ok, that is a press - from - ntsb, tv ntsb, that tv ntsb, that is tv ntsb, that is thef the ntsb, thattionat safety of have a busy of have a busy of months re a busy of months ahead. busy of months ahead. as sz of months ahead. as you there, the are investigations following the aircraft 77 aircraft tragedies 77 aircraft tragedies during ' ithat 7 lthat was on wednesday the week, that was'on'wednesdey was the the week, that was'on'wednesday was the matter collision with the passenger, american passenger plane and géiftihee passenger ate’he’ and ' military flirting; passenger ate’he’ and ' military black hawk the military black hawk helicopter over the skies of washington, dc. and then last night or rather on friday washington, dc. and then last night or there on friday washington, dc. and then last night or there was riday washington, dc. and then last night or there was another tv that 77 that took {that took place as 77 that took place as a tragedy that took place as a learjet, medevac learjetjust one minute into off and catastrophic onto the a catastrophic crash onto the streets phil

ntsb probably has.i think that their ntsb is going to explain what they know, and they're also going to explain how they're going to go about investigating this. there are very rigid protocols that every investigative agency in the world follows. and ntsb certainly is one of those. they're one of the premier investigative agencies. so i think that there will be some explanation of that. and then it will also probably be an ask for patience. these things take time, and it's much more important to get the right answers than to get a fast answer. >> well. >> let's start by talking about what we do know, because they did have that press conference this morning and they revealed very quickly it was a clear night. the helicopter was in a standard flight pattern. the american airlines, the american eagle flight was in a standard flight pattern. the patterns that they were in were not unusual. so when you talk about the very specific kinds of procedures, what comes next? what's the that the top of the list of t

we done, ntsb investigators will look over that.— done, ntsb investigators will look over that.look over that. we also have a fresh statement from the - look over that. we also have a fresh statement from the us l fresh statement frem the us source the army's source telling the reuters news that the three us army soldiers were on board, a black hawk helicopter that with a passenger settided with a passengerjet”"””’ ” ronald reagan need ronald reagan international airport, according .: us official 7to 7 to reuters to reuters news condition to reuters news condition of reuters news condition of anonymity. . news condition of anonymity. the vs on condition of anonymity. the person said that the on condition of anonymity. the person i the aid that the on condition of anonymity. the person �*the soldiers the on condition of anonymity. the person �*the soldiers was but that no on the senior officials were on the helicopter and officials were siding information siding initial information of course could change. which of course could change. our correspondence are headed to scene and as

specific staff member, because we are doing a joint ntsb and dod investigation, the ntsb has a black hog certified pilot on our personal staff based out of alaska. once we realize the dynamics and intricacies of a blackhawk, we have the member on scene now providing direct technical assistance to ntsb. that does not mean that the dod is not working with us but in order to maintain our independence, we have our own blackhawk certified pilot in the working group for helicopters. regarding salvage at this point, the navy supervisor of salvage is conducting salvage operations at the current time. barges are on route from virginia beach and we anticipate them to be on scene early tomorrow morning. after their arrival, they will be secured and located and then significant salvage operations will continue. they are ongoing right now. this will be the main lifting. it's being done in conjunction with the d.c. medical examiner's office in order to make sure simultaneously that any additional victims are recovered and immediately turned over to them for identification and returned to their fam

ntsb and 2012 as a senior aircraft investigator.been the investigator in charge of hundreds of aircraft investigations. he's an airline pilot with commercial privileges for land and sea certified flight instructor, multi while instructor and instrument instructor. he's a certified air plane and powerpoint mechanic print prices acutely over 8000 hours of flight time and all kinds pipers to an earlier. he served multiple positions for multiple airlines has been leading this team since the inception praise going to brief you on some details that we have and they will come back with some additional details. >> thank you. flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder in the psa aircraft were recovered on thursday in the late afternoon by the fbi dive team. cvr the fdr were provided to engineers at the ntsb vehicle recorders division immediately after recovery. both fdr and cvr oh three harris communications f82100 type both recorders are solid state memory digital recorders. both the cvr and the fdr or downloaded successfully. the fdr

