see. maybe there was a blind spot and they didn't know what way to turn don't have you two pilots on choppers in case there is a health emergency on board? >> oh, yeah. >> oh yeah. three crew members. flying on reagan airport the pilots are extremely busy. i don't know how many times i have flown in and out of here the pilots come on the intercom and give a final landing briefing. and then they say we're going to be very busy for the next few minutes so the last you will hear from us. they are keeping eyes open. they are flying the plane back and forth. particularly when you come from the north. it's a really really meandering route with a very hard right hand turn over the 14th street bridge at the end come in the point and land on the runway 31, i believe it is.

and so, if there was another aircraft in the area that they weren't expecting to be there, even if the warnings went off, they would probably be kind of like what the heck is that? and then, boom, it's all over. things just happen so quickly here on the final approach to this airport. >> brian: john roberts, thanks so much. stay right there. >> steve: it's 7:00 in washington, d.c. hour two of "fox & friends" starts right now. ♪ >> ainsley: if you are just waking up with us, we are covering the breaking news out of washington, d.c. this morning. under 30 minutes we are expecting an update from d.c. officials on this massive emergency response on the potomac river. after an american airlines flight collided with u.s. army helicopter in mid-air near reagan international airport. here's what we know at this hour. 60 passengers and four crew members were on board that passenger jet out of wichita, kansas. three soldiers were on board. the black hawk, the helicopter,

which was on a training flight. >> brian: the mid-air collision happened as the plane was approaching the runway just before 9:00 p.m. last night. that's eastern. and it was caught on camera. a warning, the footage you are about to see, that you are going to see with us, not easy to watch, but it will show you exactly what happened. >> lawrence: this is what you are about to see. the plane is circled in red. after a few moments, can you clearly see the mid-air explosion. president trump has been fully briefed on the situation saying may god bless the victims' souls. >> steve: meanwhile overnight, we learned some passengers on the flight had just left the u.s. figure skating championships in wichita. u.s. figure skating saying, quote: we are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims' families close in our hearts. there were also reportedly russian figure skaters on the airplane. also family members and coaches. lucas tomlinson is live in alexandria a virginia, not far from the crash site with the

latest on the response. and, lucas, we can see in the middle of the potomac, we see a number of boats with flashers on. are those dive teams? is the wreckage underneath there? is that what we are looking at? >> lucas: that's exactly what you're looking at, steve. this is still a very active search and rescue operation. i don't know if you heard that helicopter from the park police fly overhead just a few seconds ago. just above my head. we are on the banks of the potomac, just south of arresting international airport. we are ara awaiting a press conference at reagan national. airport replains closed until 59 least 11:30 in the morning 5342 flying inbound from wichita, kansas to reagan international airport collided with u.s. army black hawk, the collision took place just over the potomac river, altitude between 200 and

400 feet 60 people on board the american airliner. 60 passengers and four crew members. and on board the black hawk there were three crew members. that includes, of course, both pilots. this is an active search and rescue operation behind me. there are over 300 first responders in the water in and around the potomac looking for any sign of survivors. the u.s. army black hawk i will read it says we can confirm that the aircraft involved in last night's incident was army uh 60 helicopter from bravo company 12th aviation battalion out of davison army airfield fort belvoir during a training flight. we are working with local officials and provide additional information once it becomes available. now, guys, fort belvoir is located about 14 miles south here. can you see the air activity is picking one park police, other

federal officials joining in the search and rescue operations. obviously time and tide they are expanding the search area now south of the airport typical day paint a picture for the people not familiar. black hawks are a common sight. you have the pentagon on the other side of reagan. you have cia headquarters in langley. blackhawks out of fort belvoir flying overhead frequently. drive on interstate 395, that's, of course, restricted airspace. also an air corridor. the potomac was a air corridor. that black hawk was south along the potomac. the on short final, had its flaps extended, seconds away from landing at reagan. it was coming in from the south. but, runway 33 as the letter suggests it's a compass. it's northwesterly runway just,

you know, due north 360. make left handed bank turn state of maryland. other side of the those pilots would have been focused and have the right away. getting that aircraft safely back to reagan is not clear what caused this collision. the visual flight rules, the helicopter you would think would have seen that stern passing behind situation as we await update 7:30 eastern, guys. >> lawrence: lucas, i know you are normally at the pentagon and have you sources in the pentagon and we don't want to speculate. but i'm just curious we all saw the video and it's jarring. it was jarring for the president of the united states. has terror been ruled out right

now? >> it's something that nobody has been talking about, lawrence. it appears this is mid-air collision, a mid-air tragedy. it's not clear why this collision took place. what kind of instructions air traffic controllers, of course, both aircraft would have been talking to the tower here at reagan. it's not clear why -- how this collision took place besides, perhaps, a loss of situational awareness. >> ainsley: lucas, what about the black boxes? have you heard anything about those being recovered? >> there is some reporting that one of the black boxes was discovered and picked upped from the airline. of course, the water is anywhere between 10 and 30 feet deep here. so not incredibly deep, ainsley, but, of course, water temperature, you are talking near freezing temperatures. you all remember the inauguration has been, you know, freezing in the washington area. yesterday was about 60 degrees. there was ice, actually, over the potomac for many weeks.

