January 30, 2025 • 34 mins
Real questions, not gratuitous suspicious, concerning the collision
National Correspondent RORY O’NEILL joins us with the latest on the DC plane crash
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's me Michael. Your morning show can be heard
(00:01):
live five to eight am Central, six to nine Eastern
and great cities like Jackson, Mississippi, Akron, Ohio, or Columbus, Georgia.
We'd love to be a part of your morning routine
and we're grateful you're here.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now. Enjoy the podcast two.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Starting your morning off right. A new way of talk,
a new way of understanding because we're in this together.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
This is your Morning Show with Michael O'Dell Choman.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Fatalities have been confirmed, No survivors have yet to be
confirmed after a mid air plane collision near Washington. D
C Rescue QR crews have been working throughout the night.
What a massive response. Listen, I didn't make me. God
made me. And just in case you've never done word studies,
(00:51):
which I love to do it. It's a hobby of mine.
I love words. A difference between reaction and response, the
difference between sympathy and empathy. I'm a very empathetic person.
So these are moments for just in true confessions. I'm
not very good at being a talk show host or
a newsperson. This isn't a big day for me to
do news. I'm very empathetic. I'm thinking of these people.
(01:13):
I'm thinking of their family members. I'm thinking of people
that were driving to the airport to pick up a
loved one and then they were informed by the airline.
I mean, I just I'm heartbroken. All I can do
is pray. All I can encourage you to do is
to pray for these these broken hearts and for the
rescue workers, recovery workers who are still very busy this
(01:36):
morning as the sun comes up on our nation's capital.
I was watching Sean Handy last night, mainly because he
did a two part interview with Jade Vance that I
wanted to see, and then he was also having Caroline
Levitt the new Press Secretarium, and so in interest for that,
I'm watching as the news breaks, and boy did I
feel for Sean, because you've got something planned your mind.
(02:00):
Everything is on. You know, this interview you've had with
a vice president who had very powerful things to say,
and then you know you've got the Press Secretary coming on,
and all of a sudden, you know, somebody's throwing to
you reminiscent of nine to eleven if you remember, you know,
the Today Show is just going on, and then all
a sudden, we're geting reports of a commuter plane, and
(02:23):
your first notion is a collision like this, that it
was probably a small plane. And then the next thing
was a helicopter and a plane. Then you're really thinking small.
Then you start getting visuals. And the visuals were apparent,
and I got to give Sean credit. He immediately said,
look looking at the number of you know, lights and vehicles,
this is not a small plane. And then the trickle
(02:45):
of information it appears to be a commercial airliner, a
commuter jet. Then there was the early leak by way
of a congressman that there might have been sixty people
on board. Now you know this is in a private plane,
in a helicopter, and it was quite you know the response,
I mean they used responders from DC Maryland, Northern Virginia
(03:10):
immediately coming to the area. Fireboats in the water, all lined.
There were very little signs. Now everybody knows what the
air temperatures have been, and everybody knows that the Potomac
from the recent frigid weather, portions of it were frozen.
It's not a deep river, roughly what eight feet in
the area. We think the fuselage or what was left
(03:30):
of it landed and weren't talking about eight feet of water,
which you know this morning. None of these things, I
don't want any of these to be taken as suspicions.
They're just questions. But you know, I'm looking at the water.
I'm not seeing any debris, not even floating. Now, I
saw the explosion, and I saw it from far away,
(03:53):
and I saw it from close up. The earth camshot
was a little bit further away. But you can see
their beacon lights and you can see them going right
at each other. Nobody makes a move right into a
huge explosion. So the likelihood and it can happen, but
the likelihood that there were any survivors of that level
of explosion, let alone once you hit the water hypothermia
(04:14):
fifteen to thirty minutes, maybe a survivability of an hour tops.
You knew that this was search and recovery more than rescue.
About a dozen bodies have been pulled from the water.
There's no signs of any survivors. So but you know,
now the sun is up and you're looking at the shallow,
still waters of the Potomac with all the rescue fireboats
(04:38):
out there, and there's not even a sign of floating debris,
which is is odd to me. More odd is the
video and the second video that was apparently a passenger
in a car and I think they were filming this
plane that's near the entrance. They were filming something. But
(04:58):
in the upper left hand corner or you can see
the ten seconds leading up and the collision and explosion
at a much closer different angle. Now, what are the
questions this morning, because in twenty minutes we're about to
get our next DC official news conference. Thirty seconds prior
(05:22):
to the collision, the tower is calling out to the
Blackhawk helicopter, do you have the CRJ in your site?
One's descending. Just so you know, American Airlines flight five
fifty three forty two inbound to Reagan was at an
altitude of about four hundred feet. The speed was one
(05:42):
hundred and forty miles an hour. It's descending, makes no movements.
It had to be looking right at the helicopter every
second it was going towards it. There's been conversations about
blind spots and the blackrock. The blackrock was sending directly
(06:02):
towards it and there are no movements. The tower, who
can't get a response, doesn't bother to warn. You know,
if you're not getting a response from the Blackhawk, well
talk to the American Airlines flight maybe tell them to
a board and make a maneuver. Nothing so nothing from
(06:23):
the tower, I think is going to be a question.
Was the plane on some kind of autopilot because sometimes
think you can go autopilot all the way to the
surface of the runway. But there was no movement whatsoever.
The chopper goes directly up and into it, and the
plane descends directly down and into it. If you're looking
(06:48):
at it, you're wondering, was this on purpose? What level
of communication? These are all things people are going to
have questions about, not suspicions, but questions have to be responsible.
All I care about is everybody involved on board who
are no longer alive and their loved ones hurting. But
there's a lot of questions to answer on this. But
(07:11):
what we do know is it's becoming somewhat of a
figure skating story as well as there appeared to be
by the way. I've heard two reports on this too read.
I've heard one refer to it as a camp and
then one referred to it as a figure skating championship
that was taking place in Wichita, but the flight was
returning from what we believe was a US figure skating
(07:34):
competition in Wichita back to DC, and as the US
Figure Skating Association has made clear, athletes and coaches were
on the flight. Then we got from Russia and the
Task News agency that a championship couple, Russian figure skater
Yevgeniya Kishkova and Vadam Numov, were on board. Now they
(07:58):
won the world championships I think in skating in nineteen
ninety four. They have a son, Maxim, who's twenty three,
who is currently on the US figure skating team, and
there were conflicting reports as to whether or not Maxim
was on the plane as well. No mention in the
Task report, but confirmation in the Task News report that
those two were on board. So this is developing between
(08:21):
you which athletes, which coaches. Maybe we'll learn more about
that in some seventeen minutes from now when the DC
officials have their next news conference. But I think the
biggest questions are going to be why didn't I mean,
you're clearly calling out to the Blackhawk, do you have
the CRJ on your site? Getting no response you ask
over and over and then boom on explosion. And then
(08:45):
a conversation with a Delta flight that was being held
on takeoff until the return to the gate, and he
makes it clear that pilot makes it clear he saw everything.