the ntsb is a part of that.hroughout the region, the responders are helping in the ways that they can by trying to find their loved ones. >> yeah, it's it's hard to fathom 67 people. multiply that by their families and their circle of loved ones. and you have so many people who are out there on the water. i know they're compartmentalizing what they're doing, but this is really difficult work, and they're going to keep doing it until they're done. >> they are. and, you know, we're building support systems for them to make sure, one, that they're getting food, they're getting warm. we have peer support teams, the international association of firefighters president was here today to check in on the union folks. and their international or their regional peer support team is in place. we have a system to support, uh, our people. and i think that's really important because they're working hard. they have we had 300 responders from 21 different agencies yesterday. that doesn't happen in many places. >> no, that's. and

the ntsb confirmed to cnn that there was. and then you just heard in that press conference they have retrieved it. and the reason that this particular combination, cockpit voice and also flight data recorder is so important is because that can really if they are able to salvage it now that they have it, that can really paint an image of what may have been the final moments inside of that military helicopter. some of the other things we learned was we had known that the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder from the passenger jet had been recovered, but we got some more details about both of the basically how they are doing. both had some water issues as well, but they were soaked in alcohol. they're being tested in the lab and the ntsb board member, todd inman, who spoke, said that he has high confidence that they will be able to extract data out of both of those elements as well. jim, a few other things that i'll just note that we learned from the ntsb presser just now. air traffic controllers who were working

the ntsb's headquarters is just a mile from here. and so, we are all here because this is an all hands on deck event. we are here to assure the american people that we are going to leave no stone unturned in this investigation. we will conduct a thorough investigation of this entire tragedy looking at the facts. with that, i want to level set. when we go to the scene and we were here last night, we allow the responders to do their important safety mission, which in this case was search-and-rescue and recovery. we stand back to allow them to do their important safety mission. this for us is our first full day on the scene with our entire crew coming together. we have nearly 50 people on the scene in addition to our resources back at headquarters in their labs through the agency. with that said, we are not going to get into specific facts in this press conference. i want to level set here. we are going to get into our investigative process as we are able to confirm factual information, we will provide that. i do want to say this is a w

ntsb has reviewed this. >> faa internal. report that has been cited by. >> the new york times. >> indicating that the controller that was on duty at the time of the crash was doing a job that's usually done by two people. >> we have not reviewed any specific reports about the controllers at this time, at least from the leadership team. our investigators are continuing to pull all that information. their personnel records, their files, where they were at, whether they were fatigued. all that information will be part of that investigative process. but right now, we can't speculate on anything that may have been reported in the media until we get the opportunity to validate and understand how it impacts the investigation, we're going to take just a few more questions. sir. >> yes. >> lauren cohan. >> uyghur magazine. what's the process and logistics like of bringing the families in? >> are they. >> coming into the airport. >> and how. >> are you going to. >> sort of the sensitivity of the. sensitivity of bringing to the place w

getting briefings from the ntsb.hey will likely have a news conference later on today and of course we'll be watching out for that. back to you. >> bill: in addition to the ntsb you have a military investigation underway into the cause of the collision and the movements of the army blackhawk helicopter involved. senior national correspondent rich edson is live at the pentagon on that story today. >> the pentagon says investigators are focused on the altitude of the aircraft. with the investigation ongoing president trump posted the blackhawk helicopter was flying too high by a lot. it was far above the 200-foot limit. that's not really too complicated to understand, is it? secretary of defense said pentagon is still looking into all this. >> we're looking at altitude. the president was clear about that. someone was at the wrong altitude. investigation will help us understand that. was the blackhawk too high? was it on course? right now we don't quite know. >> defense secretary pete hegseth said while there is a pause

it is safely at the ntsb headquarters. it will begin an evaluation as the other two recorders did last night to determine when and how to take action. i can tell you from a visual inspection, we saw no exterior damage that would indicate that it was compromised at this time. we have a high level of confidence that we will be able to have a full extraction from that as well. those are some of the significant updates we have right now. obviously we will be doing some more. and the essence of time and making sure that our team gets back, we will be able to take four or five questions. i will call on you and i will repeat it. your name and outlook, please -- outlet, please. >> [indiscernible] captain sully was hailed a hero [indiscernible] in the hudson. -- safe and separate from military? >> the question for those watching, as that time out to the conflict or change some of the airspace where military aircraft operate with commercial aircraft? i can't give you a definitive answer on that. what i can say is, in this incident,

