January 30, 2025 • 26 mins
Shannon is out today so Gary hosts the show solo. Gary begins the show with the an update on the American Airlines jet and a military helicopter in D.C. Gary also talks about RFK Jr.’s confirmation hearing.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app. Welcome to the Gary and Shannon Show.
There is a whole lot to get to. Obviously, the
big story of our day is going to be the
plane crash, this American Airlines jet that collided with an
Army helicopter in the Potomac or I should say, just
(00:21):
over the Potomac River next to Reagan National Airport in Washington,
d C.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Sort of on the border there.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Since the Potomac is the border between the Wash, the
District of Columbia, and the state of Virginia.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
It is a.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Very heavily traveled air corridor, not just because of its
proximity to the Reagan National Airport, but because of the
military base that's just across the river. And as I
was looking up last night the footprint of what kind
of we're talking about in terms of the location of
(01:00):
this plane crash from last night, You've got Joint Base
Anacostia Bowling literally across the Potomac River from the Rega
National Airport, and with that comes a whole lot of
military Department of Defense National Intelligence National Defense Intelligence Agency.
(01:20):
That's also the hangar for Marine I, the helicopters that
are used to shuttle the president around. Secret Service has
a massive building along Joint Base Anacostia Bowling. There's a
lot of traffic, just traffic in general, that goes on
in that corridor. So we heard from the President, we
(01:41):
heard from the new Secretary of Transportation, we heard from
the new Secretary of Defense, all of them involved in
the aftermath of this horrific plane crash helicopter collision from
last night. At least twenty eight bodies have already been
pulled from the Potomac River after the helicopter apparently flew
(02:01):
into the path of that airplane last night as that
plane was coming in for landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport.
The plane carried sixty passengers, four crew. There were three
Army soldiers aboard the helicopter, and according to the fire
chief in DC, we don't believe there are any survivors.
Several hours ago, they decided that this was no longer
(02:22):
a rescue effort and that it was going.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
To be a recovery effort in the Potomac River.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
The plane itself, there were a questions because it was
dark by the time this accident happened last night, several
reporters that I was watching from WTAM, from WTP on
radio from other places in and around DC, they couldn't
tell definitively whether or not the plane had gone into
(02:48):
the river. They said it was pretty clear by eyewitness
accounts that the helicopter had gone into the river, but
that they could not tell because the the visibility was
so low because it was at night, that they couldn't
tell if the plane itself had gone into the river.
Now it turns out that according to officials who have
been on the river, the rescue boats, the divers, the
(03:09):
plane itself, a small Bombardier airplane, had gone down into
the river and broke into three different sections, three different parts.
I suppose a positive is that the river in that
area is not very deep. Sean Duffy, the Transportation Secretary,
(03:30):
said it's maybe waist high, and there was another report
that it was about seven feet deep in that area.
So the fuselage isn't going to necessarily disappear in seven
foot deep water depending on the amount of damage, et cetera.
But it still does not mean it's easy to recover
the bodies. It is a river, it is full of
silt is the visibility is very very low, and the
(03:53):
water temperature is somewhere between thirty five and forty degrees.
So even in the best wetsuit, the rescue divers and
now recovery divers that you have working on all of
that thing are going to have a hard time staying
down there for any amount of time.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So we'll get into that.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I have a lot of sound to play from some
of the news conferences that we heard earlier today, from
the President's comments just a short time ago, from what
the Secretary of Transportation has said, Secretary of Defense, the
Governor of Virginia, all of them are going to be
in this roundup of different sound, And I think most
importantly in terms of kind of getting a picture of
(04:30):
what happened, the air traffic control tapes, the actual words
spoken by air traffic controllers to both the airplane and
the helicopter just before the collision may shed some light
on what it was that actually happened that led to
this horrific crash. Also other stuff going on today, the
confirmation hearings continue. Not only do you have Robert F.
(04:53):
Kennedy Junior going again before a Senate committee, this one
the Health Committee instead of the Finance commitee from yesterday.
You've got the Director of National Intelligence nominee, Tulca Gabbard.
She is going on. She may be pre cruel. I
guess you could argue that she is the one who
in the most trouble and has the most uphill climb
in terms of confirmation. But also Cash patel Man, who's
(05:15):
been nominated to take over the FBI, his hearings today
in front of the Judiciary Committee.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
So all of that, and locally some.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Notions perhaps about how are two huge fires started and
they may have been very different by the way, the
Eton fire and the Palisades fire. All of that still
to come on this Gary and Shannon Show. And Amber
alert still up for the two little girls believed to
have been taken by their father after he killed their
mother up in the San Joaquin Valley. Alana and Aria Maldonado,
(05:47):
two and three years old, might be headed to Mexico.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Their dad last seeing.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Driving a gray Hyundai Elantra California license plate eight l
z D zero eight four and if you see it,
obviously should call it nine to one one and internationally.
