pete muntean is out front live at reagan national airport in washington. and, pete, you were at that news conference today with the ntsb. they're talking about these black boxes. and i know you had a chance to ask several questions. you're a pilot yourself as well. so what did you learn? >> well. >> the big. >> thing here. >> erin, is that now the ntsb will also be reviewing the video that we have obtained exclusively so far, the best images of the worst air disaster in decades. this was a relatively news packed briefing from the national transportation safety board that they not only have recovered the black boxes from american airlines flight 5342, but also the black box of a combined function of voice recorder and a data recorder on board that u.s. army black hawk helicopter. this is really critical. it's in a lab right now, not too far away from here. all of those black boxes, they have been water damaged, waterlogged. they've been put into a vacuum of an ntsb board member, todd inman said. and they are drawing those out. and the ntsb now has high confi

but first, our aviation correspondent, pete muntean joins us with the latest on this new crash in philadelphia. pete, let's talk about the plane involved. what we know happened. >> we know, at least from the faa right now, confirming for us through an official source that this was a lear 55 business jet. to clarify, that is not the small single engine airplane that was initially reported as having gone down in this philadelphia neighborhood. this is a twin engine business jet of about ten tons of maximum weight, goes about 450mph. and the or. the faa is also confirming to us that this flight just left philadelphia northeast international airport at about 630. eastern standard time was on its way to springfield-branson national airport in missouri. that's a flight of about 1100 miles. so this plane would be fully loaded with fuel very likely, and would explain the large fireball that we have seen in these videos that keep surfacing on social media. the early data, the preliminary data from open source flight tracking site ads-b exchange, also corroborated by flightradar24, is that this flight t

thank you. >> let's go back now to cnn's pete muntean. ete, it's always remarkable to listen to audio like this in the wake of a crash. what stands out to you? what what did you hear that helps you kind of piece this together? >> let's contextualize this a little bit. this is an exchange between the tower there at toronto pearson international airport and a medevac flight. the call sign, i think, was life flight one. and they're discussing where to go flying the helicopter, which can hover or move forwards backwards at a very slow speed to try and respond to this crash. the crash response, we can tell from the early images was very good. still unclear to me why this helicopter may have been nearby. i don't know if it was based at the airport, if it was already at the airport for some particular reason, maybe they were getting fuel, who knows? but we will check into that. and they the tower gives them an instruction to say, you can go land on taxiway juliet, which i'm looking at the diagram here, right next to runway two three, which the fl

cnn's pete muntean is also here. he covers aviation for cnn, has unfortunately been on display all too much this week, and that this subject and this issue. and, pete, i know you've flown into this airport in terms of of the air traffic control audio that we have. we have that audio available to just be able to listen to what was happening as this was going down. let's take a moment and listen to that. >> medevac med service 056 contact philly departure 123.8123.8 michael holmes. >> 056. medevac. thank you. good day. >> medevac med service 056 northeast tower. contact philly 123.8. medevac. med service northeast tower. medevac. med service 056. northeast tower. you on frequency. >> approach to runway two four. what's going on down there.? >> at 755, we have a lost aircraft. we're not exactly sure what happened, so we're trying to figure it out for now. >> i mean, pete, that silence is only a few seconds. it seems to to go on. what does it tell you that air traffic control did not seem to be hearing anything from this

pete muntean is back with us now. pete, we have new images of the plane.walk us through what they tell us about the fire here. >> let's go through just the latest news that we just got this from toronto pearson international airport. departures have resumed there. the airport's been closed since this crash. about 215 eastern standard time. so now departures resumed at 5 p.m. and we know that the airport says it's supporting the families of passengers at arrivals. all 76 passengers and four crew from delta 4819, according to this new statement and a post on x from toronto pearson international airport are okay and accounted for, although we know that some are in critical condition. these new images really show the incredible response here by the airport rescue and firefighting crews and the crash truck that came to the scene nearly right away. it looks like incredible response by them. hats off to them. the right wing missing and you can see what looks to be some singe marks there from the right wing missing. that's where the fuel is stored. so naturally th

