee you, i'm sure you watched, as did many americans, the coverage of the inauguration, and it was absolutely bone chillingly cold here in the nation's capital. yes. mark mentioned that today was, relatively speaking, a beautiful day. but when it's been as cold as it has been here in washington for the last several weeks, you know, that water had to be absolutely freezing 30s, mid 30s or so. so just how long someone might be able to survive, even in those conditions really would be. i'm imagining quite a short period of time. i heard doctor hooman hamadeh mentioned that maybe a minute, maybe, maybe a couple of minutes. who knows how long somebody could even manage to

survive in water like that. not to mention, as you pointed out, jonathan, the tumult of an aircraft event, a crash in this circumstance. let's check in with our senior congressional correspondent, chad pergram. he's been with us since shortly after the crash. he has more from very near. reagan, i believe you're on the virginia side. is that right, chad? >> yeah, i'm on the virginia side of the potomac river, the western bank just south of the airport. and what has happened here in about the past 45 minutes is we started to see these helicopters come through, flying very low. they had been here earlier, and they kept getting lower and lower and lower and spraying their their search lights around the water. and they started to come very close to the edge here. we had some police officers walk out on these piers here with their flashlights. and in just the past 2 or 3 minutes, there have been two rescue boats that have come out to my left that they're kind of out in the

middle of the potomac, kind of toward the middle. and there are two other vessels that have come up here where they are searching. so there's a total of four boats, and they're starting to look in this area. the reason we're told that is that the current would be taking debris and possibly, god forbid, bodies. in fact, there's one boat here that is coming up at the edge of this pier here, and you might be able to see their lights as they start to really look down in the water. they asked us to bring down our tv lights just a little bit ago, because they needed to be able to see in the water with some of their night vision equipment. so this is the most activity we've seen since we've been here, since a little bit after 9:00 all night long, of where they're really starting to focus on maybe debris or bodies that drifted down this way. again, that plane was coming in from the south, so south is this direction. and they collided with the helicopter over here. the runway is almost directly behind me. sometimes you approach from the south to washington dc and they take off

to the north. sometimes they do it the other way based on the air currents. and you see right now, you know, one of these other police and fire rescue boats is coming up close to these piers. there's been a lot of focus in this area over the past few minutes. just because of that current. let me talk about reagan national airport and just the sheer volume of air traffic that they get. this is a far busier airport than washington dulles airport, which is a much bigger airport. there was talk after nine over 11 about trying to shut this airport down. members of congress indicated, in fact, and they kind of pushed because it's just a hop, skip and a jump to go back across the river and get to the capitol. and it makes it easy for them to fly in and fly out. you had, you know, one of the kansas senators alluding to the fact that this flight from wichita had just been added in the past year. and i should note that there was a very controversial provision that was put into the authorization of the faa bill, which they passed last year, which was to continue to add

slots here at reagan national airport. there were some who were against it, saying it made it too, too busy. it was unsafe. others who were saying, hey, this is good for the economy. we get more people coming in. there had always been a question about how far the rain should be for planes flying in to reagan national airport, and so one would wonder if you consider all the air traffic that they have that flies into this airport, as well as the helicopter traffic. that's something when i drive across what's called the 14th street bridge here in washington from northern virginia into washington, when i go to work at the capitol, i see low flying helicopters almost every day, and they're below that flight line. and then sometimes you see the planes coming in. it's kind of a dance that they all do day in and day out. you see that constantly. and there's another helicopter that i can't quite see yet, but i can hear it seems like it's a little bit to my south that's starting to arrive. and again, we're starting to have more activity out in the river. here comes one of these other other flights right now, and you'll