it's not there anymore as you can see behind me. certainly making a search and rescue more difficult because of the freezing temperatures. >> ainsley: i wonder what the coast guard does? do they have special suits? i'm sure they have a special wet suit. >> lucas: dry suits. >> ainsley: dry suits. >> steve: thank you very much, lucas, live reporting. >> ainsley: go to madeleine rivera live at airport where d.c. officials are expecting to be providing update about 20 minutes from now. hey, madeleine. >> madeleine: hi, guys, good morning. terminal one baggage claim 4 a. behind me see the setup for the news conference that will take place in about 23 minutes from now. we do expect d.c. mayor muriel bowser to be there. we are waiting to hear who else might be there later on today. but you can see it's a bit eerie being here. people catching early morning flights. right now this airport is closed as you can see by that sign over there that says due to an emergency situation, reagan

international airport is closed. passengers, please see your airline representative for additional information. obviously, that information is outdated because there are no passengers to address at this moment. can you see right now there are members of the press. some employees as well. they have been handing out coffee, for example, they were providing food for anyone who might need it. and i talked to one employee and she said of course, understandably so the mood is very sad and they're waiting for information just like so many of us, guys, back to you. and madeleine, you know. washington national once a quaint airport not far from the capitol. originally built to handle 15 million passengers a year. now handling 25 million. we know that america's air traffic controllers: really busy these days. and there at reagan over the last couple of years there have been a number of very famous near misses where the traffic controllers are essentially telling people to take off and

planes on the runway still. so you have got to figure that's one of the things they are trying to figure out was it air traffic control problem or was it a miscommunication in one of the airplanes? >> oh, absolutely. that will certainly be one of the questions that i'm sure will be asked this morning. you guys. but you know, speaking about the issue that you brought up, steve, there are members of congress as well as safety organizations that have mentioned the concerns that they have regarding reagan international airport regarding dca they say that yes, this airport is very, very busy. yet the infrastructure here is not big enough to sustain that traffic, so there have been concerns about that and i'm sure certainly that will be one of the things ntsb will be investigating. back to you, steve. >> brian: thanks, maddy. bring in john roberts on the scene. getting set to host "america reports" but helping us out this morning. he knows the area. knows the routine. knows aviation. so, john, there are some reports that even overnight they are

able to -- they were pulling out some bodies. have you been able to confirm anything like that? >> we have not heard reports from where i am at. that's probably what the situation is the emergency services launch into action so quickly when something like this happens. remember, a week ago. a little more than a week ago there was a car accident on the arlington memorial bridge. a pickup truck went offer the bridge and into the potomac river and divers were on the scene within a number of minutes. when something like this happens they are always prepared for the worst and to respond to it. so many police agencies around here. the coast guard is just a little bit up the way. we see the coast guard helicopters flying here all the time. so, they are well equipped to respond to an emergency like this. but, it's just still such a shock to the system here in washington, d.c. that something like this happens. it was back in 1982, the last time that a plane went down in the potomac river. you will remember the air florida flight. and so much going on today in

d.c. as well. confirmation hearings where the fbi director nominee kash patel, tulsi gabbard as well for odni. those hearings as we understand are going to go ahead today because as tom cotton was saying, sean duffy was saying, it really drives home the importance the president having his national security team and all of his support staff and advisers in place. because, when you have got to respond to something like this. you want to make sure that you have got your team in place. now, as for how this happened, you heard lucas tomlinson talking about this earlier. these planes come in and out of reagan all day. they do share airspace. very crowded airspace with a lot of official helicopters as well whether they be army, park police helicopter came over just a little while ago, again, the coast guard is flying here. we always see the president's marine one helicopters training out of joint baseballly. it is very, very introduced crowded airspace clearly no

civilian aircraft that are flying in the area because of severe flight restrictions. but you do get a lot of official aircraft and commercial aircraft coming in out of here. and every time you fly in because particularly if you come from the north with that meandering river route for security and noise abatement reasons, you wonder is something go to go wrong? could something go wrong here because it is a very tenuous approach. from the south it's a lot easier. but, i mean, whoever would have thought that there would be a collision between two aircraft because it just so tightly regulated here, brian, that something like this -- i have never known anything like this to happen in this area. so for it to happen here is really a shock to the system. >> ainsley: very rare. >> lawrence: john, who takes the lead here? obviously a commercial aircraft so faa involved with that but you also have a military aircraft with that black hawk helicopter so that's dod. who is going to lead this investigation in this case? >> john: well, typically, in any kind of incident involving an aircraft it's the national