If you would like information from us, which I'm certainly
probably got. But why aren't there any attempts at all
for the helicopter the plane to try to move and
avoid this. Why weren't there any attempts from the tower
(09:08):
to tell the plane to take evasive measures. These are
probably pretty big questions to the naked eye. And then
this morning just I mean nothing, There's just nothing floating.
There is just no debris and eight feet of water.
There were reports that the plane split in half. You
(09:33):
can when you're looking at that the faraway footage from
the earth cam, you can see the explosion. What I
couldn't tell was you can see debris go down in
two directions. I couldn't tell if one was like the
helicopter going down in one direction the plane going down
on another. Then there's the report that maybe the plane split,
but the massive explosion alone would be very difficult to
(09:58):
believe anybody could have survived, let alone the frigid waters
it landed, and so water temperature was estimated at thirty
five degrees, which would have made it a really anywhere
from a thirty to forty five minute tops, really effort
to rescue, and virtually since ten eastern last night and
(10:20):
now it's been simply recovery. And we have reports of
a dozen bodies that have been recovered, one draped in
an American flag, So the presumption would be that that
might have been one of the service personnel from the
black Hawk helicopter. So that's the latest waking up, and
it's a lot, and it's heartbreaking. And as I mentioned,
we're going to get a news conference from DC expected
in fifteen minutes from now, and maybe just maybe more
(10:43):
answers and other news. Robert F. Kennedy had a confirmation
hearing that got rough and tumble, and he's got partner
due today. President Trump had some harsh words for the
FAT after an announced interest rates would remain unchanged. Our
money was an economist David Bonsen will join us on
that next hour, and med has agreed to pay five
million dollars to settle a lawsuit with President Trump for
(11:04):
removing his account after January sixth, and then Zuckerberg was
some very glowing words about the administration as well. Just
some of the headlines were covering. But all thoughts in
prayers are with the victims and the family members of
a black Hawk helicopter three on board, an American Airlines
regional jet with sixty on board and four crew members,
(11:25):
a total of sixty four as we have tragedy in
over and then in the Potomac. Waking up this.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Morning, it's your Morning Show with Michael del Chno.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
If you were following this story as you were going
to bed and you're waking up wondering if there's what
the news is. No survivors yet announced a news conference
in seven minutes. It appears as though sixty were on
board the American Airlines flight returning from Wichitah, and I
did get clarification there was a finger skating championship, and
then after the championship, there was after it a camp
(12:00):
answer is both we know former Russian champions are on board.
We don't know if their son who's on the figure
skating team, and all we know from the US Figure
Skating Association is a group of athletes and coaches were
on that flight an audio from air traffic controllers at
Reagan National Airport describe how a regional jet collided in
midair with a military helicopter.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
The air traffic controller can be heard alarning emergency responders
that the airliner and the helicopter both ended up in
the Potomac River.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
There was probably out in the middle of the river.
Speaker 6 (12:32):
I just saw a fireball and then.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
It was just gone. She goes on to say.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
It appears the jet and the helicopter collided about a
half mile from the runway. This was a regional jet
operated by American Airlines. The flight was inbound from Wichita,
Kansas when the accident happened near the DC Area Airport.
The airlines as there were sixty passengers and four crew
members on board.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Mark Mayfield, the CEO of American Airlines, is expressing sympathy.
Speaker 7 (12:54):
We're cooperating fully with the National Transportation Safety Board in
its investigation and will continue to provide all the information
we can. Our cooperation is without pause, and we want
to learn everything we can about today's events.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
That work will take time. We did get our first glimpses. Finally,
as the sun has come up on the Potomac River,
of what appears to be a portion of the fuselage
in the Potomac River. There's not any debris now that
could have been gathered throughout the night. Very swift currents
could have carried it a little bit away from where
(13:28):
most of the fuselage is. But we are getting our
first glimpses of what's left. And then we have several
angles of cameras, one from the earthcam that captures the
collision prior to and at impact and the explosion. A
different angle has surfaced from a vehicle that was filming
something and it was up in the upper left hand corner.
(13:50):
There were no sudden movements by the helicopter on a
training mission, the black Hawk helicopter or the plane that
was descending about four hundred feet and one hundred and
forty miles an hour. As to why they didn't see
each other, No one tried to make any maneuver. Why
the tower didn't try to reach the American Airlines flight
when the helicopter pilots weren't responding to calls. These are
(14:11):
all questions that may get answers coming up in about
five minutes. What we do know a military helicopter collided
with an American Airlines passenger plane an explosion, debris falling
into the Potomac River, where workers from Washington, DC, Maryland,
and Northern Virginia all combined in search and rescue and
(14:32):
eventually recovery efforts. Fireboats still in the water, and President
Donald Trump was kept aware of the situation throughout the
night and extended his thoughts in prayers. Meanwhile, RFK Junior
got roughed up a little bit and his confirmation hearing,
but he pushed back all along the way.
Speaker 8 (14:51):
President Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and
Human Services faced tough questioning about his views on vaccines
and abortion.
Speaker 9 (14:59):
Senator I support vaccines, will I will support the childhood schedule?
Speaker 8 (15:05):
Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden went back and forth with
Kennedy over his stance on the measles vaccine. Kennedy has
received criticism from Democrats and others for his views on vaccines.
He'll be back on Capitol Hill tomorrow. I'm Brian Shook.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
For the first time, NASA scientists are describing what they
found in samples from an ancient asteroid. Tammy Trichuilo has more.
Speaker 6 (15:28):
NASA's top scientist, Nikki Fox says the asteroid named Benu
came from an ancient celestial body that had water and
other elements critical for the emergence of life.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
If all supports the theory that asteroids like Venu were among.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
The sources that delivered water and chemical building blocks for
life to.
Speaker 6 (15:46):
A scientists found fourteen out of twenty amino acids used
by Earth creatures to break down protein. The osiris brought
back more than four ounces from the surface of venue.
It's the largest sample collected since the Apollo era.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
I'm Tammy, Trihea, Billy Cristal, and Meg Ryan are reuniting
for a Super Bowl commercial. It's the thirty fifth anniversary
of one Harriett Sally and apparently the commercial will center
around the famous restaurant scene. And that's your top five
stories waking up this morning. Birthdays today, actor Christian Bale
fifty one, singer Phil Collins seventy four, and the legend
Gene Hackman replacements Hoosiers have to be two of my
(16:22):
favorite movies ever. Gene Hackman is ninety five years old today.
But's your birthday. Happy birthday, So glad you were born
and thanks for waking up with your morning show.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I'm Jim Schultz in Tampa and my morning show is
Your Morning Show with Michael Gilgerno.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Hey, it's me Michael.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Your Morning Show is heard live from five to eight
am Central, six to nine am Eastern, three to six
am Pacific on great radio stations like News Radio eleven
ninety k EX in Portland, News Talk five fifty k
FYI and Phoenix, Arizona, and Freedom one oh four seven
in Washington, d C. We'd love to have you join
us live in the morning, even take us along on
the drive to work. But better late than never.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Enjoyed the podcast, I am your humble host, Michael del Jorna.