see them, you know, flash on their big searchlight and, you know, kind of bathe the river and light as they look for debris. they look for, as i say, god forbid, bodies. and that's the sheer, you know, reality of what seems to be a very tragic night here in washington, d.c. and northern virginia after this flight. yeah, you can see that beam of light scanning down on the river as they continue to scour the river, just looking for anything. and again, since i've been here since about 930 at night, the one thing that i've barely heard are sirens of an ambulance departing. in other words, you know, we don't have a lot of information about people who might have been survived potential survivors after this. and that, unfortunately tells you the stark reality that they haven't been able so far to pull people out of the river, take them to the hospital, maybe help them recover, as we say. you know, the air temperature when i got here was 41 degrees. it's not that bone chilling cold that we had just a few days ago for the

inauguration. of course, it was moved indoors for president trump because of the weather. it's not as cold, but you be out here for a few hours and you know, it'll it'll get you. and so that, you know, you put that in the water, that's going to be another, another factor. here comes this helicopter again. it's doing another sweep, you know, sweeping around here. it's going to come right over top of us. in fact as i look up here it's kind of flying. here's something that we've not seen where it has been flying over land. we've not heard any comment that there was any search and rescue going on on land. everything seemed to be in the water. and one of the things that we were able to point out just a little bit ago to is that when you fly into washington, dc from the south, the runway is rather short. and what they have are these kind of like a pier that goes out into the river with the lights that you would have on a normal runway, that so the planes coming in can see and we believe that some of that wreckage from either the

aircraft or the helicopter was stuck in that area right in there. and again, this is just to the south side because the planes the plane was coming in from the south, they were landing from the south tonight. so again, a lot to unpack here. this is the second major incident that they've had at reagan national airport. of course, there was the air florida crash. this was back in 1982, january of 1982, a cold, snowy day. the plane was taking off to the north and got basically to the 14th 14th street bridge, which i alluded to earlier. and 78 people lost their lives in that tragedy. the other thing i should say here is that we got a comment from the new defense secretary, pete hegseth, because this was an army helicopter. and in his comment he said, this is absolutely tragic. prayers for all impacted souls. and so two persons just confirmed from the senate put immediately to the test the new defense secretary, who was put into office, he just took office last saturday, confirmed by the senate last

friday. and sean duffy, the new transportation secretary, who was confirmed just yesterday in the united states senate. guys, back to you. >> tremendous job there, chad. still still working late with us. please stick around. just to sort of build on what chad was talking about. a 60 blackhawk training flight was involved in this particular accident. assigned to bravo company of the 12th aviation battalion, which operates out of davidson air over at fort belvoir. we want to bring in the winner of the right stuff award for his ongoing leadership and contributions to america's aerospace industry and national security, and a kansan and a friend to the show, senator jerry moran. senator, as a coloradoan, i know kansas very, very well. i think i speak for all americans, not just those of us who are from that part of the country. when i say our deepest condolences to you and your the folks from the great state of

kansas. >> well, that's that's very kind of you. i'm here watching from reagan national airport across the runway, looking at the lights where your program is originating and just the scene of all the efforts that are taking place to rescue and save lives and recover. it's really i mean, we're we're so appreciative of the, the crew that the first responders and others who are trying to make every effort to make this night end better than, than it than than it would without their tremendous help. so we're appreciative of that. i appreciate the sentiment that you expressed. and you would know that, you know, kansas and wichita is a place that we i mean, we know each other. this flight is one that i take frequently. my wife and i have flown on this flight. there's one nonstop flight a day that comes from the eisenhower airport in wichita to the reagan airport in dc. and, you

know, the reality is that we all know people that probably are on this flight. we know people who know people, we know their families. and then also there's tragedy here in with families in washington dc area. and so again, we're appreciative of the efforts that are taking place. i've had conversations with certainly the rescue efforts, but also with ntsb, with the ceo of american airlines, with the secretary of transportation, with the secretary of defense. and we're we're just seeing an effort that's underway to make sure that that the recovery efforts are successful. >> i know there will be plenty of time, senator, to sort of unpack what may have transpired here tonight. but just based on your experience, can you sort of walk us through what may have happened? i've seen video. it's hard to imagine how we ended up in this circumstance.