transportation safety board that takes the lead. but, the fact that there is a military aircraft that's involved here probably would involve the pentagon as well. we'll probably hear from the secretary of defense pete hegseth at some point today about how this investigation is going to proceed. right now, search and rescue is the order of the day. and you have got literally every agency out here that's got assets in the water. in the air as well trying to see if there could possibly be some survivors. but, as lucas was saying, the water here while the ice went out just within the last couple of days because of warmer temperatures. the water is still very,vel cold. so for anybody to be in there for longer that an few minutes probably has a very low chance of survival. >> steve: indeed. john, stand by. we are just getting a statement from the federal government. this is from ron mcclendon, deputy director. over at the pentagon. the quote goes like this.

while performing a training mission a united states army uh 60 black hawk helicopter from bravo company, 12th aviation battalion davison army airfield fort belvoir collided in mid-air with an american airlines bombardier regional jet flight 5342 last night at ronald reagan washington airport. the faa,ntsb, and the u.s. army will investigate. the ntsb will lead the investigation. that answers your question right there, lawrence. we are working with local officials and will provide any additional information once it becomes available. john, as somebody who has been on that river a lot, we're looking at some of the small boats that are patrolling the area and right in the middle it looks like debris. we see a couple of different patches of stuff looks like part of the plane or part of the

chopper. how deep is the water there? >> well, here's what i can tell you. there is a big sort of fan area that comes off of the eastern side of the airport. and the water there is anywhere between 3 and 12 feet deep. there is a ship channel far eastern side 31 feet deep. but it's very, very shallow water in there. and it's very muddy as well. and as we saw when value jet went down in the florida everglades, most of the plane went into the mud in the everglades and was very, very difficult to find any piece of the aircraft. anything that came down hard and this plane was 300 or 400 feet in the air so it could have come down hard may have gone through the shallow water and into the mud and is stuck there. so i can't say whether that is debris from the aircraft. there is a lot of stuff that floats down this river. particularly as the ice breaks up. there are logs and leaves and

other floating by us all the time. this looks like something more of a structural aspect to it. and could that be a part of the plane? could that be a part of the helicopter? can't tell from this far out. but it's likely that there's obviously going to be a lot of debris in the water. particularly with the water being shallow. i wouldn't be surprised if the plane is just below the surface. >> ainsley: yeah. john, when it comes to the recovery efforts, last night when i was going to bed i wanted to know how many survivors are there? and i had that same question this morning? we really don't have any answers at 7:30 we are going to find out more with this press conference. but, what is that water like? because, if this were the ocean, you have the currents that you have to worry about, as far as revolver efforts are concerned and trying to find passengers in the water, i know it's really cold. it's 35 degrees, that water. what are the currents like? are they having to deal with that? would it be easier to find bodies in this water? >>

>> john: well, it's very murky water. this time of year it tends to be a little bit clearer because there is not as much organic material in the water where there is in the summer where the algae gets going. the water is probably clearer than it is in the summertime but still very hurricaney, particularly in this area where there is so much mud in the bottom of it. have half decent flow. it's a titled area as well tida. slows down the flow at least on the surface. sometimes you get a pretty go flow down the chesapeake and other times hardly a flow at all. i remember being out of my boat a couple of summers ago. we were up the potomac just north of georgetown, university and we were basically just sitting there in the middle of a river without having to throw out an anchor because of the way that the flow was coming back up

the river, the counter of the flow coming down from the north. and nothing was moving at all. so, you know, there hasn't been a lot of current here. it has cleared out the ice some amend see things floating by. the current is slow. anything in the river probably would be moving very slowly. >> lawrence: all right john roberts, we appreciate it. >> steve: stand by, we will be back with you in a minute. >> lawrence: the trump administration including several freshly sworn in cabinet members responding to the crash, trying to figure out what went wrong. >> ainsley: senior white house correspondent peter doocy joins us right now. good morning to you, peter. >> peter: good morning, about nine hours after being sworn in the new transportation secretary sean duffy was standing at an airport terminal just across the river at dca sharing what little the feds could share before the sun came up. >> i spoke with president trump and his team in the situation room. i had a conversation with secretary pete hegseth as well.

