00:00Sure, the president first expressing sympathy for the families he began his press briefing
00:06with a moment of silence.
00:08He then went on to say that his administration expected to reveal details about the cause
00:13of this crash as quickly as possible, and it's Donald Trump, so he also took some political
00:19swipes at his predecessors.
00:21Here's what we know at this point.
00:24The airplane, an American Airlines subsidiary flight, a Bombardier CRJ700, a common regional
00:32jet, was coming northbound up the Potomac River, which is right between the airport
00:38where I am and Washington, D.C.
00:40The Blackhawk helicopter is heading south along a corridor reserved for low-flying helicopters.
00:48This is a Blackhawk helicopter, as you mentioned, known colloquially as a gold top, painted
00:53gold on the top used primarily for VIP transport.
00:57The newly minted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said within the last hour or so that this
01:03was a required annual night evaluation flight flown by what he called a fairly experienced
01:09crew and that the pilots had night vision at their disposal.
01:14So there's web camera footage that shows the collision, and it appears to be a clear night.
01:20Both aircraft appear to be clearly lit, and we've already gotten some of the chatter from
01:27the air traffic control tower, where you can clearly hear the controller telling the helicopter
01:33to fly behind the plane, so it's unclear what happened that caused that collision.
01:38After the crash, both aircraft went into the Potomac River behind me.
01:43Two things to keep in mind.
01:44It's been extremely cold here.
01:45Much of this river, not far upstream from where we are, is still solid ice.
01:50That made the conditions even more difficult, and this is an extremely complex airspace
01:56that we are in.
01:57Not only do you have commercial aircraft coming and going from here at Oregon National Airport,
02:02you also have general aviation flights, and you have the helicopters going up and down
02:06the river constantly, and not only do you have that traffic, but just on the other side
02:11of the river, much of the airspace is restricted.
02:14It's the U.S. Capitol.
02:16It's the White House.
02:17Pilots generally don't go over that, so they stick to this narrow corridor along the river.
02:22Some pilots describe it as taking off and landing in a canyon.
02:27Back to you, Sally and Jamie.
02:29Tell us a little bit more about the investigation, because clearly we don't yet have clarity
02:34how this happened.
02:36Yeah, the investigation is now led by the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board.
02:44They're going to experience recreating what happened in these situations.
02:48They're going to look at communications between the air traffic control tower here at the
02:52airport and the helicopter and the airplane.
02:55They're also going to try to find the so-called black boxes, the cockpit voice recorder and
03:02the flight data recorder.
03:07Both of those presumably landed in the river.
03:10Both of them are equipped to be in environments like that, and as soon as they hit water,
03:13they release a ping, so it should not be difficult for them to find.
03:16So they'll examine that, looking at those communications between the plane, the tower
03:22and the helicopter.
03:24And of course, they'll look for any mechanical issues as well.
03:28President Trump, in his comments, saying that the military would also be involved and the
03:33FAA.
03:34Not clear whether this will be made more difficult by the fact that the leaders of these organizations,
03:40the Department of Transportation, the Pentagon, etc., have all just been in the job for a
03:45couple of days.
03:46So we'll have to see how the investigation plays out.
03:48Sally, Jamie.
03:49Thank you very much.
03:50Jim Spellman at the Regan National Airport.
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