whoever the president wanted. not anymore. >> brian: this is a big week, thank you so much, ben. >> lawrence: we've been covering a lot of breaking news this morning. we'll be expecting press conferences not only in the town but also from all the different departments that will be overseeing this investigation. >> ainsley: one right at the top of the hour. >> brian: round two of rfk, jr. and pam bondi will be looking at a floor vote sir. doug burgum for interior. all you have to do is show up and count the ballots. they will all get approved. >> ainsley: sean duffy was confirmed yesterday and this happened last night. keep it on fox and we'll have a press conference out of kansas at 9:00 this morning. >> see you tomorrow. >> despite all efforts we're at a point where we're switching

from a rescue operation to a recovery operation. at this point we don't believe there are any survivors from this accident. >> bill: we're covering an american nightmare this morning. no survivors after a passenger jet collided with a blackhawk helicopter over washed. we expect another update any moment now out of wichita. i'm bill hemmer as our coverage continues from new york city. dana, good morning to you. >> dana: im dana perino and this is "america's newsroom." this is the first major airline disaster in more than 15 years. hundreds of first responders are wading into potomac river. >> bill: an american airlines flying out of wichita, can is a. 60 passengers on board in addition to four crew members. the plane collided with an h-60 blackhawk. three soldiers were on board that aircraft.

>> dana: crews have recovered 28 bodies. the crash forcing a full ground stop at reagan national. that is scheduled to be lifted at 11:00 a.m. eastern. >> bill: the crash was not by earth cam. you can see the moment the aircraft collides, explosion in the sky. both plane and helicopter plummet into the river. >> dana: the blackhawk helicopter was on a training flight and the transportation secretary sean duffy says it was completely routine. >> the helicopter was in a standard pattern. if you look at 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 airline flight coming in to land was in a standard flight pattern as it was coming into dca. so this was not unusual with a military aircraft flying the river and aircraft landing at dca. >> bill: there is sean duffy

there. he hasn't been on the job but a couple of days. jennifer griffin working the story from the pentagon. john roberts moved to a new location at reagan national. john, let's begin with you on what we think we know as of when hour. hello. >> well, unfortunately looks like the worst. last night it was hoped when video of that crash first appeared that there might be some survivors. the plane was not that high off of the water. it seems like the worst has happened now and all 64 souls on board the aircraft as well as three people on board the helicopter. 27 bodies have so far been recovered from the psa flit coming in from wichita, kansas. one body recovered from the helicopter. how this happened has been described by officials i've talked to as a monumental screw-up. two aircraft would have been exactly the same piece of airspace at the same time no one knows because as sean duffy was pointing out this airspace is

shared by many different aircraft. commercial aircraft coming in and out and many military and police aircraft flying up and down the river. the majority of those being helicopters. i've spent a lot of time flying out of reagan or into reagan or on the water at the potomac itself. it is a very busy airspace, very congested. we'll have park police helicopters and blackhawk helicopters as well as coast guard. it will be a long investigation to find out bill and dana how these two aircraft were at exactly the same place at the same time. horrific tragedy that brings back memories of 1982 when the air florida flight crashed into the 14th street bridge. >> bill: wichita mayor is now talking. >> an american airlines jet carrying 64 people plunged into the potomac river after colliding in midair with an army helicopter on wednesday night. we're hearing recovery teams in

washington, d.c. have pulled more than two dozen bodies from the icy waters. we do not know yet final confirmation on all of the individuals who were on that flight and, of course, we'll share that information, but not before families have been first contacted. congressman is here with us this morning and invite him to say a few words. >> thank you, mayor, and thank you for all the city council members for holding this press conference to help share this information. this is such a tragic day for our community. so many of us will be touched by people that we know directly or indirectly that were victims of this tragic tragedy that happened. overnight i was in contact with the lighthouse situation room getting updates as they went through the process.

