Thursday-1-30-2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And definitely not the show that we set out to do.
At the time, I hit send on all the prep
that I sent ross yesterday only only to uh, you know,
flip on just a little little something to just kind
of wind down the mind and nerd out with some
documentaries and flipping around, and then all of a sudden,

(00:23):
here we go, the phone starts banging away. I really
do make an effort to disconnect once I'm out of it,
but with the with the events that transpired up at
d c A Reagan Reagan Airport yesterday, obviously.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
That was impossible.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
And if I sound a little rough, it's it's not
fully from a lack of sleep.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Ross had a cold, then Trevor had a cold, and
now I have a cold. But it didn't feel like
it's a yeah, bad things. You'll just have to bear
with me today. Uh So yesterday evening here is here
is I guess the reader's digest version of what we know,
and then we'll start getting into more details, or at

(01:08):
least the details we have. This is tough, and for
any of you who are regular fly regularly, especially with
American Airlines, I have long American Airlines is the airline

(01:29):
that I hold the most status on They just have
the most convenient routes. Obviously Charlotte is a hub for them.
The then the Miami to Raleigh. I'm on that, and
I go to d C pretty I don't know. I
don't say regularly, but I'm there at least once a year,

(01:50):
and very very often.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
I'm thinking about all the routes.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
The Miami to Raleigh route, there's two in the afternoon,
and one of is on this particular size aircraft. It's
the later one, and this particular aircraft I have flown
almost every time I have flown from Raleigh to DC

(02:17):
because I fly into Reagan. I had to fly into
Dulls this year, but every other time I avoid Dulles
and I fly and so you get these small commuter jets. Now,
while this flight was apparently from Wichita, Kansas to DCA,
we're just gonna call it Reagan for the purpose of
the discussion on the show, just to keep things smooth.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
I think most.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
People understand it is that, okay, rather than the airport code.
I I wonder, I don't do we know where the
flight crew is from, because a lot of the crews
are North Carolina based it's a lot of Charlotte based
flight crews on this particular size aircraft. Now, this is

(03:03):
one of the subsidiaries you know, when you book and
it'll say American Airlines VIA and then another slightly different,
like American Eagle is one of their big other ones.
So look, I don't know, and I don't want to
talk out of turn, but one of the first things
is like there's a couple, especially on that Miami route
and sometimes they fly to DC as well, because you know,

(03:26):
you can see where your plane's coming in from. There's
a few crew members with American Airlines on this size
aircraft that I I don't know, Like I don't know
their kids' names, but like we nod if we see
each other, which is cool because how many people they
see on the regular.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
And so like there's that added element like what happened.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
And then if you fly, if you fly in and
out of that airport or if you fly that particular
size aircraft, it has another emotional connect to you, you know,
because like that's the These are the tiniest of tiny, right,
These are the two by two, the one by two,
and the two by twos. So if you're up in

(04:12):
business they have that one seat, which by the way,
is not the same size as the two other business
class seats. And then you know, you have your standard
two by two through there holds but sixty ish people,
and you have an incredibly interesting, different and busy air space.
We talk about obviously New York, the you know, the

(04:34):
intersection of LaGuardia, JFK, Newark, and you know a few
others just due to all other proximity and how busy
and insane that airspace is. ThEC is pretty busy because
you're dealing with three big airports. I don't know if Reagan,
don't know if Reagan Counts is big, but a substantial

(04:55):
airport that sits right in kind of in the middle.
Of course, you got Dallas off to the west, and
and you have what is for all practical purposes a
third Washington, DC airport straight north with BWI Baltimore's airport.
And I have for one of those radio rows flown
into Baltimore and we're with a group of others that

(05:16):
were going to it. And then you know, you take
a van down there. It's about an hour, but sometimes
for scheduling or pricing, that's the decision that you make
and the approaches on Reagan are like nothing in the world.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
They're their own thing.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
In fact, one of the folks who listens to the
show he's called in before, is a retired airline pilot.
His name is Joe, and he was kind enough this
morning to send me a rather lengthy email. And I
spoke to this man over the years. I don't doubt
any of his credentials, and what he's telling me in
here makes perfect sense. And I also know and have

(05:56):
been texting this morning with a friend of mine who,
for his mility, Terry Servis, was a crew chief for
black Hawk helicopter. And he's been educating me because here
is what the scenario looks like. Okay, it looks like
and you can you can go. And I've listened to

(06:16):
the air traffic. It's it's pretty choppy. I'm not gonna
I'm not gonna play it, but I'll tell you what
it says. Basically, everything is just normal. You have this
American Airlines flight, it has already it has already set
up for a unique approach. Hold on, let's see a

(06:40):
visual circle to land maneuver.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
Let me read this.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
I've operated, this is this is the retired commercial pilot Joe.
I've operated into and out of DCA hundreds of times.
The CRJ seven hundred was doing a visual circle to
land maneuver, which is not a maneuver anywhere but at
DCA basically, and for those of you who have flown

(07:05):
this this will sound familiar. It's truly one of the
most fun approaches were allowed to do. The maneuver helps
increase traffic flow into d C. So if you've flown
into d C, especially from Raleigh, there's a couple different
ways they'll stack you in there. The coolest one is
what Joe is talking about because it allows you a
visual of a lot of the stuff there in d C.

(07:28):
You can see the Jefferson Memorial when you make that
final turn. You can see Rock Creek Park where Hillary
Clinton's associates go to end themselves, and you have you
have the Washington Monument off your off your left side,
and there's another approach where you kind of go out
over the swamps or I had like a damn duck

(07:49):
go by my window, which.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Was pretty crazy.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
And but you know, you're you're there in d C.
You're looking at the skyline, you're looking at the monuments
and then boom, you're You're there, You're in, You're into
Reagan Man and and I think it's one of the
funnest airports just do to it's proximity to everything. And
so in this case, the approach is you you would fly,

(08:14):
you would you'd go towards landing like you're gonna land
on one, and you would fly off that final at
the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, right, so you know what I'm
talking about where they have those on the right side,
they have those shops and condos and stuff down there.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
Just visualize it in your mind.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Fly along I two ninety five, turn over the Bowling
Air Force Base, and then you're on final for runway
thirty three. And if you listen to the ATC, this
plane had completed all of those and was literally on final.
And then you hear and it's it's kind of hard
to hear. You hear the ATC interact with the Blackhawk

(08:56):
and they do something that is pretty which is really common.
They ask a pilot if they have a visual on
another aircraft. Now I flip over to my conversation with
my black Hawk crew chief Buddy or retired. He's been
retired for a while, but he talks about how those

(09:19):
visuals are required. If you've ever sat in the cockpit
of an airplane, depending on the equipment you're in, there's
only a certain periphery of view, and spotting another aircraft
is I've had the opportunity because I have friends that
have small planes to you know, sit there in the
up in the cockpit obviously with them, and it's interesting

(09:43):
as somebody who's not a pilot trying to pick these
things out, and like the pilots are good at it.
My buddy Tim is who I spent the most time with.
He has a SR twenty, which is a serious if
there's any pilots listening, wondering, and that has a pretty
good field of view. I I don't know what the
Blackhawks is. However, what my friend was telling me is

(10:06):
it's not just the pilots, the crew chief is also
or perhaps primarily Again, I'm just having a quick conversation
this morning, trying to educate myself they have a responsibility
for doing this spotting and not just spotting aircraft because
ATC at A, you know, in this case in d

(10:28):
C said hey do you see the do you see
the seven hundred and they have a unique system too.
They got to language all their own. I didn't know
what discs were. So this is a measurement device the
black Hawk crew would use to tell a pilot. So
when you see, like if you see a helicopters flying information,
part of his job is to you know, call out

(10:54):
distances for the pilots. So if you've got a formation
of black Hawks and you want to tell somebody, then
another Blackhawk in the formation is five discs. What that
means is the diameter of the rotor, which I don't
know what that number is, but they do. So there's
a lot there's a lot of moving pieces here and

(11:15):
where this can go sideways, and both Joe suggests it
in his email and my Blackhawk buddy suggested in his email.
Their suspicion seems to be that a member of the
Blackhawk team misidentified in aircraft and it could be busy

(11:36):
airspace obviously with those three plus you've got you have
some regional airports there, and we're human and if you misidentify, obviously,
and the call is so close to the impact that
again people are running around with conspiracy theories and all

(11:58):
the rest people are trying to make political hay.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
Out of this.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
See, it is these situations when the best people and
the worst people all have to emerge. Right the best
people are digging around in the Potomac River right now,
in incredibly cold water, and immediately we're on it trying
to figure out who can we rescue anybody? And they're
going to work and they're talking over the radio and

(12:23):
they're saying thing they were finding people literally still seat
builded in upside down in the fuselage and seven feet
of water. And then the you know, the media is
out running with it and deciding, all right, well, how
can we go ahead and blame the incoming administration. So
the best of people who would snap into action and
attempt to conduct these rescues on a moment's notice in

(12:46):
a really horrific situation, in a very dangerous situation. I mean,
they had boats rush into this thing when rotors were
still turning. Probably you don't know what's going to happen.
Plus you're dealing with the fact that it's not just
a plane, it's a helicopter. It appears by some some
of the witness statements that there was a there was

(13:09):
an attempted bank so you know, I'm sure an alarm
is screaming.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Proximity alarm is screaming. There in the seven.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Hundred and off of that final the plane does a
really hard bank and then witnesses described sparks going across
the bottom of the plane, which is likely the rotors
from the Blackhawk, which is going to cut it in
half or is going to slice it up substantially. So

(13:38):
at this point, based on again my own imperfect knowledge
and communicating though, you know, real quickly with the military side,
and I rather detailed email the thankfully one of our
listeners sent that sounds like the most common or that

(14:01):
that sounds like the most probable unfortunate human air There
will be questions why are we flying blackhawks? But let
me tell you what I've seen Blackhawks in the air.
I've seen in the air Blackhawks and Ausprey's literally flying
in and out of Reagan Man. And then of course

(14:21):
when you're on the ground, you know you may see
the if you've been in DC a few times, you
might even have seen the president flying with his his
marines there. So let's not go crazy. Let's figure out
what happened and if something has changed, fine, and let
me tell you what. And and there is a political

(14:43):
angle here, and that is you have a you have
an aviation accident that involves both commercial standard, civilian and military.
Sean Duffy, who I have met once when he was
would he very what? He was very first elected as
a congressman from Wisconsin, he happened to serve western Wisconsin.