We're aw waking up with broken hearts after what appears
to be a tragic collision at DC A and Washington,
d C involving a Blackhawk helicopter and an American Airlines
communter flight. We're now getting an updates. Some thirty bodies
(17:27):
now have been recovered. American Airlines reporter there were sixty
passengers on board and four crew members. That would be
sixty four. The military said there were three people in
the Blackhawk helicopter that would be a total of sixty seven,
so less than half the bodies have been recovered. Working
overnight doing unbelievable recovery work in the coldest and darkest
(17:52):
of conditions were responders from DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia
and fireboats still in the water. Use conference was scheduled
for six point thirty and it appears as though it's
about to begin in DC and so perhaps we'll get
more information. There are some questions abounding as to why
(18:14):
was that what was that training exercise, and why was
it going on? Why didn't the pilots of the helicopter
respond to the tower, Why didn't the tower try to
communicate with the American Airlines flight? Why did they seemingly
just for a long period of time just head right
(18:35):
into each other without either making a move. These are
a lot of questions people are going to have coming up,
and we'll get you the very latest. And as we mentioned,
it is kind of sort of becoming a skating story
as well. US Figure Skating says a group of athletes
and coaches were on that flight. It was returning from
Wichita where there was a skating championship, and then there
was a camp apparently after the championship. We know of
(18:57):
two Russian champion figures skater pair skaters that were on board.
We still don't have confirmation if their son, who's on
the US skate team, twenty three year old Maxim, was
on board or not. Perhaps we'll find that out. The
news conference is actually getting underway as we speak. Robert F.
Kennedy had a rough time, as you can imagine, in
his first confirmation hearing. He's got another round to go.
(19:20):
There were a lot of contentious moments. Here's just one
of them with Senator Bernie Sanders.
Speaker 10 (19:26):
You have started a group called the Children's Health Defense.
You're the richery note right now, as I understand that.
On their website they are selling what's called onesies, these
little things clothing for babies. One of them is diled
on Facts Unafraid. Next one of the wold for twenty
(19:47):
six months a piece. By the way, next one is
no vas. No problem. They're coming before this committee and used.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
By the way and read. You could research this if
you want to. By the way, it's an interesting Bernie
is sitting right next to Elizabeth Warren. He has nothing
to do with this organization anymore, nor would he have
the power to stop this. But there's no word as
to whether that's which vaccines, it's that T shirts are
the ones he's referring to. He's done about the COVID vaccine.
(20:19):
It's talking about regular vaccines. But the point of the
exchange is, yes, it's an organization he started. It's not
an organization that he's involved with anymore. Nor is it
really relevant. He's standing right in front of you. Ask
him his feelings on vaccines. If that's your concern, Say you.
Speaker 10 (20:38):
A pro vaccine, just want to ask some questions, and
yet your organization is making money selling a child's product
to parents for twenty six bucks, which hast fundamental doubt
on utile on the usefulness of vaccines. Can you tell
us now that you will now that you all pro vaccine?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
There you're going to By the way, that's a theme
throughout the interrogation. Oh you were anti vax, which was
a wrong assumption and a narrative label that they created.
This man has been in depth on his stances. He's
never been anti vax. He's always been for testing for
(21:25):
risk factors, for communicating with parents, those risk factors. For
the bought and paid for by Big pharma pro vax
crowd that was perceived as anti no different than like,
you know, I consider myself pro life. They would call
me anti abortion. So it's a label they gave him,
(21:49):
And now they're prosecuting him based on an untrue label
they gave him and now wanting him to make this
organization stop selling these onesies that he's not even a
part of. But yes, throughout the massive accusation. Oh now
you're suddenly pro vax. Well he was never anti vax.
Is the problem with your reasoning?
Speaker 10 (22:09):
Have your organization take these products off the marketing.
Speaker 9 (22:13):
Senator, I have no power over that organization. I'm not
too hard of it. I resigned from the board.
Speaker 10 (22:17):
I was just two months ago. You founded that. You
certainly have power you could make that. How are you
supportive of this?
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I've had nothing to do.
Speaker 10 (22:26):
With you supportive of these ones?
Speaker 9 (22:28):
I'm supportive of vaccines. Are you supportive of.
Speaker 10 (22:31):
These this clothing which is militantly anti vaccine?
Speaker 9 (22:35):
I am supportive of vaccines. Well, I want good science
and I want to protect.
Speaker 10 (22:41):
You will not tell the organization you founded not to
continue selling that product?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Thank you? Yeah, so you know there's no real smoking
gun here. I mean I was taken by that's all
they got here's Senator Johnson. And this is very typical
in these types of hearings, attacks from the left, support
from the right. If it was the other way around,
(23:07):
it be attacks and the right support from the left,
this would fall into the support from the right. But listen,
it's a very very it's something we talked about yesterday
that needs to be and should be the focus of
this hearing.
Speaker 11 (23:21):
We need to heal and unify this divided nation. I'm
not necessarily the most optimistic guy, because we've got enormous
challenges facing this nation. But I thought, wow, here's somebody
from the left, somebody I don't agree with on many
issues politically, coming together with President Trump.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
And focusing on an area of agreement.
Speaker 11 (23:44):
So something that the American people desperately want.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
All right, So two points he's making here. He got
a former Democrat presidential candidate related to Camelot, one of
their three great presidential dynasties ever now uniting with the
(24:10):
President for the purposes of something we care and vitally
need and have agreement on. America's unhealthy. He needs to
get healthy. And yet look what's happening.
Speaker 11 (24:24):
Finding out the answers, what has caused autism? What is
causing chronic illness?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Miss Kenny.
Speaker 10 (24:33):
I know.
Speaker 11 (24:34):
I think I've come to know what's in your heart.
I think I know the personal and political price you've
paid for this decision. I want to say publicly, I
thank you for that. I truly appreciate what you're doing here.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
And that's a lot about what we talked about yesterday.
If this conversation stays focused on is America healthy or not,
because we're not, probably the only area we're doing worse
than education comparatively to the world would be our health.
(25:11):
That really shouldn't be a partisan issue. And you saw
that throughout the Confirmation hearing, when the focus was on
was anyone a debate, that we have a health crisis,
a mental health, physical health, that it is a worthwhile
bipartisan goal to make America healthy again, that these would
(25:34):
be strong moments than they were. Another one of those
moments was Jade Vance's interview with Sean Hannity. We just
got through talking about this yesterday. I'm so glad to
hear the Vice President say it. It ought to be
enraging to you, this notion of well, who's in our
(25:58):
country by the millions and where have they been high
and how would we find them? And what do you see?