cnn's pete muntean is with me now. pete, give me some sense of of the firings. do we know who and sort of more about what their roles were going to be and how this might affect aviation? >> well, sara, this is. >> really. >> uncharted territory for an air travel system that's stressed to the max right now. remember, the faa's air traffic control equipment is aging, and the system that delivers. mandatory pilot safety alerts failed just days after that crash that killed. 67 people over the potomac river. hasn't even been three weeks since that crash. and elon musk doge has had its eye on the faa ever since. now the concern is when these federal workers return from the long weekend tomorrow, they could be barred from faa facilities. now, these are the workers impacted or members of the union called pass. that's the professional aviation safety specialist, part of the afl-cio. and union president dave sparrow tells me. between 2 and 300 faa workers started receiving firing notices from the trump administration starting late on friday. these are the workers who help

pete muntean, thank you so much. we know that you're following this as you have for hours now. i do want to go to pete kuckhoff. he was a passenger on that plane. he shot this dramatic video as he and other passengers were being evacuated from the plane. this video right here that you've been seeing. and he's with us now on the phone. pete, first off, just tell us when you first realized that something was the matter here. >> um, we didn't really know anything was the matter. or at least i didn't until, like, the second we hit the ground. um, there was no, like, real indication of anything. and then, yeah, we hit the ground and we were sideways, and then we were upside down, hanging like bats. >> was it a hard landing? >> uh, yeah, it was pretty hard. >> and so you turned over very quickly and said you were hanging upside down. tell us a little bit about that and what that process was like, how quickly you were able to free yourself and how difficult that was. >> um, yeah. so it all happened pretty, pretty fast. and we we stopped. the plane was upside down, obviously, and i was

let's bring in our cnn aviation correspondent, pete muntean. pete, this looks, uh, pretty, pretty horrific from this side of things. >> pretty stunning. >> images here. >> brianna from. >> toronto pearson international airport. >> it looks like this. >> crash involved. >> a delta flight operated by regional airline endeavor air. delta 4819. according to the flight tracking data from flightaware and flightradar24 uh left minneapolis around 1134 central time. a little bit late, uh, arrived in toronto. pearson. 12:13 p.m. eastern standard time. so a little more than an hour ago, uh, the weather at toronto pearson is a bit challenging. and right now, according to the notice to pilots, all of the runways at toronto, pearson, lester b pearson international airport are closed because of this incident. uh, let's just check the weather here really quick on foreflight from 25 minutes ago. winds out of the west at 27 knots, gusting to 35 knots. you can see the blowing snow there. so a pretty big challenge for pilots landing looks like to the southwest. acc

cnn's pete muntean is with us now. pete, what's the purpose of this visit? >> well, pam, the latest development here is that now, engineers working for elon musk will be visiting the faa air traffic control command center in warrenton, virginia today. that, plus these firings are truly uncharted territory for the faa, which oversees an air travel system that's stressed to the max right now. remember, the faa's air traffic control equipment is aging, and the system that delivers mandatory pilot safety alerts failed just days after the crash that killed 67 people over d.c. hasn't even been three weeks since that crash, and doge has had its eye on the faa ever since. now, the concern is when these federal workers return from the long weekend tomorrow, they could be barred from faa facilities. the workers impacted here are members of a union called pass, that is the professional aviation safety specialists union, part of the afl-cio. union president dave sparrow tells me between 2 and 300 faa workers started receiving firing notices from the trump administration

cnn aviation correspondent pete muntean is standing by at ntsb headquarters. ete, what are we expecting here from this update? >> brianna, this is. >> the. >> first ntsb briefing that's being held since the week of this crash. and this is. >> going to be pretty. significant because. >> not only will. >> we get new details. >> from the black box recorders on board. >> american airlines. >> flight 5342, but. also significant new details from the black box recorder of combined function onboard that u.s. army black hawk helicopter. those details from the helicopter have been delayed not only because the ntsb tells me they had to wait until pulling out the wreckage from the potomac river, but also they needed to manually line up the time stamps from that data recorder with the time stamps on the data recorder from american 5342. so we are going to get some headlines for the first time from the black box flight data recorder. and that is key because we know from the early data that this collision occurred at 325ft plus or -25ft. that's from the data on board. america