Hamas handed over three Israelis and five Thaie hostages in
Goza today, but Israel delayed the expected release of the
Palestinian prisoners that were part of this swap because of
(06:13):
the chaotic scene at one of the handover points. A
bunch of large crowds, I mean hundreds and hundreds of
people were swarming around these hostages as they were being
turned over to the Red Cross. So they decided to
hold off on that for just a bit. Another rain
event coming to southern California. We will see rain probably
(06:33):
Tuesday through Thursday of next week. National Weather Service is
forecasting what they say is a minor to moderate rain event,
so a quarter of an inch to an inch of
rain expected Tuesday through Thursday. Rainfall amounts could be a
little bit higher in the mountains and the hills, maybe
one to two inches, and they said the rain the
snow level is going to be just a bit higher.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Flight of a All right, so let me set the
scene just in terms of the location of what we're
talking about, this air crash from last night on imagine
a why that why is the Potomac River and the
(07:19):
top left branch is the continued portion of the Potomac
River upriver.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
The right branch of the WY on top is the
Anacostia River. They come together, then the Anacostia disappears, basically
becomes the Potomac, And on the body of the WY,
they're sort of straight up and down. On the left side,
you've got Reaga National Airport. On the right side, you've
got a military base, Joint Base Anacostia Bowling just across
the river from the airport. And the way this happened
(07:48):
last night, the airplane, the American Airlines jet coming in
from Wichita, was flying basically south to north and it
was going to make a broad left turn and land
at Reaga National Airport. So it's coming up sort of
the body of the why if you will, coming up
the river. The helicopter is coming from the north to
(08:11):
the south, following that left arm of the WY, sort
of coming along the Potomac River on a training flight
according to the President, according to the Secretary of Defense,
and at some point as the plane is descending to
come in for its final approach, the helicopter is apparently
(08:32):
rising at somewhere between two one hundred and fifty three
hundred feet, which is as the plane is descending into
that same airspace and then the collision happens. The air
traffic controllers had asked the helicopter if they had visual
(08:52):
on the airplane, and they referred to it as CJR,
this regional jet, and it's the type of jet that
they were looking for.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
I don't know what happened with them. There was a
puision on the.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Three You can hear in that air travel played this
little part again. You can hear people in the background
reacting to what they saw outside the tower. So according
to transcripts and what we can tell from the radio tower,
the helicopter did acknowledge that they did have visual on
that airplane, but it might have been the wrong airplane.
(09:34):
That's the best theory that's been floated so far, that
it was simply a mistake by the helicopter pilot. I've
seen information from people who say that they were controllers
at that airport for several years. It's normal operation because
there are a lot of military operations in that area.
According to the Secretary of Defense, by the way, which
(09:55):
we'll hear from a little bit later, this may have
been a continuation and of government training flight. Now when
he says that it sounds like all hell break this
is a training exercise in case all hell breaks loose
and they need to get members of the government out
of DC or bring them into d C or whatever
(10:16):
they would do. But it would be sort of the
doomsday kind of environment training exercise that they were doing.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
But they do it very regularly. Now when.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
One of our friends, friends of the show, is in
contact with former air traffic controllers there at DCA, and
they said that it's very common for air traffic controllers
to let everybody know who might be involved, to let
(10:46):
the airplane know the helicopters come, and then let the
helicopter know the airplane is coming, and make sure that
both of them have visual contact with the other. Can
you see that airplane? Can you see that helicopter? And
it looks as if not a conclusion by anybody, no
National Transportation Safety Board. But the President has said something
similar to this that he believes it was a mistake.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
By the crew in the helicopter.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
If this is true, it's likely that the helicopter identified
the wrong airplane that it's flying and off to its
right side, off to its starboard side, you're looking at
planes taking off and landing at Reaga National Airport and
when asked if they have eyes on, if they have
(11:32):
visual on that regional jet, they may have been looking
at the wrong airplane and flown directly into the path
of the airplane that eventually they collided with and went
down again. Sixty four people, sixty passengers, four crew on
the American Airlines jet that was coming in from Kansas,
three Army soldiers on the helicopter.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
All of them are believed to have died.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Former Coast Guard diver shannon's Gaff said, these conditions for
the divers that are now looking for the people involved
in the crash, the conditions for the divers are just
as dangerous.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
You know, they're out there in terrible conditions right now
trying to get that get that done. The survivability for
tempatures in thirty five degree water is about an hour
to an hour and a half and that's for someone
that's healthy, that has lecture on. So they're really I've
got some real challenges to affect this safely, and I'll
(12:30):
be pulling for them.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Meta platforms Facebook, Instagram, Etcetera has agreed to pay about
twenty five million dollars to President Trump to settle this
lawsuit that was brought against the company and Mark Zuckerberg
after they suspended Trump's accounts after the attack on the
Capitol of January sixth. Of the twenty five million, about
(12:54):
twenty two million goes towards a fund for the President's
future sentential library. The rest of it's going to go
to legal fees and other plaintiffs who signed onto the case.
And in this settlement, Meta does not agree to any wrongdoing.
At the top of the hour, we're going to talk
about the potential clues that we have about what started
(13:17):
are two massive fires earlier this month, the Palisades fire
and the Eaton fire, and they may be very, very different.
We'll explain what that's going to look like coming up
at the top of the hour. Glen Youngkin is the
governor of Virginia.
Speaker 6 (13:31):
I've noticed this morning that all teams had shifted from recovery.