We know exactly where they are. The calendar flips one
day and a new president comes into office and the
arrests begin. What should dawn on you is they knew
who these dangerous people were, They knew where they were,
(26:18):
and they did nothing as they were harming Americans. That
ought to be more outrageous to you than I can't
remember her name, the girl that was crying, that's in
the Selena Gomez, Selena Gomez. Yeah, and that's exactly what
(26:40):
the Vice president said. Listen.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
And that's one of the craziest things of the last week.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Just for me.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
You ask what is shocking to me, It's that many
of these violent criminals, we knew their addresses, we knew
their names.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
We just needed to send.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
Somebody goat to go to their house and get them
the hell out of the country.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
That really should.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
Shocked the American We've known where they are exactly exactly,
and we've known they've had terroritized We've known at least
that they had violent criminal backgrounds, and we haven't done
anything until about eight days ago, when Donald Trump became
the president of the United States. Again, it really should
shock the conscience of the American people. One of the
things you heard on the campaign trail, one of the
(27:19):
criticisms of me and of the President was well, yes,
we have twenty million illegal aliens. We have close to
a million violent criminal illegal aliens, and we don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Where they are.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
It turns out we actually do know where a lot
of them are. We just haven't had immigration enforcement. And
that's what's Shane show right.
Speaker 5 (27:35):
Out of that.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Apparently, when America connects the dot, sin of a mission
actually becomes the sin of commission of the previous administration.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
This is your Morning Show with Michael Del Trono.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
It is a sad morning as the sun rises over
the Potomac in our nation's capital, where a Blackhawk helicopter
on a training mission collided with an America Airlines regional jet.
The update is no survivors. There were sixty passengers on
board the American Airlines flight, four crew members, and then
(28:12):
there were three military personnel on the black Hawk helicopter.
That's a total of sixty seven. We now know the
twenty eight bodies have been recovered, twenty seven of them
from the plane and one from the helicopter. I think,
you know, just for the sake of understanding, current was
very rapid, waters were very cold, thirty five degrees in
(28:34):
the overnight hours. The explosion was massive. The river is
only eight to twelve feet and a lot of mud.
There was a lot of work overnight and really a
massive emergency response that unfolded, using responders from DC Maryland,
Northern Virginia joining in the effort with the fireboats in
(28:55):
the water. I mean, I'm certain everything was done as
quickly as it could, but we do from the news
conference moments ago, get the reality that there are no survivors.
This is now a recovery operation, and in that twenty
eight bodies have been recovered. Roy O'Neil as our national
correspondent and joins US and anything else. I know. NTSB
(29:17):
has a news conference slated for later today. There's a
lot of questions. You know, the video footage from the
what was it earth? The earthcam footage was further away
than there was another one from a car that was
pulling into the airport. Was they just headed right for
each other until they exploded? And why that happened? I
(29:40):
guess NTSB will begin to cover that later. Today, right right,
and we.
Speaker 12 (29:45):
Want to really focus in on some of the conversations
that the helicopter crew was having with the air traffic
control tower. We've already heard the clips out there saying
you see that CRJ and they acknowledge, yes, But wasn't
the same one that they were being alerted to? Apparently
is the question, because when you see the video from
a distance, it looks like the helicopter is making a
(30:05):
bee line for the plane.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
And it's just isn't difficult? Does understand exactly? That's what
we're all having a hard time speculating about. But that's
what's hard for the human eye, because you can see
that they're lights right, and they're just one is i think,
four hundred feet at one hundred and forty miles an
hour and descending towards Runway thirty three, and the others
is rising and they're just going straight at each other,
(30:28):
and no one makes a movement. That's tough for the
human eye to see. And whether it's suspicion or looks intentional,
all that aside. It's a lot of questions, a lot
of questions that demand answers, and.
Speaker 12 (30:40):
The FBI is part of the investigation, so they will
look into this was this not an accident, so that's
going to be part of the investigation. Nothing to indicate
it's anything, but as we've heard so many times, helicopter
crews tend to focus on looking down because they fly
at such low levels, and this could have been sort
of a blind side approach to the plane, uh, considering
(31:01):
its pitch as it was approaching the runway. But it's
also the busy I've heard it described today as the
busiest runway in America and short and well right well,
which isn't too surprising, and that's why a regional jet
was using it. But it's also such a compact airspace.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
So probably the next big question would be okay, so
blind spot for the Blackhawk, but not for the American
Airlines flight who had to be staring right descending right
into it. So the one question I had was were
they still an autopilot and why wasn't it taken off?
Or why didn't air traffic control say, you know, we're
calling out to the helicopter, do you have a visual
(31:40):
on it? Because they're not responding because and there was
no maneuvers, no last second maneuvers at all, by either
it didn't appear to be that way.
Speaker 12 (31:47):
And again if the plane was coming down though, and
that's essentially on your and the helicopters on your bottom
right distant, that may be a difficult angle for a
pilot to get a visual on because of the pitch
of the plane as it's a coaching a runway. I
don't Again I'm not an expert on these things for sure,
so that but that's something that would be looked at
because it may have been so low that collision avoidance
(32:08):
systems weren't activated as well, questions about whether the transponder
on the helicopter was activated.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
So again, this is this is what the NTSB does.
Very cold water temperatures predicted to be about thirty five
degrees that wouldn't have given them much rescue time with
hypothermia anywhere from what thirty minutes to an hour top
So I mean, and this has been going on since
about ten Eastern last night. I mean, I think we
(32:35):
pretty much knew we were in recovery mode throughout the
overnight hours, but that was confirmed in this Morris news
conference as well.
Speaker 12 (32:42):
And that's a small regional jet. That black Hawk helicopter
is nothing to sneeze at. I mean, that's a pretty
large size aircraft in and of itself, so you really
had two vehicles or aircraft.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Almost of equal size colliding here. Yeah, I've flown those planes.
I didn't want to make anything about me at all,
but I mean, I love that actual jet. I think
they're great. They are smaller and you feel like you're
in a smaller plane, but they're very fast, they're very smooth.
Picture more of a commercial jet than what you might
think of in terms of regional And it could have
(33:15):
had as many as I've heard reports of seventy, which
seems more like a round number thirty five on each
side kind of a thing. But I think the official
port is there could have been as many as sixty four,
and it turned our sixty five, and it turned out
there were sixty and then four crew members, so a
total of sixty seven in both and only so far anyway,
(33:36):
twenty eight passenger, twenty eight of the victim's bodies recovered,
twenty seven from the plane, one from the helicopter.
Speaker 12 (33:43):
Right, because this plane did have a first class configuration,
so that would reduce the total number of seats obviously
on board.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
So that's part of why we had a lower number. Yeah,
that and it's really turning into a skating story as well,
knowing that according to the US Figure Skating Association, there
were coaches and skaters on that plane return from a
champion in the Russians, and the task came out with
the two ninety four champions that were on board as well. No,
we don't have confirmation on whether or not the son
Maximu is on board yet or not. Right, we believe
(34:10):
he was not not all right, Roy O'Neil with the
very latest when you come back, we'll have more of
what you dig up as well as I want to
talk a little bit about that study on the most
unsafe states. Your morning show continues. Thank you, Roy, We're
all in this together.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
This is your Morning Show with Michael nhild Jo or
no
Hey, it's me Michael. Your morning show can be heard
(00:01):
live five to eight am Central, six to nine Eastern
and great cities like Jackson, Mississippi, Akron, Ohio, or Columbus, Georgia.
