Top Story with Tom Llamas - Thursday, January 30, 2025

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

Tonight's Top Story has the latest breaking news, political headlines, news from overseas and the best NBC News reporting from across the country and around the world.

And good evening. I'm Tom Yamas, and we are live tonight from Reagan National Airport. Less than 24 hours after that deadly mid-air collision between a passenger jet and a military helicopter. And this breaking news just coming in moments ago, two black box flight recorders from the passenger jet have just been recovered. Those boxes, as you know, could contain clues into what went wrong. You can see the airport just behind me right here, one of the busiest in the country, now the center of a national tragedy and a recovery operation. The big questions and I, could this have been prevented?

NBC News has confirmed that air traffic controller at the time of the crash was covering both planes and helicopters, a job normally handled by two people, though FAA safety guidelines say a single controller can do both jobs. Normally, though, it is staff with two people. Here's what we know right now. the American Airlines flight departed Wichita, Kansas, with 60 passengers and four crew members on board, shortly before 9 p.m. As it was approaching runway 3-3 here at Reagan, the plane suddenly collided with a black hawk over the Potomac River. That military aircraft had three service members on board at the time. And this video showing the moment of impact, a burst of flames, and then both aircraft plunging, both aircraft plunging into the dark and frigid waters below. Take a look at this map. You can see the flight, path of the helicopter, which was on a routine training flight at the time and where it collided with the plane. And listen to this audio from the agency that oversees the airport just moments after the crash. Crash, crash, crash. This is alert three. Crash, crash, crash. We're looking

for a aircraft versus a helicopter in the Potomac in the area of Wrigan National. Here's what we know about the aircraft involved. The plane was a bomb. CRJ-700. The different models can hold anywhere between 68 and 78 passengers. The helicopter is a Sarkosky-U-H-60 Blackhawk. It's a versatile military aircraft used in various missions. There is typically a three-person crew manning that chopper. And tonight we're learning more about the victims, which include members of the U.S. figure skating team, their parents, coaches, flight crews, among so many others. Just moments ago, my colleague Lester Holt spoke to a man who went to pick up his wife and high school sweetheart at the airport

when he realized something was terribly wrong. I don't think I've fully come to grips. I just have spent the last 24 hours thinking about my wife in that plane and what was going through her head. And I just have not processed it yet. Recovery teams working tirelessly throughout the day to locate the rest of the victims. Meantime, President Trump paying tribute to the victims, then shifting back to politics, blaming the crash on his predecessors and diversity requirements. I'm trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash.

Because I have common sense, okay? And unfortunately, a lot of people don't. We have a lot to get to this evening as the search for answers in this tragedy enters the beginning stages. In that stunning moment of horror, Flight 5342 was only minutes away from landing when the lives of its 60 passengers and four crew members suddenly ended. The violent collision with the U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter also killing three U.S. service members, an army staff sergeant and Chief Warrant Officer, 67 lives lost in an instant. And last night, as friends and family of the victims prayed for a miracle, there was little hope because after that collision in the sky, both aircraft plummeted into the Potomac River, the icy waters that were only way steep in about 35 degrees. Tonight, we spoke with D.C.'s fire chief moments before he went to meet with those victims' families.

When you go into a meeting like that, I mean, what goes through your head and what do you want to tell him? They're going to ask us questions, and we're going to do our best to answer those questions with the facts. The first officer of the American Airlines flight was Sam Lilly, his father posting he was so proud when Sam became a pilot. Also on the flight, some of the country's most promising young figure skaters who were in Wichita at a highly selective training camp. There are brothers and sisters, and we're all very close to each other. The skating club of Boston, devastated. Six affiliated with the club perished. Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan trained with the club as a team.

Much like everyone here has been saying is not sure how to process it. Shoot, I'm sorry. For 1956 Olympic champion Tenley Albright, the tragedy brought back memories of the 1961 plane crash that killed 18 U.S. figure skaters. I really can't believe that it happened because I picture them right here. Among those lost now, 13-year-old skater Gina Hahn and her mother, Jin. Gina was known for her grace and musicality on the ice. Gina had an amazing smile.

Every time you would say her name, she'd immediately give you a smile back. And 16-year-old Spencer Lane, who was traveling with his mom, Christine. Spencer was known for his jumps, chronicling his progress on TikTok. Spencer was a firecracker, the best way to put it. And his love for the sport was unbelievable. His final post on Instagram? This view from his plane window before takeoff. Skating is a very close and tight-knit community.