From rescue to recovery. Is just heart wrenching and is
heart wrenching for the families that I know. We're expecting
a loved one to be home with them last night,
and that is where all the focuses are today.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Again, Glenn Youngkin, Governor of Virginia. Sixty four people on
board that American Airlines playing the collido with an Army helicopter.
Three crew members on the Army helicopter, All of them
are feared dead. President Trump gave sort of a play
by play earlier today.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Just before nine pm last night, an American Airlines regional
jet carrying sixty passengers and four crew collided with an
Army black Hawk helicopter carrying three military service members over
the Potomac River in Washington, DC, while on final approach
to rega national airport. Both aircraft crashed instantly and were
(14:28):
immediately submerged into the icy waters of the Potomac. Real tragedy.
The massive search and rescue mission was underway throughout the night,
leveraging every asset at our disposal. And I have to
say the local, state, federal military, including the United States
Coast Guard in particular, they've done a phenomenal job, so quick,
(14:51):
so fast. It was mobilized immediately. The work has now
shifted to a recovery mission. Sadly, there are no survivors.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Pete Hegseth is in the new Secretary of Defense that's
got to deal with the military aspect of this being
the Army helicopter.
Speaker 7 (15:11):
Routine annual retraining of night flights on a standard corridor
for a continuity of government mission. The military does dangerous things,
it does routine things on the regular basis. Tragically, last
night a mistake was made, and I think the President
is right, there was some sort of an elevation issue
(15:33):
that we have immediately begun investigating at the DoD and
Army level. ARMYCID is on the ground investigating top tier
aviation assets inside the DoD are investigating, sir, to get
to the bottom of it so that it does not
happen again, because it's absolutely unacceptable.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Okay, to go back to President Trump, he had said
that it appears that the pilot of the helicopter, or
at least the crew of the helicopter, made the mistake
that caused the accident.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
Is it fault if.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
It was the plane, the helicopter, air traffic control? And
can you assure people that it is safe to fly
in and.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Out of DC.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Well, I've given you the analysis, and the analysis was
who's based on envision. You had a lot of people
that saw what was happening. You had some people that
knew what was happening. There was some warnings, but the
warnings were given very very late. You know, those warnings
were given very late. It was almost as they were
given a few seconds later there was the crash. It
(16:29):
should have been brought up earlier. But the people and
the helicopter should have seen where they we're going. I
can't imagine people with twenty twenty vision not seeing, you know,
what's happening up there.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Okay, this is where they're going to get into trouble.
They being President Trump Secretary of Defense Pete hag Seth,
they are now suggesting that diversity, equity and inclusion programs
are also responsible for this crash. Here, for example, the
President this just this morning, when he's talking about this
(17:08):
plane crash, reads an article about FAA hiring practice.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
I do want to point out that various articles that
appeared prior to my entering office, and here's one. The
FAA's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe
intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing, and there says
(17:35):
FAA says people with severe disabilities the most underrepresented segment
of the workforce, and they want them in and they
want them they can be air traffic controllers. I don't
think so.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
This was Pete Hegseth a short time after that.
Speaker 7 (17:49):
I want to echo what Transportation Tectory and you, mister
President said, because it pertains the DD as well. We
will have the best and brightest in every position impossible.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
As you said in.
Speaker 7 (18:01):
Your inaugural, it is color blind and merit based the
best leaders possible, whether it's flying blackhawks and flying airplanes,
leading platoons, or in government. The era of DEI is
gone at the Defense Department, and we need the best
and brightest, whether it's in our air traffic control, or
(18:21):
whether it's in our generals, or whether it's throughout government.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
And then there was this late in that news conference,
the President was taking.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Questionss I understand that.
Speaker 8 (18:31):
That's why I'm trying to figure out how you can
come to the conclusion.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Right now that dubricity had something to do with this.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Crash, because they have common sense, okay, and unfortunately a
lot of people don't.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
This is going to get him into trouble. What if
these were the best in the brightest. What if the
air traffic controllers who are in charge of the situation
from last night were top of the class, regardless of DEI, hires,
et cetera. They were the top of the class. What
if the hell helicopter pilot, the army pilot, what if
(19:04):
he was the best or she.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
The idea that you're now injecting the d I listen,
and I agree with him. All of those positions should
be merit based hires. I completely agree with him. But
the idea that now you're shoehorning this into what has
become I think it's the third worst air traffic tragedy
in the United States history, that that is the first
of all, that this would be the time that you
(19:30):
would do that less than twelve hours after the crash.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
And then to suggest.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
That that was had anything to do with the crash
before you know exactly what happened, that's going to come
back to bite them.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I think again.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I agree that that air traffic controllers, pilots you need
the best period, color blind hiring, a gender blind hiring, whatever.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yes, I completely agree.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
But to suggest now that you know that that was
what caused this crash a little ridiculous. At these twenty
eight bodies now have been pulled from the waters of
the Potomac River. After that, American Airlines Jack carrying sixty
passengers and four crew, collided with an Army helicopter with
three on board while the airplane was landing at Ronald
Reagan National Airport near DC. Cruisers still looking for other casualties,
(20:21):
but don't believe there were any survivors that would make
it the deadliest US air crash in about twenty four years.