and then with the kansas delegation and the mayor. and others in leadership as well as governor youngkin from virginia and governor kelly from kansas. >> peter: he mentioned secretary hegseth. he now says absolutely tragic, search and rescue efforts still ongoing. prayers for all impacted souls and their families. investigation launched immediately by army and dod. we have also heard from kristi noem, dhs secretary she says we are deploying every available u.s. coast guard resource for search and rescue efforts in this horrific incident at dca. we are actively monitoring the situation and stand ready to support local responders praying for the victims and first responders. and geographical context, there are some clips of this accident last night from the cameras that are all around d.c. where can you see the white house in the foreground. so this is something where it happened close enough to the white house that if the

president or somebody in the first family had been looking out, they would have been able to see it. when they wake up today they will see nothing. it is completely quiet there are no planes taking off and banking away from the white house like they usually do or like they have since 9/11. there are no planes coming in. it is completely quiet. and that includes helicopter traffic that we sometimes hear over washington in the morning as well. we don't hear anything this morning. >> steve: i bet. peter, i know you asked the president about drones. and that came up at the press conference a couple of days ago. but, i know you have spoken to federal law enforcement who have said and it's not about this case. but there are a number of instances where helicopters are flying without their lights on at night because they don't want people to think they are drones. >> peter: we have heard that over the last couple of days. it looks like there is at least some kind of a light on with this helicopter. we don't know exactly what

happened here. we haven't seen a view from below. and they haven't reviewed the black hawk yet. but we have heard there are examples in the united states of low altitude aircraft that have been flying either with different lights or with no lights at night to avoid any confusion during some of the drone panic. >> steve: no suggestion that was the case. because we do see some warning lights. >> ainsley: how do other aircraft see them. >> steve: they don't want to be seen. apparently. have to ask the guy driving the chopper. as we look at the live pictures right there. there are a couple of recovery boats. small boats you can see right there. screen left. >> brian: i expected more activity. >> ainsley: did i too. what is the larger boats? >> steve: one of the tour boats. there are not a lot of large boats in the washington, d.c. area. there are some larger yachts, famously, you know, joe manchin lived on a house boat over at

the marina. but this particular part, the channel on the distance i believe that's haines park, haines point on the other side of our point of view is from arlington, virginia, looking toward the river. >> ainsley: looks like this is a staging boat on the left. see smaller boats like rescue boats going in and out. >> steve: i think that's probably right. what they are doing is looking around for stuff. i would imagine in about 10 minutes what we are going to hear from the local authorities at this press conference that we are going to get is they're waiting for heavy equipment to come in so they can lift the airplane out. and that is probably what they are waiting to do to recover other bodies. when you are in cold water in the dark, you know, under water. it is very dangerous to go in to, you know, a jaggedy metal fuselage to try to. >> brian: someone did. the "new york post" first page says they recovered at least 18 bodies in the potomac.

they went into those murky waters last night. >> lawrence: the posture of -- if you are just looking would indicate that this is more of a recovery mission than. >> ainsley: unfortunately. unfortunately. i hope some survive but i hope they all did. >> steve: there have been no reports of nic surviving. >> ainsley: i know. all these americans, think about the families and what they're going through right now. >> brian: right now 36 degrees outside. the water in the potomac is colder at 35 degrees. >> ainsley: the weather around the time of the crash was not out of the ordinary. but, that frigid water makes the rescue efforts a lot more difficult. >> steve: let's check in with janice dean. janice, just a week ago, that was ice. but they have had 50's and 60's in d.c. for the last couple of days and that is why, you know, there are some ice flows but for the most part it is clear. >> janice: right. but the temperature is still frigid and obviously with hypothermia setting in between 15 and 20 minutes your body

shuts down. you know, your respiratory functions, your heart. neurological, all shuts down. so that is the huge concern. not only for the passengers but, of course, first responders that are out there right now. in terms of weather conditions. i'm pretty confident weather had nothing to do with this crash. skies were clear. winds were light. we had no precipitation in the forecast. we did have some, of course, north of the area. some snow squalls, but the conditions were clear. now, we do have an area of low pressure that's going to come in later this afternoon to the night and overnight. so we really need to do this rescue mission now because conditions are going to start to deteriorate around midnight tonight through midnight on friday. and that means very gusty winds. heavy rainfall. but for the next several hours here, rescue crews really should be able to get, you know, things done. but as we get into thursday and friday, rain sets in. this is not just a small system,

either. it's going to encompass a wide area of the mid-atlantic up towards the northeast. that is my concern right now. so, weather was not a factor with the crash. weather will be a factor later on tonight into tomorrow for the rescue mission. so we will continue to watch that but when i woke up this morning, here in the northeast we had very strong winds. yesterday in d.c. very strong winds but at the time of the crash between 8 and 9, winds were calm. visibility was excellent, no weather in the area. but, of course, they will do their after action review. they will consult with the meteorologists that were on staff. i am concerned though as we go through the next 12 to 24 hours conditions are going to deteriorate pretty quickly. so they really need to get in there and, unfortunately, wrap up what they're doing within the next 12 hours. back to you. >> lawrence: thanks, j.d. we appreciate it. national security adviser and u.s. army veteran michael waltz joins us now. michael, it's good to see you, brother.