It's a close-tight-knit community. And I think for all of us, we have lost family. Also on board, skating coaches and former world champions, Jenya Shishkova and Vadim Noemov. Their meticulousness in developing young skaters is almost unparalleled. The married couple leaves behind their son, Max, a skater, hoping to qualify for the Winter Olympics next year. Who I consider not just a friend, but a fierce competitor.

You know, I look at him every day, and I'm like, damn, I've got to do better. Breel Beyer was only 12 years old. Her mom, Justina Magdalena, with her on the plane. Remember today at her home rink in Virginia. She's really, really talented, and they were my inspiration. For more on what we know about the victims in this horrific crash, I want to bring in Doug Zeghybe, who we just heard from in our report there. He's the CEO of the Skating Club of Boston, and we now know some of those on the American Airlines flight were members of the skating club.

Doug, we thank you for joining Top Story tonight. First off, I am so sorry for your loss, for the loss of your club. I can't imagine what a day like today and last night was like. Talk to me about the skaters who were on this flight, who you knew personally, people like Spencer Lane and Gina Hahn. Young skaters here at the club, Spencer, they referred to him as a firecracker. He was also a phenom. He's only been skating, was only skating for two to three years. Had all his triple jumps, triple, triple combinations.

Just had such a bright future ahead of him and somebody who loved the sport. Gina just, we've watched Gina grow up here, from just a little spinly kid to this graceful 13-year-old, you know, skater. as amazing off the ice as she was on the ice and both of these kids had amazing parents not only supportive of their kids but supportive of our community we also know two coaches Jenya Shishkova and Vadim Nomov were also on that flight tell tell me and our viewers about them they are amazing coaches I and I suppose I have to stop using the present term we found them

in Connecticut in 2017, convinced them to move to Boston as we were preparing to build this new facility. And they came in early, really chose to be part of the opening group for this facility. And they're known for being developmental coaches and not just coaches of top Team USA skaters, but coaches who get kids to be Team USA skaters from their earliest steps. An integral part of our program, high standards, love the kids. kids, a lot of love and laughter in their coaching, so much fun to work with, and their loss is going to be incredibly hard to replace, not even thinking about how we might be able

to do that, just going to miss them terribly. Doug, you know, from what I've read, the figure skating community, it is not massive, it is tight-knit. A lot of these competitors, these athletes have grown up together because they start at a young age. They go to the same tournaments like we saw here in Kansas. What has this been like, this horrible tragedy been like for your community? I would say what I realized from this experience these past not even 24 hours is our community is a global community. We have had outreach from Japan, from Switzerland, from the UK, certainly here in the U.S., from all over the country.

And skating is a small but tight-knit community, and it extends beyond the walls of just the Skating Club of Boston. So, you know, in something as horrible as this, does it feel good that folks from around the world are sharing in our pain and the loss of this whole country? It certainly does. And it reminds us that skating really is a tight-knit family and community. Doug Sag hi, from the Boston Skating Club. We thank you so much for joining our coverage tonight. I know this is an incredibly tough time for you. Oh, thank you so much for your support.

We appreciate it. We also have new details emerging tonight about the communications between the air traffic control and the military personnel aboard that helicopter. This is where just learning authorities have recovered two black boxes from the passenger plane. NBC News Aviation correspondent Tom Costello has the latest on the search through the wreckage. Tonight, a source tells NBC News a preliminary FAA report on the mid-air crash indicates staffing at the Reagan Airport tower was not normal for the amount of traffic. at that hour. Normally, one controller handles planes while another controls helicopters. But Wednesday night, one controller was doing both at the time of the crash, though that is acceptable under established FAA standards. Investigators' best clues into what went wrong

may rely on those last few words as controllers asked the chopper crew if they could see the CRJ, the regional jet. The response is garbled. Does the chopper pilots say aircraft in sight? If so, why did they collide? Miracle on the Hudson captain Sully Sullenberger says that radio response is critical. It changed the rules and it required that they see each other until they were safely clear. Like many airports, Reagan has had a share of close calls in recent years. March 7, 23, controllers ordered a united flight to abort takeoff after another plane crossed in front of it. April 18th, 2024, a southwest plane crossed a runway just as a jet blue flight was preparing to take off. May 30th, 2024, a controller canceled takeoff after another airliner was cleared to land on an intersecting runway. Veteran pilots say flying up the river to runway 3-3 involves staying between 4 and 500 feet, while helicopters should be flying, beneath them under 200 feet.