We'd love to be a part of your morning routine
and we're grateful you're here.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now. Enjoy the podcast two.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Starting your morning off right. A new way of talk,
a new way of understanding because we're in this together.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
This is your Morning Show with Michael O'Dell Choman.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Fatalities have been confirmed, No survivors have yet to be
confirmed after a mid air plane collision near Washington. D
C Rescue QR crews have been working throughout the night.
What a massive response. Listen, I didn't make me. God
made me. And just in case you've never done word studies,
(00:51):
which I love to do it. It's a hobby of mine.
I love words. A difference between reaction and response, the
difference between sympathy and empathy. I'm a very empathetic person.
So these are moments for just in true confessions. I'm
not very good at being a talk show host or
a newsperson. This isn't a big day for me to
do news. I'm very empathetic. I'm thinking of these people.
(01:13):
I'm thinking of their family members. I'm thinking of people
that were driving to the airport to pick up a
loved one and then they were informed by the airline.
I mean, I just I'm heartbroken. All I can do
is pray. All I can encourage you to do is
to pray for these these broken hearts and for the
rescue workers, recovery workers who are still very busy this
(01:36):
morning as the sun comes up on our nation's capital.
I was watching Sean Handy last night, mainly because he
did a two part interview with Jade Vance that I
wanted to see, and then he was also having Caroline
Levitt the new Press Secretarium, and so in interest for that,
I'm watching as the news breaks, and boy did I
feel for Sean, because you've got something planned your mind.
(02:00):
Everything is on. You know, this interview you've had with
a vice president who had very powerful things to say,
and then you know you've got the Press Secretary coming on,
and all of a sudden, you know, somebody's throwing to
you reminiscent of nine to eleven if you remember, you know,
the Today Show is just going on, and then all
a sudden, we're geting reports of a commuter plane, and
(02:23):
your first notion is a collision like this, that it
was probably a small plane. And then the next thing
was a helicopter and a plane. Then you're really thinking small.
Then you start getting visuals. And the visuals were apparent,
and I got to give Sean credit. He immediately said,
look looking at the number of you know, lights and vehicles,
this is not a small plane. And then the trickle
(02:45):
of information it appears to be a commercial airliner, a
commuter jet. Then there was the early leak by way
of a congressman that there might have been sixty people
on board. Now you know this is in a private plane,
in a helicopter, and it was quite you know the response,
I mean they used responders from DC Maryland, Northern Virginia
(03:10):
immediately coming to the area. Fireboats in the water, all lined.
There were very little signs. Now everybody knows what the
air temperatures have been, and everybody knows that the Potomac
from the recent frigid weather, portions of it were frozen.
It's not a deep river, roughly what eight feet in
the area. We think the fuselage or what was left
(03:30):
of it landed and weren't talking about eight feet of water,
which you know this morning. None of these things, I
don't want any of these to be taken as suspicions.
They're just questions. But you know, I'm looking at the water.
I'm not seeing any debris, not even floating. Now, I
saw the explosion, and I saw it from far away,
(03:53):
and I saw it from close up. The earth camshot
was a little bit further away. But you can see
their beacon lights and you can see them going right
at each other. Nobody makes a move right into a
huge explosion. So the likelihood and it can happen, but
the likelihood that there were any survivors of that level
of explosion, let alone once you hit the water hypothermia
(04:14):
fifteen to thirty minutes, maybe a survivability of an hour tops.
You knew that this was search and recovery more than rescue.
About a dozen bodies have been pulled from the water.
There's no signs of any survivors. So but you know,
now the sun is up and you're looking at the shallow,
still waters of the Potomac with all the rescue fireboats
(04:38):
out there, and there's not even a sign of floating debris,
which is is odd to me. More odd is the
video and the second video that was apparently a passenger
in a car and I think they were filming this
plane that's near the entrance. They were filming something. But
(04:58):
in the upper left hand corner or you can see
the ten seconds leading up and the collision and explosion
at a much closer different angle. Now, what are the
questions this morning, because in twenty minutes we're about to
get our next DC official news conference. Thirty seconds prior
(05:22):
to the collision, the tower is calling out to the
Blackhawk helicopter, do you have the CRJ in your site?
One's descending. Just so you know, American Airlines flight five
fifty three forty two inbound to Reagan was at an
altitude of about four hundred feet. The speed was one
(05:42):
hundred and forty miles an hour. It's descending, makes no movements.
It had to be looking right at the helicopter every
second it was going towards it. There's been conversations about
blind spots and the blackrock. The blackrock was sending directly
(06:02):
towards it and there are no movements. The tower, who
can't get a response, doesn't bother to warn. You know,
if you're not getting a response from the Blackhawk, well
talk to the American Airlines flight maybe tell them to
a board and make a maneuver. Nothing so nothing from
(06:23):
the tower, I think is going to be a question.
Was the plane on some kind of autopilot because sometimes
think you can go autopilot all the way to the
surface of the runway. But there was no movement whatsoever.
The chopper goes directly up and into it, and the
plane descends directly down and into it. If you're looking
(06:48):
at it, you're wondering, was this on purpose? What level
of communication? These are all things people are going to
have questions about, not suspicions, but questions have to be responsible.
All I care about is everybody involved on board who
are no longer alive and their loved ones hurting. But
there's a lot of questions to answer on this. But
(07:11):
what we do know is it's becoming somewhat of a
figure skating story as well as there appeared to be
by the way. I've heard two reports on this too read.
I've heard one refer to it as a camp and
then one referred to it as a figure skating championship
that was taking place in Wichita, but the flight was
returning from what we believe was a US figure skating
(07:34):
competition in Wichita back to DC, and as the US
Figure Skating Association has made clear, athletes and coaches were
on the flight. Then we got from Russia and the
Task News agency that a championship couple, Russian figure skater
Yevgeniya Kishkova and Vadam Numov, were on board. Now they
(07:58):
won the world championships I think in skating in nineteen
ninety four. They have a son, Maxim, who's twenty three,
who is currently on the US figure skating team, and
there were conflicting reports as to whether or not Maxim
was on the plane as well. No mention in the
Task report, but confirmation in the Task News report that
those two were on board. So this is developing between
(08:21):
you which athletes, which coaches. Maybe we'll learn more about
that in some seventeen minutes from now when the DC
officials have their next news conference. But I think the
biggest questions are going to be why didn't I mean,
you're clearly calling out to the Blackhawk, do you have
the CRJ on your site? Getting no response you ask
over and over and then boom on explosion. And then
(08:45):
a conversation with a Delta flight that was being held
on takeoff until the return to the gate, and he
makes it clear that pilot makes it clear he saw everything.