cnn's pete muntean is a pilot and flight instructor who covers all things aviation for cnn and leads us off tonight. pete, what do you know about this plan to upgrade this technology? but also how elon's past with the faa, which is very publicly available to to see how that could maybe come into play here. >> some really. >> big questions. >> tonight about what doge. >> could. >> do to the faa. >> because the. imprimatur of doge. >> has really. >> been cut. >> cut, cut. >> and any. >> air traffic. >> controller in the. >> faa system. >> will tell you that's exactly. >> what they do not need. >> right now. >> because. >> there's a nationwide. >> shortage of air traffic controllers. >> the infrastructure. >> at the faa is. >> aging. >> and a lot of controllers. >> are working mandatory. >> overtime, six. >> day weeks. >> of ten hour shifts. >> this was all. >> really kicked off today. >> when transportation. secretary sean. duffy tweeted that. >> doge was. >> going to plug in. >> to the. faa and make some. upgrades to the aviation system, and then it was followed up with this tweet. >>

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here to break it down for us, cnn aviation correspondent pete muntean. and pete, as you watch these videos, i wonder what sticks out to you. they're so revealing. >> and it will be so key to investigators. you know, this is the video that was taken from one of the airplanes that was holding short of runway two three here at toronto pearson international airport. and you can see what looks like what would be called a stable approach coming down at a very steady rate of altitude. and then a big hit to the right, main landing gear. the right wing shears away and the plane rolls over 180 degrees onto its back. let's look frame by frame here. you can see here that the plane remains at mostly a steady attitude, meaning reference to the horizon. but what we don't really see is any sort of big change in the attitude. typically at about this altitude, maybe about 30ft above the ground, is when you start a round out and a flare. so bringing the nose of the airplane up and sort of changing the attitude of the airplane. so it's not like this. it's maybe a bit more of

cnn aviation correspondent pete muntean is back with me. pete, what are your takeaways from what we did hear. >> that so much went right here. you know, it wasn't all that long ago that we were talking about 67 people dead in the potomac river and the most severe injuries that were laid out by the first responders here were back sprains, anxiety, nausea and vomiting. a very different tale. and we could so easily be telling a much worse tale. what is interesting to me now is also just the textbook response that is described here by the first responders and toronto pearson ceo, deborah flint that they have trained for this over and over again, not only by the aircraft rescue and firefighting crews that responded within minutes, although we don't have an exact time, but they were there pretty much nearly right away, but also by the cabin crew. the two flight attendants on board this plane who got these 76 people. this is a full regional jet out very quickly, not only using one of the exits. that's typically used as a means to service the galley

cnn's pete muntean is here. pete, where are we in this investigation?t's start with the good news first. >> and this is the latest from delta airlines, that. >> of. >> the 21 people. >> who were injured in this crash, 20 of them have. >> been now released from. >> the hospital, leaving only one person. >> still in the hospital. the video. from inside that flight really gives you. >> a better. >> idea of the injuries that were detailed by first responders yesterday. we're talking about sprains. back injuries. they said they treated people for anxiety. not all that big of a deal, though. when you consider how bad this crash could have been. people often get injured in an incident like this when they're hanging from their seatbelts and they unbuckle their seatbelt and gravity takes over, putting them on the roof of the plane, which is now the floor. the big thing now is how this crash happened, and the questions will be answered in large part by the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, which are now in a lab being used by canada's transport

cnn's pete muntean joins us now. and, pete, are we getting any more details on that closed door briefing? >> this was. >> pretty significant. >> i was. >> standing right outside this closed. >> door briefing to. >> the senate. commerce committee, which essentially. >> functions as the board of directors for the federal. >> aviation administration. we got some new pieces of information also. >> on this investigation. >> first, that the army blackhawk helicopter was not broadcasting what is called automatic dependent surveillance broadcast ads-b. it's a special piece of equipment that gives more granular position data than what's on radar. still too soon to say if it would have been a factor here, but i want you to listen now to senator ted cruz. he is the chair of that committee. >> listen. >> in this instance. >> this was a training mission, so there was no compelling national security reason for ads-b to be turned off so a lot of new questions here. >> investigators briefed senators for about two hours today. a close