it is one of the reasons the ntsb is known as the gold standard. take the time that is necessary. i would like to reiterate, if we find something that is a significant issue that warrants immediate action, we will not hesitate to make those recommendations and make them public. we have a good track record on that. we will continue doing so. >> does it hurt your investigative process that your -- the president suggested possible causes as you to begin this investigation? cox, with all due respect, i think the press also likes to state what probable cause is before we get to the probable cause. so what i'm going to say is you need to give us time. you need to give -- it is not that we don't have information. we do have information. we have data. we have substantial amounts of information. we need to verify information. we need to take our time to make sure it is accurate. that is best for you. that is important for the families. that is important for legislators who are seeking answers to try to figure out what they are going to do about this. it wil

i want to bring in former member of the ntsb. we don't have a lot of time here, you have heard everything so far with a lot of factors including staffing the control tower, what happened with the helicopter, do you have a sense of what you think possibly may have happened? >> as you heard from the ntsb now, we can speculate that we don't know because they are just beginning the fact-finding process. clearly there are issues raised about what height the aircraft were at, or the height requirements in the limit. i have questions about notification. are these helicopter training missions, obviously they are discretionary to some extent. are the pilots notified that they will be in the same general area with helicopter pilots? commercial pilots and helicopters and what communication is it? is there electronic communications on either aircraft that should've been deployed and were not or is that something we should be looking at. those are questions i would have but we don't have any answers at this point. >> whose job is that communi

it's one of the reasons why ntsb is known as the gold standard. we will take the time necessary, but i would also like to reiterate, if we find something that is of a significant issue that warrants immediate action, we will not hesitate to make those recommendations and make them public. we have a good track record on that, and we want to continue to do so. >> tom costello with nbc news. does it hurt your investigator process may be for the chairman, does it hurt your investigator process to have a president already suggesting possible causes here as you try to keep an open mind and begin this investigation? >> tom, with all due respect, i think that the press also likes to state what probable cause is before we get to the probable cause. what i will say is that you need to give us time. you need to give -- it's not that we don't have information. we do have information, we have data, we have substantial amounts of information. we need to verify information. we need to take our time to make sure that it is accurate. that is best for you. that is

for their tremendous support of the ntsb.or our investigators and for the responders that are on scene doing important mission. i also want to thank secretary sean duffy who i was communicating with early on after we first got word of this tragedy. we have been working together throughout the day along with his team at the dot and within faa. i want to thank secretary pete hegseth also integral in working with us today. chris the acting administrator different from many members of congress on both sides of the aisle. i would sayot this is a tremends i will say once again a whole of government effort. i also want to thank a moment to thank the many, many responders that have been on scene. incredible effort. i will have a full list i will provide, we will provide tomorrow. i do look to thank them for all of their work. with that i'm going to turn it over for additional remarks. >> today is the first full day on scene. our investigative team will be on scene as long as it takes to obtain all the perishable evidence of the fact-

one thing they do, call ntsb for their go team. there are three members of ntsb, chairman and two other appointed members. they rotate instances. i don't know the current chairman, those are political appointments, that chairman will probably take responsibility for this. he or she hits a button and brings in people from all over the country, experts on air traffic control, experts on aircraft maintenance and those folks are the ntsb go team and they will align themselves in conversation this morning and american and psa, contracted carrier will have set up their go teams and will coordinate with herndon and department of transportation and faa, ntsb will then manage and control from now on on this. >> ashley: a lot to talk in there, thank you for that information. a lot of i think thises we heard we've never heard before. mike coffield. i would add, if i'm sean duffy, new transportation secretary in light of what was said about evaluating this route for problems, this is no not my area of expertise, we need to eshg valuate all rou

the ntsb will do that very carefully. with the help of the faa and the pentagon, and see if we can't figure out what went wrong here and, more importantly, what we can do to prevent the next incident or accident. >> and this new faa administrator, sean duffy, by the way, is well regarded. but he's got he's, you know, come on the job and he's he's got his hands full. you mentioned air traffic control. the president's already posted about this today. i'm always hesitant to like there's no reason for a hot take on this. we can figure it out. that said, everybody knows air traffic control workers have always been. it's a super high stress job. i always remember in the air, thinking the stuff they do is more complicated than flying the plane. in many cases, they're busier than they've ever been. they we have a demand as passengers to have more planes flying and more planes taking off. planes take off closer to each other than they ever have. the separation between planes is closer than it's ever been. and that's sort of the ma