(15:06):
I was at an event it was on it was
literally right on the river, so he had congress people
from Minnesota and Wisconsin and I met he was super young, dude,
very uh, I don't know, very nice. Came across as
very nice. Other than that, I don't know anything about him.
He's been in change, he's he's he literally is in

(15:28):
this job hours. He's been in the job hours hours
and Pete Hegseth days. And if there is any time
to put aside the garbage and to have you know,
I I don't even know who was the FAA director

(15:50):
at the time during our last commercial aircraft crash here
in the US.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
It's been so long.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
But whether it's Seany as Secretary of Transportation or the
Pete Hegseth over at Department of Defense, can we just
cool it for a few minutes? And it's okay to
ask for help. We're gonna dive deeper into this. We're
trying to round up some guests. We'll get to it
all coming up case O Day Radio program.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
I was just saying it to be a jerk, and
I'm not.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
I'm really not, and I'm not saying it to be
some arrogant person who's been in media for a long time.
I know that Elon said you're the media now. We're
the media now.

Speaker 2 (16:34):
Meaning people on social media, and.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
That is true. But not everybody needs to be the
media on everything, do you know what I'm saying. So
if most of your posts are crap posts, or you're
a yoga account or muckbang that weirdness or an only's cruel,

(17:02):
you don't all need to post it because you're not
providing new information. I balance it because I balance with this.
If you're a big account that every single thing on
my timeline last night is something about what was going
on with this this crash, and that's fine. But the

(17:23):
problem is I'm fishing through trying to find information that
others don't and I'm just getting incredibly frustrated because a
lot of it is unattributed reposting, like people are cutting
and pasting, and then I'll read it. I'm like, oh,
this person just cut the other thing. And then you
look at their account and they got like, you know,
eleven hundred followers, which is fine, I'm not making fun

(17:45):
of follower numbers.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
But everything they post is about yu gi. Oh, so
it was. It made it really difficult.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
I've told you, I love x Twitter, whatever you want
to call it. For breaking news, it's fantastic. It's fantastic.
And the evolution of it to be more non breaking
but investigatory is fantastic. All this is great. But I
finally just kind of gave up and then I'm what
am I doing? I'm back on NBC, CBS, ABC, Fight.

(18:18):
I mean the normals right there, because I need concise information,
and when people who don't do breaking news are are
doing it, there is there is a possibility that they're incorrect.
I saw people reporting that the Blackhawk was in some
sort of blackout mode and so, and it simply wasn't.

(18:40):
It's it's it's literally doing Oh and its transponder wasn't on.
Obviously it was atc is talking to the plane. They're
talking to the helicopter. This the everything here sounds like
somebody gave a false visual acknowledgment. Not intentionally, they messed up.

(19:08):
They messed up here. By the way, here is that
ex shape again. It's hard to hear, but but listening.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
Change the Sturt roadway three three from way three three
clear flant?

Speaker 1 (19:21):
All right. So I when I mentioned earlier what this
approach looks like. The Woodrow Wilson Bridge is where they're turning.
You hear the pilot acknowledge that he's making the turn there, okay,
And once he makes that turn and then pops right
along there, you know this is this is when the
good visuals are this portion of that particular landing. And

(19:43):
this thing's almost in. People are already holding their cell
phones getting ready to turn off airplane mode. You know.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
The drill.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
Change the Sturt roadway through three from way three three
clear flant.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
That's the a T air.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
That's the ATC telling him coming from there that you're
you're clear, you're good to go.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
That memorial that's.

Speaker 4 (20:07):
Pod serge in flight.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
A aircraft all right.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
So there you hear the aircraft inside and it's.

Speaker 5 (20:21):
Fortunately American left and two positive clment on.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
TC notices something's wrong obviously that they're they're on a
collision course. Again, I'm not a pilot. I don't know.
I don't know if ATC should have noticed it earlier.
And I'm not trying to sit here and lay blame
one way or the other. I'm just trying because look
the possibilities when you have UH aircraft colliding over our

(20:47):
nation's capital run the gamut. Admittedly so, admittedly so, everything
from terrorism to a disgrunt told military member or a
disgrunt told American Airlines member, like, all of.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
That's out there. And I'm not saying that that we may.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Not find out something else, but you gotta you got
to try to get a handle on this with what
you can see, and what you can see sure sounds
a lot like the pilot or the crew I should
say of this Blackhawk misidentified the aircraft because if they
had a visual which is pretty wild, and I'll be

(21:26):
curious to see what the altitude differential was on them
at the time of the impact of obviously wasn't that
high off the ground. You've probably seen the video of
the explosion from the I think the Kennedy Center had
a camera pointed over there. So that's where we are.
We have reached out to Senator Bud this morning. We're

(21:51):
reaching out to Brad not David Rouser. I think we
have a third transportation community. I think it's Addison McDowell,
the new guy, and hopefully we can chat with one
or more of them. But unfortunately we find ourselves sitting
here in the first in a presidential transition. So there

(22:13):
will be people trying to make hay off of this,
and of course CNN was one of the first Mary, I.

Speaker 6 (22:19):
Have one more question for you. Look, it's January twenty ninth.
We are just nine days out from a presidential transition
and administrative transition. The FAA administrator resigned at the end
of the Biden administration, so there is no permanent, confirmed
FAA administrator.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
Right, Okay, well there isn't acting and the FAA administrator.
And this is where it gets a little insulting here.
The guys in the the guys do an ATC just
because their bosses in there didn't forget to be how
they did it a week ago. Okay, they didn't forget
what they were doing. The folks that handle air traic

(23:00):
control in in a particular geographic area like this are
among the best of the best because it's such a
crazy airspace with its everything and things that are so unique.
The idea that you're landing commercial airliners in that proximity

(23:21):
to all of the nation's power is pretty incredible. And
you know, just having you know, big airports flanking you
creates these unique situations. These are not rookies. And let
me go to the other side, because I see people
that are going, you know where they they say that

(23:42):
this was a training thing for the black Hawk guys. Yeah,
maybe you know why, because whether it's their first day
on that black Hawk crew or they are among the
most elite and longest serving in that capacity, they do training.
That's what. What do you think the military does all day?

(24:05):
What do you think? What do you think they're banging
around La June where you see them running around in
the trucks out to all those different woods. What do
you think having a picnic? They're training? Everybody's training. Why
do you see the ospreys if you go hang out
at North TOPSI over why when I was I saw
a formation when I was down driving through Havelock past
Cherry Point to go to that event. Down in Beaufort
over the weekend. It's never not cool. Guys are training,

(24:30):
that's what that's what they do. So so don't attempt
to gauge if they've described it as a training fight flight,
U don't don't attempt to gauge that that means it's
a bunch of inexperienced people. Some of some airline crashes
have involved very experienced pilots. It's a it's an inherently

(24:51):
dangerous thing you're doing. It's magic for I mean, for
all practical purposes. The idea that you can take something
that ways I think the I remember seeing what the
gross tonnage is supposed to be on the new air
Force one, and it's like it's almost a million gross
tons and you're gonna put that in the air.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Hold on I's probably check what that is.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
But but but uh, air Force one weight and because
the new one is quite a bit bigger, and you're
and you're making that fly around in the air, and
that's incredible, that's absolutely incredible, and so.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
And to accomplish that you have to do things. This
is so stupid.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
I want the air Force one weight ross and it's
giving me the shoe weight.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Thanks Google.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Thanks predictive search on Google. Why do you think people
would be checking plane.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Weights this morning?

Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah? So current? Yeah, so that is correct. So the
current one is eight hundred and thirty three. The new
one the Boeing's building slowly is right around a million pounds.
And you put that in the air and you have
to keep it depending on what kind of aircraft it is.
How it's built at a at a speed, and if
you don't maintain that speed, you're now just a rock

(26:14):
falling off of a cliff man. And one hundred and
one other things they're having to think about. Don't knock
on pilots just because there's so much avionics now and automation.
The reason you have them in there is when the
computer goes, I don't want to do this anymore, and
they got to do it. And don't knock on these

(26:35):
guys in the Blackhawk. They're sitting there and they have
to when they want to get a visual, they require
members of their crew flight crew to literally stick their
head out the window so that they can gauge a
disc distance and rotor distance between them and they can
help with visual And I don't know exactly how the
process and where the responsibility lies. But in talking to

(26:59):
my buddy, it was a chief. The crew chief has
a lot of very important jobs when it comes to
identifying and spacing and positioning aircraft around it. But it
doesn't mean everyone's a rookie here. It's far more likely,
by the way, that these are experienced pilots or an
experienced crew at least. So you know CNN wanted to

(27:23):
cut in here, Well, we don't even have an FAA director.
Well you know, even if you did, you could not
convey if the FAA director was still in there from
Biden and between the transition of Trump to what happened yesterday,
there is not a single ATC member there that likely
would have communicated in any way, shape or form with them,

(27:46):
nothing would be different. So can we not go here?
Can we please please not go here?