spoke last night with the chairwoman of the national transportation safety board as well and at that point in time their investigation was getting -- they were getting prepared for that. they were waiting for the search and rescue efforts to conclude before they started that investigation. a tragedy that touches our community. we have such a steep history of being involved in aviation and being a close knit community like we are, it will have consequences for years to come. i do want to make a general comment about air safety in general. we have the safest skies than any country in the world. when a tragic incident like this happens, obviously we want to do the investigation, which will take days and weeks to go through that process and to make sure that we can prevent accidents like this from happening in the future.

and so i appreciate all of the updates we will have this morning. i know there will be more coming out both from here in wichita as well as in d.c. thank you. >> thank you very much, congressman. we also have a representative for senator moran who will share a statement as well. >> mayor, thank you. i'm with senator moran's office. wichita is located in the heart of our nation. today we're grieving. i received confirmation this morning that no one survived the crash of american airlines flight 5342. this is a sad day for people in kansas and our nation. as we awaken this morning to this tragic news.

my heart grieves for the lives that were lost and their loved ones who are now learning that their friend or family member was among those who perished: there will be much to learn and to do in the coming days in the wake of this tragedy but today please join me in praying for kansas. may god comfort those who are mourning. >> i would like to now ask jesse to provide some updates. a lot of the details are still waiting for confirmation. we ask just give us the latest that we have confirmed. >> thank you, mayor, good morning, everyone. i'm the director of the airport authority. i don't have a lot of official information to share. we'll get that directly from n

the tsb. american airlines will provide the official updates and information. they do have a newsroom that you can go to online. the website is aa.com/newsroom. there is also an 800 number to utilize for friends and family members of the people aboard the flight, 1-800-679-8215. family members did show up to the terminal to have additional information even before we were there with them with our team of volunteers along with other airline staff and representatives. the airport remains open. there is air traffic continuing. right now we do have fog so i would ask everybody to please drive safe as you are headed to the airport or traveling today.

keep up with the airline for additional information. and right now that's all i have. >> i would like to say that director, city manager and several council members were at the airport last night as the care team got activated. i also learned from american airlines this morning that additional care team members have come to wichita and will be providing support for families, as well as crew members. i am in direct contact with american airlines to find out the confirmed information to provide to all of you. but i want to reiterate that any information should go to their hotline especially for families. that number that jesse said already but i will remind everyone to use again is

1-800-679-8215. in addition, this afternoon at high noon the wichita city council in contact with the ministerial league and multiple faith leaders in wichita will be coming together for a community-wide prayer and we ask that anyone who would like to join us to come to city hall here in downtown wichita for that community prayer. all are welcome. at this time our community needs to come together to support the family members who have been impacted. to come together in honor of those individuals on that flight. and as a council we will lead in bringing this community together to pray for our community, but also move our community to know

that there are resources. and as a city we will have additional resources, especially for staff who have been impacted, and i am again grieving with everyone in our community and those in washington, d.c. due to this very tragic incident that happened. we will take a few questions at this time. >> [inaudible question] >> at this time we don't have that information and i know that we don't have the manifest at this moment. >> [inaudible question] >> the care team was activated last night and one family was there. i want to say thank you to our local media partners who were

respectful here in wichita. that says a lot about our community. the care team was there to provide comfort for that family and the council members were also there to provide comfort for them. but at this time that is all we have in regards to family members. >> do you know how many families -- >> only one. >> [inaudible question] >> i will have jesse. >> yes, to our knowledge everything occurred as normal. there were no abnormalities to the operation. >> [inaudible question] >> i know reagan national is

shut down for a while and plans to reopen the airport. i haven't heard yet when exactly they will open that and i haven't heard specifically for this flight but if we do have additional information that will come from american as well and so if folks are looking to fly on that route, just continue to check with american airlines. >> [inaudible question] >> well, the configuration for each aircraft but it is 75 seats normally. i would have to get specifics on that aircraft, but i don't have that at this time. >> [inaudible question] >> no. >> [inaudible question]