>> i haven't seen the video because i didn't want to see the video. and i understand the, the, the, the impact that that video has. i think it's wrong to speculate. ntsb has people, the national traffic, ntsb, the national transportation safety board has it's personnel here. and i chair a subcommittee in the committee on commerce. i chair the aviation subcommittee. wichita, of course, is known as the air capital of the world. we manufacture planes. this is something that that we care a lot about in our state. and we will use this position as the chair of this committee to make sure that we find the things that went wrong, what happened, what occurred, and what the response ought to be in the future. but we will also rely upon the ntsb to do their thorough examination and to let

us know what they, this independent agency determines. >> can you help the folks at home understand what happens from this point? it's my understanding, senator, that generally speaking, daybreak really brings much more activity. obviously, we were awash in emergency lights and crews, you mentioned the 300 plus first responders on the scene. and yet, once we get to daybreak, i'm imagining that the rescue and recovery efforts will shift just a bit. can you talk us through what likely happens moving forward, say, over the next 24 to 48 hours? >> well, what i mostly know is what i heard at a press conference here that included the fire chief and other rescue leaders. and morning brings daylight, which creates greater opportunities for rescue efforts to occur. the it was described to me about the challenges with the darkness of the water, the difficulty in

sight, the coldness for the rescue workers, the windy conditions on the river. so morning brings new opportunity for efforts at recovery. but it also is indicated that this recovery effort will last days. and i think that determined you know what. what is next is determined by what what is found. i also would say that ntsb, although there are people here with the agency, they are doing their best to coordinate and to stay out of the way of the rescue efforts. and then ntsb will be here in full force when the rescue efforts conclude, providing information. they do. i've been on these circumstances before, and they provide a very thorough effort at trying to determine what happened. and then we will follow their suggestions, what their evidence shows, and make certain that we do the things that we can do in congress to

make certain that that what happens next is something that's good for the traveling public, the safety of the american people who fly every day. >> any personal message? lastly, senator, for the folks in the sunflower state. >> well, yes, sir. i was joined by senator marshall this evening. we want kansans to know that we care and we're concerned. we're on the scene trying to make sure that every effort that can be made is being made. and again, as i said, we feel we know people in kansas. we know one another. and this is a sense of all of us coming together to try to get the best outcome and to provide support for those who are going through a tremendously difficult time. >> senator jerry moran of the great state of kansas, thank you so much for your time tonight. our prayers and thoughts, obviously with you and with all who are impacted

by tonight's crash. thank you so much. >> thank you. thank you. >> jonathan. >> kevin, so difficult to hear the senator there. a terrible time for everybody in kansas, obviously. and obviously most importantly, as the officials were saying during that news conference, anybody who may have lost a loved one or had a loved one on that flight tonight, joining us now, former pilot and air flight instructor kathleen bangs. kathleen, thank you for being with us on the screen. right now, we're showing the what we believe to be the moment of impact. we also know that air traffic controllers had apparently said to the helicopter crew, do you have the regional jet in sight? and then asked them to pass behind that jet? that obviously did not happen. those are very small pieces of what is obviously a very big picture, kathleen. but as a former

airline instructor and pilot, what do you read into what we have seen and heard so far? >> well, one of the very helpful things is that not only do we have the video that you're showing, there's other videos coming in from other vantage points, from all the way from people's ring cameras to dash cameras. so i think even by this time tomorrow evening, we're going to have a lot more video footage to put this together, because, as you mentioned, we do have that tape and it sounds like the black hawk crew may have been also talking to air traffic control on a separate military frequency or a separate frequency with the tower. then the airline was on. so what we want is to take that transcript that we've heard so far. the audio between the tower and the black hawk, and also merge that together with with them talking with the commercial aircraft,