Speaker 3 (27:56):
Now?

Speaker 1 (27:56):
Let me give credit where credit is due, And I
don't even mean this from a political reason. Oh I'm sorry,
Let me play the rest of the CNN thing.

Speaker 6 (28:03):
Hold on, now, this is going to be a time
when there's going to be a lot of public communication
and a lot of investigation of what happened here. What
do you anticipate this transition period? Is going to mean
for what happens today and tomorrow and in the coming
days as we find out what happened here.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
Okay, all right, and then that's a fair question at
the end, all right, what is this going to look like?
And yes, you have a transition. I just pointed out,
you got Duffy Dot, you got heg Seth. A military. Obviously,
because you're dealing with a civilian and military, this is
it will be more complicated. There will be more chiefs,

(28:44):
so to speak. But I also would like to think
because they are new in this job, there will be
you know, you don't get as entrenched in your particular
part of the executive branch. And I hope that that
means everyone works better together. Remember after Dine to eleven,

(29:04):
what was the big thing? Why weren't any of our
agencies working together? So let's not predict that it's going
to be that. Why don't we hope for the best
And and to the to the Trump folks there, I
I would say the same. If there are people from
the last administration who swapped out. If Pete Boodhages has
anything that is helpful, he never he never did one

(29:29):
of these that I that I can remember so, but
if and and and then I want to see those
guys on the phone together or in an office together.
We can we can be better than where CNN and
some are going. And credit to the White House Press
Secretary has been there for you know, a few days

(29:49):
who immediately was out there and.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
Talking to the public.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
Here she is on the thought breaking news.

Speaker 7 (29:55):
I have called over to my counterparts at the White House,
and I can confirm that President Trump has been made
aware of this situation. And tragically, it appears that a
military helicopter collided with a regional jet at DCA Airport
right here in Washington, d C. That's all I can
confirm at this point in time. And I can just

(30:17):
say that the thoughts and the prayers of the entire
Trump administration are with all those that are involved. And
we ask the public in this area to please stand
by for guidance from law enforcement and allow them to
do their jobs as they attempt to save lives.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
Right now, Okay, all right, And you know she's not
given big details, but she's there.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
She's there, and she's telling folks what they know.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
And now now it's time to digest the news and
investigate and figure out and tally up rescues versus loss,
the folks involved figuring out exactly what happened. There's cameras,
which is you know, that's kind of an unusual part here.
You have cameras a lot more just because there's so

(31:04):
many around DC, and you have also whatever monitoring apparatus
the military has. So let's let's just take it down
a notch for people wanting to flip around the edges
before we accuse them of silent running spy blackhawks.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
And then also a Trump.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
You know, somehow Trump screwed it up, and I think
we'll all be better off. They are saying there's going
to be a press conference at seven point thirty. I'm
gonna have Ross listen in while around the air and
if it's a you know, if there's anything there, he
can either communicate it or.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
We'll put it up.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
But we'll hopefully be chatting with our members of the
NC delegation. Hopefully we can get a hold of one
of them that serve on either of the transportation committees.
So stay tuned. Lots to get to. We got a
few other stories. We are going to talk about the
RFK thing from yesterday.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
We just we have to.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
I've already seen weirdos, conspiracy weirdos saying that the crash
was to distract from that. Just stop it, just stop this,
take a day, touchgrass, as the kids say, okay, and
we'll be right back. A lot of changes in the
news cycle from you know, right around that seven o'clock mark.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
For sure.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
I actually sent prep a little early to Ross yesterday.
I won the cold contest that everyone else has been having.
But with this, this tragedy out of Reagan Airport, a
small commuter jet from American Airlines, one of the seven hundreds.
This a little tiny one, and I'm sure many of you,

(32:43):
if you fly, especially if you fly to DC Miami
short you know short routes around here, you've been on one.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
They've got a lot of them.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
Collided with a black Hawk helicopter military helicopter in very
spectacular and deadly fashion over the Potomac River, directly adjacent
to Reagan on final pro the Woodrow Wilson Bridge is
if if you've made the the Wilson Bridge, if you
don't know, is the one that uh uh wait, hold on,

(33:10):
I want to be. I want to be is al
is where Alexandria connects, but I think there's two of them,
so I just want to be clear. It's well, obviously
it's the furthest south one, and so if you've made
that approach, you go, the plane does a big turn.
You can see the Jefferson Monument, you can see in
the distance, the Washington Monument, Rock Creek Park, all that,
and you come in and you know, it's a fun
if if you love watching stuff from the air, it's

(33:31):
a really fun airport because you know, you recognize all
the stuff from DC.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
It's great.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
I love it. And I've been on that exact size
plane with that company, American Airlines and their subsidiaries, probably
a dozen times up to DC. And it's not my
favorite aircraft because it's it's just it's so tiny, but
you don't care. It's nice, short, little flight. And this

(33:57):
one was originating from Kansas. I would point out that
a lot of the crews I've seen on those regional
American carriers are especially for American or North Carolina base.
There's a lot of Charlotte based cruise. There's even some
Raleigh based crews.

Speaker 8 (34:14):
And.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
So if you fly a lot for business and a
lot of these regional commuters. I mean, there is every
chance in the world that maybe a crew member you
would recognize. So just you know, prayers for everyone there.
I know everyone gets whipped up for thoughts and prayers,
but it's what you can do right now, and what

(34:38):
Washington can do, and what this new administration can do
is understand that, yes, you walked in here, you are
your days into it. The Transportation Secretary's hours into his job.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
It's not quite you know.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
Obviously Bush had a little more distance, but you know
it was very early in his career when nine to
eleven happened. I'm not comparing the two things. I'm just
pointing out that you out of scramble, and I hope
that you know yesterday while members of Congress are screaming
at nominees over baby onesies and if you miss that, we.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
Will play it.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
You all can just just cool it today and if
there are people with it because.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
I looked it up. So do you know the last.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
Legacy carrier or partner I shouldn't say legacy carrier but
large aircraft crash was in the United States two thousand
and nine, two thousand and nine. That's amazing. That's an
amazing record. In fact, somebody sent me an email and

(35:42):
did the math here. Yeah, here we go. So in
the United States, between the two thousand and nine crash
and what transpired yesterday, here we go, we averaged thirteen
million commercial flights per year. That means between the last

(36:03):
major accident and this, we have had one hundred and
ninety five million flights commercial flights here in the United
States without well without crashing. Obviously there's incidents. I was,
we had a tire blow, I mean, just stuff like that.
And then the procedures are so good even when those

(36:23):
things happened, Even when me and my other passengers were
literally braced against our seats landing in Atlanta after we
blew a mad dog tire taken off out of Tampa
and we didn't know if the other one was blown.
They make it work through procedure and training. And on
the military side, same thing. So also it's important because

(36:46):
these things do have that effect. It's important that the
investigation comes out. They are open with it because it
is more complicated because it's civilian and military, and you know,
the Trump administration, one of the things they need to
do is every step of the way, let people know
what's going on, because one of the net effects of

(37:09):
a crash and under it's understandable is there is a
dip in air traffic. People go, People who are already
nervous of flying go, you know, I'll take the train
or the bus or I won't go, and and and
we get over it and then people more. But transparency
is going to get us there. And with people in
charge at DOT and at the Secretary of Defense being

(37:32):
hours or days into their job, it's going to be
important to draw on that. And the narrative of the
media to once to put out is that they fired everybody.
There's nobody knows what they're doing and some you know,
basically people didn't know what they were doing. Are are
it fouled here? And I don't believe that from it

(37:54):
doesn't make sense. They didn't just swap the air traffic
controllers at Reagan in the last week. So don't don't
take the bait on that stuff. All right, Like I said,
we've got a few things we got to get to.
We have invitations out to several elected officials who sit

(38:15):
on transportation committees. North Carolina has four or five, well,
they have four Republicans and there's a reason I'm leaning
into Republicans. I will gladly talk to a Democrat who's
on the Transportation committee. But this is going back to
where people are on Twitter and everyone's a reporter on
the same story.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
That clogs up the timeline.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
One of the things you learn early on when you
do reporting, or you do this version of it that
we do. And I used to be a straight reporter,
Now I do this. You have to prioritize, and if
you're young, you make a list who is the most
valuable person to talk to. Well, the most valuable person
in this case would be somebody who was on one

(38:57):
of those aircraft that's not going to be possible, than
the air traffic controller probably that's not going to be possible.
Then a witness who's in the proximity of this who
may have experience of either military aircraft or commercial or both. Right,
you rank all these things. That's what you acquire. And
when you go on the political side, you want to
talk to people who are on these committees, or you

(39:19):
want to talk to people within the departments secret you know,
in the Defense Department or in the Transportation or somebody
at the FAA.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
And then who's in power. You lean into.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
Their elected group because they likely will have more access
to more things. And I can do this in my
head now, but when I was younger, I used to
make a list for this stuff, and then you get
to work what's worth your time to track down and
and so for those of you out there, and there's
a lot of you who listen who also do the
news stuff, that's that's how I approach this stuff, okay,

(39:57):
And that's how we get new, interesting or useful information
out quickly. Like I said, there is a press conference
coming up. We'll see what's there. Ross is gonna listen
in while we do what we do. But let me
flip back to yesterday, where I hope the antics of
yesterday are a little tempered because I turned into that

(40:19):
RFK hearing and literally, as RFK is reading his opening statement,
the moonbats where.

Speaker 9 (40:28):
I am neither I am pro safety.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
By the way that person is interrupting an official proceeding
at the Congressional building. So was it a fifty dollars
fine or are they in jail for eight years?