as the ntsb and the faa. and as a matter of fact, i. >> worked on the 82. >> crash there of the air florida crash. and of course, that was. >> in the daytime. very different circumstances. >> but the board will be there bright and early in the. >> morning leading the investigation. >> but the first thing they've got to. >> do is let the recovery. >> effort take place. they'll obviously want to get the two black boxes from the airliner and. look at. >> the. >> air. >> traffic control tapes, both the audio tapes and the radar tapes. and they'll begin to look at the training of the army pilots as well as the. >> airline pilots, and they'll. >> look for any evidence that. >> there was a mechanical failure. captain, last hour talked about the collision warning system. >> they will examine to see whether or not the altitude was. such that that. >> would have given some kind of warning. but apparently. >> the and i say apparently i'm speculating that. >> the helicopter was instructed to cross behind. >> the airliner

expect to learn at the ntsb press conference tonight? >> well, jonathan, i can tell you first that we are seeing officials start to come into the room here. so we expect this news conference to begin literally at any moment now. and that question about what the black boxes can tell us really is one that so many people are asking, because we know that the data recorder and the voice recorders will hold a lot of information about what these aircraft were doing in the air. the conversations that were happening in those cockpits, and the hope is that that would reveal more details about why this terrible accident happened. we know that this is a very unique airspace around reagan national airport, where we see aircraft and helicopters using that space at the same time. again, jonathan, i'll tell you, the officials are walking up to the podium now, so i'll send it back in to you. >> all right, aaron, thank you very much. officials from the national transportation safety board are now speaking on this week's plane crash from reagan national ai

the ntsb will do that very carefully. with the help of the faa and the pentagon, and see if we can't figure out what went wrong here and, more importantly, what we can do to prevent the next incident or accident. >> and this new faa administrator, sean duffy, by the way, is well regarded. come on the job. and he's got his hands full. you mentioned air traffic control. the president's already posted about this today. i'm always hesitant to like there's no reason for a hot take on this. we can figure it out. that said, everybody knows air traffic control workers have always been. it's a super high stress job. i always remember in the air, thinking the stuff they do is more complicated than than flying the plane. in many cases, they're busier than they've ever been. they we have a demand as passengers to have more planes flying and more planes taking off. planes take off closer to each other than they ever have. the separation between planes is closer than it's ever been. and that's sort of the market saying we need more pla

the faa and the ntsb and the u.s. military will be carrying out a systematic and comprehensive investigation. >> and just a short time ago, the ntsb wrapped up a briefing. they said they are working to determine the cause of this crash and plans release another report in 30 days. >> well, 30, this. >> taking a live look outside at this gorgeous view out there. but of course, we're also seeing a lot of clouds to kyla. that's right. and course, the thought of rain is on everyone's mind because we've got some rain coming in as we head towards the weekend right now, though, certainly see those cloudy skies. notice that it is lightning up, though, there in san jose. we should see a little bit of improvement this afternoon, much like we did yesterday, but we started off a little chilly temperatures right now. low to mid 50's most places but still up in the up in the 40's in the north bay. all right. so take a look here. this is the low-pressure system that you can see. this is in the pacific northwest, essentially, right? k

i have a challenge coin when i first got to ntsb. it's gratitude and respect. they said what do you want to put on the back? invest on the front door of our training center where the twa was for many years. from tragedy we draw knowledge to improve the safety for us all. that's what we're doing right now. we're dealing with tragedy but we need improved safety. we need 200-plus recommendations fixed. at some point all of you are going to be gone. we'll still have the recommendation open. with several hundred recommendations open. you want to do something about it? drop the recommendations of the ntsb, you'll save lives. get up and do something. i-don't want to have too meet with parents like that again. it's not fair. it could be your family. sorry, i didn't mean to take it out on up. it's just hard, sorry. yeah. >> i have two and i just want to follow up because i want to make sure i understand the elevation question correctly. the flight data roared on the t.r.j. was showing 325 plus or minus 325. that's correct, right? mr. inman: the question is, and i apolog

