aviation correspondent pete muntean back with us. also, he's a pilot and has great clarity on the kind of aircraft that may have been engaged here. pete, talk to me about the variety of aircraft or if it has been isolated and determined which aircraft may have been used here. >> it seems likely this was the air force f-22 raptor used here. its a new generation of fighters with bases across the country, very likely out of langley air force base. this video to me has some very clear clues in it. what you're seeing in a couple different instances is the contrail of a jet flying by, created by the hot exhaust of the jet engine of the airplane meeting moisture in the air and then causing it to condense. so you can see from left to right there, that looks to me like a contrail of what is likely a fighter jet. and then you see it take a bit of a turn and you can see, also, just what looks to be a bit of exhaust there from the impact, and then likely some parts -- you can see a glint occasionally there, a little flash of light of what looks t

our thanks to pete muntean for that reporting. >>> moments ago, president biden arrived back in warsaw he will deliver a speech tomorrow as ukraine nears one year after the russian invasion. thanks so much for watching this presidents' day. ahead in the situation room, wolf blitzer will speak with senior white house official john kirby. -so you think yoyou can help? -i can try. hey, what you u doing? oh, just cleaning my trash cans. wow. it's important to build trust. see you put your address and phone number on here. well, you can never be too safe. with trash? progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto -when you bundle with us. -don't look at the hedges. -they're a mess. -no one's looking at the hedges. (woman 1) i just switched to verizon business unlimited. it's just right for my little business. unlimited premium data. unlimited hotspot data. (woman 2) you know it's from the most reliable 5g network in amica? (vo) when it mes to your business, not all bars are created equal. so switch to verizon business unlimited today. it's ea

pete muntean joins us now. ation, that was a pretty clear indication as to where this was heading. >> yeah. you know, the faa really sort of gave off the signals with arrows in red pointing towards exactly what was going to happen here. the shootdown that took place not far off the coast of the carolinas. you can see in the video there the contrails of the f-22 and the missile as it goes for that chinese spy balloon. the dot in the center there apparently the envelope of that balloon and we've seen in other videos. the impact of the aim 9 side winder missile into the balloon and the instrument array below it falling to the ground glimmering in the light as it floats down back to earth. there's the envelope once more. there was a huge restricted piece of air space put in place by the faa. what i think is likely the largest piece of restricted air space ever put in place by the faa. we're talking about 150 miles by 150 miles. to put this into context, that's about five times the size of the restricted air space ov

also with us is our cnn aviation expert, pete muntean.t this temporary ground stop, the level of cooperation that is now under way between the faa, you know, commercial, private aircrafts and of course the u.s. military. >> there are two things happening here. not only is there a ground stop in wilmington, north carolina, charleston, south carolina and myrtle beach, south carolina. now we're learning there is a temporary flight restriction off the coast of the carolinas, about 20,000 square miles in area. we're talking about 140 miles by 140 miles. it goes all the way up to 60,000 feet. that's pretty telling because the pentagon was telling us yesterday this unmanned chinese spy balloon was up at that altitude at 60,000 feet. we know the coastline is a safe place to shoot it down because it's far away from billings, montana, then it made its way to the st. louis area and was spotted over the carolinas earlier today. the fda says the airspace restriction and ground stop that has been put in place is not only affecting commercial flights, b

pete muntean, cnn, washington. >>> to sports now. a new all-time scoring king as lebron james breaks kareem abdul jabar's record last night. andy scholes has the bleacher report. >> good morning, christine. this is one of the biggest moments in nba history. we haven't had a new all-time leading scorer in the nba in 39 years. last night lebron needed 36 points and he got there near the end of the third quarter. >> lebron, one-on-one against williams. turns. shoots. scores! all hail the new king in town young and old gather round from one iconic laker to another! the king lebron james has passed the captain, kareem abdul jabar, and lebron now stands alone as the nba's all-time leading scorer. >> once he set the new mark, the game was stopped for about ten minutes to celebrate the achievement. the new scoring king holding back tears. lebron was joined on the court by his family, commissioner adam silver and kareem abdul jabar who nld had handed lebron the ball he used to break the record. >> to be able to be in the presence of such a le