Speaker 2 (40:56):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
I think they probably just got the fine. So with that,
let's go ahead and get into the the insane portion
of it. I normally I knock on like the the
some of the women senators who have been screaming in
some of these hearings, and of course Liz Warren will
make an appearance, but even some of the dudes were
in on. Even the Colorado Congressman Bennett was just absolutely

(41:22):
unhinged at the beginning of this.

Speaker 10 (41:24):
Did you say on a podcast and I quote, I
wouldn't leave it abortion to the states. My belief is
we should leave it to the woman. We shouldn't have
the government involved, even if it's full term. Did you
say that, mister senator?

Speaker 1 (41:41):
I believe every abortion is a tragedy.

Speaker 10 (41:44):
Did you say it, mister Kennedy?

Speaker 1 (41:46):
It just matters, It doesn't matter what.

Speaker 10 (41:49):
You come here and say.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
That he's screaming at him, and I don't. I don't
understand this tactic of screaming at like because you're not
adulting anymore. You're the You're no different than I am neither. Well,
hold on, you're no different than this.

Speaker 11 (42:05):
I am neither.

Speaker 9 (42:06):
I am pro safety.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
You're the same thing. When you do that isn't true.

Speaker 10 (42:11):
That's not reflective of what you really believe. That you
haven't said over decade after decade after decade, because unlike
other jobs we're confirming around this place, this is a
job where it is life and death for the kids
that I used to work for in the Denver public
schools and for families all over this country that Bennett's

(42:31):
own political party, including the mayor of Denver and others,
have decided that they are going to stand between accessing.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
In any public governmental setting, school setting or whatnot for
the purpose of the federal immigration enforcement right.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
And remember this whole.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
Mess, as I've told you, this by design thing of
the Biden administration with immigration has led to widespread suffering
and death. So the hypocrisy from the is it was
driving me nutty watching this yesterday.

Speaker 10 (43:08):
That are suffering from living in the richest country of
the world that can't deliver basic health care and basic
mental health here to them, it's too important for the
games that you're playing, mister Kennedy.

Speaker 2 (43:21):
And and I'm gonna stop him.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
There is anybody unclear that Kennedy's been a a has
been pro abortion. That's that was one of the things
that the Trump administration had to explain that this is
not because now it's the state's issue, Like nobody thinks
that RFK Junior is one hundred percent pro life, and

(43:45):
in fact that that's why there's some very conservative folks
who don't want him in there a little waste of time.
But then Elizabeth Warren and I want you to pick
up on what she's doing here because it's that insane.
I'm asking about sees from suing drug companies. Will you
agree not to do that? You're asking me to not

(44:05):
sue drug companies.

Speaker 5 (44:07):
I'm not going to agree to companies as much I want.

Speaker 12 (44:12):
I'm not going to agree to not sue drug companies
or anybody.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
What what is Elizabeth Warren is that she claims that's
not what it is. But when you when you talk
about fees for it, well, what lawyers are you going
to get to sue drug companies if they're not extracting fees.
So in essence, you're arguing that they don't sue drug companies,
that that's a Democrat position is wild to me. I

(44:38):
mean it's not because I understand where we are now,
and COVID entrenched a lot of this, and and Bennett
is one of the largest recipients. The other guy played
of pharmaceutical donations. Damn near a million dollars in the
last cycle. I mean, what are we doing here? Why
is any elected officials saying, well, you're not going to

(44:58):
sue drug companies. I'll let you figure out why that
may be. Now, that's not where Bernie Sanders went. Bernie
Sanders he went in a very different direction.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
He had beef with.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
Merch, specifically an organization that Kennedy is no longer with, however,
was part of, was one of the founders who sells
merch on their website, specifically baby merch, baby onesies. And
Sanders just can't deal. And he has like a picture

(45:36):
of the onesies.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Just listen to this.

Speaker 5 (45:38):
They are telling me what's called onesies, these little things
clothing for babies.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
By the way, when he says the word babies, he
sounds like you say. He says it this with disgust.
It's just his delivery, like a babies. Puh.

Speaker 5 (45:51):
They are telling me what's called onesies, these little things
clothing for babies. One of them is dialed on facts
on a frame. Next one of the sold for twenty
six bucks a piece, by the way, next one is
no vas.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
No problem.

Speaker 5 (46:08):
Now you're coming.

Speaker 9 (46:09):
Before this committee, and you say you're 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 cast.

Speaker 5 (46:23):
Fundamental doubt on ut on the usefulness of vaccines. Can
you tell us now that you will, now that you
are pro vaccine, that you're.

Speaker 9 (46:33):
Going to have your organization take these products off the market?

Speaker 13 (46:37):
Senator, I have no power over that organization, not your
heard of it.

Speaker 9 (46:40):
Resigned from the board.

Speaker 5 (46:41):
That was just a few months ago. You founded that.
You certainly have power you could make that. How are
you supportive of this?

Speaker 12 (46:49):
I've had nothing to do.

Speaker 5 (46:50):
With your supportive of these onesies?

Speaker 1 (46:52):
I'm supportive of that will be one of the greatest
political lines ever. Are you supportive of these onesies? Thank you?

Speaker 2 (46:57):
Bernie vaccines?

Speaker 9 (46:58):
Are you supportive of these this clothing which is militantly
anti vaccine? I am supportive of vaccines.

Speaker 12 (47:06):
Well, I want good science and I want to protect
But you.

Speaker 5 (47:10):
Will not tell the organization you founded not to continue
selling that product.

Speaker 1 (47:15):
Thank you, bro.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
It's a onesie.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
By the way, if it was militantly opposed, they would
be puncture proof.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
Right.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Is this now the thing if you have troubling onesies
in your past, I mean, Ross, do you have any
troubling onesies in your family's past with Lincoln? I mean
anything I need to know because apparently this is a
no now that you know of. Okay, that's weird. I
think I had a Duke's a hazard onesie, So I
s probably pack up all the stuff right because I

(47:47):
was baby and couldn't not put it on. I think
there's a picture. I think it's Dukes. It has the
same color. I don't know, it's been so long since
I've seen it, but yeah, like this, this is where
we are. So that's where we were, and then six
hours later, obviously we're we're dealing with the story literally
just down the street, a very tragic loss of life there.

(48:08):
So yeah, I'm gonna need everyone in DC to adult
for a few days. Okay, and you can get back
to the stupidity, but you need to and stop whinding
about blueberries and smoothies and everything under the sun. Figure out.
I mean, I understand you got to deal with the
nominations and go forward, but you're screaming about onesies. Bro,

(48:29):
And I remember seeing a girl dressed as Sluttie Bernie
Sanders for Halloween, so I don't want to hear it.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
We'll be back.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
I have a quick intro. The press conference has begun.
Mary O.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
Bowser, Washington, DC Mayor speaking right now. Let's go to
it events last night.

Speaker 8 (48:44):
I'm joined by US Transportation Secretary of Sean Duffy, DC
Fire and the MP's chief John Donnelly, American Airline CEO
Robert Eisen, the MLONG, the Washington Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority
CEO Jack Carter, you A United States Senator Mark Warner,

(49:06):
United States Senator Tim Kine, US Representative uh Don Bayer,
as well as the treats of the Metropolitan a Police Department.

Speaker 11 (49:14):
Pamela Smith UH. And we are joined.

Speaker 8 (49:17):
By first responders from across the Metropolitan Washington region. I
speak for all of us when I say it's certainly
all Washingtonians. How very sad.

Speaker 11 (49:28):
We are, UH, for.

Speaker 8 (49:32):
American Airlines, for the United States Department of Defense, and
for all Americans for the loss of life that happened
with the collision of these aircrafts. We know, UH that
includes families from across our region as well as in
Kansas and across the country. UH. This morning, we all

(49:54):
share in the profouncis of Greeed. I do want to
thank the first responders who acted quickly last night, who
ran towards danger, went into a very frigid river, and
have worked throughout the night. Uh. Chief Donnaly reported and
last night l last night's briefing that we have a

(50:14):
strong mutual aid agreement in our region and those teams
have worked together throughout the night and really tough and
heartbreaking conditions, and we should all thank.

Speaker 11 (50:24):
Them for their heroic affirts.

Speaker 8 (50:26):
So we'll have several updates today. I'm first gonna Chod
turn to the Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, and Uh
then you will hear directly from achieved John Donnelly with
a situational updates.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
And just remind her Duffy has literally been on this job.

Speaker 14 (50:44):
And Homer again, Uh shown Duffy here, Uh, Secretary of Transportation.
Uh we wish uh we were gathering for different purposes.
Uh today we just won't let you know that.

Speaker 3 (50:55):
Uh.

Speaker 14 (50:55):
The the Department of Transportation, the FAA, along with the
White House, President Trump, local state and federal partners all
working together on this incident in Unison. I couldn't be
prouder of this team that's been assembled working tirelessly.

Speaker 11 (51:12):
May want to thank you specifically for your work.

Speaker 14 (51:15):
A few details I'd like to give all of you,
and some of you reported this, but last night. If
you live in the DC area, you would know that
this was a clear night last night.

Speaker 11 (51:27):
The helicopter was in a standard pattern.

Speaker 14 (51:30):
If you live in the DCRE, you'll see helicopters up
and down the river. This flight pattern is seen oftentimes
when you live in DC. This was a standard flight
pattern last night as well. The American Airline flight coming
into land was in a standard flight pattern as it
was coming into DCA, So this was not unusual with

(51:52):
a military aircraft flying the river and aircraft.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
Landing at DCA.

Speaker 14 (51:57):
And again if you live in the area, you'll see
that equally with those two aircraft working together as you were.
Many group reported. We have located the two aircrafts. The
fuselage of the American Airline plane was inverted. It's been

(52:23):
located in three different sections. It's in about waste deep water.
So that recovery is going to go on today. As
that recovery takes place of the of the fuselage of
the aircraft, NTSB is going to start to analyze that aircraft,
partner with the FAA with all of the information we
have to get the best results possible for the American people.