We know that there was a group of figure skaters
apparently on board the plane from Wichita, Kansas that was
bound four DC. A bunch of figure skaters US figure skating.
(20:42):
The governing body for the sport said that skaters were
returning from a training camp or top juvenile, intermediate and
novice skaters that follows the National figure Skating Championship which
were held in Wichita over the weekend. Some Russian figure
skaters were among those on the plane. According to a
spokesperson for the Kremlin, one of the young figure skaters
(21:02):
did not get on that flight because his dog was
too big. A guy named John Maravilla set to be
among the passengers on board American flight fifty three forty two,
but he posted about his ordeal on Instagram yesterday saying
not allowed past gate to board flight. And he's got
a picture of his dog apparently, and he wrote, get
(21:23):
me TF out of Kansas please. He rented a car
and said he was going to drive the rest of
the way, which would have been a fourteen hour drive,
but the size of his dog prevented him from getting
on that airplane. Last night, also in Washington, d C.
Confirmation mania continues. A trio of President Trump's top allies
(21:44):
appear for these confirmation showdowns, Tulcy Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy
Junior for day two, and Cash Patel appearing in confirmation
hearings this morning.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
It's going on right now.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
One of the members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions Committee he committee is Tommy Tubberville. He says,
it's huge. We're going to separate the men from the
boys in this hearing. Most of the attention. Well, let
me get into the Kennedy thing first of one of
the outspoken supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Junior as the
(22:19):
potential Health and Human Services Secretary is doctor Pat Sun Shong,
whose name should ring a bell if you're in southern California.
He's the new editor of the La Times, the new
owner of the La Times, I should say just yesterday,
he posted two days ago. Sorry, he posted on X.
I had not met Bobby Kennedy until a few months ago.
(22:40):
The more I got to know him, I truly believe
he has the American public's interest at heart. I've worried
about toxins and the cause of cancer my entire career
as a physician scientist. I really hope he is confirmed.
And then tags RFK Junior. If you remember some of
the stuff that we talked about yesterday and the hearing
for RFK Junior in front of the Finance Committee, of
(23:02):
all things, they spent a lot of time talking about measles,
but they didn't spend a lot of time talking about
chronic diseases and food supply issues that have tainted, you know,
chemicals that exist in our food supply. So just to
give you an idea of who it is that's asking
those questions, one tally said that the word measles was
(23:23):
used twenty five times by Democrats on the Finance Committee yesterday.
None of the questions about his big push recently, not
about vaccines, not about measles or anything, but about chronic
health problems that constitute the national security emergency that he
is concerned about.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Today.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Like I said, he's going before the Senate Health, Education, Labor,
and Pensions Committee, Tulca Gabbard. Meanwhile, she has been nominated
to take over as Director of National Intelligence. There were
a couple of different versions of her story and the
suggestion that there are as many as three Republican senators
who have expressed a doubt that she should be confirmed.
(24:08):
I don't know if they are actual hard knows, but
they have expressed some doubts. So we'll see how her
hearing goes today before the Intelligence Committee. And then Kash Patel,
the guy who has been named to take over the FBI.
A couple of things. He was asked by Dick Durbin
about President Trump's January sixth party.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Was President Donald Trump wrong to your blanket clemency to
the January sixth defendants?
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Thank you, Ranking member.
Speaker 9 (24:36):
A couple of things on that one, the power of
the presidential part It is just that the president welm.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
I can see he has the authority.
Speaker 6 (24:44):
I'm asking was he wrong to do it?
Speaker 9 (24:45):
And as we discussed in our private meeting, Senator, I
have always rejected any violence against law enforcement, and I
have including in that group is specifically addressed any violence
against law enforcement on anywhere.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Sixth, Now, he did not go so far as to
say he disagreed with the press.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
He can't.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
I mean, it's political suicide for him to come out
and suggests that he doesn't think that they should have been.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Should have been pardoned.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
But I mean made it pretty clear that he abhors
the idea of fighting against law enforcement.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
So that's between he and Donald Trump. Are you aware that, then,
this is South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.
Speaker 8 (25:24):
Are you aware that the FBI had volumes information that
the Still dossier was a bunch of them and nobody
ever told anybody.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
At the top?
Speaker 8 (25:34):
He did say, answer, expect are they lied about it
being told?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
That's correct.
Speaker 8 (25:38):
So are you aware of the fact that the FISA
court rebuked the FBI. Are you aware of the fact
that FBI lawyer went to jail because he misled the
court by manipulating an email from the CIA?
Speaker 2 (25:53):
I am.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Now, keep in mind whatever political side you're on doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Keep this in mind.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
There's one per in each of those confirmation rooms, in
each of those hearing rooms, there's one who is under oath.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
One.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Senators on either side can say whatever they want, and
you've seen it. They can bluster, they can lie. Bernie
Sanders can put up pictures of baby onesies and there's
no expectation. That's not the right word. There's no requirement
that they tell the truth. They bluster, they politicize, they
make speeches, and then they oftentimes don't allow the actual
(26:32):
nominee to make any actual statement. All right, Up next,
the investigation into what caused our massive fires, two very
different fires, the Eton Fire and the Palisades Fire.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
We'll talk about both of those when we come back
to Gary and Shannon. You've been listening to the Gary
and Shannon Show.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
You can always hear us live on KFIAM six forty
nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday, and
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app. Welcome to the Gary and Shannon Show.
