DC plane crash update: Reagan airport employees arrested for allegedly leaking video of deadly midair collision to CNN



Two airport employees have been arrested for allegedly leaking to CNN surveillance video of last week's deadly collision between a commercial plane and a Black Hawk helicopter.

A pair of Maryland men are reportedly facing charges of computer trespass in connection with the leak of video of the midair crash in Washington, D.C., according to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

The National Transportation Safety Board stated on Tuesday that the Army Black Hawk helicopter involved in the midair collision was likely flying too high.

On Friday, police arrested 21-year-old Mohamed Lamine Mbengue of Rockville for reportedly leaking footage of the air travel disaster.

On Sunday, 45-year-old Jonathan Savoy, 45, of Upper Marlboro was arrested for his alleged role in the video leak.

Both men have since been released from the Arlington County Adult Detention Center.

Both suspects were employees of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

Authorities did not reveal how the suspects obtained or distributed the footage.

CNN obtained the chilling footage, which offered the clearest view of the moment an American Eagle flight collided with an Army Black Hawk at a low altitude last Wednesday near the Ronald Reagan National Airport. Both aircraft plummeted into the frigid waters of the Potomac River.

WTOP-FM reported that CNN anchor Kate Bolduan presented the video on Friday by saying the footage “appears to be surveillance video from the airport.”

The National Transportation Safety Board gave an update on its investigation into the deadly air travel disaster on Tuesday. The NTSB stated that the Army Black Hawk helicopter involved in the midair collision was likely flying too high.

NTSB acquired flight traffic data that confirmed the Black Hawk helicopter was flying at 300 feet at the time of the deadly collision, which is 100 feet higher than the 200-foot ceiling for helicopters flying in the National Capital Region. The agency added that the information was taken from "the best-quality flight track data."

However, air travel safety officials noted that the data was rounded to the nearest 100 feet.

The NTSB stressed that this information is from a preliminary investigation and that details would need to be verified by other "data points."

Officials also said there was a sudden change in the plane's pitch, which indicates that the pilot attempted to increase altitude before the fatal crash.

"NTSB investigators continue to transcribe the cockpit voice recorders for both aircraft," the NTSB said in the statement. "Synchronization work for the Black Hawk flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder is ongoing."

As of Tuesday afternoon, recovery crews have retrieved all of the 67 people involved in the midair collision from the Potomac River, including 64 passengers and crew on the airliner and three crew members on the helicopter.

Recovery teams have begun to remove the CRJ700 passenger jet and Black Hawk helicopter from the Potomac River.

The Navy unit involved in recovering the wreckage was also involved in the response to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last spring, said Col. Francis Pera of the Corps of Engineers.

Authorities have since restricted helicopters in the airspace around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The midair collision is the deadliest domestic plane crash in nearly 20 years.

Two days after the commercial airliner and Black Hawk helicopter collision, a small medical plane crashed into a neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia. All six passengers on the plane as well as a person on the ground are believed to have been killed in the plane crash. There were also 22 people injured in the plane crash.

As Blaze News reported, a United Airlines airplane was forced to abort a "high-speed" takeoff on Sunday after an engine burst into flames in Texas. The plane, carrying 104 passengers, was able to safely evacuate all of the passengers and crew without injuries, according to authorities.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Saturday, "We've had a heart-wrenching week in aviation."

"A couple days ago, I had a chance to sit down with a few of the family members who lost loved ones in the D.C. crash. Their pain is unimaginable," Duffy stated. "I committed transparency to them. When I know information, I'm going to share it with them, but also with the American people."

The Blaze Originals documentary "Countdown to the Next Aviation Disaster" investigates why there have been so many "close calls" of commercial airliners in recent times.

BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere's investigation unearthed several eyebrow-raising developments in how airports are using outdated technology, DEI practices that exclude the most qualified would-be air traffic controllers, and severely understaffed air traffic towers.

Billionaire Elon Musk shared the documentary on the X social media platform last week.

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Video: Fires erupt at 3 different oil facilities of the same company in Texas and Mexico in one day



Fires engulfed three separate oil facilities owned by the same company in one day. The oil facilities were owned by Pemex and located in Texas and Mexico.

Petroleos Mexicanos, best known as Pemex, had fires at three of their oil facilities on Thursday. The infernos left eight people injured and five others missing as of Thursday night. One person died in the fire, according to Bloomberg.

Five people were unaccounted for and three were hospitalized following a fire at a Pemex storage facility in Ixhuatlan del Sureste in the Mexican state of Veracruz, according to the state-owned Mexican petroleum company.

The fire was extinguished. However, the cause of the blaze has yet to be determined.

Pemex also confirmed that there was also a fire at its Minatitlan refinery in Veracruz, Mexico. Five people were injured in that fire. The fire did not affect the refinery's operations and did not damage any equipment, according to the oil company.

Pemex said, "It is presumed that the possible cause of the fire was product runoff on a hot surface."

On the same day, a third fire broke out at the Pemex-run refinery in Deer Park, Texas. The fire was extinguished, and the incident was downgraded to an "all-clear" situation.

Video shows thick, black smoke billowing out of the oil facility fire, and could be seen from miles away.

\u201cALERT \ud83d\udea8 3 fires broke out at three different facilities in Mexico and the U.S. operated by state-owned Mexican oil company Pemex in just one day - reports\u201d
— Insider Paper (@Insider Paper) 1677271539


\u201cThree fires broke out on Thursday at different facilities in Mexico and the United States operated by state-owned Mexican oil company Pemex.\n\nFive missing, eight injured.\n\nhttps://t.co/GR1AudZ3bz\u201d
— Citizen Free Press (@Citizen Free Press) 1677275569
\u201c#Mexico\n\u2018Pemex reported that it located the bodies of two of the five workers who were missing after the fire at a storage plant in Ixhuatl\u00e1n del Sureste, in Veracruz.\u2019\n\u201d
— Shane B. Murphy (@Shane B. Murphy) 1677296847

There have been dangerous and deadly accidents at Pemex facilities in the past.