>> we do not and most of this incident occurred at d.c. and being managed by the local partners and agencies responding in the d.c. area. as was asked earlier the manifest will be managed by american airlines and that information will be disseminated through their official source as well as ntsb. >> [inaudible question] >> i don't believe so. i don't have that information. i can look into that. >> can you tell us anything about figure skaters on the flight? given the championship -- a lot of figure skaters. >> i understand some of that information is out there on social media through other media outlets but not information we can share at this time. >> the mayor talked about how

great this last weekend for the u.s. figure skating championship being held in wichita and all these young olympic hopefuls. can you talk about how big of an event this past weekend was and what it meant to the city to have these young skaters here in town? >> it was truly an honor to have future olympians and those at the highest competition level of figure skating right here in our capital. we were so excited to have the opportunity to host the national championship and even yesterday i had folks tell me how wonderful these last few days have been with additional individuals that came into our community, whether to watch or to participate. so our community was really excited and thankful that everything went well with the championship. and so right now we're just waiting for more information from u.s. figure skating that we

can release. but right now we are just hoping and praying again. >> [inaudible question] >> you can reach out to the airport administration building. sleep deprivation and my mind went black on the phone number. >> are you asking family members to stay home? what should they do? >> everyone responds to a tragic incident differently. so if they feel that they would be more comfortable in the

terminal or coming out to the airport we're ready to help support them in any way we can. there isn't any more information that we can share that isn't already being shared directly by the airline. they may want to stay at home as well. >> [inaudible question] >> 316-946-4700. it is the airport administration building. >> [inaudible question] >> not about the helicopter. i have been in contact with several of our federal legislators who again are sending their condolences but this was very early -- yesterday or last night and there is additional investigation.

i don't have them. >> last evening senator moran was in contact with the u.s. department of defense officials regarding your question but also ntsb leadership, ceo of american airlines and u.s. department of transportation leadership as well. >> dana: we're listening to an update from city leaders and a representative from senator moran's office from wichita, kansas about this horrific downing of the airliner, horrific accident. the mayor led that press conference and continues to provide updates as they have them. there is a city wide prayer service at city hall at noon today in wichita, kansas she said all are welcome and no doubt will have a big turnout there today. bill, you are at the board. >> bill: trying to piece this together. we'll take our viewers back to the flight pattern from last night. american airlines 5342 out of wichita, kansas. the distance is 1100 miles.

flying time 2:4five. let's come to dca, reagan national here. point out a few things on the map right here. this is fort belvoir where the helicopter was based. it hasn't been told yet but we believe that's where it was headed from the north. the white house is located roughly three miles north of the airport. all this waterway is the potomac. clear this off and advance it one time here. so this is the runway that was the intended flight pattern for american airlines flight out of wichita. as we piece this together i will just show you this is where the blackhawk at the moment of the crash was headed. sort of a southerly pattern here. here is the american airlines making that left-hand turn that folks like lucas tomlinson and

john roberts are describing to us from the south heading for the north and making the bank toward the northwest to go ahead and land. this is runway 33. there will be a lot of talk about that in the days and weeks to come. this body of water really is -- if we can let's pan up here to the screen. this is what we believe is what remains of the fuselage of that plane where the watercraft was coming out. we saw a few others come in and out of this area. glenn youngkin said about an hour ago that all the bodies on board that plane had been recovered so as we wait more news on that we'll give you an update from over here. >> dana: let's go to chief national security correspondent jennifer griffin live at the pentagon. good morning, jennifer. >> good morning, dana. we expect to hear from defense secretary hegseth in the briefing room sometime within

the next hour. we just received a recorded statement from him, defense secretary hegseth said that this was a required annual proficiency training flight. the army pilots are required to do an annual night evaluation. the video was obtained by lucas tomlinson of fox news. family notifications have gun, we're told. we began speaking with army officials shortly after the crash at 9:00 p.m. last night when we learned that an army blackhawk helicopter was involved in the crash and three soldiers were on board. they were on a training mission. officials say there was no sign of terrorism or criminality. officials say one of the soldiers on board the military helicopter has been recovered. these were experienced army pilots, we're told. national security advisor mike waltz spoke from the white house this morning and raised an important issue suggesting one of the questions asked, were the pilots using night vision at the time of the crash?