cnn's aviation correspondent pete muntean is joining us. te, so what are you learning from this, obviously, very timely hearing, given all of the things that have been going on in terms of aviation recently? >> super timely, abby. and the fact this is happening right on the heels of this near collision on the runway at austin international airport on saturday, when two commercial airliners almost landed on top of each other. this is the issue that keeps coming up during this hearing. and what's so interesting we heard from ntsb chair jennifer h homeman, this could have been so close. yesterday, she is told me that the two planes came within 100 feet. but she just testified there's a similarity between this latest case and the incident of two weeks ago when two planes almost hit each other on jfk, an american airlines flight pulled out in front of a delta plane. the issue the chair says that the voice box times out that leaves them with key pieces to piece the pieces together. they want regulate by the faa, i want you to listen to the ntsb ch

pete muntean, cnn, washington. >>> alabama's brandon miller hits the game winner in overtime just one case. andy scholes has the "bleacher report." >> yeah, and alabama has faced a lot of criticism for allowing brandon miller to continue playing. police in tuscaloosa say a former teammate brought the gun to him on the night of a shooting -- on the shooting death of a 23-year-old woman. so they are facing capital murder charges. miller has not faced any charges and alabama announced that he would continue to be on the team. during the game fans chanted lock him up and guilty as he was playing. but it did not phase miller, he scored career-high 41 points including a basket to send the game into overtime. and in o.t., he hit the game winner as alabama wins 78-76. and here was coach after the game. >> basketball becomes a safe haven for some of these guys. they get on the floor and they can lock into what they have done their whole lives and put some of the outside stuff out of their mind. so i thought brandon did a great job really getting himself mentally prepared to play. obviously it

pete muntean is joining us, and what is the top of the list, because so much to discuss. >> well, reallyhe runway are apparently taking center stage right away, and what is so interesting is that we have already heard from the ntsb chair jennifer hamdi who tells me that those planes came within 100 feet of one another, and she is speaking at the hearing of the house transportation and infrastructure committee, and she said that what is so interesting here is that the cockpit transmit transformer data was lost in one of the plane, because the instrumentation, and the requirement right now is only for that data to last for two hours, and it records for two hour, and everyonething after t was discarded. so now they want it 24 hours. so this incident, and everything at jfk three weeks ago when two planes almost hit each other on the plane that continued to taxi, and the american airline plane that taxied is on, and that went to london, and that voice was lost. so that is something they are zeroing in. >> and you have close encounter, and you are not automatically required to save the data. >

pete muntean, thank you very much for that update. much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." "erin burnett outfront" starts "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> "outfront" next, russia tightening its grip unleashing a barrage of strikes on eastern ukraine. we are now hearing from generals on the front line as the battle is now brewing in washington over providing ukraine with f-16s. >>> plus, follow the money. fox titan rupert murdoch among others admitting that the network lied t

as cnn's pete muntean reports, that required taking some steps that have not been seen in a long timeer: the federal aviation administration has now ended its temporary flight restriction, the restricted air space that it put in place that says at the request of the department of defense, because apparently of this shoot-down of this chinese spy balloon as it wafted over the coast of the carolinas. this huge piece of restricted air space twice the size of the state of massachusetts, five times the size of the restricted air space that's been in place post-9/11 over washington, d.c. what was very telling about this when this went into place about 1:30 p.m. on the east coast on saturday was that this was up to 60,000 feet, which the pentagon says was the altitude this balloon was floating at. that's very critical, because the faa simply wanted to clear out the air space below and make it so there would not be a hazard to airliners which fly at roughly half the height of this balloon. the faa put into place a ground stop as well because of that restricted air space at three airports alon

aviation correspondent pete muntean is with us now. pete, talk to me about what we understand to be the ground stop, it has been extended even though officials, the pentagon, is confirming that there has been a takedown of this balloon. >> that's right, the ground stop extended for wilmington, north carolina, charleston, south carolina, myrtle beach, south carolina, until 5:15 eastern standard time, so another 2 1/4 hours left. the restricted air space that was put in place at the request of the department of defense, it was put in place by the federal aviation administration to essentially protect the area below this apparent shoot-down, was the size of two state of massachusetts, if that's a plural, twice the size of the state of massachusetts. the biggest area of restricted airspace in the continental u.s. so we see exactly why that was put into place here, now that we know this balloon was apparently shot down at the order of president joe biden. this is a very interesting area as well, because this is not too far away from some rea