Speaker 11 (52:47):
Would to say that.

Speaker 14 (52:50):
Safety is our expectation. Everyone who flies in American skies
expects that we fly safely, that when you depart an
airport you get to your destination.

Speaker 11 (53:02):
That didn't happen last night. And I know the President Trump.

Speaker 14 (53:06):
His administration, the FAA, the DOT we will not rest
until we have answers for the families and for the
flying public. You should be assured that when you fly,
you're safe.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
Thank you all right here as we're going to the
DC Fire and Rescue cheat.

Speaker 11 (53:28):
Thank you Secretary, Thank you Mayor. I'm joined today by with.

Speaker 4 (53:32):
Fire Chip Bonnet from the Metropopit and Washington Airport's Authority,
and I'm John Donnelly, chief to the District of Columbia
Fire and MS Department. Last night, at eight forty eight,
the control tower sounded an alert which alerts responders to
respond to a report of an aircraft crash on or
near the airport. That sets off an immediate response from

(53:55):
the airport authority, Fire Department from the District of Columbia
and Metropolitan Harbor Control fireboats and other fireboats on the
river in order to support that type of operation. Very
quickly this call escalated. It became the responders realized that
they had a plane crash and immediately escalated to a

(54:17):
response that ultimately included about three hundred people. Last night.
These responders found extremely frigid conditions, they found heavy wind,
they found ice on the water, and they are operated
all night in those conditions. I'd like to take a
moment to acknowledge the agencies that responded, in addition to
DC Fire and UMS in the Metropropital Washington Airports Authority,

(54:41):
Montgomery County Fire Department, the Prince George's County Fire Department,
the Charles County Fire Department, the Baltimore County Police Department,
the an Arundel County Fire Department, the Alexandria Fire Department,
the Arlington County Fire Department, the Fairfax Fire Department, the
Prince William Fire Department, the Baltimore City Police Department, the

(55:01):
Maryland State Police, the Maryland Natural Resources Police, the Department
of Defense, the Joint Base in Bowling Fire Department and
the staff there, the US Army and the US Coast Guard,
the United States Park Police, the Metropolitan Police Department, the FBI,
and the NTSP. Despite all those efforts, we are now

(55:25):
at the point where we are switching from a rescue
operation to a recovery operation. At this point, we don't
believe there are any survivors from this.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
Accident, and we have the twenty seven between people from.

Speaker 4 (55:38):
The plane and one from the helicopter. The District Office
of the Medical Examiner has lead on reuniting these bodies
and these people with their loved ones, and we will
continue to work to find all the bodies and collect
them and reunite them with their loved ones. We should
also acknowledge that the Virginia Metaical Examiner and the Army

(56:03):
Medical Examiner are involved in this operation and a very
important part of getting people identified.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
So here comes the merri again.

Speaker 8 (56:18):
Our hearts are certainly with all of the crew and
American Airlines, and we'll hear from the CEO.

Speaker 15 (56:23):
I say thank you, Marra, good morning.

Speaker 11 (56:31):
I'm Robert eis from the CEO of American Airlines.

Speaker 15 (56:34):
I want to express my sincere condolences for the accident
that happened at DCA last night. We're absolutely heartbroken for
the family and loved ones of the passengers and crew members,
and also for those that were on the military aircraft.
Our focus right now is doing everything that we can
to support all of those involved and also the PSA

(56:57):
Airlines team.

Speaker 11 (56:58):
This is devastating, it's we are all hurting incredibly.

Speaker 15 (57:05):
We urge any family and friends looking for information about
their loved ones to call our designative helpline, and that's
one eight hundred six seven nine eight two one five
one eight hundred sixty seven nine eight two one five.

Speaker 11 (57:23):
But here's what I can share at this early stage.

Speaker 15 (57:26):
American American Eagle Flight fifty three forty two, operated by
PSA Airlines, traveling from Wichita, Kansas to Reagan.

Speaker 11 (57:36):
National Airport, was involved in an accident.

Speaker 15 (57:39):
Just before nine pm local time on final approach into
Reagan National they collided with a military aircraft on an
otherwise normal approach.

Speaker 11 (57:51):
At this time, we don't know why.

Speaker 15 (57:54):
The military aircraft came into the path of the PSA aircraft.
Fifty three two a CRJ seven hundred, was under the
command of four crew members. They carried sixty passengers, as
you know, for a total of sixty four people on
board In addition to local resources already here in DC,
American Analyis has activated our Care Team, and that's a

(58:16):
group of specialists that are trained to support.

Speaker 11 (58:19):
These types of responses.

Speaker 15 (58:22):
These team members are on site, are arriving soon, and additionally,
we have members of our Go team that are on
the ground here in DC and they're being deployed with
resources to do everything that we can to take care
of the needs of the families and the loved ones
of the passengers and crew members, and that is our

(58:44):
sole focus. We're so grateful for the first responders. They've
been working through the night courageous efforts. But we're actively
working with local, state, and federal authorities on emergency response efforts.

Speaker 11 (58:59):
And closely coordating with PSA Airlines.

Speaker 15 (59:02):
As they cooperate fully with the NTSB on the investigation.

Speaker 11 (59:08):
I know that there are many questions that in this
early stage.

Speaker 1 (59:12):
All rights will go ahead and come out of this.
So we'll we have it up here and we'll continue
to watch and see. I wanted to hear from the
American Airline CEO for two things. One his description of
it was the black Hawk crossed into the path of
I don't know that that's official but that is what

(59:33):
I think a lot of aviation people are thinking. Why
that happened, We don't know. And I was hoping he'd
say where the crew was based, because there are many
many crew members that fly American airlines these regional jets
that are North Carolina based. I've flown enough of them
over the years, so we'll keep an eye on that.
Let's go ahead and grab raced Agic from the weather
Channel and that's you know, weather plays into this. At

(59:55):
the top of the press conference, they said it was
an absolutely clear, beautiful night in in d C. And
and still this happened, so yeah, and.

Speaker 12 (01:00:06):
Dragging in on that man, but no, a little, a
little yeah, a little breeze certainly irrelevant now now that
we heard it. It's a recovery effort. But the Potomac
thirty six degrees, so yeah, unfortunately, and we was going
to go downhill to rain tonight, rain probably tomorrow in
the recovery area, and temperatures will stay a well but freezing,

(01:00:30):
so we don't have to worry about any frozen precipitation.
But the weekend looks like dry weather returns and probably
dry weather it'sill about the middle of next week. There, So, yeah, unfortunate.
Doesn't look like whether it's a factor at least at
this time, Casey, I mean, as you said, it was.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Clear, So yeah, it was clear, and uh, but where
the factor is and you and you pointed it out
is and I kind of stepped on it and I
didn't mean to. They said that there are still several
bodies missing from the civilian craft and one from the
military craft. And so you start stacking rain in there
with the cold weather, and it does make things more difficult.

Speaker 12 (01:01:06):
So yeah, it does. Yeah, we'll see some of the
rain too, not today, tonight, tomorrow, especially tomorrow. The weekend's
going to look good here as we'll be back in
the upper fifties, low sixties, warmers days to come though.
Early next week they see a couple of days we
get close to seventies, so little rain, but most of
the next five to seven days is going to be dry, mild.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
All right, thank you, we'll talk in an hour.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
They are now they've now switched over to the politician portion,
So the first of the Virginia senators, Mark Warner's up there.
We'll keep an eye and report back in just a
few and coming up on the show, eight oh five,
Stephen Kent will join us our NERD correspondent, and we
have some stories obviously we're going to talk about with him.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
We got some other news stories we're going to get
to as we're watching this.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
But Stephen wasn't going to be with us today, and
I'll explain why coming up next here on the CaCO
Day Radio program. Again, just a visual for you if
you're driving this morning, if you've ever flown into rain,
but just you know, just think of it. North to
south with the Potomac there basically runs north to south.
Reagan is on the left side, Joint Base Anacosta's on

(01:02:08):
the right. This particular approach which is thirty three, which
if you don't you should be. If you're a pilot,
you can visualize that or you understand why they label
them that way. But it is the plane comes in
in the and it's flying northwest in the direction when
it lands, so it literally goes, it approaches goes down

(01:02:28):
by the Arlington Bridge, Woodrow Wilson Bridge. There you make
that big turn. I like this approach. You make a
big turn there, you're flying along the east side of
the river. You got it, two ninety five down there,
and then when you make that last final turn so
that you're pointing northwest, if you're on the right side
of the aircraft, Like I'm one of these weird people

(01:02:48):
who pick sides of the aircraft.

Speaker 2 (01:02:50):
Because I like windows and stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
But and it's clear you're going to get a glimpse
of the Jefferson Memorial. Prior to that, you'll see the
Washington Monument in the distance. It's very cool approach, as
is the northerly approach there. Reagan is a very unique airport.
So currently what we were able to learn is that
they have recovered two of the three military passengers on

(01:03:13):
the military aircraft and just twenty seven on the commercial
and if you remember the souls on board, as they say,
was sixty four if you include crew, so more than
half of the people who were on the American Airlines
flight as of this point are still unrecovered, and multiple

(01:03:33):
people have sod we don't expect any survivors. We did
run a little of that, but they reiterated that several
times Thursday morning, And obviously, if you've listened to even
a moment of the show, or been on social media,
or I don't know, just not been under a rock.
You realize there is a big story continuing to unfold

(01:03:54):
up in DC. We just carried some of the press
conference there with the mayor and the American Airlines CEO,
some elected officials, some other bureaucrats, and at this point
about half the passengers the American Airlines flight have been recovered.
They don't expect survivors, and two of the three on

(01:04:14):
the military aircraft that of course shut down what is
very busy, albeit one of the smaller airports, but still
a busy one in a very busy air space surrounded
by Dallas and BWI, and really one of my favorite airports,
to be quite honest with you, just because of the
views you get there. That is expected to reopen at eleven.