There is a whole lot to get to. Obviously, the
big story of our day is going to be the
plane crash, this American Airlines jet that collided with an
Army helicopter in the Potomac or I should say, just
(00:21):
over the Potomac River next to Reagan National Airport in Washington,
d C.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Sort of on the border there.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Since the Potomac is the border between the Wash, the
District of Columbia, and the state of Virginia.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
It is a.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Very heavily traveled air corridor, not just because of its
proximity to the Reagan National Airport, but because of the
military base that's just across the river. And as I
was looking up last night the footprint of what kind
of we're talking about in terms of the location of
(01:00):
this plane crash from last night, You've got Joint Base
Anacostia Bowling literally across the Potomac River from the Rega
National Airport, and with that comes a whole lot of
military Department of Defense National Intelligence National Defense Intelligence Agency.
(01:20):
That's also the hangar for Marine I, the helicopters that
are used to shuttle the president around. Secret Service has
a massive building along Joint Base Anacostia Bowling. There's a
lot of traffic, just traffic in general, that goes on
in that corridor. So we heard from the President, we
(01:41):
heard from the new Secretary of Transportation, we heard from
the new Secretary of Defense, all of them involved in
the aftermath of this horrific plane crash helicopter collision from
last night. At least twenty eight bodies have already been
pulled from the Potomac River after the helicopter apparently flew
(02:01):
into the path of that airplane last night as that
plane was coming in for landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport.
The plane carried sixty passengers, four crew. There were three
Army soldiers aboard the helicopter, and according to the fire
chief in DC, we don't believe there are any survivors.
Several hours ago, they decided that this was no longer
(02:22):
a rescue effort and that it was going.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
To be a recovery effort in the Potomac River.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
The plane itself, there were a questions because it was
dark by the time this accident happened last night, several
reporters that I was watching from WTAM, from WTP on
radio from other places in and around DC, they couldn't
tell definitively whether or not the plane had gone into
(02:48):
the river. They said it was pretty clear by eyewitness
accounts that the helicopter had gone into the river, but
that they could not tell because the the visibility was
so low because it was at night, that they couldn't
tell if the plane itself had gone into the river.
Now it turns out that according to officials who have
been on the river, the rescue boats, the divers, the
(03:09):
plane itself, a small Bombardier airplane, had gone down into
the river and broke into three different sections, three different parts.
I suppose a positive is that the river in that
area is not very deep. Sean Duffy, the Transportation Secretary,
(03:30):
said it's maybe waist high, and there was another report
that it was about seven feet deep in that area.
So the fuselage isn't going to necessarily disappear in seven
foot deep water depending on the amount of damage, et cetera.
But it still does not mean it's easy to recover
the bodies. It is a river, it is full of
silt is the visibility is very very low, and the
(03:53):
water temperature is somewhere between thirty five and forty degrees.
So even in the best wetsuit, the rescue divers and
now recovery divers that you have working on all of
that thing are going to have a hard time staying
down there for any amount of time.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So we'll get into that.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I have a lot of sound to play from some
of the news conferences that we heard earlier today, from
the President's comments just a short time ago, from what
the Secretary of Transportation has said, Secretary of Defense, the
Governor of Virginia, all of them are going to be
in this roundup of different sound, And I think most
importantly in terms of kind of getting a picture of
(04:30):
what happened, the air traffic control tapes, the actual words
spoken by air traffic controllers to both the airplane and
the helicopter just before the collision may shed some light
on what it was that actually happened that led to
this horrific crash. Also other stuff going on today, the
confirmation hearings continue. Not only do you have Robert F.
(04:53):
Kennedy Junior going again before a Senate committee, this one
the Health Committee instead of the Finance commitee from yesterday.
You've got the Director of National Intelligence nominee, Tulca Gabbard.
She is going on. She may be pre cruel. I
guess you could argue that she is the one who
in the most trouble and has the most uphill climb
in terms of confirmation. But also Cash patel Man, who's
(05:15):
been nominated to take over the FBI, his hearings today
in front of the Judiciary Committee.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
So all of that, and locally some.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Notions perhaps about how are two huge fires started and
they may have been very different by the way, the
Eton fire and the Palisades fire. All of that still
to come on this Gary and Shannon Show. And Amber
alert still up for the two little girls believed to
have been taken by their father after he killed their
mother up in the San Joaquin Valley. Alana and Aria Maldonado,
(05:47):
two and three years old, might be headed to Mexico.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Their dad last seeing.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Driving a gray Hyundai Elantra California license plate eight l
z D zero eight four and if you see it,
obviously should call it nine to one one and internationally.