there is a nationwide mechanic shortage leaving thousands of jobs open across the industry but pete munteananics. >> reporter: it is the newest fix for a vocation in short supply, virtual reality. >> she is replacing the tire. >> reporter: here at this non-profit, vehicles for change, the first tool training mechanics use is a pair of vr goggles, the simulated shop floor has it all from the lift to impact wrench. >> it's going to expedite the process of getting folks entry level ready to come into the garages. >> reporter: the latest industry forecast says retirements from dealerships and repair shops will raise nationwide there are 76,000 new openings for trained auto tech technicians each year but 37,000 of those go unfilled. >> we did a search the other day and in maryland for auto technicians, over 2700 technicians. >> that's a lot. >> that's a lot. >> reporter: after a little instruction, i was ready to give it a try. is my hair okay? lesson one, changing the oil. the cool thing about this is you can move around the shop but also interact with the world around you and taking the contro

pete muntean.are facing tough questions from congress. before dawn saturday, a fedex boeing 767 was about to land at austin's international airport as a southwest airlines 737 was told to take off from the same r runway. the national transportation safety board tells cnn the fedex crew aborted unprompted and started to climb averting disaster. >> fedex is on the go. >> they saved in my view 128 people from a potential catastrophe. >> reporter: the two planes came within 100 feet of colliding in thick fog. it comes three weeks after another near collision at jfk where adel delta flight abruptl stopped the takeoff as an american airlines flight taxied across the runway in front of it. >> 1943 cancel takeoff plans. >> reporter: the ntsb says in both incidents, cockpit voice recorders timed out after two hours and not 25 like the agency recommended leaving investigators without key clues. >> the ability to have accident data from cockpit audio as well as image recorders is critical. >> reporter: issues

pete muntean, pentagon, cnn, washington. >>> united states supreme court was rocked to its core lasthen someone leaked a draft copy of a court opinion overturning the landmark roe versus wade decision. now sources are telling cnn about other previously reported unsecured lapses by justices and court employees. we have the exclusive report. >> reporter: cnn has learned that long before the leak of that draft opinion, security protocols when it came to documents at the supreme court were very lax. now, that could have led to the leak or at the very least, it hindered the investigation into the league. for example, several of the justices over the years, sometimes that i would put sensitive information into personal emails. information belonged on secure servers, and the person who told me this wasn't suggesting that it meant a justice had leaked a draft copy of an opinion but at the very least it showed that the justices themselves weren't setting a good example to the chambers, to their employees about how to deal with sensitive documents. another issue concerned so-called burn bags.

let's bring in cnn senior international correspondent ivan watson in hong kong, kylie atwood and pete muntean. pilots are reporting seeing this balloon during their flights. >> it was only a matter of time before pilots started spotting this, jake. they're flying at high altitudes. what's so interesting is they're reporting this balloon only a few thousand feet above them. look at this report from the crew of a cessna citation private jet flying at 43,000 feet. they said, derelict balloon adrift at 50,000 feet, only a 7,000-foot difference. they reported that not all that long ago, near the kansas city, missouri, international airport. what's also interesting here is the pentagon says the balloon was cruising at 60,000 feet. there's a question about whether or not this balloon is descending. remember, airliners are typically at an altitude of 30,000 feet. the other big question here is whether or not this balloon will descend and have more of an impact on commercial air travel in the u.s. we have already seen that happen once before. on wednesday there was a groundstop and flights were divert

. >> aviation correspondent pete muntean here's to explain how this will work.bout this plan. >> some people want their kids next to them. and that's the big deal here. because when you travel as a family, you know, families complain about this a lot and it's a huge priority for the biden administration and now it's sort of becoming one for the airlines, you know, the issue here is that they would have to essentially plead at the gate or ticket counter to try to make it so that you can sit next to your kid essentially free of charge. what united is doing here is putting out a seat map if you book a base economy ticket you can sit next to your child under 12 no charge. all of those seat selection fees can add up. think about it if you're flying with a family, two three, four kids, really piles on, on top of the, the existing ticket price. the biden administration says the airlines tack on all of these fees, especially when it comes to baggage, seat selection, they say that you just can't treat family members like baggage. and that's almost the exact quote that pr