unfortunately, it's under these circumstances. your top line thoughts on this crash? i know as a door kicker, you have been in many of these aircraft's before. how does something like this happen? >> yeah, thanks, lawrence. look, this is a terrible tragedy. i know i can speak for the president and that our heart is broken but at this point, we are all hands on deck. and i can tell you that he was updated throughout the night. as you know, secretary duffy was on the scene, ntsb was on the scene. we spoke with mayor bowser. i spoke with governor youngkin. this is, again, all hands on deck from the parks service to the coast guard. to local both state and local responders, the airport recovery services. and i have also spoken with the military. to answer your question,

lawrence, this was a routine training flight. as you know a black hawk typically has two pilots in this case. can i tell you it was an officer and a warrant officer. they tend to have a lot of experience. and then you have an enlisted crew chief in the back. so, we'll let the investigation unfold as to what happened, but, you know, our hearts go out to the families, american airlines and their ceo has also been in touch for all of those notifications, and then, you know, finally, god bless those coast guardsmen and those rescuers, those park police that are down in those frigid waters, you know, making sure that we don't have -- they are doing everything they can to make sure we don't have a fuel spillage and they have recovered now over 30 bodies. >> steve: michael, what adds to the call could you luz regarding

trying to american airlines flight wichita was coming in over the water which at night it's dark. you don't see how far up you are. you can see the lights in the distance. it looks like the chopper just came in from the side. i don't imagine there is any spot on earth that is going to have so many records of what went on in the sky before that because everything is being tracked. given the fact that you're at the white house and they have got all sorts of censors so see if anything is flying at the white house, same thing pentagon. so many sensitive. it's going to be a gigantic digital trail there will be pulling all of that together may take a little bit of time. it is involved.

brian, one of the questions -- excuse me, steve, one of the questions that i have is were the pilots under night vision? were they not? those are. >> steve: oh, yeah. >> those are things that the investigators will have to, you know, will have to determine and, you know, at this point we are on monitoring. we are making sure everyone has the resources. i sent one of my senior staff from the national security council to the d.c. emergency operations center. to make sure those local, state and federal resources are all integrated. and are coordinating, and doing the best we can. so recover this site. about 4:00 a.m. this morning, unfortunately, we transitioned from response to recovery. >> ainsley: oh, wow, does that mean everyone? everyone involved? >> that's what it's looking like

at this point. >> ainsley: do you know how long it will take to find out what happened? i know they have recovered one of the black boxes, at least, that's what lucas was saying. he's there on the ground. how long would it take? >> i don't have a direct or definitive timeline at this point. again, secretary duffy is on the ground, ntsb is got on the ground very quickly. and they will unpack all of this from the digital footprint, the radar track. what we know from g.p.s. movements, exactly what the black hawk pilots were saying, doing and seeing and their flight trajectory. obviously a huge piece here with the air traffic controller. and what they saw in those last moments and the instrublegdzs that they gave. so we'll pull all of those together from those various agencies. part of our job here is to coordinate all ever that. and then to keep both the

president, the vice president, and all of the senior folks in the administration informed. >> brian: just so people know what the black hawk looks like, it's got four blades, twin engines, military helicopter. it's a modified version developed for the u.s. navy, air force and coast guard. it carries 15 people. including two pilots, two crew chiefs and two rescue specialists, three u.s. army soldiers were on board during the crash. now, right away, michael, people are looking at this and saying sean duffy had the job for a couple hours. knew he is on the scene with a wind breaker on and got to assess it. then have you an omb director who can't get a vote who would have certainly helped with that executive order two days ago. and wouldn't it be great to have a dni in place ahead of time. you just now got a secretary of defense, he 48 hours on the job is offering out statements and procedures. got to be urgency in the senate

to get your people confirmed. how do you do that? >> brian, you know, so many people are brand new in the job but they also bring so much experience to these jobs. and as you saw last night. nobody is sitting back. we are leaning forward in the saddle and getting right there on the scene showing leadership. showing determination to get to the bottom of what happened. but, to your point, yes, the president needs all of his cabinet officials, he needs all his players on the field. i can tell you from my perspective with what is going on in the middle east. the wars we're going to stop in ukraine, russia, the movement on the southern border in taking on the cartels, i need a director of national intelligence like yesterday. and but we're going to get them through. we're looking forward to seeing kash patel as the next director of the fbi. tulsi gabbard as the next director of national intelligence. i will be out at the cia today

with new director ratcliffe but, as a former dni few years on the job but decades of experience we are bringing to it. we are hitting the ground running and the president is all gas, no brakes right now. >> brian: we have noticed. >> lawrence: so michael, you don't think that these hearings are going to be because of the tragedy that just took place, you don't think they are going to be delayed as a result of that? >> steve: let me interrupt you. >> lawrence: i'm sorry about that. >> steve: here is the mayor of washington, d.c., muriel bowser is about to have a press conference. >> brian: thanks, michael.