cnn aviation correspondent pete muntean joins us now. pete, what are you hearing about what happened? >> well, this is the. >> second major crash in as many weeks involving an aging learjet. >> the first in philadelphia only. >> 11 days ago. and that mexican medical transport flight crashed into a neighborhood shortly after takeoff. >> now, this. >> crash involving a lear. >> 35. >> built in 1989, that. vintage of jet. >> can be. picked up on. >> the. used market for about. >> $1 million, but they cost a lot to maintain over. >> time. >> which once again raises some questions about the longevity of an aging fleet. >> of these private jets. >> this flight was arriving. >> from austin, texas. >> on scottsdale airport's runway two. >> one city. >> spokesperson says the left landing gear. >> failed on. >> touchdown, and the flight tracking data confirms that. >> the plane veered out. >> of control. left off the runway. and then slammed into a. parked gulfstream jet. remember, no commercial service at this airport, but it's still very busy and

let's get right to cnn's pete muntean at ntsb headquarters. pete, tell us more. >> major new details here. jake, from this very revealing briefing from the national transportation safety board, the first time it has held a briefing since the week of that january 29th mid-air collision, also, the first time we have gotten a readout of the details from the flight data and voice recorder, the black box on board that blackhawk helicopter, the key new findings here from the ntsb. it now believes that the crew of that black hawk helicopter was wearing night vision goggles, which is key because that may have actually limited their view in the moments leading up to this crash. also, the ntsb is still trying to account for a discrepancy captured by the voice recorder when it comes to altitude. the pilot on board that helicopter said the altitude was 300ft. at the same time, the voice recorder captured the instructor pilot sitting next to her, saying the altitude was at 400ft. one thing is clear here. according to the ntsb, the radio altimeter on board t

cnn aviation correspondent pete muntean is live for us at ntsb headquarters, where the briefing just wrapped. pete, what did you learn? major new detail after major new detail here, boris. and a really new narrative from national transportation safety board. >> jennifer homendy who gave. >> this first briefing since the week. >> of that january 29th mid-air collision. >> and for the first. >> time. >> we are getting details from the combined voice and data recorder on board that u.s. army black hawk helicopter. pretty big headlines here from that recorder. the biggest thing is that the altimeter, the radar altimeter on board that helicopter showed the helicopter at 278ft at the time of that crash. but now investigators are looking into whether the crew on board that helicopter was actually referencing the radar altimeter, which uses a radio beam, bounces it off the ground and back to the helicopter to give the altitude above ground level. or if they were looking at their barometric altimeter, the standard altimeter that pilots use to determine their altitude above sea level. this is a

more on the recovery efforts and where the investigation stands now, i want to bring back cnn's pete muntean. pete, you just interviewed ntsb chair jennifer homendy, who's investigating, obviously. what happened? what more do we know about what happened? well, the. >> salvage and recovery. >> effort will be. >> key to the ntsb investigation. we just heard from salvage and recovery crews, and they made two major finds. >> today using. >> the floating crane equipment behind me. not only a fully intact jet. engine from american airlines flight 5342, but they also recovered a large, jagged piece of fuselage. we know that those parts will go from here to a hangar on reagan national airport, where investigators will essentially begin laying those parts out to essentially try and find blind spots to the pilots of american flight 5342 and the pilots of the black hawk helicopter. we did not get a briefing from the ntsb today, although i did speak exclusively with ntsb chair jennifer homendy, and she tells me investigators right now are not only going through the flight data recorder. data from americ

let's get right to cnn's pete muntean, who's outside reagan national airport. there's been a lot of questions and speculation about high, how high that black hawk was. the limit is supposed to be 200ft, i believe. tell us more. tell us what the ntsb has concluded well, here is the big. >> new headline, jake. the national transportation safety board was able to get new radar data, which shows what was on the radar displays in the control tower here at reagan national airport. and the ntsb now says that black hawk helicopter was at 300ft, according to the radar displays in the tower. remember, that is above the 200 foot altitude restriction for the helicopter route that goes through the airspace just off the final approach paths here at reagan national airport. not a smoking gun, but another key piece of data as this investigation is in its infancy. the salvage operation is moving along here at a good clip. the floating crane still in the potomac river behind me today. they were able to recover a large portion of the tail section of american airlines flight 5342.