(01:04:35):
And one of the folks that actually was impacted by
that because he was supposed to be on a flight
this morning. He lives in the DC area, as we've mentioned,
and that is Stephen Kent. Good morning, Stephen. How are
you doing, sir?

Speaker 3 (01:04:48):
Good morning? Case doing about as good as we can do.
It's a weird day in DC.

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
Absolutely which time you were flying out of Reagan, right.

Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
Yes, sir, Yeah, I was headed out of Reagan this
morning on American Airlines here in just about an hour.
So I just woke up to this really uncomfortable and
unsettling news.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
And I'm curious what not, because this is not me
picking on American I'm just curious. What are they communicated
to you, as one of the people now who's obviously
your flight isn't going to leave in an hour because
they're not real open at eleven. Did they send you,
guys an email? What did it say or is it
just standard let's get you rescheduled?

Speaker 8 (01:05:29):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
Yeah, just just notification of canceled flights overnight while while
we were all sleeping. So that's That's about the long
and short of it. You have to call in in
situations like this to get your your flight rebooked, so
they don't allow for it to be done online right now.

Speaker 1 (01:05:45):
Okay, well I wish you were here under better terms, man.

Speaker 8 (01:05:48):
But.

Speaker 3 (01:05:50):
Yeah, you know this is a this is a bad
one for DC.

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
Yeah. Yeah, And you you fly a lot, like you're
you're mister International, You're James Bond going over to Poland
and stuff, But like, are you are you a comfortable flyer?
Do you like flying?

Speaker 3 (01:06:04):
I I am a comfortable flyer. I enjoy it very much.
And you know, just thinking about the landing on the Potomac,
it's it's always a it's a it's a side splitting one.
You start to feel a little bit uncomfortable, and you
see that river coming in, and you think the plane
that's going to land in the water every time, and
my heart just kind of breaks for these these people

(01:06:24):
who were at that moment of ah, we made it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
And and seeing and seeing the light on the Washington
Monument probably like it's a cool approach for on the
right side of the aircraft there, so yea, yeah, probably
taking pictures. I mean, it's just you think about all
the stuff you do, so I don't want to dwell
upon it, but I just want to give people a
sense of kind of how those impacted. Secondarily how that's

(01:06:48):
how that's looking for you guys. So all right, well
let me uh, let me. There's no easy transition here,
but I do have to get to a few things
since we have you, one of which is, uh, really
the net effect of a lot of things we've seen
with various actors deciding to go ahead and sit down
and do a little Q and A, and for the

(01:07:09):
most part, like we only see the stuff that goes
horribly right. Really, the fans only see the good stuff.
You know. To chew that up is you have to
have somebody say something crazy, or you have to have
a guy at BlizzCon mock the Diablo developers before you
go viral. And Anthony Mackie is an actor. I like

(01:07:29):
Anthony Mackie, who is the new Captain America, was doing
a pretty innocuous Q and A. And he made a
statement the other day and I'm gonna play it and
immediately Ross is like, oh my gosh, you see this,
and yeah, here is Mackie talking about his role in
the New Captain America.

Speaker 11 (01:07:48):
For to me, Captain.

Speaker 16 (01:07:49):
America represents a lot of different things, and I don't
think the term you know, America should be one of
those representations, Like it's about.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
A man who keeps.

Speaker 16 (01:08:02):
His word, who has honored dignity and integrity, of someone
who is trustworthy and dependable.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
You and I think to some extent you might have
helped me shape the way that I handle this because
we've had so many of these conversations. I then think,
have I ever heard Anthony Mackie say really crazy stuff?
What is and if not does he mean something else.
I'm having a hard time one. I've never heard him
say crazy stuff. I like Anthony Mackie. But secondly, I

(01:08:31):
don't know how that you'd think that that doesn't sound bad.
So help me out.

Speaker 3 (01:08:37):
Yeah, you know, I try to be charitable in situations
like this. I think this is someone who's dealing with
just a little bit of post election fatigue and disappointment,
which is fine. It's not a crime or wrong to
be a Democrat in Hollywood. And what he is saying
here is America or Captain America is supposed to represent honesty, honor, dignity, integrity,

(01:09:02):
and he says that, you know, America doesn't necessarily embody
all of these things. And this is a pretty boiler
plate for Captain America as a character. The character since
its inception has always had to deal with disillusionment, skepticism
about whoever's empowered any guan time, I'm reminded of Captain

(01:09:24):
America one seventy five. This goes back to the Nixon years.
In nineteen seventy four, Captain America just goes rug and
becomes this guy named Nomad after he becomes disillusioned with
what's going on with the US government, and you get
all the way up to the two thousands and the
War Hunt Terror era, and similarly, you have the Civil
War movies where Captain America resists the Superhero Registration Act

(01:09:48):
and breaks with the government because they are no longer
embodying the ideals at which he stands for. So Anthony
Mackie's saying this, I mean, this is basically election fatigue,
but it does kind of go to the core of
who Captain America is as a character. I just I
just really wish he hadn't said this, because the movies

(01:10:08):
had nothing but good press up until this point.

Speaker 1 (01:10:12):
Yeah, it's ross and I were talking about this the
other day. There's reasons some people won't see it Captain
America Steve Rodgers purist, right, which is, you know, that's
just that's that's fine, that's that that's a fan thing.

Speaker 2 (01:10:23):
And then they may not see it on the superhero movies.
But it's like.

Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
Marvel is is trying to with the upcoming Avengers continuation.
They're clearly trying to get back to what got them here,
and Captain America is one of the you know, the
series one or the first Fly. What is the term
I'm looking for the first grouping. Yeah, first Avenger, but
I mean the first series of movies, the first bundle

(01:10:48):
of movies that made them an ungodly sum of money.
And yeah, that's clearly what they're leaning back into. So
it's like you you have to separate the ones where
fans are still like, yes, we really want to see
them from what they've been fed most recently, which included controversy.
And this just kind of drags it all along. Yeah,

(01:11:11):
it does.

Speaker 3 (01:11:11):
And his clarifying statement has been quote, let me be
clear about this. I'm a proud American and taking on
the shield of a hero is the honor of a lifetime.
I have respect for those who serve and serve the country.
And Captain America has universal characteristics that people all around
the world relate to. I mean, this is obviously true.
The ideals of Captain America are something that the entire

(01:11:34):
world is supposed to look towards. It's just like the
American flag is meant to be a beacon. But of
course we have a situation, well a political situation where
people don't always agree that America is living up to
its ideals. And you know, we can all agree to
disagree on that. This is just sort of bad promo
practices for any movie Hollywood actors, producers. They go out

(01:11:56):
and they say things that polarize people. And you know,
back in the day, he didn't really have this problem
in the twenty four hour news cycle.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
No, I would agree. And to your point with Captain,
as you go through the generations, you know, you talk
about when was the first Captain.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
America comic book? Oh, how far back does that go?

Speaker 1 (01:12:15):
I don't even I don't even know when he came
on the scene, but like you're right, he's World World.

Speaker 3 (01:12:21):
War two, nineteen forty.

Speaker 1 (01:12:23):
Yeah, yeah, I didn't know how far after if it
was actually during. My point is that was the attitude
of the country for World War Two was very raw,
rod different. We had the whole period where we're fighting
the Communists. So Captain America's leaning into that. I understand
the evolution there. But in each of those instances, would
it never what it never gave, never yielded, was that

(01:12:48):
Captain was the superior model. Right, It's very obviously it's
very patriotic, the colors the name to everything, even if
what they were doing messing with Central America or Vietna
or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:13:00):
Maybe wasn't the right thing.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
They still had the they still had the ego with it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:05):
Do you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 3 (01:13:07):
Yep, yep, you got to have a little chest bumpery
there and uh yeah. You know, to say that Captain
America doesn't necessarily represent America is obviously just a foot
in mouth moment of epic proportions. What Anthony Mackie should
have just said is, you know, I'm concerned with the
trajectory of America. I'm not sure we're living up to
our ideals, but Captain America obviously represents America.

Speaker 2 (01:13:32):
Or hey, this is great.

Speaker 1 (01:13:33):
Uh, I'm glad I'm getting a much bigger paycheck than
I have for the past movies. How many of these actors, though,
are worried about it. There's one of the voice actor
by the name of Hudson Tames Thames Tames, and we
pronounce it yeah yeah. So he is part of an
upcoming animated Disney series, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider Man, and
he's in an interview so that his biggest fear about

(01:13:55):
the project is it would be woke, annoying and woke
is what he said. Uh, how many actors think that
because they can see what's happened to the wocust other
versions of their colleagues. How many think it versus verbalized
And I'm impressed he verbalized it. I'm sure there's a
lot of actors who have thought it. They're the ones
who just do standard press interviews and don't get into

(01:14:17):
this stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
Or do you think that?

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
Do you think that what's happening politically in our country
freed this guy up to feel comfortable enough saying that
and more will maybe behind the scenes try to dewoke
projects they're on because they want to make money.

Speaker 3 (01:14:34):
Yeah, you know, I think it's not a coincidence that
Hudson Thames is a pretty young actor thirty years old,
really represents I think a younger generation that is pretty
exasperated with a lot of the politicization and wokeness that
goes on with a lot of Gen X actors and

(01:14:54):
older millennials. You know, one of the things that drove
the Trump election was just noticing that people under the
age of thirty are are pretty tired of this kind
of stuff. And it's pretty notable that Hudson James was
comfortable saying this. Now one of his colleagues, the showrunner
Jeff Tremmel, who is a kind of an older black guy.