If you would like information from us, which I'm certainly
probably got. But why aren't there any attempts at all
for the helicopter the plane to try to move and
avoid this. Why weren't there any attempts from the tower
(09:08):
to tell the plane to take evasive measures. These are
probably pretty big questions to the naked eye. And then
this morning just I mean nothing, There's just nothing floating.
There is just no debris and eight feet of water.
There were reports that the plane split in half. You
(09:33):
can when you're looking at that the faraway footage from
the earth cam, you can see the explosion. What I
couldn't tell was you can see debris go down in
two directions. I couldn't tell if one was like the
helicopter going down in one direction the plane going down
on another. Then there's the report that maybe the plane split,
but the massive explosion alone would be very difficult to
(09:58):
believe anybody could have survived, let alone the frigid waters
it landed, and so water temperature was estimated at thirty
five degrees, which would have made it a really anywhere
from a thirty to forty five minute tops, really effort
to rescue, and virtually since ten eastern last night and
(10:20):
now it's been simply recovery. And we have reports of
a dozen bodies that have been recovered, one draped in
an American flag, So the presumption would be that that
might have been one of the service personnel from the
black Hawk helicopter. So that's the latest waking up, and
it's a lot, and it's heartbreaking. And as I mentioned,
we're going to get a news conference from DC expected
in fifteen minutes from now, and maybe just maybe more
(10:43):
answers and other news. Robert F. Kennedy had a confirmation
hearing that got rough and tumble, and he's got partner
due today. President Trump had some harsh words for the
FAT after an announced interest rates would remain unchanged. Our
money was an economist David Bonsen will join us on
that next hour, and med has agreed to pay five
million dollars to settle a lawsuit with President Trump for
(11:04):
removing his account after January sixth, and then Zuckerberg was
some very glowing words about the administration as well. Just
some of the headlines were covering. But all thoughts in
prayers are with the victims and the family members of
a black Hawk helicopter three on board, an American Airlines
regional jet with sixty on board and four crew members,
(11:25):
a total of sixty four as we have tragedy in
over and then in the Potomac. Waking up this.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Morning, it's your Morning Show with Michael del Chno.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
If you were following this story as you were going
to bed and you're waking up wondering if there's what
the news is. No survivors yet announced a news conference
in seven minutes. It appears as though sixty were on
board the American Airlines flight returning from Wichitah, and I
did get clarification there was a finger skating championship, and
then after the championship, there was after it a camp
(12:00):
answer is both we know former Russian champions are on board.
We don't know if their son who's on the figure
skating team, and all we know from the US Figure
Skating Association is a group of athletes and coaches were
on that flight an audio from air traffic controllers at
Reagan National Airport describe how a regional jet collided in
midair with a military helicopter.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
The air traffic controller can be heard alarning emergency responders
that the airliner and the helicopter both ended up in
the Potomac River.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
There was probably out in the middle of the river.
Speaker 6 (12:32):
I just saw a fireball and then.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
It was just gone. She goes on to say.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
It appears the jet and the helicopter collided about a
half mile from the runway. This was a regional jet
operated by American Airlines. The flight was inbound from Wichita,
Kansas when the accident happened near the DC Area Airport.
The airlines as there were sixty passengers and four crew
members on board.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Mark Mayfield, the CEO of American Airlines, is expressing sympathy.
Speaker 7 (12:54):
We're cooperating fully with the National Transportation Safety Board in
its investigation and will continue to provide all the information
we can. Our cooperation is without pause, and we want
to learn everything we can about today's events.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
That work will take time. We did get our first glimpses. Finally,
as the sun has come up on the Potomac River,
of what appears to be a portion of the fuselage
in the Potomac River. There's not any debris now that
could have been gathered throughout the night. Very swift currents
could have carried it a little bit away from where
(13:28):
most of the fuselage is. But we are getting our
first glimpses of what's left. And then we have several
angles of cameras, one from the earthcam that captures the
collision prior to and at impact and the explosion. A
different angle has surfaced from a vehicle that was filming
something and it was up in the upper left hand corner.
(13:50):
There were no sudden movements by the helicopter on a
training mission, the black Hawk helicopter or the plane that
was descending about four hundred feet and one hundred and
forty miles an hour. As to why they didn't see
each other, No one tried to make any maneuver. Why
the tower didn't try to reach the American Airlines flight
when the helicopter pilots weren't responding to calls. These are
(14:11):
all questions that may get answers coming up in about
five minutes. What we do know a military helicopter collided
with an American Airlines passenger plane an explosion, debris falling
into the Potomac River, where workers from Washington, DC, Maryland,
and Northern Virginia all combined in search and rescue and
(14:32):
eventually recovery efforts. Fireboats still in the water, and President
Donald Trump was kept aware of the situation throughout the
night and extended his thoughts in prayers. Meanwhile, RFK Junior
got roughed up a little bit and his confirmation hearing,
but he pushed back all along the way.
Speaker 8 (14:51):
President Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and
Human Services faced tough questioning about his views on vaccines
and abortion.
Speaker 9 (14:59):
Senator I support vaccines, will I will support the childhood schedule?
Speaker 8 (15:05):
Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden went back and forth with
Kennedy over his stance on the measles vaccine. Kennedy has
received criticism from Democrats and others for his views on vaccines.
He'll be back on Capitol Hill tomorrow. I'm Brian Shook.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
For the first time, NASA scientists are describing what they
found in samples from an ancient asteroid. Tammy Trichuilo has more.
Speaker 6 (15:28):
NASA's top scientist, Nikki Fox says the asteroid named Benu
came from an ancient celestial body that had water and
other elements critical for the emergence of life.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
If all supports the theory that asteroids like Venu were among.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
The sources that delivered water and chemical building blocks for
life to.
Speaker 6 (15:46):
A scientists found fourteen out of twenty amino acids used
by Earth creatures to break down protein. The osiris brought
back more than four ounces from the surface of venue.
It's the largest sample collected since the Apollo era.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
I'm Tammy, Trihea, Billy Cristal, and Meg Ryan are reuniting
for a Super Bowl commercial. It's the thirty fifth anniversary
of one Harriett Sally and apparently the commercial will center
around the famous restaurant scene. And that's your top five
stories waking up this morning. Birthdays today, actor Christian Bale
fifty one, singer Phil Collins seventy four, and the legend
Gene Hackman replacements Hoosiers have to be two of my
(16:22):
favorite movies ever. Gene Hackman is ninety five years old today.
But's your birthday. Happy birthday, So glad you were born
and thanks for waking up with your morning show.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I'm Jim Schultz in Tampa and my morning show is
Your Morning Show with Michael Gilgerno.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Hey, it's me Michael.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Your Morning Show is heard live from five to eight
am Central, six to nine am Eastern, three to six
am Pacific on great radio stations like News Radio eleven
ninety k EX in Portland, News Talk five fifty k
FYI and Phoenix, Arizona, and Freedom one oh four seven
in Washington, d C. We'd love to have you join
us live in the morning, even take us along on
the drive to work. But better late than never.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Enjoyed the podcast, I am your humble host, Michael del Jorna.