let's bring in cnn's pete muntean pete. tell us more. what does this thing in the black hawk helicopter senator cruz was referring to do? and how could it have been having been turned off contributed to the crash? ads-b stands. >> for automatic dependent. >> surveillance broadcast. it was something. >> that was. >> mandated in 2020, although not. mandated for military aircraft. >> it's a little. >> bit more of. >> a granular readout. >> than what is typically captured. >> by radar. >> and it can provide. >> some traffic and. >> collision avoidance measures. for airplanes in the cockpit. >> cruz revealing. >> this is pretty significant, although he did caveat this by saying this investigation is. so early, it's in its infancy right now. >> we may or may not. >> know if it's a fact, or of course, it's something the ntsb will want to look at. this briefing by ntsb and faa to the senate commerce committee was huge because they are essentially the board of directors for the faa. and so they could mandate some pretty sweeping changes here, alt

first, though, cnn aviation correspondent pete muntean, who has done phenomenal work all day long. keeping us updated on this. what's the latest you're learning about what caused the crash, pete? well, the cause here is. >> still under investigation, john. and, of course, investigators want to look at the airplane, the pilots and the environment. the airplane. probably not a big question here because it flew several times throughout the day. but the most abnormal thing here is the environment and especially the wind. at the time of this crash, 27 knots gusting to 35 knots, about 40mph at a 40 degree angle to the runway that this plane was landing on, which could have posed some pretty interesting challenges here. it's not totally clear what caused this plane to roll onto its back, because the flight data shows the plane coming in on a relatively stable approach. nothing out of the ordinary there. but now investigators will want to know if the wind played a factor and it did in previous crashes like the crash of continental 1404 back in 2008 that was on takeoff, but a similar outcome

cnn aviation correspondent pete muntean is joining us now. he's got the latest. pete, we just learned that we're going to get an update from officials in about, what, 30 minutes or so? what do we know >> add toronto pearson folks coming out through the r1 door just behind the pilots bulkhead? >> at the back side of the cockpit and the front of the first class cabin, and then the mid-wing exit, where they were able to get out and essentially walk away from this crash. want to show you this incredible new video taken from the evacuation inside the plane that was inverted the floor now the ceiling, the. bins, the overhead bins now on the floor. and i want you to watch this. now, this is actually the first time i'm seeing it to watch. >> everything. drop it. come on. don't take your video phone away. go, go! >> the the instructions there from the flight attendant. drop it, drop everything. drop it. that is critical. especially in a evacuation like this. you want to leave everything behind and not hamper your way out of the airplane. especially because we saw scenes of

cnn aviation correspondent pete muntean has the latest on the investigation from nearby reagan national airport. tell us what you're learning, pete. >> it is slow, arduous work. brianna. and the crews, the salvage crews have been out there on the floating crane off in the distance in the potomac river today. today, they recovered a very large section of fuselage from american airlines flight 5342. you can clearly see the passenger cabin windows, a reminder of the human toll of this crash. 67 people in total dead. we know that goal today from salvage crews was to recover the cockpit of american 5342. and that will hold some really key clues, especially as they take those pieces to a hangar here at reagan national airport. and the ntsb essentially begins lining up those parts to see if the structure of the plane and the helicopter itself may have contributed to this crash and may have built in a few blind spots. here. we were expecting a bit of an update from the ntsb about what is in the data and voice recorder of combined function onboard the black hawk helicopter. now that is still a m

pete muntean. thanks so much. i'm phil mattingly in the situation room. thank you very much for watching. erin burnett outfront starts right now. >> outfront next, the breaking news. >> cease your purge. >> democrats going. to war with elon musk as he is trying to dismantle the federal government. tonight. exclusive new details on the young men. >> musk has. >> reportedly recruited. >> to help him. plus, trump backing. down twice in a day, now. putting a hold on his tariffs on mexico and canada. so what changed? were these always empty threats or not. >> and embracing dei? >> the ceo. >> of a popular cosmetics company is going to come out. >> put his face. >> to it to talk about why he believes in diversity. why he is not caving to trump like so many other companies have. let's go out front. and good evening. i'm erin burnett on this monday out front tonight the breaking news musk dismantling the government. exclusive breaking details out front tonight about the young men elon musk is sending in as his lieutenants. the editor at wired, who broke the detai