because it's a little murky right now as to did the black hawk crew report that they had the airline jet in sight? did they respond affirmatively to that, or did they just respond that they got the call? did they respond that they were going to pass behind it? we don't know that. and even if they did, this is what we need to make clear. even if the crew did report, we have them in sight, that doesn't always necessarily mean 100% that you have the right aircraft in sight. it's busy skies up there over d.c. there's other jets that we don't know that for sure at this point, but that's one of the major things, is to try to find out, because the airliner most likely was where it was supposed to be. okay, you were looking at the flight path. it's at its normal speed, its normal rate of descent, where it's supposed to be on this kind of arcing curve. it was originally going to land to the north on runway one. then it got permission to land on

runway three three, which is a little bit of a shorter runway that lands to the northwest. so they were where they were supposed to be. what they'll really be looking at is, was the black hawk where it was supposed to be. >> right. and kathleen, the with with this, would i be right in thinking that the commercial aircraft was flying on instruments and the helicopter would have been flying on visual flight rules? would that would that be a layman's term of way of putting it? >> yes, that may possibly be it. and that when you fly with the airlines, you're generally flying, especially with passengers on what's called ifr or instrument flight rules. and that applies even in visual conditions. most of the time there is some talk that the black hawk may have been operating under what's called vfr or visual flight rules. and so there is there is differences between those. >> okay. and so your your view

initially is that or your, your suspicion perhaps is that the helicopter was the two was the one of these two aircraft that was in the wrong place at the wrong time? >> well, we don't know because it's all preliminary. and so i'm just saying that that's what they'll really be looking at that, you know, we don't want to speculate because sometimes these things seem so easy to assess in the minutes and hours after an accident. but then we get another view, we get some some other reports, and that can change things. so we certainly don't want to erroneously speculate, because certainly we have to consider the lives and the, you know, that were lost and the families of, of not only the passengers and the crew members on the psa flight, but also, of course, the families of the crew members on the black hawk helicopter. so we don't want to speculate, just trying to say that this is definitely what

the investigators will be looking at now. this will be one of the most investigated accidents in history. this is a federal airport. it's one of only two federal airports in the country. and in some ways it's managed by congress. additionally, we have, you know, former fox anchor pete hegseth, now in his position at the pentagon. he's already said he's launching a complete investigation. and that will go alongside with the ntsb. so one of the great things about this is there's this is going to be very, very heavily scrutinized. and of course, the end goal of all of this, not just to find out what happened, but what we can find out what safety protocols may have been broached so that we can make sure we manage the risk and reduce the chance of this ever happening again. >> yeah. kathleen bangs, a former commercial pilot and airline instructor. we thank you so much for your expertise. it really is enlightening. kathleen, thank you for being with us. and kevin, it kathleen makes a really good point that

this is going to be such a thoroughly investigated incident and rightfully so. so many people will want answers and it may well change the way aircraft operate in the dc area. that is such a trafficked corridor for flights and the confluence of military and commercial aircraft might be something that is very closely looked at in the future, i'd imagine. kevin. >> no, i think so too. and there has been a debate, as you know, jonathan, here in the nation's capital, about this idea of even having reagan national be so operational, so close to so many aircraft spots and so many other things that are happening right here. listen, in denver, for example, the old stapleton airport was fairly close to town. then, of course, they decided to just go ahead and go with denver international. much longer drive, but some would argue longer runways, a lot more space, all new, a lot dulles.