It requires a lot of skill. The runway is very small for an airport that handles this amount of traffic. The new Transportation Secretary says last night's flight activity was routine. This was not unusual with a military aircraft flying the river and aircraft landing at DCA. Some breaking news this evening, a source familiar with the investigation tells us investigators have now recovered the two black boxes on board that regional. jet, and they are likely already at the NTSB headquarters just a mile away. And lastly, Tom, sources are telling us they will likely be looking at whether that helicopter was above its designated altitude when it was over the Potomac.

If so, that could have put it in direct conflict with this regional jet, Tom. Tom Costello there was some new reporting for us. Tom, we thank you for that. I do want to bring in Bill Nolan. He's the former acting administrator of the FAA, where he served under President Biden from 2022 to 2023. He's also a season pilot who has flown both military choppers and commercial flights. Bill, thank you so much for joining Top Story tonight. I want to start with what we know so far about this crash. I don't want you to assign blame, right, because we know it's very

early or speculate. But from what you've seen so far, the facts you've seen, the video you've seen so far, what stands out to you as being out of place? Well, you know, it's been talked about. First, thank for having me on. I just want to again, once again, express my sympathy. is sympathy for the victims for their families. What we are seeing, we're close to 24 hours into, nearly into this post-accident here, is as we start together more facts and more data, and now that the NTSB had to lead, things will start to come into to focus. I'm not prepared to speculate on a cause.

I want to leave that to the NTSB. do an incredible job of doing that. But what I can tell you, they'll be particularly, you know, once you've been assigned a visual approach, once you've called the runway in sight, and you're expected to maintain visual separation, you look at all of those things. I mean, you talked about the controller staffing. So this is a moment for us to, despite how safe we've been, this is the first fatal passenger accident in almost 16 years.

We take every one of these very serious, and we come together and say, what do we know? What did we miss? Secretary Duffy is absolutely right. This accident should not happen. We don't expect accidents to happen. And so when they do, we marshal all our resources and try to get to the bottom of it. We know they've recovered the black boxes. We reported that at the top of the broadcast.

And Tom Costello gave us a little bit more context about that as well. Walk our viewers through what investigators will pull from the two black boxes from the passenger jet. Yeah, from the passenger jet, they've got a clearance, you know, you're on a, you come up wherever you're in this case coming from Wichita, you're on a flight plan, you're on, you know, airways, you're flying, you know, on procedure. You get into the airport traffic area or into DCA, and at some point, in this case, because it's night, BFR or visual flight rules, you are cleared, once you've got the air runway inside, you're cleared for a visual approach. So based on what we're seeing that the jet is at about 300 feet, they're probably descending at 5 to 700 feet per minute.

And as far as they're concerned, they're a minute away from landing, right? So what will be critical to understand is what happens in terms of the helicopter, you know, maintaining that visual separation. I don't have enough information myself to make any judgment at this point in time. But that's certainly something that the NTSB will be keen to think through. I do want to ask you about the air traffic control chatter that we have seeming to indicate that the Black Hawk was warned about another plane nearby, right? And yet there were multiple planes in the air, including the aircraft you see moving towards the top of the screen in this surveillance video. People can see here how busy it was.

Is it possible the Black Hawk heard the warning but saw the other plane and believed they were safe? There are a lot of possibilities here, Tom, that need to be explored during the course of the analysis phase, right? The NTSB currently is in the fact-gathering phase. They'll go from there and start doing analysis of that, certainly now that they've recovered, you know, the black box, the flight data recorder, and the cockpit voice recorder. And that will give them keys to what happened, what the pilots thought they knew. The only caution I wouldn't make is that it can be so easy in the light of day to have a perfect. Hindsight is always going to be perfect 2020. So we have to let this play out.

And in the course of that, we'll figure out what happened. And certainly how we can, you know, to the president's why, how do we keep it from happening again? Bill, I do have to ask you, I'm sure you heard the president's comments today about, the FAA, about different federal agencies, and DEI. When you heard that, my first question to you is, what did you think? My second question is, did you take offense? Did you think he possibly was talking about someone like yourself? No, I don't think so at all. And I, you know, look, having said in the administrator's chair, I'd say myself and everyone else who's ever said in that chair, they appreciate the gravity of what it means to be.