Hamas handed over three Israelis and five Thaie hostages in
Goza today, but Israel delayed the expected release of the
Palestinian prisoners that were part of this swap because of
(06:13):
the chaotic scene at one of the handover points. A
bunch of large crowds, I mean hundreds and hundreds of
people were swarming around these hostages as they were being
turned over to the Red Cross. So they decided to
hold off on that for just a bit. Another rain
event coming to southern California. We will see rain probably
(06:33):
Tuesday through Thursday of next week. National Weather Service is
forecasting what they say is a minor to moderate rain event,
so a quarter of an inch to an inch of
rain expected Tuesday through Thursday. Rainfall amounts could be a
little bit higher in the mountains and the hills, maybe
one to two inches, and they said the rain the
snow level is going to be just a bit higher.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Flight of a All right, so let me set the
scene just in terms of the location of what we're
talking about, this air crash from last night on imagine
a why that why is the Potomac River and the
(07:19):
top left branch is the continued portion of the Potomac
River upriver.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
The right branch of the WY on top is the
Anacostia River. They come together, then the Anacostia disappears, basically
becomes the Potomac, And on the body of the WY,
they're sort of straight up and down. On the left side,
you've got Reaga National Airport. On the right side, you've
got a military base, Joint Base Anacostia Bowling just across
the river from the airport. And the way this happened
(07:48):
last night, the airplane, the American Airlines jet coming in
from Wichita, was flying basically south to north and it
was going to make a broad left turn and land
at Reaga National Airport. So it's coming up sort of
the body of the why if you will, coming up
the river. The helicopter is coming from the north to
(08:11):
the south, following that left arm of the WY, sort
of coming along the Potomac River on a training flight
according to the President, according to the Secretary of Defense,
and at some point as the plane is descending to
come in for its final approach, the helicopter is apparently
(08:32):
rising at somewhere between two one hundred and fifty three
hundred feet, which is as the plane is descending into
that same airspace and then the collision happens. The air
traffic controllers had asked the helicopter if they had visual
(08:52):
on the airplane, and they referred to it as CJR,
this regional jet, and it's the type of jet that
they were looking for.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
I don't know what happened with them. There was a
puision on the.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Three You can hear in that air travel played this
little part again. You can hear people in the background
reacting to what they saw outside the tower. So according
to transcripts and what we can tell from the radio tower,
the helicopter did acknowledge that they did have visual on
that airplane, but it might have been the wrong airplane.
(09:34):
That's the best theory that's been floated so far, that
it was simply a mistake by the helicopter pilot. I've
seen information from people who say that they were controllers
at that airport for several years. It's normal operation because
there are a lot of military operations in that area.
According to the Secretary of Defense, by the way, which
(09:55):
we'll hear from a little bit later, this may have
been a continuation and of government training flight. Now when
he says that it sounds like all hell break this
is a training exercise in case all hell breaks loose
and they need to get members of the government out
of DC or bring them into d C or whatever
(10:16):
they would do. But it would be sort of the
doomsday kind of environment training exercise that they were doing.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
But they do it very regularly. Now when.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
One of our friends, friends of the show, is in
contact with former air traffic controllers there at DCA, and
they said that it's very common for air traffic controllers
to let everybody know who might be involved, to let
(10:46):
the airplane know the helicopters come, and then let the
helicopter know the airplane is coming, and make sure that
both of them have visual contact with the other. Can
you see that airplane? Can you see that helicopter? And
it looks as if not a conclusion by anybody, no
National Transportation Safety Board. But the President has said something
similar to this that he believes it was a mistake.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
By the crew in the helicopter.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
If this is true, it's likely that the helicopter identified
the wrong airplane that it's flying and off to its
right side, off to its starboard side, you're looking at
planes taking off and landing at Reaga National Airport and
when asked if they have eyes on, if they have
(11:32):
visual on that regional jet, they may have been looking
at the wrong airplane and flown directly into the path
of the airplane that eventually they collided with and went
down again. Sixty four people, sixty passengers, four crew on
the American Airlines jet that was coming in from Kansas,
three Army soldiers on the helicopter.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
All of them are believed to have died.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Former Coast Guard diver shannon's Gaff said, these conditions for
the divers that are now looking for the people involved
in the crash, the conditions for the divers are just
as dangerous.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
You know, they're out there in terrible conditions right now
trying to get that get that done. The survivability for
tempatures in thirty five degree water is about an hour
to an hour and a half and that's for someone
that's healthy, that has lecture on. So they're really I've
got some real challenges to affect this safely, and I'll
(12:30):
be pulling for them.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Meta platforms Facebook, Instagram, Etcetera has agreed to pay about
twenty five million dollars to President Trump to settle this
lawsuit that was brought against the company and Mark Zuckerberg
after they suspended Trump's accounts after the attack on the
Capitol of January sixth. Of the twenty five million, about
(12:54):
twenty two million goes towards a fund for the President's
future sentential library. The rest of it's going to go
to legal fees and other plaintiffs who signed onto the case.
And in this settlement, Meta does not agree to any wrongdoing.
At the top of the hour, we're going to talk
about the potential clues that we have about what started
(13:17):
are two massive fires earlier this month, the Palisades fire
and the Eaton fire, and they may be very, very different.
We'll explain what that's going to look like coming up
at the top of the hour. Glen Youngkin is the
governor of Virginia.
Speaker 6 (13:31):
I've noticed this morning that all teams had shifted from recovery.
From rescue to recovery. Is just heart wrenching and is
heart wrenching for the families that I know. We're expecting
a loved one to be home with them last night,
and that is where all the focuses are today.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Again, Glenn Youngkin, Governor of Virginia. Sixty four people on
board that American Airlines playing the collido with an Army helicopter.