>> lawrence: get the media staged. >> good morning, muriel bowser, i'm the mayor of washington, d.c. we are here at reagan national airport. to provide an update on the tragic events of last night. i'm joined by u.s. transportation secretary sean duffy. d.c. fire and ems chief john donnelly, american airlines ceo robert eisen. the washington metropolitan washington airport authority ceo jack carter. united states senator mark warner. united states senator tim kaine, u.s. representative don beyer as well as the chief of the metropolitan police department pamela smith, and we are joined by first responders from across the metropolitan washington region. i speak for all of us when i say, certainly all washingtonians how very sad we

are for american airlines, for the united states department of defense, and for all americans for the loss of life that happened with the collision of these aircrafts we know that includes families from across our region as well as as in kansas and across the country we all share a profound sense of grief. i do want to thank the first responders who acted quickly last night, who ran towards danger, went into a very frigid river, and have worked throughout the night. chief donley reported last night's briefing that we have a strong mutual aid agreement in our region and those teams have worked together throughout the night in really tough and heart breaking conditions. we should all thank them for their heroic efforts. so we will have several updates today. i'm first going to turn to the

secretary of transportation, sean duffy, and then you will hear directly from chief john donnelly with the situational update. >> thank you, mayor, again, sean duffy here. secretary of transportation. we wish were gathering for a different purposes today. i just want to let you know that the department of transportation, the faa along with the white house president trump, local, state and federal partners all working together on this incident in unison. i couldn't be prouder of this team that has been assembled working tirelessly, thank you specifically for your work. i a few i do tails i would like to give you. some of you reported this but last night if you live in the d.c. area you would know this was a clear night last night. the helicopter was in a standard pattern.

if you live in the d.c. area you will see helicopters up and down the river. this flight pattern is seen oftentimes when you live in d.c. this was a standard flight pattern last night as well. the american airlines flight coming in to land was in a standard flight pattern as it was coming in to dca. so, this was not unusual with military aircraft flying the river and aircraft landing at dca and again, if you live in the area, you will see that frequently with those two aircraft working together. as many of you have reported, we have located the two aircrafts. the fuselage of the american airlines plane was inverted. it's been located in three different sections. it's in about waist deep water that recovery is going to go on

today as that recovery takes place of the fuselage of the aircraft. ntsb is going to start to analyze that aircraft. partner with the faa with all of the information we have to get the best results possible for the american people. i would just say that safety is our exception. expectation. everyone who flies in american skies expects we fly safely. that when you depart an airport, you are get to your destination. that didn't happen last night. and i know that president trump, his administration, the faa, the dot we will not rest until we have answers for the families and for the flying public. you should be assured that when you fly, you're safe. thank you. >> thank you, secretary, thank you, mayor. i'm joined today by -- with bon

that from the metropolitan airport authority and i'm john donnelly chief of the fire and e.m.s. department. last night at 8:48. >> the control tower sounded an alert which alerts responders to respond to a report of an aircraft crash on or neither airport. that sets off an immediate response from the airport authority fire department, from the district of columbia and the metropolitan harbor control fire boats and other fire boats on the river. in order to support that type of operation very quickly this call escalated. it became -- responders realized that they had a plane crash and immediately escalated to a response that ultimately included about 300 people last night. these responders found extremely frigid conditions, they found wind and ice on the water and

they operated all night in those conditions. i would like to take a moment to acknowledge the agency. in addition to ems. fire department. prince george's county fire department. the charles k-9 fire department, the baltimore county police department, the anna rundle fire department. the alex andrea fire department, the arlington county fire department, the fairfax fire department, the prince william fire department. the baltimore city police department, the maryland state police, the maryland natural resources police department of defense, joint base bowling fire department and the staff there. the u.s. army, the u.s. coast guard. the united states park police. the metropolitan police department, the fbi, and the ntsb. despite all those efforts we are now at a point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery

operation. we don't believe there are responders. we have roferredz 27 people from the plane and one from the helicoptered distinct office of the medical examiner has lead on reuniting these bodies and these people with their loved ones we will continue to work to find all the bodies and collect them and reunite them with their loved ones. acknowledge that the virginia medical examiner and the army medical examiner are involved in this operation very important part of getting people identified. >> our hearts are certainly with all of the crew and american airlines and ceo. >> thank you, mayor.