>> this was a routine training flight. as you know, a blackhawk typically has two pilots. in this case it was i can 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. >> we have learned that there was night vision capability on board the aircraft. again, whether the pilots were using it at the time we don't know. there was nothing unusual about the flight paths of either aircraft we're told. there are designated corridors for these military helicopters in the d.c. area. the blackhawk helicopter took off from fort belvoir, virginia, where these helicopters are based 14 miles outside washington, d.c. you often see military aircraft flying in and around the pentagon carrying senior military officials or practicing for routine missions in the skies above the capitol. the army issued the following statement quote, while performing a training mission a

united states army uh-60 blackhawk helicopter from bravo company 12th battalion davison army airfield collided in midair with an american airlines flight 5342 last night and ronald reagan national airport. a standard uh-60 blackhawk. medium lift utility military helicopter manufactured. it can carry up to 15 people including two pilots, two crew chiefs and two rescue specialists. defense secretary hegseth, we expect to hear from him within the next hour and have a recorded statement that he made just moments ago. here it is. >> it was an annual proficiency training flight. we do know on our side who was involved. it was a fairly experienced crew. and it was doing the required annual night evaluation. >> i can tell you as i drove

across the potomac river this morning, dana and walked through the pentagon it was an eerie sight. not a single flight in the air. this is norm lay very busy corridor with military helicopters and commercial aircraft circling above the pentagon. the last time it was this quiet in washington, d.c. was after 9/11. >> dana: jennifer griffin, thank you so much. >> bill: republican out of tennessee, former army special ops flight surgeon with many flights aboard a blackhawk. the plane was flying at 400 feet so that was just seconds before landing and there is a question as to whether or no tea the pilots were flying in the helicopter with visual flight rules which allows a pilot in good weather conditions to use their own eyesight to fly. can you at the moment help piece together what we think we're

learning today? >> i think the most important thing to keep in mind is usually when these kinds of incidents occur, i've done aircraft investigations, the flight surgeon is part of that investigation team looking at the human factors. it is usually multiple different errors that occur that all sort of line up to allow for something like this to happen. and whether or not these guys chose to use their night vision goggles. there is a lot of lights in that area. it can sometimes make using the night vision goggles difficult. you are sort of on a threshold when you make that decision about the amount of ambient light from the ground, in the air. that's something we'll have to make a determination on. one of the things that struck me as a training flight, as a check-out ride there was probably an instructor pilot. very senior pilot in one of the sides of the cockpit and then another pilot getting checked out on their annual night flight or whatever the particular

evaluation was. so this was not some basic training pilot flight from fort rut guerre. this was experienced aviators doing their check for the year. >> can you see that? go around, maintain 3,000. can you return to base? black jack three, i need to land immediately. can you go to baltimore? >> dana: i'm sure you are familiar with these types of things. those planes land one right after the other. it is a very busy airport. >> that corridor is probably one of the most -- certainly one of the busiest but also one with a lot of radars to protect the white house and the capitol building. the ability to deconflict that airspace is probably the best in

the country, maybe in the world. understanding how they collided is still a big question. that should not have happened and, of course, we have to look into that, technology on the aircraft that was used. >> bill: speaking of your exact comment there sean duffy said something very similar about two hours ago. >> i think whether it was air traffic control, whether it was military military helicopters or american flight, everything was standard in the lead-up to the crash. those who live in the d.a. area we see military helicopters fly up and down the river as a standard path they fly. used to aircraft landing at dca and there is a procedure in place. this happens every day. something went wrong here. >> bill: something indeed went terribly wrong. it is our understanding that air

traffic control had communicated with the helicopter within 30 seconds and they said do you have the crj in sight meaning the american airlines flight? again seconds later please pass behind the crj. now, what we don't have the whether or not there was communication with the helicopter pilots themselves. that is not recorded. i didn't know that was standard operating procedure but maybe you have more insight on that for us. >> it is a different frequency. the military aircraft are on the uhf. depending on the type of aircraft. you flew on special operations aircraft. they had satellite and everything. a standard army aircraft is transmitting on the uhf. the air traffic controllers has two places to talk on whether he is deconflicting. that aircraft would have been on a different -- whether it was actually recorded, i'm sure it is recorded in the blackhawk's black box so to speak so we'll