>> well, ntsb, the current ntsb has to do what they do really well, and that's just focus on the facts and the evidence and not get distracted by the political noise. so i want to help them with that. it's unfortunate what the current president said, and i already expressed my opinion about that, but i have every confidence that if they left to do that, left to do their job, they will find out what happened and it will be corrected. >> all right, congressman, we want to thank you for your time. i know you're very busy, a very difficult last 24 hours. thank you very much. >> my pleasure. thank you. >> all right. up next, here on the floor, we will continue our discussion on the search for answers following that deadly collision near washington, d.c. we'll talk live up next with a veteran pilot and scientist who studies these kinds of accidents to get her perspective on what could have gone wrong. deadliest u.s. air disaster in nearly 24 years. >> this afternoon, a team from the national transportation safety board is on the ground near washington, d.c. as they begin what will be a compl

he is a former ntsb board member and former airline mechanic. john, i really enjoyed our conversation last hour, and i want to build on that by asking you about the steps forward as we now look forward to daybreak, which will happen in the next couple few hours. walk me through the first steps for, say, an agency like the ntsb in coordination with the faa. >> well, as it was reported a few minutes ago, the ntsb actually has one person on the scene. they when possible, they dispatched somebody nearby to help secure the scene, talk with local police to put a fence around it, essentially to keep people out and not to trample on any physical evidence. and by morning time they will have a full team there and they will start the poss the collection of physical evidence. right. which that means is they're going to walk around and they're going to identify the location of all the debris pieces, because it may be important to the investigation. a simple way of saying it is pieces that fall off an airplane 1st may tell you a story about what was going on

and that's what the ntsb's job is. an independent investigator of incidents like this and we were in dialogue with them earlier today. they've been here since they got the alert and they will be doing the work and playing lead in answering the many questions we have. 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. >> following up on the senator, i think 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 of those who have lost folks. in the most partisan place, also, i'm really thankful that democrats and republicans, people from all over, have come together to try to make sure that people are served. as a 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 transitio

we know ntsb is looking into the staffing levels.crash. >> we will go back and look at their past probably 72 hours. they did two or three weeks look at the tr their training, their, everything. what they probably ate that day. there's not one point it tells us everything. it's layered into a lot of other information is very critical. >> ntsb is not responding to president trump's comments dei hiring of air traffic controllers during the biden administration played a role in the crash. >> when you look at the weight they ran things in fact if you look, one of the first things i told them to do is get talented people in those beautiful towers overlooking runways you better get them in their fast we don't have people that are qualified. >> this disaster is bringing renewed attention to an ongoing class action lawsuit against the faa. is been fighting it since 2015 when it was filed in that lawsuit at white air traffic control applicant he and potentially thousands of others were discriminated against because of their race after the oba

he is a former ntsb board member and former airline mechanic. john, i really enjoyed our conversation last hour, and i want to build on that by asking you about the steps forward as we now look forward to daybreak, which will happen in the next couple few hours. walk me through the first steps for, say, an agency like the ntsb in coordination with the faa. >> well, as it was reported a few minutes ago, the ntsb actually has one person on the scene. they when possible, they dispatched somebody nearby to help secure the scene, talk with local police to put a fence around it, essentially to keep people out and not to trample on any physical evidence. and by morning time, they will have a full team there and they will start the collection of physical evidence. right. which that means is they're going to walk around and they're going to identify the location of all the debris pieces, because it may be important to the investigation. a simple way of saying it is pieces that fall off an airplane 1st may tell you a story about what was going on in the a

so listen to what the ntsb says. and if they say that is not enough staffing or that's not enough flow, then fix the problem. >> all right, sandra maria cantwell, thank you very much for your time. >> thank you. >> two young ice skaters and their coach, a harvard trained civil rights attorney. just some of the 67 victims from the midair collision. we'll bring you their stories up next. >> this part changed my life. >> superman is now nominated for a bafta award for best documentary. >> chris wanted to change the world. >> people are literally walking because of him. >> superman. the christopher reeve story sunday at eight on cnn. >> ontario, canada. your third largest trading partner and number one export destination for 17 states. our economic partnership keeps millions of americans working. we're here right by your side. >> dexcom g7 sends your glucose numbers to your phone and watch, so you can always see where you're heading without fingersticks. dexcom g7 is the most accurate cgm, so you can manage your diabetes