good morning i'm robert iseman, the ceo of american airlines i want to express my sincere condolences to the accident that happened at cda last night. we are absolutely heart broken for the family and loved ones of the passengers and crew members. and, also, for those that were on the military aircraft. our focus right now is doing everything that we can to support all of those involved and also the psa airlines team. this is devastating. it's -- we are all hurting incredibly. we urge any family and friends looking for information about their loved ones to call our designated help line. and that's at 1-800-679-8215. here's what can i share at this early stage. american eagle flight 5342

operated by psa airlines traveling from wichita, kansas to arresting national airport was involved in an accident collided with military aircraft otherwise normal approach: military aircraft came into the path psa aircraft: crj 700 was under the command of four crew members. they carried 60 passengers for a total of 64 people on board. in addition to local resources already here in d.c. american sailors activated our care team. and that's a group of specialists that are trained to support these types of responses: these team members are on sight arriving soon. and additionally we have members of our go team that are on the

ground here in d.c. and they are being deployed with resources to do everything that we can to take care of the needs of the families and the loved ones of the passengers and crew members. and that is our s sole focus. grateful for the first responders that have been working through the night. courageous efforts. actively working with local, state and federal authorities on emergency response efforts and closely coordinating with psa airlines as they cooperate fully with the ntsb on the investigation. i know that there are many questions that this early stage that just won't be able to answer many, but we'll provide additional information as it comes. thank you. >> i want to introduce the metropolitan washington airport's authority ceo jack prodder. the authority manages reagan

washington national and dulles international. >> good morning and thank you, mayor. first, let me begin by expressing our condolences for all the victims of this flight and for their families. there's a lot of grieving going on. and so we are very sympathetic to that. i want to echo what was said about the responders, when there's a problem in this area, everybody drops everything and they rush to wherever the problem is. so i want to thank the chief, the entire team from washington, d.c., but just as important, the lipps of folks that the chief described, the federal authorities have been en masse and so a lot of effort was brought to bear, unfortunately, we were unable to rescue anyone. but we are in the recovery mode right now. and i just want to, you know, last night we hoped to open at

11:00 today, that is still the case. again, condolences to the families and thanks to the many, many still out there working very, very hard to complete this recovery. thank you, mayor. >> i do want to acknowledge that the virginia transportation secretary is here in addition to the alexandria mayor and i would like to ask members of the virginia congressional delegation to the podium next. u.s. senator mark warner followed by tim kaine and representative don. >> thank you, mayor. i want to join with everyone else in expressing my condolences for the victims. for folks who don't live in the dmv, and we are made up of a lot of jurisdictions.

reagan airport is in virginia, across the river we have maryland, obviously the district. but as been indicated by the chief, when tragedy happens, all those distinctions between the various jurisdictions that are federal partners all disappear. and i want to, again, thank all the first responders wanted on a personal note i will just add that literally i now know i was coming back from the district from a dinner to my home in alexandria, while i did not see the collision, i wondered i had never seen this many red lights streaming towards the airport and across the river in maryland. my phone started blowing up and i realized this had taken place. there will be a time to figure out and ntsb will have a briefing later in the day. but the victims our condolences

to the first responders our thanks. >> sorry, thanks and questions. so sorry as all have expressed to the crew, to the passengers, to the soldiers, to their families and to their friends, to their loved ones, to people who are still trying to get information. and i'm sure whether their loved ones have been lost. we offer our profound condolences to them and our sorrow for this tragedy. thanks, i will echo mayor what you began with when you see a challenge like this and you see people from so many different agencies, local, state, federal with different uniforms and different badges but working in such a coordinated way even in the midst of a tragedy it does give you a sense of appreciation and pride in people's willingness to come to the danger and work together. and see that as a local official 30 years ago in richmond and

definitely have seen it here. and then finally questions. there are going to be a lot of questions, obviously. a lot of questions. and that's what ntsb's job is to be an independent investigator of incidents like this and mayor, here we were in dialogue with them earlier today. they have been here since they got the alert and they will be doing the work and playing lead in answering the many questions that we have. and that's as it should be. it's not a time to speculate. it's a time to investigate and get answers to the questions we need. and i have confidence that will be done. thank you. >> grief, thanks and service. with millions and millions of americans traveling every year, we are all grieving, knowing that it could have been our loved ones, it could have been us, and our hearts go out to all those who have lost folks. and the most partisan place also it's a really thankful that democrats and republicans, people from all over have come

together to try to make sure that people are served. as the local representative, i want the families to know that our office is available to serve you in any way we possibly can through this time of grief and transition and loss. and that also just note that we're deeply grateful for the people who risked their lives last night on a moment's notice. up the whole night on the river in the ice and the wind serving us and then finally, as senator kaine, senator warner noted, ntsb investigation we have got make sure that at the federal level and support of virginia maryland and d.c. do everything we can to make sure this does not happen. >> so, with that, it's been said

alreadied that the national transportation safety board becomes the lead agency in the investigation. our jurisdiction in d.c. where the crash occurred over the river is -- concludes as we -- in the leadership role of the unified command as we shift to a recovery effort. we expect the national transportation safety board to provide briefings to the press later in the day. so, at this point, we can take a few questions. yes? >> can you say without a shadow of a doubt that people are safe to fly? >> what we are talking -- what we can talk about today is what happened here, with the collision of these vehicles. we have said what we know, that the national transportation safety board continues to investigate. i don't know that any of us have been briefed on anything that would suggest any other aircraft

are implicated. >> you are still business missing 30-plus people in the water. what are some of the challenges in recover them right now? >> chief? >> so, the rescue operation or the recovery operation goes on. it's touch and feel different parts of the plane in the helicopter and the crash jerry a little spread out so we have got some work to do. i think it's pretty normal type of situation. i don't think it's -- >> how spread out is the debris field? >> so the wind started blowing last night. we have had debris travel from the airport as far as bridge. >> mile wide how far is that? >> i couldn't tell. >> you okay. >> less than a mile. >> this is a question for ceo. you are going to open the airport at 11:00 this morning. how are you going to do that and what impact is that going to have on operations, on passengers, on people's anxiety? how are we going to do this?