Reuters reported on Friday, "Earlier this week, at least two people died after a vehicle collision inside a Pemex refinery in the Mexican state of Hidalgo, according to local media reports."

Last November, 19 people were injured after a leaking pipeline carrying ethane gas exploded in Veracruz.

Last September, a gas pipeline in the Mexican state of Tabasco exploded, forcing the evacuation of all workers at the Paredón Hydrocarbon Separation Station.

In January 2022, the same government-owned pipeline in Tabasco leaked oil that sparked a fire in Huimanguillo.

In August 2021, five people were killed and six were injured when a fire broke out at the Pemex oil platform in the Bay of Campeche in the southern Gulf of Mexico.

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Biden's Biggest Ukraine Failures
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Biden's Biggest Ukraine Failures

20 people, including 2 children, found dead on a drifting boat off the coast of Turks and Caicos



A boat carrying 20 deceased people — including two children — was found drifting off the coast of Grand Turk island on Thursday morning.

Officials are still working to determine what happened but have ruled out foul play, and according to the Associated Press, authorities are working to determine the identities and home origin of the dead.

What are the details?

Area fisherman spotted what they said was a small boat in the early hours of Thursday morning and notified the Royal Turks and Caicos Island Police Force.

Police Commissioner Trevor Botting said that the vessel was towed ashore and that the boat appeared to originate from outside the Caribbean. Botting added that investigators do not believe that Turks and Caicos was the vessel's final destination.

"My investigators are working to establish their identities and how they met their death," Botting said in a statement. "This work will take some time to complete. Whatever the circumstances, this is a tragic situation where many people have lost their lives, and the thoughts and prayers of the Force go out to t hose families who have lost a loved one."

"This incident was a human tragedy and a very distressing scene," Botting added.

According to the news agency, the islands are often a "magnet for desperate Haitians seeking to flee that poverty-stricken nation" and pointed out that the territory has also been used as a "transshipment point by human traffickers."

It is not clear at the time of this reporting whether the vessel began its ill-fated trip in Haiti.

In a statement posted to Facebook, the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force said that "investigators are keeping an open mind as to how these people met their deaths."

Botting in the statement added, "In dealing with this situation, I want to pay tribute to my policing team on Grand Turk and those from Health and other TCIG agencies who assisted in the recovery of the bodies."

Further to a Press Release issued on Thursday, June 24th, 2021, the Royal Turk and Caicos Islands Police Force confirms that the human remains of 20 persons were recovered from the vessel yesterday. Work is now underway to establish their identity, the cause of death and the circumstances that led them to be found in the Turks and Caicos Islands waters.

Whilst the deaths are unexplained, there is no indication of foul play, and Investigators are keeping an open mind as to how these people met their deaths.

Commissioner of Police Trevor Botting said, "It is believed that the boat originates from outside of the Caribbean Region and that neither the Turks and Caicos Islands nor the Region was their intended destination. My investigators are working to establish their identities and how they met their death. This work will take some time to complete. Whatever the circumstances, this is a tragic situation where many people have lost their lives, and the thoughts and prayers of the Force go out to those families who have lost a loved one. We will do all we can to identify them and contact their families."

Commissioner Botting added, "In dealing with this situation, I want to pay tribute to my policing team on Grand Turk and those from Health and other TCIG agencies who assisted in the recovery of the bodies. This incident was a human tragedy and a very distressing scene. However, my officers have acted with professionalism, humanity and care in the very upsetting work they did yesterday to recover those who have died. I thank them for a job well done for the humanity and professionalism they have shown."

Video shows the moment a Mexico City subway overpass collapses, killing at least 23 people, injuring scores more



A Mexico City subway train overpass collapsed onto a city road late Monday night, killing at least 23 people.

More than 60 people were injured in the deadly accident, according to a Tuesday report from NBC News.

What are the details?

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters at the scene that a support beam gave way just as a train passed over it, causing the deadly wreck.

According to the outlet, an eyewitness living near the scene of the Line 12 disaster told Telemundo that he heard a "screeching noise," prompting him to rush outside.

"I even thought it was a car that had collided around here, but no, I came out and saw the scene," he recalled.

Area resident Gisela del Ocaso said that she was still searching for her husband, Miguel Angel Espinosa Flores, who was on board the train when it plummeted to the ground.

"I don't know what to do," she told Telemundo. "We are desperate. I have two children."

Sheinbaum vowed to get to the bottom of the crash and called for an investigation into the incident.

"If there's a need for an external investigation, there will be one," Sheinbaum said. "We will get to the truth, and we will get justice."

Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard — who was Mexico City's mayor in 2012 at the time Line 12 was built — said the accident needs to be investigated.

"What happened today in the metro is a terrible tragedy," Ebrard said. "My solidarity with the victims and their families. Of course we need to investigate cause and determine responsibility. I reiterate to all authorities my complete willingness to contribute to everything necessary."

CCTV footage captured the moment the overpass collapsed onto the busy street below, appearing to level cars and sending up clouds of dust and debris into the air.

From moments ago, the collapse of the elevated #Linea12 #MetroCDMX railway that crashed the subway. Many are blamin… https://t.co/O1ATwmaVql

— David Wolf (@DavidWolf777) 1620102427.0