(01:15:17):
He mentioned that, you know, I love Hudson, and I'm
trying not to focus on what he said. I believe
he misspoke. That's a funny way to put it. I
believe he misspoke when he said that. Later, Yeah, he
was pretty clear. I thought this show would be woke
and lame, and it turns out it wasn't. He didn't
misspeak at all. And then he's urging the showrunner people

(01:15:40):
to still go and give it a shake. So he's
basically saying that leftists on Twitter are angry about this.
But here's the thing, Casey, a spider Man show, the
Friendly Neighborhood spider Man and cartoon on Disney Plus is
not going to succeed or fail based on adults on
Twitter being angry or happy about a show. A spider

(01:16:03):
Man animated series is going to succeed if people under
the age of fifteen, also known as children, happen to
get on Disney Plus, watch the show randomly tell their
friends it's awesome, and then they all watch it organically.
These shows are so driven in the press cycle by
the opinions of adults, and they don't matter. They are

(01:16:25):
the minority of the audience. It has to appeal to
kids organically, and so I think we get often, like
very derailed on adult conversations about the politics of movies.
Kids either think it's lame or they think it's awesome.
And we'll see if Friendly Spider Man is actually enjoyable.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
Well. And obviously parents to some extent who pay very
close attention also pay attention to the news cycle. But
you're right, your eight year old doesn't give a crap Jesus,
like this is cool or it ain't cool.

Speaker 3 (01:16:54):
No, And it reminds me of when I was chaperoning
kids at the boy Scout camp I go and do
work at over the summer, and you know, all the
kids at the Gaga ball pit, we're all just sort
of laughing about the state of Star Wars and like, hey,
have you seen like the New Acolytes show. No, no, no,

(01:17:15):
I'm not watching that. Dah dah dad, I'm watching this.
And all the kids are watching anime, right, They're just
talking about anime and one Piece and what's going on
on YouTube, and they're just sort of knee slapping over
the state of Star Wars because nobody cares. It's just
adults yelling at each other about the state of this
old ip and I love Star Wars, but you know,

(01:17:37):
kids are going to do their own thing independent of
who's happy and who's mad.

Speaker 1 (01:17:41):
On Twitter Ubisoft, this is when we're looking for tales
of you know, changing changing landscape. Obviously, video games get
a lot of discussion, and now the video game studio
says it will laugh one hundred and eighty five staff
speaking of Star Wars, that was one of their big misses.

(01:18:02):
They've had a few, but they've had a lot of
success too, So how quickly the tables have turned?

Speaker 2 (01:18:10):
Here? What's going on with this?

Speaker 1 (01:18:11):
Is it just a restructuring a summer saying, or is
this this is going to be something we're going to
see a few more times.

Speaker 3 (01:18:19):
You know, I'm really curious what you think on this
one casey, but to me, this looks like there's going
to be a private sector wave and I think Meta
and Facebook was sort of leading the way on this
where everybody feels a little bit more comfortable with the
political wins changing and pressure from Washington d C alleviating

(01:18:39):
in the election of Donald Trump, and sort of the
new attacks on DEI infrastructures to do things like say,
oh my god, we have one hundred and eighty five
useless people at this company who we hired to check
boxes and do nothing except change the hair color of
our characters when we put them into our video games.

(01:19:02):
And we're going to tighten our belt until we actually
make money. I think we're going to see a return
a lot of companies towards making money and moving away
from sort of an ESG mindset where they're supposed to
be socially responsible versus be raw capitalist profitable ventures. That's
what I'm seeing here, But it just really comes out

(01:19:22):
of Ubisoft producing one failure of a game after another.

Speaker 1 (01:19:27):
Yeah, and we don't have time to get into it.

Speaker 2 (01:19:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:19:30):
I take the same approach on everything as like yesterday,
Netflix is doing Little House on the Prairie. I'm so nervous,
and I know a lot of our folks are, and
I'll get into more of that ten seconds. Should we
be nervous or patiently wait and see?

Speaker 3 (01:19:43):
It's always patiently wait and see. Don't get caught up
in the negative hype cycles. Enjoy your life, watch shows
and soucide for yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:19:50):
Okay, all right, Steven Kent, appreciate it. Thank you for
joining us this morning. We'll talk soon, sir.

Speaker 3 (01:19:55):
Take care.

Speaker 1 (01:19:56):
All right, There you go Stephen Kent with NERD News
and obviously an update from DC that he's dealing with.
So we really appreciate that and we'll be back. How
many of you loved you? Some little house on the prairie,
some Michael landing back in the day. I don't know
why there's still for some reason in my mind I
can there's like I have a really weird photographic memory

(01:20:18):
that sometimes is really good at stuff and most of
the times is cluttering. Somebody would We had a guy
who was like, was complimenting, complimenting me on describing that
landing at Reagan. If it's if it's a navigation, I
can go somewhere some like one time, and I can
get myself back there and it doesn't even have to

(01:20:39):
be in this country, could be in any country. It's
just I don't know. I don't know why that is.
And so I happen to be a window sitter on
a plane, so like my brain knows the approaches at
airports I've flown into several times I can tell you
all the Raleigh approaches, obviously, and the Miami ones, and
I like pick to see which ones I like. I
can't remember people's names. I meet him three minus minutes ago,

(01:21:00):
so but I remember one of my I just just
dawned upon me. I remember because we had reader digest
in the house that I remember for a long time.
We had one, you know, in the bathroom you got
the little bucket with the magazines. Back in the day
before phones. There was a copy with Michael Landon on
the cover that sat in there forever. I don't know
why I remember that, but I do, you know, in

(01:21:21):
his Little House on the Prairie, get up. Unfortunately, this
is how the press release reads. Little House on the Prairie,
A reimagining of the Laura Ingalls Wilder book series.

Speaker 2 (01:21:34):
Is coming to Netflix.

Speaker 1 (01:21:35):
Part family drama, part survival tale, and part origin story,
the series will offer a kaleidoscope view of the struggles
and triumphs of those who shaped the American West. Now
was the interactions between settlers and let's say, natives or
soldiers even, you know, a lot of people don't realize

(01:21:58):
that there was a lot of shenanigans with soldiers that
we had out there in their interactions, like they could
be conscripted or bought for mercenary purposes, and some ranchers
would hire soldiers to go and hurt other ranchers or
hurt their livestock and stuff. There's a lot of crazy,
serious stories that obviously weren't part of it because That's
Little House on the Prairie was a drama targeted a

(01:22:21):
families and there were a lot of relatable things, even
if you've never donned a bonnet hat in the middle
of you know, the prairie prior to the dust Bowl
and everything that they had to deal with, it wasn't
about that. It was in the same way The Waltons
wasn't necessarily about the era it was set. Annie Griffiths Show.
We see it that we see that retroactively, but well

(01:22:45):
Annie Griffith Show really took place kind of a very similar,
closer timeline, but like it wasn't about all of that.
Unfortunately though, it means that a lot of the interactions
are not historically accurate, but there wasn't an expect for
them to be. And so that's where I wonder, well,
what are you going to do? How do you keep

(01:23:07):
this a family appointment. It was appointment watching had less options.
But still Little House on the Prairie was immensely popular.
In fact, I called let me grab this. I called
up literally the uh oh oh, where here we go?

Speaker 2 (01:23:25):
A Little House on the Prairie.

Speaker 1 (01:23:28):
Yeah, when it first aired, actually just cracked the top
twenty five. And then year after year it gets more
and more, all right, So yeah, I mean, this was
an immensely popular show. However, I'm just on the cusp
of remembering Little House on the Prairie. So if you're

(01:23:48):
under the age of forty, I'm sure you don't remember
it much at all, so I guess you have nothing
to base it against. But yeah, that's I just want
to give you the full rundown there. It doesn't have
necessarily a timeline on this, but I can see why
people are wondering, oh my gosh, what's well Hollywood going
to do to this?

Speaker 2 (01:24:06):
How dare you?

Speaker 1 (01:24:08):
You didn't even necessarily think it was a sacred calf
until now, But who knows. Maybe they get something up
there that's enjoyable, not too far deviated. And most importantly,
you you can't break up that family dynamic. Man, I

(01:24:30):
have to think they won't. But it was the core
component of the show. It was look out the family
that is strong in the face of adversity, which settlers
fet my own family faced, getting in a wagon and
going to Wyoming where they hadn't even fully established Fort
Phil Carney's surveillance, if you will, or where they would

(01:24:52):
go around to make sure that there weren't skirmishes with
natives there.

Speaker 2 (01:24:55):
Like, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:24:57):
I remember growing up there. I'm like, this is nuts,
this is great what you came out here and none
of this was here except people who really the crow
were very aggressive along that portion of the Bozeman Trail.
That's why they established those bases. That's why you have
the the you know fort Whatever's along there, which by
that was the base Custer came out of.

Speaker 2 (01:25:20):
Like you said, there was some stuff going on.

Speaker 1 (01:25:24):
But but with with with family and love and yes
even religion, which was portraying that show, you you could
overcome the adversity. That was this insane decision that that
people made.

Speaker 2 (01:25:43):
So I really hope they stick with it.

Speaker 1 (01:25:46):
Oh what is this? Have you watched American Prize? Yes,
I have watched American Prime Evil. I am down with that.
I'm still I don't know. I just haven't talked about
it in the areaet I got a I got a
weird range for stuff. All right, let me hit a
few other things. Go back over your one house, a
little house on the prairie. I will tell you this.