We're aw waking up with broken hearts after what appears
to be a tragic collision at DC A and Washington,
d C involving a Blackhawk helicopter and an American Airlines
communter flight. We're now getting an updates. Some thirty bodies
(17:27):
now have been recovered. American Airlines reporter there were sixty
passengers on board and four crew members. That would be
sixty four. The military said there were three people in
the Blackhawk helicopter that would be a total of sixty seven,
so less than half the bodies have been recovered. Working
overnight doing unbelievable recovery work in the coldest and darkest
(17:52):
of conditions were responders from DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia
and fireboats still in the water. Use conference was scheduled
for six point thirty and it appears as though it's
about to begin in DC and so perhaps we'll get
more information. There are some questions abounding as to why
(18:14):
was that what was that training exercise, and why was
it going on? Why didn't the pilots of the helicopter
respond to the tower, Why didn't the tower try to
communicate with the American Airlines flight? Why did they seemingly
just for a long period of time just head right
(18:35):
into each other without either making a move. These are
a lot of questions people are going to have coming up,
and we'll get you the very latest. And as we mentioned,
it is kind of sort of becoming a skating story
as well. US Figure Skating says a group of athletes
and coaches were on that flight. It was returning from
Wichita where there was a skating championship, and then there
was a camp apparently after the championship. We know of
(18:57):
two Russian champion figures skater pair skaters that were on board.
We still don't have confirmation if their son, who's on
the US skate team, twenty three year old Maxim, was
on board or not. Perhaps we'll find that out. The
news conference is actually getting underway as we speak. Robert F.
Kennedy had a rough time, as you can imagine, in
his first confirmation hearing. He's got another round to go.
(19:20):
There were a lot of contentious moments. Here's just one
of them with Senator Bernie Sanders.
Speaker 10 (19:26):
You have started a group called the Children's Health Defense.
You're the richery note right now, as I understand that.
On their website they are selling what's called onesies, these
little things clothing for babies. One of them is diled
on Facts Unafraid. Next one of the wold for twenty
(19:47):
six months a piece. By the way, next one is
no vas. No problem. They're coming before this committee and used.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
By the way and read. You could research this if
you want to. By the way, it's an interesting Bernie
is sitting right next to Elizabeth Warren. He has nothing
to do with this organization anymore, nor would he have
the power to stop this. But there's no word as
to whether that's which vaccines, it's that T shirts are
the ones he's referring to. He's done about the COVID vaccine.
(20:19):
It's talking about regular vaccines. But the point of the
exchange is, yes, it's an organization he started. It's not
an organization that he's involved with anymore. Nor is it
really relevant. He's standing right in front of you. Ask
him his feelings on vaccines. If that's your concern, Say you.
Speaker 10 (20:38):
A pro vaccine, just want to ask some questions, and
yet your organization is making money selling a child's product
to parents for twenty six bucks, which hast fundamental doubt
on utile on the usefulness of vaccines. Can you tell
us now that you will now that you all pro vaccine?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
There you're going to By the way, that's a theme
throughout the interrogation. Oh you were anti vax, which was
a wrong assumption and a narrative label that they created.
This man has been in depth on his stances. He's
never been anti vax. He's always been for testing for
(21:25):
risk factors, for communicating with parents, those risk factors. For
the bought and paid for by Big pharma pro vax
crowd that was perceived as anti no different than like,
you know, I consider myself pro life. They would call
me anti abortion. So it's a label they gave him,
(21:49):
And now they're prosecuting him based on an untrue label
they gave him and now wanting him to make this
organization stop selling these onesies that he's not even a
part of. But yes, throughout the massive accusation. Oh now
you're suddenly pro vax. Well he was never anti vax.
Is the problem with your reasoning?
Speaker 10 (22:09):
Have your organization take these products off the marketing.
Speaker 9 (22:13):
Senator, I have no power over that organization. I'm not
too hard of it. I resigned from the board.
Speaker 10 (22:17):
I was just two months ago. You founded that. You
certainly have power you could make that. How are you
supportive of this?
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I've had nothing to do.
Speaker 10 (22:26):
With you supportive of these ones?
Speaker 9 (22:28):
I'm supportive of vaccines. Are you supportive of.
Speaker 10 (22:31):
These this clothing which is militantly anti vaccine?
Speaker 9 (22:35):
I am supportive of vaccines. Well, I want good science
and I want to protect.
Speaker 10 (22:41):
You will not tell the organization you founded not to
continue selling that product?
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Thank you? Yeah, so you know there's no real smoking
gun here. I mean I was taken by that's all
they got here's Senator Johnson. And this is very typical
in these types of hearings, attacks from the left, support
from the right. If it was the other way around,
(23:07):
it be attacks and the right support from the left,
this would fall into the support from the right. But listen,
it's a very very it's something we talked about yesterday
that needs to be and should be the focus of
this hearing.
Speaker 11 (23:21):
We need to heal and unify this divided nation. I'm
not necessarily the most optimistic guy, because we've got enormous
challenges facing this nation. But I thought, wow, here's somebody
from the left, somebody I don't agree with on many
issues politically, coming together with President Trump.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
And focusing on an area of agreement.
Speaker 11 (23:44):
So something that the American people desperately want.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
All right, So two points he's making here. He got
a former Democrat presidential candidate related to Camelot, one of
their three great presidential dynasties ever now uniting with the
(24:10):
President for the purposes of something we care and vitally
need and have agreement on. America's unhealthy. He needs to
get healthy. And yet look what's happening.
Speaker 11 (24:24):
Finding out the answers, what has caused autism? What is
causing chronic illness?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Miss Kenny.
Speaker 10 (24:33):
I know.
Speaker 11 (24:34):
I think I've come to know what's in your heart.
I think I know the personal and political price you've
paid for this decision. I want to say publicly, I
thank you for that. I truly appreciate what you're doing here.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
And that's a lot about what we talked about yesterday.
If this conversation stays focused on is America healthy or not,
because we're not, probably the only area we're doing worse
than education comparatively to the world would be our health.
(25:11):
That really shouldn't be a partisan issue. And you saw
that throughout the Confirmation hearing, when the focus was on
was anyone a debate, that we have a health crisis,
a mental health, physical health, that it is a worthwhile
bipartisan goal to make America healthy again, that these would
(25:34):
be strong moments than they were. Another one of those
moments was Jade Vance's interview with Sean Hannity. We just
got through talking about this yesterday. I'm so glad to
hear the Vice President say it. It ought to be
enraging to you, this notion of well, who's in our
(25:58):
country by the millions and where have they been high
and how would we find them? And what do you see?