the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, 44,000 plus, now close to 50,000 professionals who oversee the most complex airspace in the world. Now, does that mean that we can't get better? Does that mean we shouldn't embrace innovation and figure out how, as our airspace gets more complex? How do we do that even better? We owe that always to the American people, because, you know, Tom, we can never rest on our record, and we could never rest in and say, you know, it hadn't happened in 16 years. Safety, one of the axioms is that is terribly unforgiving of mistakes. So in some time that mistake is a very costly one as it was last night. Do you think the comments about DEI so early in the investigation, I mean, less than 24 hours after this happened,

trying to blame this on DEI and or race, did that have anything? How does that complicate what's happening here behind me? I think what you'll see, Tom, is that the NTSB, I would say, Chair Harmony, I have the highest respect for that agency. They're superb at what they do. Their focus, right, they will allow no distractions, if you will, to get in the way. That team will focus on what are the facts, how do we get there, what happened in the lead-up to getting to this point in time, and then they'll come away with, you know, findings and

and then recommendation, how do we prevent it going forward? And I think that will give us a better sense of what we could go start to discuss about anything else that you can think of. But right now, our goal is where is that? Let's turn it over to the professionals. And then let's sort of look to the future to say, we've had a strong system. You know, we've gone nearly 16 years without a fatal commercial passenger accident. In that time, we've flown nearly 13 billion, with a B, billion people.

And that's just the U.S., right? So we've got a strong system, but let's make sure we keep it that way. And I would agree with the president say, we want the best system in the world, so we just keep working at it. Bill Nolan, former FAA administrator, we thank you for joining Top Story tonight. Thank you very much. As we've mentioned, we know at least three members of the Army are presumed dead in this crash. I want to bring in NBC's senior national security correspondent, Courtney Kuby, tonight. So, Courtney, what more do we know about?

about those on board the Black Hawk? What has the military told you? Yeah, so we know that there were three crew members on board, all from Fort Belvoir here in Virginia. They were part of the 12th Aviation Battalion, which is underneath the military district of Washington. It's sort of one of the units that works in this national capital region.

But what we are learning about the individuals is that they are all very experienced. In fact, the main pilot was an instructor pilot on this flight, meaning this person had more than 1,000 flight hours and was actually trained to help other pilots learn how to be better and learn and help with their evaluations. Now the co-pilot was also an advanced pilot who was going through this this nighttime flying evaluation.

That individual had more than 500 hours. And the crew chief, the third person on board, also extensive experience. And with not just the amount of experience that each of these individuals had inside the aircraft, they were also very well aware of the roots here and the complications. the extreme restrictions that exist about flying in this area. There are specifics about how high they can fly, exactly where they can go. Army officials telling us that these three individuals were very well aware of all of these rules and had a lot of experience and following them, Tom.

You know, as reporters and of course the public, we want answers. We'd like to know information, but there has to be a protocol. And I understand from your reporting and others at NBC News, the way our new defense record, Peter Pete Hagseth addressed the crash. There have been some issues with that. Explain why. Yeah, so there were two things that really stood out to me today in information, both from Secretary Hagseth and from President Trump. Number one, there is this sacrosanct policy that exists within the military, and I have

to say I've never seen it violated in any way, in an official way, that is, where if, in fact, a service member is killed in the line of duty or in any way while they're in uniform, there's a rule that the military will not identify that person until 20, four hours after all of their next-of-kin have been notified. Today, the Secretary of Defense gave the ranks of the three individuals, not saying their names, but even providing their ranks is a real departure from protocol around here. In addition to that, the comments being made by President Trump and Secretary Hague-Seth calling into question the elevation that the aircraft were flying at, normally that would be called

altitude, but they both use the word elevation, and really openly laying blame on the pilots. I have to say, I've never seen anything like that happen so early in an investigation, so soon after an incident or a collision like this. Normally, we would be hearing the same talking point, which it would just be, look, we're not going to get ahead of the investigation. We don't want to speculate, but laying blame on the helicopter saying that it was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's a real departure from what we are used to seeing and hearing in an incident like this, Tom. Courtney, Cudy for us tonight. Courtney, we thank you. I want to bring in now Brian Alexander, he's an aviation attorney and military helicopter pilot. Brian, I want to first start with the pilots that we were hearing from Courtney there in the Black Hawk.

According to Defense Secretary Pete Hagseth, the helicopter crew had night vision goggles on. Talk to us about how this would help them and or maybe affect them as they were elevating and came into contact with that American Airlines jet. Well, thank you, Tom. As some of your guests have pointed out, this is a very prescribed. route of flight with several critical requirements, one of which is that they're talking to air traffic control as a transition through the route. They have to have their transponder on, so air traffic control can paint them on the radar at all times. And in this case, if they're training a night flight, it can be done aided or unaided. Aided is with night vision goggles.