get answers. >> dana: the american airlines ceo spoke as well. listen here. >> american eagle flight 5342 operated by psa airlines traveling from wichita, kansas to reagan national airport was involved in an accident just before 9:00 p.m. local time on final approach into reagan national. it collided with a military aircraft on an otherwise normal approach. at this time we don't know why the military aircraft came into the path of the psa aircraft. >> dana: when you said as a flight surgeon one of the things you are involved in is investigations of these types of crashes, what would be the first three questions you would want to get to? >> from my standpoint is the status of the pilots. did they have any illnesses? we would take blood samples and things like that. those things, i think, are sort

of secondary. the flights surgeon's role in it. the real question is what did atc say and when did they say it? there is technology on the air aircraft. did they function? did they not sound the alarm? the pilots -- there was an aircraft taking off just prior to the landing of the flight that was -- the collision occurred with, the wichita flight. it is very possible in the three dimensions of space or air that the blackhawk pilots got target fixation on the aircraft taking off and maybe thought okay, we're well behind that aircraft and weren't aware there was another one coming in for a landing. that is very possible. but i've dealt with crashes where target fixation for the pilot was the cause of the crash. maybe they thought they were well behind it. saw the aircraft taking off and

didn't evade and -- >> bill: it's possible. a lot is speculation right now. clarify two things. collision avoidance system. is it true at a certain altitude it is not in operation? if you are close to the ground you could pick up just about anything you would imagine there. is that the case? number two, if you are flying that helicopter at night on a clear night sky, what would you see emit from that airplane, the passenger plane. what sort of lights would you be looking for or able to see? >> of course, the aircraft has wing lights. it has nose -- i would assume coming in for a landing they have a bright nose light, spotlight on and, of course, taillights. so it's a pretty -- pretty hard to miss it. but again, think about the way a blackhawk cockpit, if it's actually ascending and the other

aircraft is descending, the view up requires the crew chief to actually stick his head out of the aircraft and look up. and so the pilots, their up visual field is limited. they are a helicopter and built for, you know, fighting wars close to the ground but looking up not so much. >> bill: on the collision avoidance system, is that ever disengaged? >> not to my knowledge, bill. you know, i was on special operations aircraft that had some capabilities that exceed what the regular army had. i do not know if there is, you know, turns itself off. >> bill: okay. >> dana: thank you so much for joining us today. we'll be in touch with you. busy day with everybody on the hill as well. we have this news just in. a massachusetts figure skating club says six members or associates were killed in that plane crash including two teenagers. we want to get back to john

roberts at reagan national where in about an hour and 27 minutes the airport is likely to be reopened. hi, john. >> we see some people who are here picking up luggage that maybe got left last night when the airport closed but they hope to resume operations by 11:00 this morning. everybody, every official is scratching their head as to how this could have possibly happened. how you could have two aircraft that routinely use this airspace be in exactly the same place at the same time. you saw as bill pointed out on the map that blackhawk helicopter came down the washington channel on the other side as the aircraft, the american airlines aircraft was coming up the potomac to take a turn on joint base boeing and landing on runway 33. lots of commercial aviation and official aviation. u.s. park police, military, the

president's helicopters, marine helicopters up in the air training all of the time. so for there to be some way that these aircraft could have been exactly in the same place kind of boggles the mind particularly when both of them were in communication with the tower. that approach from the south, everybody knows those aircraft are landing on 33 north or landing on one north. i heard mark greene say that perhaps an aircraft took off from the runway, maybe misinterpreted by the blackhawk crew that was the aircraft they were supposed to get behind. most of the takeoffs are on one and landings 33 which is a very short runway. for those experienced pilots in the blackhawk to mix that up, that would be a monumental error and one that doesn't particularly make sense. but the ntsb and military will be involved in the investigation and go on for some time. the aircraft after it was hit by