Three crew members on the Army helicopter, All of them
are feared dead. President Trump gave sort of a play
by play earlier today.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Just before nine pm last night, an American Airlines regional
jet carrying sixty passengers and four crew collided with an
Army black Hawk helicopter carrying three military service members over
the Potomac River in Washington, DC, while on final approach
to rega national airport. Both aircraft crashed instantly and were
(14:28):
immediately submerged into the icy waters of the Potomac. Real tragedy.
The massive search and rescue mission was underway throughout the night,
leveraging every asset at our disposal. And I have to
say the local, state, federal military, including the United States
Coast Guard in particular, they've done a phenomenal job, so quick,
(14:51):
so fast. It was mobilized immediately. The work has now
shifted to a recovery mission. Sadly, there are no survivors.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Pete Hegseth is in the new Secretary of Defense that's
got to deal with the military aspect of this being
the Army helicopter.
Speaker 7 (15:11):
Routine annual retraining of night flights on a standard corridor
for a continuity of government mission. The military does dangerous things,
it does routine things on the regular basis. Tragically, last
night a mistake was made, and I think the President
is right, there was some sort of an elevation issue
(15:33):
that we have immediately begun investigating at the DoD and
Army level. ARMYCID is on the ground investigating top tier
aviation assets inside the DoD are investigating, sir, to get
to the bottom of it so that it does not
happen again, because it's absolutely unacceptable.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Okay, to go back to President Trump, he had said
that it appears that the pilot of the helicopter, or
at least the crew of the helicopter, made the mistake
that caused the accident.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
Is it fault if.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
It was the plane, the helicopter, air traffic control? And
can you assure people that it is safe to fly
in and.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Out of DC.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Well, I've given you the analysis, and the analysis was
who's based on envision. You had a lot of people
that saw what was happening. You had some people that
knew what was happening. There was some warnings, but the
warnings were given very very late. You know, those warnings
were given very late. It was almost as they were
given a few seconds later there was the crash. It
(16:29):
should have been brought up earlier. But the people and
the helicopter should have seen where they we're going. I
can't imagine people with twenty twenty vision not seeing, you know,
what's happening up there.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Okay, this is where they're going to get into trouble.
They being President Trump Secretary of Defense Pete hag Seth,
they are now suggesting that diversity, equity and inclusion programs
are also responsible for this crash. Here, for example, the
President this just this morning, when he's talking about this
(17:08):
plane crash, reads an article about FAA hiring practice.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
I do want to point out that various articles that
appeared prior to my entering office, and here's one. The
FAA's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe
intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing, and there says
(17:35):
FAA says people with severe disabilities the most underrepresented segment
of the workforce, and they want them in and they
want them they can be air traffic controllers. I don't
think so.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
This was Pete Hegseth a short time after that.
Speaker 7 (17:49):
I want to echo what Transportation Tectory and you, mister
President said, because it pertains the DD as well. We
will have the best and brightest in every position impossible.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
As you said in.
Speaker 7 (18:01):
Your inaugural, it is color blind and merit based the
best leaders possible, whether it's flying blackhawks and flying airplanes,
leading platoons, or in government. The era of DEI is
gone at the Defense Department, and we need the best
and brightest, whether it's in our air traffic control, or
(18:21):
whether it's in our generals, or whether it's throughout government.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
And then there was this late in that news conference,
the President was taking.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Questionss I understand that.
Speaker 8 (18:31):
That's why I'm trying to figure out how you can
come to the conclusion.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Right now that dubricity had something to do with this.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Crash, because they have common sense, okay, and unfortunately a
lot of people don't.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
This is going to get him into trouble. What if
these were the best in the brightest. What if the
air traffic controllers who are in charge of the situation
from last night were top of the class, regardless of DEI, hires,
et cetera. They were the top of the class. What
if the hell helicopter pilot, the army pilot, what if
(19:04):
he was the best or she.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
The idea that you're now injecting the d I listen,
and I agree with him. All of those positions should
be merit based hires. I completely agree with him. But
the idea that now you're shoehorning this into what has
become I think it's the third worst air traffic tragedy
in the United States history, that that is the first
of all, that this would be the time that you
(19:30):
would do that less than twelve hours after the crash.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
And then to suggest.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
That that was had anything to do with the crash
before you know exactly what happened, that's going to come
back to bite them.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I think again.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I agree that that air traffic controllers, pilots you need
the best period, color blind hiring, a gender blind hiring, whatever.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yes, I completely agree.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
But to suggest now that you know that that was
what caused this crash a little ridiculous. At these twenty
eight bodies now have been pulled from the waters of
the Potomac River. After that, American Airlines Jack carrying sixty
passengers and four crew, collided with an Army helicopter with
three on board while the airplane was landing at Ronald
Reagan National Airport near DC. Cruisers still looking for other casualties,
(20:21):
but don't believe there were any survivors that would make
it the deadliest US air crash in about twenty four years.
We know that there was a group of figure skaters
apparently on board the plane from Wichita, Kansas that was
bound four DC. A bunch of figure skaters US figure skating.