The technology now, 40 years on from when I was flying that route, is much, much better. it's a significantly positive aid to the aviators. It should assist them at seeing all the objects, whether that's a crane in the route of flight or other aircraft along the route or in the vicinity. So if they were conducting a training flight using night vision goggles, it should have helped rather than hurt

in their ability to identify aircraft. I would suggest to hear that the possibility mentioned by you of him perhaps misidentifying the aircraft that was called out by aircraft. traffic control. Again, too early to speculate, but a real possibility that that may have happened, having flown up and down in a similar congested environment along the river at night, a lot of lights coming out of the city of Alexandria. The possibility is a real one. You know, can you speak to the air traffic control issue that, you know, under the FAA safety guidelines, one person can man

both jobs, right? They can do both the helicopters and the planes. Usually there are two controllers, but sometimes with staffing, there's one controller. There was one controller last night. How difficult of a job is that with as much traffic as comes through Reagan National Airport? That's a great question. So not only a lot of traffic coming through, but this is the couple hours of the day when everybody's coming in. It's kind of the rush hour at Reagan.

And so that's a factor. The idea that you have one controller, as I understand it, may be handling both departures and approaches and then monitoring the route of flight of helicopter. helicopter traffic coming through. That seems to me to be a little bit too much or maybe even a lot too much in this particular circumstances. I think the FAA has already perhaps released a report talking about the lack of adequate staffing in the tower overall and perhaps specific to this sector on this evening. It may have been understaffed and that may be important. I think the call out here by the air traffic controller and my father was one, there's some of the unheralded heroes in our system. It's amazing what they've done for these decades to keep us safe. But in this case, I think the callout could have been more specific

and certainly better to identify it to the helicopter crew. Brian Alexander, we thank you for joining Top Story tonight. Your analysis has been incredibly helpful. I do want to turn to the major search and recovery operation underway in the Potomac River just behind us here as there are still boats out there in the river. There are believed to be no survivors of this crass. NBC Washington is reporting an estimated 4,000. 30 bodies, at least 40, have been pulled from the water.

For more on this daring search, I want to bring in Detective Joshua Fiddler, who served as a public safety diver with the Baltimore Police Department for many years. Joshua, thanks for being here with us tonight. Talk to me about how difficult it was for divers last night here. Situations like this are extremely difficult for the recovery teams. They're not just dealing with the cold outside of the water. The water is extremely cold right now. They're dealing with situations like a strong current in the Potomac River, which is going to

wash any kind of recovery operation downstream, it's going to expand the search area. Along with that, they're also dealing with entrapment hazards. You're dealing with sharp objects into water. The divers are going to encounter so many different situations to deal with. This was such a traumatic accident. If there was anyone who survived the impact and then the aircraft land in the water, they crash into the water, if anyone survived the impact, Do you think there would have been any chance to rescue them or just would have been so impossible? So with the current conditions, the recovery or the, sorry, the rescue window is a very small one. With water temperatures in the low 40s, you have a very short time before hypothermia sets in and tragically death.

And even when we know the fuselage was in several different pieces, some of it underwater, it's pretty much impossible, right? This was an impossible operation. It's extremely difficult, yes. Talk to me about how they were able to retrieve the black boxes, what that process is like. They said at the NTSB press conference. They were underwater earlier, but by tonight they were able to recover them. So even though the Potomac is a fast-moving river, it's not very deep here. So divers can usually locate the fuselage of the aircrafts.

Once they locate the fuselage of the aircrafts, then they're able to locate the black boxes inside. I spoke with a fire chief who told me that, you know, if the recovery effort's going to take time, We just reported that at least 40 have been recovered of the 67. But he told me some are trapped and some haven't been discovered yet. You can't tell now, but earlier in the day, you could see boats spread out all over, all points of the river. They're not really clustered. And I was told that's because of the floating issue you were talking about. Divers basically have to search the entire river, right?

Yes. With a swift moving river like the Potomac, the search area is going to get expanded. As the water pushes the search area down, the search area has to expand. with it. And then the role the ice plays, I mean, obviously it's freezing in there. You have to wear a special type of suit to get in. Correct. How else does it hamper the investigation? Even though you're wearing a dry suit with insulation underneath of it, the cold still soaks through the suit, and the divers are still going to suffer from the cold. Not just the divers themselves, but the surface operators, the surface tenders that are operating the boats,

handling equipment, stuff like that. It's cold tonight. We know it's freezing in the water. How long can dive teams stay in the water at any given time? Dive teams can rotate divers through, put a diver in the water when they come out of the water. They'll go to either a warming tent, go on a part of the boat that has heat, they can warm up. How long can they stay in the water? Conditions like this, divers with thick insulation can stay in the water 30 to 45 minutes at a time. Anything else that we haven't mentioned or that you've thought about in that what was first a a rescue and now is a recovery operation?