an update from the ntsb late tonight. preliminary flight recorder data suggesting the helicopter was flying too high we're covering both stories for you tonight. and we begin with emilie ikeda in philadelphia. >> reporter: tonight investigators on the ground of a deadly plane crash in north east philadelphia that led to this massive fireball and shower of embers. >> oh, my god. >> reporter: you can see the plane plunging straight down before the explosion sent people running. >> it sound like it was getting closer and then it just like -- and i had to get low a little bit, and it hit the street right in front of me. >> reporter: andre gary had been walking in the area and captured the hell scape that ensued shortly after 6:00 p.m. on friday. scattered embers burn aing through homes and cars. officials say the six people onboard the medical transport plane died including two crew members, two medical professionals, and a mother and daughter all from mexico. the family confirming jose juarez was the copilot. one person on t

the ntsb will be commencing recovery of the wreckage of the aircraft.looking to gather evidence from sources. they will be putting all of that together. anchor: in terms of the specifics of this case, obviously there was a midair collision. does that make it more difficult? >> obviously they will have to recover the wreckage and locate the black boxes under this freezing cold water. the river has some flow to it as well. those operations will be pretty tricky. anchor: when you have the u.s. military running their own investigation, will that complicate matters. >> the lead investigation will be conducted by the ntsb. it will be a joint collaboration. the ntsb will have representatives from the aircraft manufacturers, the air traffic controllers, a lot of different parties coming together. anchor: when you look at what we know, that is very little other than the videos, what might've led up to this incident happening? >> it really is one where we have to wait for the ntsb to make their preliminary findings. in terms of what is publicly available. as far

ntsb is on site. i want to thank all of the folks behind me, the secretary, the mayor, two senators for all of their support. and we're going to continue to work through the night. i do want to make an announcement. people are, you know, concerned about what's going to happen in the morning. reagan national airport will be closed until 11:00. that's when the first flights will take off. but we're going to continue to do our best and work through this situation. over the course of the night, and we hope to have more news as it develops. but for right now, it's very difficult situation out there with the cold. it's very dark, but there are numerous boats out there. there are dive teams out there. so again, we'll continue to work this situation and i'll turn it back to the mayor. thank you very much. >> thanks for that update. and i do. you've heard that in the national capital region. the district, of course, is washington, d.c. is at the center. but we are a close region. we have heard from the governo

what is the ntsb doing? and does the investigation in some ways take a second spot to making sure that the bodies are recovered? >> i think what you said, chris, is correct. i think at this point, the recovery of the bodies are going to be the primary concern. the ntsb is not going to want to fiddle around with wreckage, with human remains around there. and they want to they're very good at treating the families with respect. and so i think they're going to let the recovery effort continue. now, that's not to say that they can they might be able to do two things at once while they're doing body recovery, that you could have a couple of divers retrieving the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, as long as it doesn't interfere with the body recovery and happens concurrently with that. i think the ntsb would would allow that to happen. but in terms of massive movements of the wreckage and recovering the wreckage, that's going to happen after the bodies have been recovered. >> jeff guzzetti, than

so let me. >> ask. >> you about that. >> because the ntsb, the head of the. >> ntsb, made that pointday. >> in saying. >> basically, we're not rushing this. >> we should not. >> rush to. >> a. >> conclusion in the first. >> at that point, 24. >> hours. a good bit of what you. do is. helping people find. >> out what happened. >> to their. >> loved ones. >> and i think there's a pretty. >> easy. >> argument to. >> be made. >> for. anyone who has followed these kinds of stories that, yes. >> while families. >> want to know what. >> happened. >> first and. >> foremost. >> they want. >> the return of. >> their family member. >> they want. >> to be able to. >> have a funeral, to say goodbye. >> so talk about that and the push that. >> we saw from. >> the president, from some. >> other folks. >> to get an answer and fast. >> well, the. >> ntsb and faa in. >> my world. >> the coast guard, the. >> the investigation. >> takes months, if not years. okay. you need to. >> collect all the data. >> and they said it earlier. >> they're collecting facts. >> they're not making judgments. >> and it's i