thank you, pete muntean. poppy, back to you. >>> something that stood out to us from the report pete gave us, how close the southwest jet and the fedex cargo plane were to colliding, less than 100 feet apart, 100 feet this is what that looks like. you see don and down the hallway our senior data reporter -- >> on the end here. >> but think about that. the distance is so short it fits in the walk from our control room to our studio about half the length of a cargo jet itself. there were 128 people onboard that southwest flight and they were that close. here they are to a collision. >> keep in mind we were walking -- imagine if you were on an airplane going a lot faster than that. it would freak me out. >> that's how close. what's the number? >> this morning's number is 100 feet. that was how close we were. i think the thing that sort of put in perspective, and pete was hinting at it, that is the second close call in the last month. it was 1,000 feet between that taxiing american flight and the taking off delta

cnn's pete muntean reports. >> reporter: the disaster in east palestine was predictable and preventable say rail safety advocates who want sweeping change to an industry they call offtrack. >> the regulatory process is completely broken. >> reporter: sarah fineberg says now is the time for shorter trains, more crew members onboard and better braking systems, proposed rules advocates say were rolled back by the trump administration or killed by lawmakers after lobbying by railroad companies. >> when they are able to push back on even common sense safety regulations because it's going to improve their bottom line, this is the kind of thing we end up with. >> it is the latest plea to fix failures in ohio by addressing them in washington. transportation secretary poout buttigieg insists his inaugural visit to east palestine on thursday will not be about politics but rather putting pressure on railroads to change. >> i've had it. i mean we've had situation after situation where even modest reasonable reform gets just a full-court press. >> reporter: in a sunday letter buttigieg called on nor

one thing that pete muntean spotted in the report is that the bearings at one point in the peak 253 degrees fahrenheit above ambiant outside temperature here, and that is remarkable. in investigating crashes and accidents like this, have you seen a condition like that? that is quite a temperature when you are carrying hazardous materials. >> well, without giving any detail, because we have done a number of reports, but, you know, the responsibility of the railroad company is to keep the train on the tracks. and the thing that does that is primarily the wheels and the brakes. i think that we are all familiar with the fact that the industry opposed the electronic brakes proposed for this type of train, and the board is going to look into this, and i have full confidence in their ability to investigate it, but what i don't have is the confidence of the federal government to regulate and congress to regulate the railroads. >> jim, one more question for you in addition to being a former ntsb chairman, you are a vietnam veteran and you are aware of agent orange, and you know about the burn pits,

. >> pete muntean has more on how one program is taking training new mechanics to a new level. >> iteality. >> she is replacing the tire. >> here at maryland nonprofit vehicles for change, the first tool training mechanics use is a pair of oculous vr goggles. the simulated shop floor has it all from the lift to the quintessential impact wrench. >> it's going to expedite the process of getting folks entry level ready to come into the garages. >> the latest industry forecast says retirements from dealerships and repair shops will rise nationwide. there are 76,000 new openings for trained auto technicians each year. but 37,000 of those jobs go unfilled. >> we did a search we did a search the other day locally 2600 technician. >> that's a lot? >> a lot. >> i was ready to give it a try. lesson one, changing the oil. the cool thing is you can interact with the world around you. moving it up and up goes the car. >> the vr as you saw almost as real you can get without having your hands on the car. >> reporter: martin came up with this idea to supplement his charity. it's also his mechanics g

pete muntean is out front. >> thank you for joining us. >> reporter: federal investigators call it the the cause of the ohio derailment disaster. in its just released preliminary report the national transportation safety board details rapid overheating in one of the train's wheel bearings spiking in temperature by up to 253 degrees. investigators say only then did the crew hear an alarm alerting them to slow and stop the train to inspect a hot axle. >> we know what derailed the train. we have a lot of questions. >> reporter: questions, says ntsb chair jennifer homendy, about what caused the wheel bearing to wheel. investigators want to know if problems were not detected early enough, infrared temperature sensors along the rails were spaced miles apart. >> had there been a detector earlier, that derailment may not have occurred. >> reporter: the ntsb says as the crew began breaking from 47 miles per hour, 38 cars derailed. on board 11 of the cars more than 115,000 gallons of hazardous vinyl chloride that fueled a fire that burned out of control. the new details come as transportation se