Other than the divers and the rescue teams right now have an extremely difficult job. That's it. They've got a long road ahead of them for this recovery operation. Detective Joshua Fielder, we thank you for being here. Appreciate your time. Our special live coverage of the mid-air plane crash continues with the recovery operation still underway. President Trump vowing his administration will find out what went wrong, but also saying without evidence that, as you heard earlier, diversity programs

that the FAA are to blame the swift backlash tonight. And much more from Reagan National Airport just ahead. We are back now with a special edition of Top Story Live from Reagan National Airport. This is a live look tonight at the airport where that horrific tragedy took place. still in the Potomac River right now, recovery crews, search teams, looking for any type of evidence, but also some of the victims that are still in the water. All 67 souls aboard, those two aircraft now presume dead, and we will continue our coverage throughout the night and into the coming days on what happened here and why. As we approach the 24-hour mark

since that a collision occurred earlier today, President Trump's saying government DEI policies as well as what he called the possible pilot problem on board the military Blackhawk could have been to blame for the crash without providing evidence. Garrett Hayek tonight, reporting from the White House. Tonight in a White House news conference that began with a somber moment of silence, President Trump pivoting from prayer. I speak to you this morning in an hour of anguish for a nation. To politics.

I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democratic. put policy first. Suggesting without evidence that Democratic DEI policies at the FAA and military, which President Trump ended last week with an executive order, may have contributed to the mid-air collision. We have to have our smartest people. It doesn't matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. It matters, intellect, talent.

At one point, going after Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. He just got a good line of bullshit. He's running right into the ground with his diversity. But reporters pressing the president, what evidence did he have that diversity hiring caused the crash? It just could have been. And later, as he signed in order to review FAA hiring decisions the last four years. Are you saying race or gender played a role in this tragedy? It may have. I don't know.

Incompetence might have played a role. We'll let you know that. The president echoed by the vice president and defense secretary. We want the best people at air traffic control. So the era of DEI is gone at the Defense Department. But the comments sparking fierce backlash, Buttigieg posting, despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first. The top Senate Democrat responding.

For the president of the United States to throw out idle speculation as bodies are still being recovered and families still being notified. It just turns your stomach. Jared Higg joins us live tonight from the White House. Garrett, as we know, the president and now this White House communicate in many different ways, including from the podium but also on social media and through statements. Are they standing by the president's DEI comments? Are they doubling down? Are they backing off tonight?

Yeah, not only are they standing by it, Tom. I do think they're doubling down. Just a little bit of process how we do things here at the White House. That signing ceremony today was supposed to be something done behind closed doors without cameras present. The White House changed that later in the day to open it up. the opportunity for the president to continue to make these points. Even the order itself is sort of duplicative to others that he's already signed on DEI more broadly in the federal government. This order more specifically targeting the FAA and transportation issues. The White House clearly sees this as

an issue they want to be talking about for one reason or another politically, and the president is going to keep talking about it, as we saw tonight. And then, Garrett, I know you have some new reporting tonight about something happening over at the FBI. What can you tell our viewers? Yeah, this is interesting. Even as Cash Patel's hearings continue on Capitol Hill, multiple FBI sources are telling my colleague Ken Delaney and that there is an effort underway to basically get people who were promoted under Christopher Ray, the former FBI director, to resign or retire or else they will be demoted they are being told. Now, this is from one current and three former FBI officials telling NBC News this.

These are people who have the title of executive assistant directors. They are senior managers of the FBI. There's clearly a movement underway to clear out some of these holdovers from the Chris Ray administration of the FBI to make way, presumably, for Cash Patel, if he's confirmed by the Senate to pick his own team. Garrett Haig, we thank you for being there for us tonight. We have much more of our live coverage on the mid-air flight collision. Some of the victims with ties to the city of Wichita, Kansas, what the loss means for that tight-knit community. Stay with us. We are back now from Reagan National Airport with our continuing coverage of the devastating plane crash that took place here less than 24 hours ago above our heads.