and so there are a lot of people who've actually been saying for years, do we really should we really have reagan in the area where it is? by the way, i should mention this to my friend. that is a pretty short porch of a of a runway there, about 68, maybe 6900ft, relatively speaking, a shorter porch than many airports, to say nothing of the wind that sort of howls right down that, that corridor right along the potomac. it is not easy. it can be challenging. wind gusts of around 16 miles an hour. last night when the accident happened. and yet there are so many unanswered questions. most notably, how did it happen that the aircraft we're talking about, the helicopter end up in a position to more or less or so it would seem, run into the fixed wing aircraft. just we'll have to learn a lot more about that. we want to bring in a former army battalion commander and blackhawk helicopter pilot and search and rescue expert,

lieutenant colonel darren gough. colonel, i'm so appreciative of you being with us. it's not a long bow, but it's a it's a mighty aircraft. this blackhawk, this 60. what can you tell us about that? and again, from your perspective, you heard me just talking to jonathan about this. tell me, how does this work out that even in a circumstance like this, even if we were dealing with visual flight rules, that we end up with a fixed wing aircraft, a relatively large aircraft, more or less, or against what would seem right on top of a helicopter. >> yeah. kevin, great to see you again. and unfortunately, under these circumstances, of course. but i'll tell you that the blackhawk helicopter itself, as a guy who has spent seven years in combat zones, flying that particular airframe for 2000 hours, there are very few aircraft that i would trust more than it. and power, maneuverability, communication

systems, everything is there to make it a phenomenal aircraft. but in the end, aviation is still a human endeavor that operates under procedures and policies, and those procedures and policies look on a map like corridors and specific areas where you can and cannot move, and altitudes that you have to operate at. there are also specific radio calls and other procedures you have to do in order to operate safely. frankly, anywhere but dc is a unique environment too, because there is so much going on there. it's like a finely tuned engine where if one little thing goes wrong, the whole thing breaks down hundreds of flights every single day. go through there and, you know, and testament to how great things do operate there on your average day is that we don't have to talk about this, but extremely rarely. and that is a testament to the procedures, to the pilots, to the training.

they all go through fixed wing and rotary wing. they all go through that very, very small corridor and the small airport. and i think that there will be things to learn here, but people should be reassured that, you know, this is one, not a deliberate act, and two, that things there generally work extremely well and there maybe need to be tweaked. but unfortunately, you know, this tragedy happened. and of course, our prayers are with the families and friends of everybody who was lost. but we don't know much yet for a fact. and we have to let that develop over time. >> let me ask you and i so much appreciate your experience and spending time with us, because i think you really helped make sense of not just the aircraft itself, but also what may have happened here tonight. i do want to ask you, though, specifically about training missions. yeah, they happen all the time. and i do know that there are some night training missions as well. there has

been a suggestion, colonel, that this was a nighttime training mission. and i'm just curious from your experience, does that happen very often? are we talking about having a training mission near an active runway, a major airport at night, or am i overthinking that? in other words, is that sort of commonplace place? >> well, training missions in army aviation at night are very commonplace. the difference that you highlighted here is the dense airspace, that particular airfield. how often have i flown over major airfields or through major cities with an army helicopter? that specific airframe? seoul, south korea, frankfurt, germany. and the fact that i can list these locations shows you that it doesn't happen really all that often in dc. it happens every day with that flight detachment with the army. and i've sent many pilots that were under my command at one time to go operate out and

fly with that detachment. so when it comes to training at night, it happens all the time. one thing unique about dc, besides the density of the airspace and the number of missions that are flown there are civilian and military, is the fact that those pilots have to go through a very strict training regimen when they arrive in fort belvoir, virginia, to be able to fly in that airspace, they have to get signed off by a trainer who teaches them everything they need to know how to operate there, how to survive there, and not have violations or accidents. the nearest comparison i can tell you to how tightly controlled that airspace and all the procedures are, is when i flew very close to the north korean border, you know, these are unique environments and extremely rare, and that's why they're so highly trained to be able to do it. >> so great to have you with us tonight, colonel. we certainly appreciate your time. and again, if you can stick around, we'll see if we can't get more information from you. as we continue our coverage here on