. >> cnn aviation correspondent pete muntean starts us off. and, pete, what are the latest the officials are saying about what happened here? >> they're saying so much over and over again that this could have been so much worse. remember, it was not even three weeks ago that we were talking about the mid-air collision over the potomac river in washington, dc, where all 67 lives were lost. now, in this case, delta airlines flight 4819, all 80 on board, okay, mostly with minor injuries. according to the airport ceo. and hats off to the fire crews, the pilots, the flight attendants, even the passengers for evacuating this plane very quickly. you can see in some of the videos that they used the overhead bins essentially as the walkway that became the floor as they tried to get out of this plane, through some of the overwing exits that were turned into essentially underwing exits. if the right wing was still there, that completely sheared off along with the tail of this airplane. the big questions now, how did this airplane end up on its back? becau

cnn's pete muntean is here now with more on these new developments. what's the goal of this visit? >> well, you know, doge has really had its eyes set on the faa since the crash over the potomac. but the faa has long been considered off limits for government efficiency cuts. but now this really takes it to a whole new level. the new development is now engineers working for elon musk are visiting the federal aviation administration's air traffic control command center. that's a facility in warrenton, virginia that essentially coordinates every flight in the airspace system nationwide. we know this from transportation secretary sean duffy, who announced this visit by musk's team. he posted on x that president trump is ordering a new air traffic control system and called for help not just from private industry, but any high tech american developer in overhauling the faa. meaning also private citizens. duffy said that musk's team will get a firsthand look of the current system, learn what air traffic controllers like and dislike about their current tools, and envision how we can make a

thanks. >> our thanks to pete muntean. still coming up after the break on cnn this morning, a multi-million dollar ad campaign featuring homeland security secretary kristi noem is the latest project by the trump administration to try and deter undocumented immigration into the united states. more on that coming up in our morning roundup. plus, the southeast u.s. is already dealing with the aftermath of flooding. now they're bracing for frigid temperatures. >> when we look back 100 years from now, we're going to say this is where everything changed. >> we are. >> talking about the revolution. >> baby. keep your hands in the air and keep on rocking. >> i want. i want, i want. i want. want, i want. i. >> so right when i thought mom would start taking it easy with her osteoporosis. boom. we moved to this cool new place in the city. if you have postmenopausal osteoporosis and are at high risk for fracture, evenity can help you rapidly build new bone. in just 12 months. evenity is the only bone builder that also helps slow bone

cnn's pete muntean is at reagan national airport. pete, how did those recovery operations go today?phil, we just heard from salvage and recovery crews, and they made two big finds from the wreckage of american airlines flight 5342 today from the potomac river. they pulled up a nearly intact jet engine. also, they recovered a large and jagged section of fuselage. from there, the parts will go to a hangar here on the reagan national airport property, where ntsb investigators will essentially line up the parts so they can recreate the view that the pilots had in the moments before disaster. remember the helicopter route just east of here remains closed temporarily. and today american airlines said in a companywide memo that that is welcome news and that it will work with the administration and congress to make sure that aviation remains safe. i asked ntsb chair jennifer homendy an exclusive interview today whether or not that route should remain closed permanently. and this is what she told me. >> at any. >> time, the ntsb can issue an urgent safety recommendation. we don't have to wai

cnn's pete muntean is a pilot and flight instructor who covers all things aviation for cnn and leads us off tonight. pete, what do you know about this plan to upgrade this technology? but also how elon's past with the faa, which is very publicly available to to see how that could maybe come into play here. >> some really big questions tonight about what doge could do to the faa, because the imprimatur of doge has really been cut, cut, cut. and any air traffic controller in the faa system will tell you that's exactly what they do not need right now, because there's a nationwide shortage of air traffic controllers. the infrastructure at the faa is aging, and a lot of controllers are working mandatory overtime, six day weeks of ten hour shifts. this was all really kicked off today when transportation secretary sean duffy tweeted that doge was going to plug in to the faa and make some upgrades to the aviation system, and then it was followed up with this tweet by elon musk saying that he was going to make rapid safety upgrades to the faa after the notification system failed over the weeke

pete muntean appreciate it. thank you. for more on what this new video tells us and how passengers experienced it, i want to bring in cnn's tom foreman, who has been going through it frame by frame. tom, what have you learned. >> an awful lot? anderson, when this video begins, we're going to mark this as zero seconds. everything would appear to be normal to the passengers. the plane is coming in around 130, 150mph. it looks like it's about 100ft above the runway, stable and descending smoothly. in the next few seconds, though, just what pete talked about there. you do not see the nose come up as it flares to slow that descent, instead softening the impact. it slams in very hard. seven seconds after everything was fine, this plane with a maximum landing weight of 73,000 pounds comes down very hard. the right side landing gear, as pete noted, collapses. the wing is torn off as it contacts the ground. that's actually very good news, because that allows the fuel in that wing to spray away from the plane, not onto the main cabi