Families and loved ones of those presumed dead now faced with an unspeakable truth. Everyone who was on board the American Eagle flight that took off from Wichita, Kansas, is presumed dead. The roughly 400,000 residents of Wichita, along with the rest of the country. are desperate for answers. Joining us tonight is J.V. Johnston. He's a council member for the city of Wichita and also serves as a vice mayor. Councilman, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

This is an unimaginable tragedy here in DC and also for your city. How are people in your community doing tonight as we still wait to learn more about who is aboard that flight? We're suffering. It's a tragedy. It's a shock. But we are coming together as a community. trying to wrap our arms around the ones that we know of who have lost loved ones,

and soon to find out probably more people that have lost loved ones. So it's a very generous community, very giving community, and a very bracing community, and we'll get through this. This is a small community. I know you and others have said it's like everyone in Wichita will know someone who was impacted. Have you spoken with any relatives? or loved ones of people who were on board? I have.

There was one family at the airport last night, mayor, myself, and several council members were there and spoke with him. I happened to know him from a board we served on together. He lost his oldest daughter. Very, very tough situation. Another daughter was with him, and it's just really really,

It's just really, really hard. He's just such a wonderful, wonderful person, and it's just hard to see him go through that. Yeah, I can't imagine. I know this flight path is relatively new, only about a year old, if I'm correct. It's the only direct option from Wichita to Reagan National. I know the Wichita community celebrated this.

Do you have any sense of who in your community might have been on this plane? We know a lot about the skaters who were there in Wichita training. Do you know any other groups that might have been on the plane? I've heard from a couple of friends that have friends on the plane. So, yeah, we have heard from some people that are on their plane, but we don't have a full list of who is on that flight. So the city council is going to use that flight. What questions do you want answered?

What questions do you want answered by federal authorities? I think right now is we need to do things in order, and we need to embrace the victim. of this, their families, and get them through this crisis first, and then we can start asking those questions. But obviously something went terribly wrong, that military helicopter slammed right into the side of that plane. It didn't look like the plane was doing anything wrong. So we definitely want some answers, but right now we need to wrap our arms around the people and this tragedy and get them through it.

Councilman, I know you're a lifelong resident of Wichita, and this tragedy is a dark reminder of a different crash, if I'm correct, back from 1970, when 31 people died in a plane crash carrying members of the Wichita State, University State football team, that was nearly 55 years ago. I'm sure those memories are still painful for members of your community, and now this. How is everyone getting along tonight? Good. Actually, my parents were supposed to be on that flight, October 2nd, 19th. 70. I was 10 years old and my father won a ticket season contest selling tickets. And three days before, the athletic director called him and said, Jerry, we have room for you, but we don't have room for the other gentleman, the one that won the trip. And my dad said, no, you take, you take Bob and his wife and I'll stay home. And I still remember the time when

He came home and we heard about the crash of that plane and it still sits with me today. And in my office, there is a painting of the memorial that sits at WSU's campus even today. So it's a similar feeling. Obviously, I'm just a lot older, but it's tough. It's really tough. Yeah, talk to me about what does your community do moving forward as far as doing things for the families of these victims where you guys are living? We've said that there's several agencies. The Sedgwick County has the Comcare, licensed care, mental health care, and United Way, and a couple other agencies have all come together to set up a hotline and a system to help people through this crisis.

So it's a very proactive community, and they set that up at 3 o'clock a day, and expect to hear announcements about that very soon. council member jv johnson we thank you for your time we thank you for sharing we know this is an incredibly tough period for your community we will be thinking about you thank you and i just asked that everyone can say prayers for us we had a uh a prayer gathering uh every race and every religion uh today and it was just a a wonderful wonderful gathering where people came together and prayed i asked the rest of the country if they can also pray for us and the other uh this the skaters and the people from other countries that were involved in that plane too. And we will, we will.

Councilman, we thank you for your time. We will continue those prayers. Our live coverage of the deadly mid-air collision continues right after this short break, the incident marking the deadliest crash in more than two decades. The latest in the investigation and the changes to the FAA following previous accidents. Stay with us. And we are back now from Reagan National Airport near the scene of that deadly mid-air collision involving an American Eagle flight and an Army helicopter.

First responders still on the Potomac River right behind me where recovery operations are underway. This tragedy marks the first failed disaster involving a U.S. commercial airliner in 16 years. NBC News correspondent Ryan Noble takes a look back at some of the other high-profile crashes on American soil and the lengthy investigations into their causes. Search and rescue efforts are still ongoing, following that disastrous mid-air collision between an American Airlines regional carrier and a military Black Hawk Chopper near Reagan National.