the blackhawk broke into three pieces. it is upside down now in very shallow water. there is a big silt plain that comes off the eastern side of the airport. they get pretty easy access to the aircraft. they're entangled together as you can imagine they would be after such a violent crash. unfortunately it was back in 1982 that we had the last big incident here at reagan airport, january 22nd, snowy day, air florida plane taking off to the north and had too much ice on its wings and de-icing didn't work and crashed into the 14th street bridge. dramatic pictures of passenger, slight attendants picked up out of the water to try to take them to safety. some survivors in that crash, unfortunately no survivors here. this river was completely coated in ice as recently as two days ago. the water is completely clear now. a mild current flowing down

river. we see helicopters in the air further down river looking for any possible debris that might have floated away from the site. authorities have engaged the cruise boats that take people from the wharf down to mount veer none. any bodies picked up out of the water are being transferred there. what a horrible tragedy. a very busy air suppose but so well controlled as mark green was pointing out that for something like this to happen really is a one in 10 million incident. >> dana: thank you for being there for us at reagan national airport. aviation expert jay ratliff joins us now. give us your top line assessment so far. >> dana, a lot of questions to be answered here and we'll get the answers from the ntsb, the all-star team and the reason we've had the safest jet travel

going back to the last accident in the united states 16 years ago in buffalo. there is a lot of questions that he have and you asked the traffic collision avoidance system. it does disengage at 1,000 feet. since this impact took place under 1,000 feet, the flight crew would not have had the benefit of the traffic collision avoidance system alerting them to the fact there was an aircraft in the same airspace. of course, one of the things i'm looking at is the communication that took place between air traffic control and the military aircraft as well as the american airlines flight. the timing is something that i'm very curious as the investigation moves forward as far as the first time the military aircraft was contacted by air traffic control. there seemed to be a very narrow window there between a question being asked, the answer coming back, and then evasive maneuver as far as advise command after that. it seemed to be more of an

urgent situation there. we're looking at a snapshot, not the entire thing. we are going to hopefully honor the lives of those lost by making sure we learn everything in the ntsb and we honor the lives of those lost so tragically by learning from this and doing everything humanly possible to prevent anything like this from ever happening again because to have two aircraft occupying the same airspace on a clear night, never should have happened. >> bill: a question on that. if the american airlines flight was coming in for a landing and at an altitude of 400 feet it will be on the ground within 30 seconds. >> yes. >> bill: do helicopters in that airspace. are they assigned a certain altitude at that location? >> it is my understanding and i may be off here they are limited to 200 to 300 feet as far as an altitude. of course, that corridor there, the visual corridor helicopters use constantly through there is

a pretty standard corridor that's used. so i'm anxious to see what altitude that aircraft was at. but again 500 feet and below is the the critical time for any flight crew on take-off for landing. you have an american airlines flight crew that are looking at instruments and air speed and going through everything moments before landing so the last thing that they have time to do is start glancing out the window to see if there is any air traffic in the area. you are really depending on air traffic control at this point to make sure that airspace is clean and free of anything that might prevent some sort of element of danger. so i'm not trying to point at air traffic control but it would be as nine to try to draw any conclusions because this investigation is going to go somewhere between eight and 12 months. the ntsb are all-stars and will uncover everything and provide the recommendations for future improvements to the federal

aviation administration and up to the faa to decide how many of those to implement. we'll certainly find out what happened here. >> dana: i think that is one of the confusing parts for people when you had sean duffy, the newly confirmed secretary of transportation come out yesterday and explain that it was standard, not unusual to have an airliner coming in to land at that time. not unusual to have a training flight but clearly something went wrong. that's what you are saying. let's wait, be smart about it, be wise and try to pinpoint that exact moment where something went wrong. >> we have to. any time you have an accident investigation you don't know if there was a mechanical situation that situation moments before the impact. maybe something happened that could have impaired the crew's ability to respond. you could have had a crew member with a medical episode moments before. you just don't know until the investigation is concluded as far as what is taking place.