i want to go straight now to pete muntean. what more can you tell us about these safety concerns at the faa? >> well, brianna, the faa is overarching goal is keeping flying safe. so it was an agency considered immune to possible government efficiency cuts. but today, i was given an internal memo from the acting head of the faa. and in it, he says so-called special government employees from elon musk's spacex have been deployed to the faa to quote, engineer solutions to what he calls the agency's challenges. no doubt that they are numerous. the faa is facing a major shortage of air traffic controllers, and many of them are working mandatory six day weeks of ten hour shifts. in fact, doge employees already met with some of them this week. and we know from that memo that this doge team toured the faa command center in warrenton, virginia. also, potomac tracon, that's the air traffic control center responsible for the airspace around washington, d.c. it was that facility that handled american airlines flight 4519 just before it was

. >> cnn correspondent pete muntean knows the horror all too well. >> that's my mom, miss nancy lynn, air. >> in 2006. pete was 18 and working as an announcer at an air show where his mom, nancy lynn, was flying. she was an experienced aerobatic pilot, but crashed during that air show in front of spectators and pete. he ran to the crash and found his mom in the burning wreckage. >> the airplane was on fire. i could hear my mom screaming, but i couldn't do anything, she survived initially and i was able to speak to her in the ambulance, but she died later that night. >> nancy lynn was 56 years old when she died. >> so i really empathize with the families. it's an incredibly hard thing to be thrust into the unknown like that, having to confront the realities of a crash and how this could possibly happen. >> when we return, how safe is it to fly. >> in spite of how. >> safe aviation has become, we still have a. >> lot of work. >> to do. kobe the making of a legend saturday. >> at nine on. >> cnn. >> planning to move? >> join the 6 million families who discovered a smarter, more flexible

cnn's aviation correspondent pete muntean is with me now. pete, let's start with the dc crash.are you learning anything new about recovery efforts? >> well, the recovery will hold some really key and critical details. jake, we know now from unified command, they just sent an update saying they will have all of the major components of american airlines flight 5342 out of the potomac river tomorrow. although recovering all of the black hawk wreckage will still take some time. just moments ago, we saw a flatbed truck full of parts that were brought ashore. today, leave the shoreline. the eastern perimeter here at national airport, bound for a hangar. the secure location where ntsb investigators will essentially lay out all of the parts of wreckage and try and look and key into those forensic details. we know they've made some really critical and key discoveries. the right wing of american, 5342, also, the center section of the fuselage, a lot of the left wing and the left fuselage. also a lot of the cockpit and the traffic collision avoidance system computer, which could hold some

. >> i'm pete muntean at reagan national airport. this is cnn. >> and finally, i'm still here.hat's the oscar nominated political drama. stunning audiences at home and abroad. set in 1970s brazil in the grip of a brutal u.s. backed military dictatorship. fernanda torres gives a moving portrayal of a woman fighting for justice after her husband was arrested and assassinated. it's based on the true story of political dissident rubens paiva. now, as far right nationalism sweeps the world, it serves as a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy. i spoke to torres alongside director walter salles, about the resilience and the power of her character under the most difficult of circumstances. >> she has five children, so she cannot sit and cry. she cannot. she is not allowed to do it. it's like it's a greek figure. it's a greek mother. she faces tragedy and the only way for her to move on and to raise those children and to save their innocence, in a way, is to just say, smile and move on. and i never worked with it. because normally, as an actor, you want to show emotions. and

. >> i'm pete muntean at reagan national airport. this is cnn. >> firings are continuing at the federal level. officials are now aiming at probationary workers, according to the u.s. office of personnel management, more than 200,000 people have worked in those roles within the government for less than a year. >> cnn's rene marsh has more on the agency's gutted by the trump administration. >> amira and victor. labor unions representing federal employees are still trying to get their hands around the full scope and scale of the trump administration's government wide firings, but so far, we know more than a thousand were fired from veterans affairs. trump's va secretary, doug collins, said it would save the agency $98 million a year. 2000 were dismissed at the energy department. nearly 1300 at the centers for disease control, 2200 at the interior department and 3400 at the forest service. and that's an agency that manages the nation's public forests and grasslands to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. now, trump has talked a lot