We know exactly where they are. The calendar flips one
day and a new president comes into office and the
arrests begin. What should dawn on you is they knew
who these dangerous people were, They knew where they were,
(26:18):
and they did nothing as they were harming Americans. That
ought to be more outrageous to you than I can't
remember her name, the girl that was crying, that's in
the Selena Gomez, Selena Gomez. Yeah, and that's exactly what
(26:40):
the Vice president said. Listen.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
And that's one of the craziest things of the last week.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Just for me.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
You ask what is shocking to me, It's that many
of these violent criminals, we knew their addresses, we knew
their names.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
We just needed to send.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
Somebody goat to go to their house and get them
the hell out of the country.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
That really should.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
Shocked the American We've known where they are exactly exactly,
and we've known they've had terroritized We've known at least
that they had violent criminal backgrounds, and we haven't done
anything until about eight days ago, when Donald Trump became
the president of the United States. Again, it really should
shock the conscience of the American people. One of the
things you heard on the campaign trail, one of the
(27:19):
criticisms of me and of the President was well, yes,
we have twenty million illegal aliens. We have close to
a million violent criminal illegal aliens, and we don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Where they are.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
It turns out we actually do know where a lot
of them are. We just haven't had immigration enforcement. And
that's what's Shane show right.
Speaker 5 (27:35):
Out of that.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Apparently, when America connects the dot, sin of a mission
actually becomes the sin of commission of the previous administration.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
This is your Morning Show with Michael Del Trono.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
It is a sad morning as the sun rises over
the Potomac in our nation's capital, where a Blackhawk helicopter
on a training mission collided with an America Airlines regional jet.
The update is no survivors. There were sixty passengers on
board the American Airlines flight, four crew members, and then
(28:12):
there were three military personnel on the black Hawk helicopter.
That's a total of sixty seven. We now know the
twenty eight bodies have been recovered, twenty seven of them
from the plane and one from the helicopter. I think,
you know, just for the sake of understanding, current was
very rapid, waters were very cold, thirty five degrees in
(28:34):
the overnight hours. The explosion was massive. The river is
only eight to twelve feet and a lot of mud.
There was a lot of work overnight and really a
massive emergency response that unfolded, using responders from DC Maryland,
Northern Virginia joining in the effort with the fireboats in
(28:55):
the water. I mean, I'm certain everything was done as
quickly as it could, but we do from the news
conference moments ago, get the reality that there are no survivors.
This is now a recovery operation, and in that twenty
eight bodies have been recovered. Roy O'Neil as our national
correspondent and joins US and anything else. I know. NTSB
(29:17):
has a news conference slated for later today. There's a
lot of questions. You know, the video footage from the
what was it earth? The earthcam footage was further away
than there was another one from a car that was
pulling into the airport. Was they just headed right for
each other until they exploded? And why that happened? I
(29:40):
guess NTSB will begin to cover that later. Today, right right,
and we.
Speaker 12 (29:45):
Want to really focus in on some of the conversations
that the helicopter crew was having with the air traffic
control tower. We've already heard the clips out there saying
you see that CRJ and they acknowledge, yes, But wasn't
the same one that they were being alerted to? Apparently
is the question, because when you see the video from
a distance, it looks like the helicopter is making a
(30:05):
bee line for the plane.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
And it's just isn't difficult? Does understand exactly? That's what
we're all having a hard time speculating about. But that's
what's hard for the human eye, because you can see
that they're lights right, and they're just one is i think,
four hundred feet at one hundred and forty miles an
hour and descending towards Runway thirty three, and the others
is rising and they're just going straight at each other,
(30:28):
and no one makes a movement. That's tough for the
human eye to see. And whether it's suspicion or looks intentional,
all that aside. It's a lot of questions, a lot
of questions that demand answers, and.
Speaker 12 (30:40):
The FBI is part of the investigation, so they will
look into this was this not an accident, so that's
going to be part of the investigation. Nothing to indicate
it's anything, but as we've heard so many times, helicopter
crews tend to focus on looking down because they fly
at such low levels, and this could have been sort
of a blind side approach to the plane, uh, considering
(31:01):
its pitch as it was approaching the runway. But it's
also the busy I've heard it described today as the
busiest runway in America and short and well right well,
which isn't too surprising, and that's why a regional jet
was using it. But it's also such a compact airspace.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
So probably the next big question would be okay, so
blind spot for the Blackhawk, but not for the American
Airlines flight who had to be staring right descending right
into it. So the one question I had was were
they still an autopilot and why wasn't it taken off?
Or why didn't air traffic control say, you know, we're
calling out to the helicopter, do you have a visual
(31:40):
on it? Because they're not responding because and there was
no maneuvers, no last second maneuvers at all, by either
it didn't appear to be that way.
Speaker 12 (31:47):
And again if the plane was coming down though, and
that's essentially on your and the helicopters on your bottom
right distant, that may be a difficult angle for a
pilot to get a visual on because of the pitch
of the plane as it's a coaching a runway. I
don't Again I'm not an expert on these things for sure,
so that but that's something that would be looked at
because it may have been so low that collision avoidance
(32:08):
systems weren't activated as well, questions about whether the transponder
on the helicopter was activated.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
So again, this is this is what the NTSB does.
Very cold water temperatures predicted to be about thirty five
degrees that wouldn't have given them much rescue time with
hypothermia anywhere from what thirty minutes to an hour top
So I mean, and this has been going on since
about ten Eastern last night. I mean, I think we
(32:35):
pretty much knew we were in recovery mode throughout the
overnight hours, but that was confirmed in this Morris news
conference as well.
Speaker 12 (32:42):
And that's a small regional jet. That black Hawk helicopter
is nothing to sneeze at. I mean, that's a pretty
large size aircraft in and of itself, so you really
had two vehicles or aircraft.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Almost of equal size colliding here. Yeah, I've flown those planes.
I didn't want to make anything about me at all,
but I mean, I love that actual jet. I think
they're great. They are smaller and you feel like you're
in a smaller plane, but they're very fast, they're very smooth.
Picture more of a commercial jet than what you might
think of in terms of regional And it could have
(33:15):
had as many as I've heard reports of seventy, which
seems more like a round number thirty five on each
side kind of a thing. But I think the official
port is there could have been as many as sixty four,
and it turned our sixty five, and it turned out
there were sixty and then four crew members, so a
total of sixty seven in both and only so far anyway,
(33:36):
twenty eight passenger, twenty eight of the victim's bodies recovered,
twenty seven from the plane, one from the helicopter.
Speaker 12 (33:43):
Right, because this plane did have a first class configuration,
so that would reduce the total number of seats obviously
on board.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
So that's part of why we had a lower number. Yeah,
that and it's really turning into a skating story as well,
knowing that according to the US Figure Skating Association, there
were coaches and skaters on that plane return from a
champion in the Russians, and the task came out with
the two ninety four champions that were on board as well. No,
we don't have confirmation on whether or not the son
Maximu is on board yet or not. Right, we believe
(34:10):
he was not not all right, Roy O'Neil with the
very latest when you come back, we'll have more of
what you dig up as well as I want to
talk a little bit about that study on the most
unsafe states. Your morning show continues. Thank you, Roy, We're
all in this together.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
This is your Morning Show with Michael nhild Jo or
no
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.