obviously that's what the ntsb is going to do and i have the full utmost confidence that group is going to do a very thorough job and honor the lives of those so tragically lost. it shouldn't have happened. >> bill: when we were listening to the congressman from tennessee mark green describe what you would see from another aircraft at that time of night under those conditions, it is well illuminated. just to paraphrase him he said it is hard to miss. and just to match some of, well, try and draft a little bit off what jennifer griffin was reporting from the pentagon. reuters has a quote from the secretary of defense pete hegseth who said this helicopter was on an annual proficiency training flight by fairly experienced crew with night vision goggles. i don't know if you have experience with this, jay. but if you are wearing night vision goggles, how does your

environment change when you are getting that close to another aircraft at that low of an altitude? >> well, the night vision can actually enhance a lot of what's already there. keep in mind you are talking about a very densely populated area. a lot of lights, a lot of things that would compete for a pilot's attention. the ultimate responseability falls on the vfr crew to make sure they visually have ample airspace between them and any other aircraft in the area. incumbent on them to be making sure there is no other aircraft anywhere near them. in that cockpit you can see a lot of different areas from one side to the other. so the thought process here could there have been something that distracted them? could they simply not have seen it? it is possible they could have been confused and that's one of the other reasons that we rely

on air traffic control as we do because they are there to help mitigate or reduce as much as possible the human element, the human factor and error that sometimes takes place in commercial aviation accidents because when you look at that typically there is a series of things that go wrong and a component of that tends to be human error. if that's the case of what took place here what can we do to try to prevent that in the future. >> bill: want to jump in here. there is a lot we don't know. we are trying to get a piece at a time. appreciate your insight. jay ratliff. aviation expert. we'll call on you again shortly. a moment ago the brand-new secretary of defense pete hegseth on camera. the statement runs two minutes and 30 seconds. >> update this morning just got off the form with the chairman of joint chiefs. we're supporting the president's

directtive to make sure we have location for violent criminal illegals as they are deported out of the country, no one will wait on the defense department and we're working that in realtime. also wanted to give an update on the tragedy that happened last night in washington, d.c. and provide a little more information as we are actively working to investigate and understand what occurred and why. at about 8:48 last night a uh-60 assigned to the u.s. army aviation brigade in the military district of washington and a plane collided. the unit involved was bravo company 12th aviation battalion at fort boll var. we will withhold the ranks and names at this point. we do know on our side who was

involved. it was a fairly experienced crew and that was doing the required annual night evaluation. they did have night vision goggles. the 12th aviation battalion has granted a 48 hour operational pause on continuous missions as what happened is reviewed. investigative team from our aviation safety center was deployed last night and already is in washington, d.c. to investigate what's going on. we anticipate that the investigation will quickly be able to determine whether the aircraft was in the corridor at the right altitude at the time of the incident. as i mentioned next of kin notifications are ongoing. it's a tragedy, a horrible loss of life for those 64 souls on that civilian airliner and, of course, the three soldiers in that blackhawk. they are in our prayers, their families and their communities as people are notified.

i can't imagine. i know it has gone from a rescue to recovery mission. and we're with all the first responders moving actively. defense department, our thoughts and prayers go out. we're actively investigating to find out what happened and why and as we get updates, you will have them. god bless. >> dana: that was secretary of defense pete hegseth who is new on the job, he and sean duffy both with their big first event they have to manage. we want to go to mike emanuel in alexandria, virginia along the river there. good morning, mike. >> good morning. a mile south of reagan national and it is eerily quiet. the devastating news it shifted from a rescue operation to recovery mission. the newly sworn in transportation secretary saying what was happening around reagan national around 9:00 was not that unusual. >> in the d.c. area we see

military helicopters fly up and down the river as 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. >> there are many questions about how this could happen and how it can be prevented from happening again. washington, d.c.'s mayor bowser talked about the search for answers. >> the national transportation safety board becomes the lead agency in the investigation. the jurisdiction and d.c. where the crash occurred over the river is -- concludes the leadership role of the unified command as we shift to a recovery effort. >> clearly something went terribly wrong leading to this devastating loss of life. but duffy says the two aircraft