pete. >> muntean at reagan national airport. this is cnn. >> closed captioning brought to you by facebook.com. >> if you or a loved one have mesothelioma, we'll send you a free book to answer questions you may have. call now and we'll come to you. >> 821 4000. >> all right. we're following the latest fallout from the trump administration slashing of federal jobs among the agencies impacted is the national labor relations board. this independent federal agency protects the rights of private sector employees. it has been essentially left paralyzed due to the recent firings of gwynne wilcox, its former chair. wilcox is the first woman and the first black member of the board to serve in that role. joining me right now is cnn national correspondent rafael romo. so tell us more about what wilcox firing means. >> well. >> essentially. >> fred, it's like. >> the nlrb is like a car that ran out of gas because it's. >> still there, but it. >> cannot do much. and the board normally has five members. with the firing of board member gwynne w

cnn's pete muntean is following the investigation and the recovery efforts. >> it is the best view yet of. >> the worst. >> aviation disaster in decades. the army black hawk helicopter flying down the potomac river and directly into american airlines flight 53. 42. >> that's 67 people losing are so losing their lives right there. i mean, that's hard to watch. this isn't a video game. >> brad bowman was a company commander in the very same blackhawk unit and flew this flight path often. >> the helicopter pilot at this point should be scanning aggressively. >> the exclusive videos show no sign of evasive maneuvers and new flight tracking data suggest the blackhawk may have been above the area's maximum altitude for helicopters. >> if it's higher than 200ft, that's that's a decisive error that should not have happened. >> the chopper was flying on a special helicopter path, skirting the airport, regularly used by the military to train for missions like evacuating leaders in an emergency. >> you have the washington monument left and the jefferson on your right. and then. and then you're fl

cnn's pete muntean is live for us at reagan national airport. pete, what more are you learning from the ntsb? >> the ntsb says. >> brianna, no smoking gun. just yet with that new data. no way to. >> say for sure if there. >> is any sort of big conclusion to draw here so far just yet. but the. >> latest information. >> from the ntsb is. >> this radar. >> data that shows that that black hawk helicopter, at. >> least according to radar. >> screens here in the control tower. was being displayed. at 300ft. the altitude restriction on the special helicopter corridor that goes through the airspace here at reagan national airport is limited to 200ft. so again, one big piece of data. >> as more and more. >> pieces of data essentially are being pulled off of the bottom of the potomac river right now. in fact. >> the recovery. >> operation has really shifted modes today. the floating. >> crane and now. >> flatbed trucks are on the shoreline here on the east side of the reagan national airport property. and that is key to getting all. >> of those. >> parts t

cnn's pete muntean is tracking this one for us. he's joining us now. d, pete, what are you learning about this? >> well, kate. >> this is the second. >> fatal crash in recent. >> weeks involving an. aging learjet. >> the first in philadelphia. >> 11 days ago. and that mexican medical. transport flight crashed. >> into a neighborhood. >> shortly after takeoff. >> now, this crash. >> involving a. 36 year old lear, 35 a, those can be picked up on the used market for about $1 million, but cost a lot to maintain over time, which really raises some questions about the longevity of an aging fleet of these private jets. and maintenance records are something the ntsb always investigates, and the agency has opened a probe into this crash. the chain of events here really started as this flight was arriving from austin on scottsdale's runway two one pretty busy airport, popular for private jets. and we know, according to a statement from the city, that the left landing gear failed on touchdown. the plane apparently veered off the runway out of control and into that

cnn's pete muntean has more of the new details. major new details from this. >> very revealing briefing by the national transportation safety board, the first it has held since the week of that january 29th mid-air collision over washington, d.c. also, the first time the ntsb has detailed the data it was able to pull from the black box on board the u.s. army blackhawk helicopter. key findings from the ntsb included. they now believe that the crew of the black hawk helicopter was wearing night vision goggles, which may have actually limited their view leading up to that midair collision. also, the ntsb detailed a discrepancy captured by the cockpit voice recorder on board the helicopter, in which the crew disagreed on the altitude of the helicopter. in the moments leading up to the crash, the instructor pilot said the altitude was at 400ft, while the pilot flying said at the same time, the altitude was at 300ft. remember the limitation on the route for helicopters through the national airport airspace is 200ft. the ntsb is confident