Investigators already beginning the difficult work of trying to determine what led to last night's crash. The last major accident involving a U.S. commercial airliner 16 years ago, Colgan Air Flight 3407, a Bombadier Regional Jet crashed on approach to Buffalo. New York, killing all 49 people on board and one on the ground. Investigators determined pilot error was to blame. But the inquiry highlighted serious problems facing regional carriers, including grueling work

schedules for pilots, long-distance commutes, and exhaustion. Investigators believe neither pilot in the Colgan air crash had slept well the night before after commuting long distances cross-country. That accident triggered the first FAA rule change to address pilot fatigue in nearly five. decades, including a maximum duty day for pilots of 9 to 14 hours, maximum flying time of 9 to 10 hours, and more rest time between flights. Last night's crash evoking another disaster in the Potomac more than four decades ago. In 1982, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 crashed into a bridge just seconds after taking off from National Airport in a blinding snowstorm, leaving 78 dead.

Five people escaped the wreckage in the icy river, with cameras capturing the dramatic rescues. Investigators found the flight crew's failure to properly de-ice the aircraft before takeoff likely caused the crash, leading the FAA to change de-icing regulations for airlines nationwide. Another big question investigators and lawmakers will be confronting in the weeks and months ahead is Reagan National Airport over capacity. With the busiest runway in America, the airport has experienced a series of near-collegiate. in recent years. Last May, American Airlines flight 2134 had been cleared for takeoff, speeding down the runway. At the same time, a smaller private plane was landing on an intersecting

runway, forcing the American jet to slam on the brakes. American 2134 can't takeout. Clearance. One month earlier, a jet blue plane nearly collided with a southwest plane. The two jets coming within a thousand feet of each other. We thank Ryan Nobles for that report. When we come back, we'll have much more from Reagan National Airport and that horrific accident that happened last night. Coming up right after this break, we'll speak with Lester Holt, his thoughts so far on covering this terrible disaster. Stay with us. Thanks for joining us. Of course. You've been out here reporting all day as well like I have.

Talk to me about your conversation with the NTSB chairman, because a lot of times on the evening news, we've been covering these near misses, and she told you that's something she's concerned about. Yeah, I raised the issue. I said, we've been covering a lot of near misses on the ground or nearby airports. You know, was this your worst fear? And without beating an eye, she said, absolutely.

It's something they have talked about. She talked about some testimony she gave before Congress, not long ago, on this particular issue. Remember, the NTSB can only investigate accidents. They can make recommendations to the FAA, but those are non-binding. You know, you've covered plane crashes before. We've both covered the miracle in the Hudson. And last night, when this news was coming in, I'm sure you were thinking the same thing I was thinking, you know, is there any chance for survivors?

Is there any hope? But then you come out here, you see what the conditions were like, and you saw the moment of impact, and it was pretty clear to understand why this was so horrific. Well, you know, my thoughts went back to the Air Florida crash back in 18. on this river. The plane didn't get enough power at snow on it and ended up hitting a bridge. But they pulled people out. I remember those amazing sites that day. I was living in New York, working in local news and watching the monitor, and this flight attendant gets pulled up. And another person, you know, most of the people, of course, did die. But it gave me some hope that maybe, maybe this time. But as I was anchoring last night into the late hours, it became

clearer and clearer how this was going to end. When we look at that video, that sort of the air cam, you will, of what happened and that moment of collision. What stands out to you? Well, when you pair it with the audio recordings of the control tower tape, it begins to tell a little bit of the story here. And I know they don't want to over speculate on things, but you have these aircraft. There's one that it's just taken off. You see it on the top of the screen. You see the explosion near the lower part of your screen where these two planes hit. And there was a warning to, you know, I forget the exact wording, but you know, get behind

the CRJ. That's a common phrase, you know, they'll do in these sorts of things, you know, a guiding airplane's trying to create as much separation, but things got away. And the question is how busy. And you saw how busy it was here at Reagan. That's going to come up as well. Yeah. It's a busy airport. They're moving them out quickly. You can watch them landing and taking off within seconds of each other. But there was a lot of, I think, pent-up fear and concern in the aviation industry in general that we were going to see something like this in the night. And unfortunately, it happened last night. So we thank you for being here. And we thank you, of course, for watching. We want to remind you, just three weeks ago,

we covered another national tragedy, those deadly and devastating wildfires in Southern California. Tonight, some of the biggest names in music are coming together for a benefit concert that will raise funds for the communities affected. You can watch Fire Aid right here on NBC News now, starting at 10 p.m. Eastern. We also will be posting the latest on the deadly mid-air collision on NBCNews.com throughout the night. I'm Tom Yamas at Reagan National Airport. Our news coverage continues right now.