in regard to ntsb staff. all staff are now on scene that have been requested, and i want to point out one specific staff member, because we're doing a joint ntsb and dod investigation. the ntsb actually has a black hawk certified pilot on staff, on our personal staff, based out of alaska. once we realized the dynamics and the intricacies of the black hawk, we have brought that member in and they are on scene now providing direct technical assistance to the ntsb. that does not mean that the dod is not working and helping with this, but in order to maintain our independence, we have our own black hawk certified pilot in the working group for helicopters. regarding salvage at this point. the navy supervisor of salvage is conducting salvage operations. at the current time, barges are in route from virginia beach, and we anticipate them to be on scene early tomorrow morning. after their arrival, they will be secured and located and then significant salvage operations will continue. they are ongoing right now, but

we are awaiting the ntsb newser.w moments from now, and hopefully we get more details as to how this happened. we know the when. we know who. we just don't know why yet, and we're awaiting more detail on that, john. >> john: all right, sandra. so here we are back at west pa potomac park, overlooking the potomac river, and a mile south is where the plane went down tangled together with the black hawk helicopter. and we are waiting for the ntsb to speak on the deadly midair crash as transportation secretary sean duffy begins his second day on the job and we bring in ray lahood, a former secretary of transportation under obama. thank you for being with us. >> thank you, john. >> john: similar situation to the one you had sean duffy had, several days after confirmed as secretary of transportation, colgan air 3407 went down because of icing in the hills of new york state just outside of buffalo. so what is the transportation secretary facing in terms of an investigation here, and we do know that the folks at the ntsb, the

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it is safely at the ntsb headquarters.tion just as the other two recorders did last night to determine when and how to take action. i can tell you from a visual inspection, we saw no exterior damage that would indicate that it was compromised at this time. so we have a high level of confidence that we will be able to have a full extraction from that, as well. those are some of the significant updates we have right now. obviously we will be doing some more. in the essence of time and making sure our team gets back, i think we're going to be able to take maybe four or five questions. i will call on you, and i will repeat it. so we will try to play that game a little bit please. right here. your name and outlet, please. >> reporter: [indistinct] captain sully sullivan, on the hudson, he has said we absolutely should be reviewing. [indistinct] a complex mix of traffic. is he right? is there time for permanent. [indistinct] to keep airspace safe and separate the military and civilian? >> so the question for those watching, is a

in regard to ntsb staff.r, because we're doing a joint ntsb and dod investigation. the ntsb actually has a blackhawk certified pilot on staff, on our personal staff based out of alaska. once we realized the dynamics and the intricacies of the blackhawk, we have brought that member in and they are on scene now providing direct technical assistance to the ntsb. that does not mean that the dod is not working and helping with this, but in order to maintain our independence, we have our own blackhawk certified pilot in the working group for helicopters. regarding salvage at this point, the navy supervisor of salvage is conducting salvage operations. at the current time. barges are in route from virginia beach and we anticipate them to be on scene early tomorrow morning. after their arrival, they will be secured and located, and then significant salvage operations will continue. they are ongoing right now, but this will be the main lifting. it's being done in conjunction with the dc medical examiner's office in ord

i know ntsb will have a briefing later in the day. um, but to the victims, our condolences to the first responders. our thanks. um, sorrow, thanks. >> and questions. >> so sorrow, as all have expressed to the crew, to the passengers. >> to the soldiers. >> to their families. >> to their friends, to their loved ones, to people who are. still trying to get information and unsure whether their loved ones have. >> been lost. >> we offer. >> our profound. >> condolences to them and our sorrow for this tragedy. thanks. i'll 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, 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 i started to 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

you have been on the phone with the ntsb. what are you hearing from the ntsb at the moment? >> so a lot of moving pieces. clearly lots of agencies involved in this investigation. so a lot of coordination is necessary. but their primary concern right now is that they do not in any way want to impede on the search and recovery mission. so they are being very careful before they go all in on their investigative work not to get in the way for the recovery of these bodies. we heard in that press conference, 27 bodies have already been recovered from the commercial regional jet and one from the black hawk. so clearly more work to be done as it relates to the recovery. and again, ntsb being very mindful of that. we do know that they plan on having a briefing today, but level setting expectations, we are not expecting to get this problem solved, this this mid-air collision solved. we won't have multiple answers. they will mainly be walking us through process and how they will be going about this investigation. and when ntsb arrives, their primary goals are, number one going to be go