were in contact with the control tower. >> i don't want to say too much on the communication between the helicopter and the tower and the airline and the tower, but i will say this. there was communication. it was i would say standard communication so there was not a breakdown. >> we're told the plane's fuselage is in three different sections in the potomac river. daylight is helping with the recovery operation one would presume. >> dana: describe more of the recovery operation. who is involved? >> agencies from all across the area from maryland, virginia, d.c., feds. really kind of jumping in to help one another. getting into this very chilly, cold water and searching to basically help one another to come together at this difficult

time setting aside any regional rivalries. they are all in the mission together. when we see emergencies like this happen here in the potomac they all jump in to help trying to obviously save lives first. in this case the difficult job of recovery of those lost in this terrible, tragic crash last night. >> bill: we'll be seeing some of these watercraft circle the area. we saw a few people on jet skis just like zipping in and out of there so it will be a major focus throughout the day. mike emanuel working that story in d.c. >> dana: josh is a commercial airline pilot. former police captain and swat commander to give us your perspective from the commercial airline point of view here. top line thoughts, sir. >> really the question we need to ask first is what data was available to the three parties

that were involved between the am an airlines people other and army pilots and atc as well. as a pilot and aviation operators all over the country we need to be looking at the data that we have available to see if there is something we can do differently to provide a safe environment. we need to look at this with a critical eye do we need to do something different with the data available >> bill: on a typical night for a crowded airspace such as reagan national, potomac and air bases and military locations around it, from an air traffic controller's perspective how many aircraft would they be responsible for at a given time? >> really kind of comes down to

like you said the airspace. it could be several. it could be two, five, seven, anywhere north of that as well. so generally nothing more than probably seven, possibly ten. but i doubt that in a terminal area they will be responsible for that many. it is one of the most crowded airspaces in the u.s. it is likely that episcopal three tower controller is really looking at all that incoming traffic and outgoing traffic as well as transient traffic like this army blackhawk coming through the airspace as well. it can be quite a few. >> dana: it is difficult for all of us to avoid speculation because we want answers and it is hard to be patient. what would you be -- what would you expect to hear first in terms of this investigation? >> really coming out and with all the available data that we have now, really comparing that to each other for the audio data that we have from atc. as soon as we recover black

boxes from the psa or american airlines crash as well as army blackhawk. once again see exactly what data those pilots had available to them aside from just looking outside the aircraft. >> bill: josh, how much do you think they know right now? >> we know that both these aircraft were on visual flight rules. what we know now is american airlines was on the mount vernon visual one to runway 33. it was under visual flight rules as well as the army blackhawk. contrary to popular belief, even airlines fly visually as well. they use instruments, this close to the runway on a visual approach their eyes are outside the cockpit. they have to look at the runway, decent path and traffic. it may have been very difficult to see the army blackhawk with all the lights in d.c. they were approaching from the south headed north.

the blackhawk from the north headed south. even if they could see the army blackhawk all they see is lights imposed upon the lights of the city. the arm' blackhawk said they had the crj in sight. looking up, if they could see it at night all they are seeing is a few position lights. it takes a few seconds to understand how those position lights translate into the flight path of the aircraft and analyze that to see if they are on a collision course. >> dana: what might have been happening was when they say they see the aircraft in front of them, there is one that they are taking off and landing simultaneously constantly at this airport, right? >> absolutely. so there may have been some confusion which aircraft they were supposed to look at. even if they saw the correct crj, just seeing it is one

thing. understanding how your flight path and its flight path will affect each other is a completely different story. >> bill: thanks for jumping on with us. appreciate your insight. thank you very much. couple things going on. various reports the president will come out in about an hour. we'll see if that happens at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. we'll follow that. a clearer view of what we describe over the past hour, dana, on board when this plane, however, there were passengers, figure skaters, coaches and family members coming back from a development camp and the u.s. figure skating championships in wichita. that went from january 20th to january 26th. you had about two or three days of a development mental camp and participating. the kremlin is saying there were well-known husband and wife world championship figure skating pairs team that was also on board this flight.

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