>> well, we are going to open the airport at 11:00. it's safe, we have worked with all the federal agencies, faa. and, you know, it's been determined that we can open that airport safely. the recovery effort that's on our property is on the waterfront. our primary runway 119 will be open. it's away from any activity. going to have a secure area around that so, all are comfortable that we can get back to our operations. now, each airline will announce or communicate to their passengers what their operations are going to be. obviously, their networks were disrupted overnight. so we might have a slow recovery but the bottom line is we will begin to have aircraft moving out of this airport at 11:00. >> okay. so, 1, 2, 3. >> [inaudible] flight recorder

been recovered? >> i don't think we can say anything about what is in ntsb's purview. >> you maintained that the airport opens three hours from now. a lot of helicopter traffic from the military, park police. will the airplanes will be flying here as well beyond the recovery efforts? >> i don't know the answer to that, jack. do you have anything to add? we don't have anything to add about that. >> >> duffy the u.s. still has safest airspace in the world? >> so the question is can i guarantee the american flying public that the united states has the most safe and secure airspace in the world and the answer to that is absolutely yes, we do. we have early indicators of what happened here. and i will tell you with complete confidence we have the safest airspace in the world. >> when it comes to families tragically lost their loved ones. what does that look like so far?

has anyone informed the flight manifest? any details can you provide on that front? >> all i can say is that we have published the 1-800 number. we have family assistant centers set up here in dca. we do in wichita as well. i'm not at liberty to give the number of families that have used those services. but we have over team members either here or on their way. they are especially trained to work with family members, handle travel arrangements, hotel arrangements, inci incidentals o make sure we are taking care of people any way we can our teams are hurting and suffering as are our passengers and families who need assistance. we are doing everything we can i don't have any more information than that right now.

>> chief donnelly, can i ask you to describe the next phase of the investigation? how confident are you that you will be able to recover all 67 of these bodies and can you speak to some of the debris that's also being pulled out of the river? we understand there are some suitcases, you know, some other things that have been pulled out from the river? and i would like to ask anyone here, perhaps, to transportation secretary or mr. isom if we know anything about these victims, age ranges, nationalities, or anything of that nature? >> the next phase of this operation is going to be led by the ntsb. all of us are working together to search the area and -- i'm confident that we will do that. and that will take us a little bit of time and equipment. as far as the things being collected. i don't have personal knowledge. i note that we have been collecting y debris you would

expect to see from a plane. >> anything about the victims? >> the question is about the victims. the ntsb is going to lead that portion of contact with the victims. i believe american is going to be involved with that as well as so will the faa and the department of transportation. >> secretary duffy, [inaudible] >> secretary duffy, the flight path that the helicopter was on, is that a common flight path and is it normal for helicopters to get clearance to cut across b busy? >> i don't know if you all can hear the question. it's a question about the flight path of the helicopter. i don't want to go into too much detail about the information we have from the faa, but obviously it is not standard to have aircraft collide. i want to be clear on that. but prior to the collision, the flight paths that were being

flown from the military and from american, that was not unusual for what happens in the d.c. airspace. and as this investigation moves forward, we will be able to provide more information to you about the details of that statement. >> i wanted to follow up with that question regarding the flight path. you said it's standard. so, speak to the conversation with the air traffic control. were there mind spots here? >> so the question is whether there blind spots with air traffic control? i don't want to make statements about that. i don't mean to not answer. but, again, i think whether it was air traffic control, whether it was military aircraft, helicopters, or the american flight, everything was standard in the lead-up to the crash. now, obviously, something happened here. you'll get more information and more details as this

investigation moves forward. we'll learn what happened, but, again, those who live in the d.c. area, we see military helicopters fly up and down the river. it's a standard path that they fly. they are used to aircraft landing at dca and there is a procedure in place because this happens every day. something went wrong here. i look forward to the time where we can give that you information. but i don't want to comment on that right now. >> okay. >> senator kaine, senator warner, have you all been very concern about maybe runways here, air traffic. i know it's still early in the investigation. i'm just curious any steps that you all plan to take to address that? >> we have raised this issue continuously. we have got very busy airspace. i think we will ask questions but at the appropriate time. we are in this period right now where families are still being notified. we're trying to figure out what happened. there will be time