fox news channel. we want to bring in retired nypd inspector paul morrow. listen, paul, you and i have had coverage like this. thankfully, it is rare that we have circumstances like this. and yet tonight we are mourning for a country that is asking a lot of questions and i dare say, smart questions about how we ended up right here. your thoughts? >> well, i think what's becoming clear is that the likelihood of any number of survivors here is diminishing as time goes by. and so what that means on land here is that the officials are almost certainly doing everything they can to match up victims to the manifest. they're in the process of doing all the notifications. my understanding is that there is a crowd of relatives at reagan airport now who have gathered together in the wake of this, who have loved ones who were on that plane, who were likely waiting to pick them up, etc. there will be some who have to be notified, maybe woken up in the

middle of the night and told this horrible news. so there's a lot of logistical stuff now going on. i would think by tomorrow, at some point in the morning, they're going to start to segue into less of a rescue operation and more recovery notification investigatory. obviously, ntsb is going to take the lead. but, you know, this is just one of those things where we look at it as americans, remember that our political divides are, you know, there is more that unites us than divides us because, you know, nobody was checking what your voter registration was on that plane. and likely there were people who are in government who are on that plane coming into dc. >> i'm so glad you said that. it is such a contentious time here in our country. we all know that. and yet tragedy often does bring the american family back together. let me just ask you from an investigative perspective, what happens moving forward. there are so many agencies that all

get a bite of the apple, if you'll pardon me for saying. and so how do we coordinate who handles what? can you sort of walk me through your impression of what happens so that it's coordinated, and yet everyone gets a chance to do what they do best. >> so for a plane crash, it's very clear that ntsb is going to take the lead. in the immediate aftermath, we had about 301st responders show up at the scene. they got there very quickly, as the chief of the dc fire department said earlier, looked like he had the ticket as the unified commander. dc has a lot of agencies and they overlap. and in this instance we had arlington fire department, dc fire department, dc police, the parks police, which brings a lot of resources. they had a chopper in the air as well. this all has to be coordinated. and that at that point, you know, you're worried primarily about saving lives, getting any survivors to safety. once you are past that. yeah, we're

going to have a complicated situation. you're right. but really, the national at the ntsb is going to take the lead and everybody is going to be subordinate to that. and so what will happen is that you'll have people gathering all of the paperwork. you're going to be making sure that all lines of communications are established. you'll have a sort of central command where all this is coming into. and i think what's going to be very dispositive here is going to be the black boxes, because because this happened in an area where it's very heavily trafficked, we're going to have the radio traffic, etc, that that aspect of it is already kind of checked. but the conversation in the cockpit, a lot of people don't realize the black box records, the conversations in the cockpit. helicopters have a black box as well. they're going to go right to that to try to piece together what happened here. and if i could just close by echoing what one of the earlier guests said, these are very complex investigations, these aircraft crashes because it's

never one thing. the experience that i've had with them and my experience is limited in this area. but from what i've seen and heard, it's always a sort of confluence of events that come together with bad luck, maybe some human error, maybe some computer error. all of that has to be sifted through, and i'm sure we'll get a report and there will be repercussions, because this is a very heavily trafficked area and obviously we can't have this happen again. >> the great paul morrow joining us, retired nypd investigator paul. thank you. stand by. if you would want to bring in jonathan hunt back into the conversation. as we prepare for the top of the hour. your thoughts, jonathan, from what you've heard from the folks, the women and men who've been watching this, the experts. >> it's horrific. kevin is the only way to describe this awful crash. the black hawk helicopter colliding with that regional jet. and just from the press conference that we

started this hour with, i'm hearing those officials say that they are still engaged in what they called a rescue operation right now. but clearly, given the temperature of the water, given the impact of the crash itself, and if those people being pitched into the water, 64 people on the plane, three crew on the helicopter with every passing minute, it seems less and less likely that we will hear stories of survival. it is going to be a very tough day in washington, d.c. and the surrounding area. it is going to be a very tough day in kansas indeed for the nation. we will continue our coverage now of this tragic event on approach to washington national airport. >> 2 a.m. here in washington.