(20:42):
The governing body for the sport said that skaters were
returning from a training camp or top juvenile, intermediate and
novice skaters that follows the National figure Skating Championship which
were held in Wichita over the weekend. Some Russian figure
skaters were among those on the plane. According to a
spokesperson for the Kremlin, one of the young figure skaters
(21:02):
did not get on that flight because his dog was
too big. A guy named John Maravilla set to be
among the passengers on board American flight fifty three forty two,
but he posted about his ordeal on Instagram yesterday saying
not allowed past gate to board flight. And he's got
a picture of his dog apparently, and he wrote, get
(21:23):
me TF out of Kansas please. He rented a car
and said he was going to drive the rest of
the way, which would have been a fourteen hour drive,
but the size of his dog prevented him from getting
on that airplane. Last night, also in Washington, d C.
Confirmation mania continues. A trio of President Trump's top allies
(21:44):
appear for these confirmation showdowns, Tulcy Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy
Junior for day two, and Cash Patel appearing in confirmation
hearings this morning.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
It's going on right now.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
One of the members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions Committee he committee is Tommy Tubberville. He says,
it's huge. We're going to separate the men from the
boys in this hearing. Most of the attention. Well, let
me get into the Kennedy thing first of one of
the outspoken supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Junior as the
(22:19):
potential Health and Human Services Secretary is doctor Pat Sun Shong,
whose name should ring a bell if you're in southern California.
He's the new editor of the La Times, the new
owner of the La Times, I should say just yesterday,
he posted two days ago. Sorry, he posted on X.
I had not met Bobby Kennedy until a few months ago.
(22:40):
The more I got to know him, I truly believe
he has the American public's interest at heart. I've worried
about toxins and the cause of cancer my entire career
as a physician scientist. I really hope he is confirmed.
And then tags RFK Junior. If you remember some of
the stuff that we talked about yesterday and the hearing
for RFK Junior in front of the Finance Committee, of
(23:02):
all things, they spent a lot of time talking about measles,
but they didn't spend a lot of time talking about
chronic diseases and food supply issues that have tainted, you know,
chemicals that exist in our food supply. So just to
give you an idea of who it is that's asking
those questions, one tally said that the word measles was
(23:23):
used twenty five times by Democrats on the Finance Committee yesterday.
None of the questions about his big push recently, not
about vaccines, not about measles or anything, but about chronic
health problems that constitute the national security emergency that he
is concerned about.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Today.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Like I said, he's going before the Senate Health, Education, Labor,
and Pensions Committee, Tulca Gabbard. Meanwhile, she has been nominated
to take over as Director of National Intelligence. There were
a couple of different versions of her story and the
suggestion that there are as many as three Republican senators
who have expressed a doubt that she should be confirmed.
(24:08):
I don't know if they are actual hard knows, but
they have expressed some doubts. So we'll see how her
hearing goes today before the Intelligence Committee. And then Kash Patel,
the guy who has been named to take over the FBI.
A couple of things. He was asked by Dick Durbin
about President Trump's January sixth party.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Was President Donald Trump wrong to your blanket clemency to
the January sixth defendants?
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Thank you, Ranking member.
Speaker 9 (24:36):
A couple of things on that one, the power of
the presidential part It is just that the president welm.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
I can see he has the authority.
Speaker 6 (24:44):
I'm asking was he wrong to do it?
Speaker 9 (24:45):
And as we discussed in our private meeting, Senator, I
have always rejected any violence against law enforcement, and I
have including in that group is specifically addressed any violence
against law enforcement on anywhere.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Sixth, Now, he did not go so far as to
say he disagreed with the press.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
He can't.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
I mean, it's political suicide for him to come out
and suggests that he doesn't think that they should have been.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Should have been pardoned.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
But I mean made it pretty clear that he abhors
the idea of fighting against law enforcement.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
So that's between he and Donald Trump. Are you aware that, then,
this is South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.
Speaker 8 (25:24):
Are you aware that the FBI had volumes information that
the Still dossier was a bunch of them and nobody
ever told anybody.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
At the top?
Speaker 8 (25:34):
He did say, answer, expect are they lied about it
being told?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
That's correct.
Speaker 8 (25:38):
So are you aware of the fact that the FISA
court rebuked the FBI. Are you aware of the fact
that FBI lawyer went to jail because he misled the
court by manipulating an email from the CIA?
Speaker 2 (25:53):
I am.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Now, keep in mind whatever political side you're on doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Keep this in mind.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
There's one per in each of those confirmation rooms, in
each of those hearing rooms, there's one who is under oath.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
One.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Senators on either side can say whatever they want, and
you've seen it. They can bluster, they can lie. Bernie
Sanders can put up pictures of baby onesies and there's
no expectation. That's not the right word. There's no requirement
that they tell the truth. They bluster, they politicize, they
make speeches, and then they oftentimes don't allow the actual
(26:32):
nominee to make any actual statement. All right, Up next,
the investigation into what caused our massive fires, two very
different fires, the Eton Fire and the Palisades Fire.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
We'll talk about both of those when we come back
to Gary and Shannon. You've been listening to the Gary
and Shannon Show.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
You can always hear us live on KFIAM six forty
nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday, and
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Gary and Shannon News
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.