the faa,ntsb, and the u.s. army will investigate. the ntsb will lead the investigation.hat 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 4

but in the meantime, the ntsb investigation has really ramped up. now that they have those black boxes from the commercial passenger plane, they have opened them. they begin the begun the process of reading the data on them. and we are told that they feel confident that they will be able to get data off of those black boxes. we do expect a preliminary report from the ntsb within the next 30 days. again, those black boxes are now in their possession and in their labs. they're also waiting on a crane to arrive at this crash site. the crane will help them to remove the debris from both aircraft. the debris is also going to be a critical piece of evidence to give them clues and information on the two aircraft post collision. so we're waiting for that to happen. and that probably could be another day or so before that crane crane arrives. and i know that the ntsb, they're tapping into expertise among their team members throughout the country. i was told that they've flown in. ntsb team member from alaska simply because he is a former black hawk helicopte

so the ntsb looks at man, machine, weather. i think the post dispositive piece of information we have now are the film that was a a captured. what i saw in that film, and i kind of juxtapose that with the radar data which is available now. so what do we know? we know the plane was climbing out, was in in the air about 40 seconds, had reached about 200 knots and about 1600 feet. when you pick up the film that we have of the crash sequence, it looked like all forward movement of this learjet 55 stopped. it was proceeded -- preceded momentarily as a big flash, probably an explosion. the plane nosed over almost. vertically and went down within seconds and hit in north philadelphia. so it devolves down to this: what could cause an in-air explosion like the one that was captured on the film. one of two things or both. one, this was an air ambulance. there were oxygen tanks onboard. we don't know specifically what the oxygen tanks were, although some were captured on the ground, and they looked like simply compressed air which can be

the faa and the ntsb and the u.s.e great people, and they are working tirelessly to figure out exactly what happened. we will state certain opinions however. i'm also immediately appointing an acting commissioner to the faa, a 22-year veteran of the agency, highly respected. christopher, thank you very much. appreciate it. i set high standards f those who work in our aviation system. i changed the obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary. you remember that. only the highest aptitude have to be the highest intellect and psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers. that was not so prior to getting there when i arrived in 2016. i made that change very early on because i always felt this was a job that -- and other jobs too, but this was a job that had to be superior intelligence, and we didn't really have that, and we had it, and then when i left office, and biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before. i put safety first. obama, biden and the

the ntsb will be looking at. >> and the ntsb says it expects to release a preliminary report about the cause of the collision within the next 30 days, with a more thorough report to come out at a later date. once the fact finding and investigation mission has concluded. >> mike zac sos live tonight here in studio. zach. thank you. tonight, hundreds of people came together inside the city council chambers in wichita, kansas, for a vigil for the victims. the american flight involved in that collision originated from wichita. no word yet tonight on how many people from kansas were killed in the midair collision. also tonight, the u.s. figure skating community is mourning the sudden loss of athletes and parents who are on the flight at san francisco's yerba buena ice rink. 14 ice blue balloons are on display for members of the u.s. figure skating community who died. the san jose sharks hockey team also sharing a message of grief today, saying, we offer our deepest sympathies to. u.s. figure skating and all those who have been directly impacted. one woman in san francisco says this tragedy

>> is this one of the worst fears of the ntsb? >> yes, it is. and it's actually something that i warned about before congress when i last testified on aviation safety, that this is exactly our worst fear. and here we are investigating a tragedy that we haven't seen in years. >> we asked her about not-normal staffing in the control tower when this happened. what's the ntsb response to that? >> that's not new to us. we have seen low staffing in other towers. >> this is the first deadly commercial plane disaster in the u.s. since 2009, when 49 people died during a crash landing in buffalo, new york. now families of the 67 are facing a new reality as they learn their loved ones were on these doomed flights. so many of those who died in this tragedy had so much of their lives ahead of them, a young pilot, soldiers, some of the rising stars of the figure skating world. tom llamas has their stories. >> reporter: in that stunning moment of horror, flight 5342 was only minutes away from landing when the lives of its 60 passengers and four