(01:26:07):
I saw this clip yesterday, thought this was incredibly interesting.
So the former president of Kenya is speaking, and they've
got a bunch of different African leaders, both current and former,
at this gathering there, and he actually did this in English,
and he's talking about what is everyone's been talking about,

(01:26:29):
and that is the funding freeze, the funding pause, because
there is almost not a nation in Africa that doesn't
receive some sort of financial assistance or partnership with the
United States. And most of the leaders were whining and
moaning and complaining over this, and then this dude gets
up and let me tell you, Yeah, I'm not an isolationist,

(01:26:54):
not at all. I think that there are way too
many things were involved in doing you know, fifty four
million to Burma for I don't even know what that
was for, essentially for college or something. But there are
a lot of things that make sense, and strategic alliances
and partnerships are important, and I think that the Trump

(01:27:15):
administration understands. I don't think they're isolationists, but these are
the kinds of world leaders that if it makes sense
for the benefit of America and for their country for
us to have strategic partnerships, to have trade deals that
are more favorable than others.

Speaker 2 (01:27:33):
I don't have a problem with it.

Speaker 1 (01:27:35):
And that's what we want, and it was good to
see somebody who gets it in a room of people
complaining about it.

Speaker 17 (01:27:42):
People the other day crying, Oh, I don't know. Trump
has removed money. He said he's not giving us any
more money.

Speaker 1 (01:27:54):
Why are you crying?

Speaker 18 (01:27:55):
Is not your government, is not your country.

Speaker 1 (01:28:00):
He's giving some applause too.

Speaker 18 (01:28:03):
He has he has no he has no reason to
to give you anything. I mean, hey, you don't pay
taxes in America. He's appealing to his people, should he
any one? This is a wake up call for you
to say, Okay, what are we going to do.

Speaker 2 (01:28:22):
To help ourselves?

Speaker 18 (01:28:24):
Instead of crying to to to you, Liza, what are
we going to do?

Speaker 8 (01:28:29):
Hi?

Speaker 18 (01:28:29):
Am a true are you?

Speaker 1 (01:28:31):
I'm not gonna Jamin?

Speaker 18 (01:28:32):
What are we going to do?

Speaker 3 (01:28:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 18 (01:28:35):
To support ourselves because nobody is going to continue holding
out a hand there to give you.

Speaker 17 (01:28:42):
It is time for us to use.

Speaker 18 (01:28:45):
Our resources for the right things.

Speaker 17 (01:28:46):
We are the ones who are using them for the
wrong things.

Speaker 1 (01:28:49):
Okay, all right, And there's there's so much complex there.
I don't pretend to fully understand it. You have Chinese
exploitation with a lot of these companies. It's pretty crazy,
but that's true. And it actually speaks to the larger
philosophy of setting up welfare that is so high that
it doesn't incentivize people to who can go out and work,

(01:29:09):
create safety nets that ever increase so that we have
the highest state of welfare. If you're on welfare in
the United States, you are richer and make more money
than almost every country in the world. To think about that,
and it de incentivizes people. And so I'm good on this, dude.

(01:29:31):
He's absolutely right, And shame on only about a third
and half of the room applauding them. So you know,
it's like the money is all going to dry up.
There's going to be programs and there are countries strategically
in Africa that we partner with for a variety of reasons,
whether it's bases, could you know, terrorism concerns, shipping right

(01:29:54):
with Egypt and also shipping lanes further down that are
controlled in many cases by things like HOOTI rebels or
some only pirates, So good on him. All right, let's
get ray stage. You can hear from the weather channel.

Speaker 5 (01:30:09):
And.

Speaker 1 (01:30:10):
We're looking forward to those higher temps. I like that
you're snagging around the weekend. Unfortunately, there's gonna be a
little rain in here, so let's figure out the timeline
so we can plan accordingly.

Speaker 12 (01:30:20):
So yeah, yeah, I mean, and then I look back,
yesterday wasn't terrible. Try ed sixty nine and Raleigh. It
was seventy two, not records, it's mid upper seventies. But
the message has been this week it's been much milder,
has been much pre sip, and over the next seven
days there won't and it's going to get maybe a
little bit milder into early next weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:30:39):
So clouds will continue to.

Speaker 12 (01:30:41):
Increase today upper fifties, low sixties, and tonight and tomorrow's
the best chance of showers.

Speaker 1 (01:30:46):
I think it's later.

Speaker 12 (01:30:47):
Tomorrow's to get into the afternoon towards dinner time, so
your Friday evening could be impacted, might be a little
bit warmer, we're low to mid seventies tomorrow, so we'll
see how close we get to records, and then over
the weekend we kind of take it down. After this
low pressure system passes Saturday Sunday, still lots of sunshine,
close to sixty. You'll probably be on either side of
sixty Saturday, depende of where you are. Load to mid

(01:31:09):
fifties on Sunday, and then back close to seventy or
above early next week through midwek next week. No precipitation
at above average tempertures even the nighttime low's case are
going to be in the forties. So pretty good run
a weather coming up here.

Speaker 1 (01:31:22):
Okay, all right, appreciate it. Well, chat tomorrow, sir, have
a good one.

Speaker 3 (01:31:25):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:31:25):
We'll come back with Jeff Bellinger next. Hang on, Jeff,
what's going on? Is this DC situation making any ways
for you guys this morning?

Speaker 13 (01:31:35):
Well, it's the people on our DC bureau have been
at the scene all night. They've been covering this from
the start, and as far as business is concerned, American
airline shares or under some pressure pre market. We got
word in the last hour that Reagan Airport will reopen
at eleven o'clock this morning, but people flying into d

(01:31:56):
C are still advised to check with their carriers. It
turns out the economy slowed more than expected at the
end of last year. The government says the gross domestic
product expanded at an annual rate of two point three
percent in the fourth quarter, compared to three point one
percent in the third quarter. Economists were looking for a
growth rate of two point six percent. New claims for

(01:32:18):
unemployment benefits fell sharply two hundred seven thousand last week.
Two hundred twenty three thousand first time applications were counted.

Speaker 2 (01:32:25):
The prior week.

Speaker 13 (01:32:26):
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated it could be some
time before the Central Bank makes the next change in
interest rates. Powell said the Fed needs to evaluate President
Trump's policies and their impact on the economy. The Fed's
announcement in Powell's comments did cost some volatility on Wall
Street yesterday. The major averages all lost ground, but they

(01:32:47):
closed off their session lows. At the moment, the futures
are mixed. S and P and Nasdaq futures are a
little bit higher than Dow futures are a bit lower.
Starbucks shares rose eight percent yesterday, after the coffee company
posted orderly results that were not as bad as feared,
investors gave a vote of confidence to CEO Brian Nichols
turnaround plan. Tesla's fourth quarter profit fell short Wall Street estimates,

(01:33:11):
but shares of the electric carmaker rose, and after hours trading,
CEO Elon Musk told investors advances and vehicle autonomy and
new models will lead to an epic period of growth
for the company. Another bullish CEO, as Mark Zuckerberg. He
predicted twenty twenty five will be a really big year
for meta platforms. Shares of United Parcel Service under considerable

(01:33:33):
pressure pre market. UPS posted fourth quarter revenue that was
in line with estimates and its profit top forecasts, but
the company's twenty twenty five guidance fell well short of expectations.
A major customer, thought to be Amazon dot Com, is
going to cut back sharply in the second half of
the year, and UPS says other customers are trading down

(01:33:54):
from premium services to economy delivery.

Speaker 1 (01:33:57):
Casey, all right, Jeff, do appreciate, And yeah, I saw
the CEO at the press conference there of American airlines,
so lots to get to them.

Speaker 2 (01:34:07):
We'll stay tuned, thank you very much.

Speaker 13 (01:34:08):
Okay, well, okay, Also, yeah, a lot of the officials
too in charge from the government are all new to
their offices, so this is.

Speaker 2 (01:34:15):
Yeah, yeah, we talked about that.

Speaker 1 (01:34:16):
The Transportation secretary is literally less like hours hours. So
let's hope they all stop, you know, being that for
a minute and just all work together.

Speaker 18 (01:34:25):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:34:26):
So yes, absolutely, all right, thank you, Jeff, I appreciate it.
And there is let's see here, there is one story,
one more story on this. The likelyhood from the reporting
I'm seeing is that many of the passengers are figure
skaters or families or coaches of figure skaters. And we

(01:34:49):
know this because and the imagine the survivors guild. This
guy is going to be dealing with and I hope
he's got people around him if it hits him. John Meravilla,
an American figure skater, actually was supposed to be on
that flight. He was not. He was denied boarding because

(01:35:15):
his dog was too big. So he had a dog
he thought was And the problem is with that particular
aircraft is it's so small. If you've ever flown on
one of those seven hundreds, like there's there's not even
if you're in business class, finding bin space can be
a problem, and the slot under the seat is smaller.

(01:35:36):
It's just it's that tiny. So it's a gate check
of Paloosa.

Speaker 2 (01:35:39):
In fact, I.

Speaker 1 (01:35:41):
Flew when I flew Greensboro to d C a few
months ago, it was that was un a United, but
it was the same type of aircraft, and they just
they just said were gate checking everybody. Everybody's getting gate
checked unless you had a business ticket. I did not, so,
And I point this out because sometimes even what is

(01:36:04):
a legal size, if something doesn't work on a seven hundred.
So in this case, he had a dog that probably
if he was on a three, seven, eight hundred or
nine hundred max would have been fine. But since he's
on this small one, they said, well, your dog's too big. Well,
unlike that weirdo who went and flushed her Gerbil down
the drain that one day, this guy, he thought about

(01:36:25):
booking a different flight. He ended up renting a car
and driving fourteen hours