2nd pilot dies from midair helicopter collision, both identified
Authorities and investigators work the scene where police are securing wreckage following an inflight collision involving an Enstrom 280C helicopter and an Enstrom F-28A helicopter in Hammonton, New Jersey, United States on Sunday, December 28, 2025. Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images
(HAMMONTON, N.J.) — The second pilot has died after two helicopters collided midair and crashed in New Jersey on Sunday, authorities announced.
The pilot of the model 280C helicopter, identified as 71-year-old Michael Greenberg, of Sewell, New Jersey, died at the scene, according to the Hammonton Police Department.
The pilot of the model F-28A helicopter, 65-year-old Kenneth L. Kirsch of Carney’s Point, New Jersey, was rushed to a hospital where he died from his injuries, police said.
The crash occurred around 12:25 p.m. Sunday in Hammonton, about 35 miles southeast of Philadelphia, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA said an Enstrom F-28A helicopter and an Enstrom 280C helicopter “collided in midair” near the Hammonton Municipal Airport.
After colliding, both helicopters plummeted to the ground, landing near the 100 block of Basin Road, according to police. One of the helicopters became “engulfed in flames,” according to the Hammonton Police Department.
Police officers and EMS workers extinguished the flames, authorities said.
Witness Brian Sherr said he was outside of a nearby store when he heard a woman nearby “screaming, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.'”
“I did hear a metal clank, but there’s a lot of vehicles around, so I didn’t really pay much attention,” Sherr told ABC News.
He said that as he looked up to the sky, he saw one of the helicopters “slowly descending in a rotating motion, almost as if the rudder and the tail had lost control.”
“I thought that was the only one at first, and then I see a second one come down with the same issue behind it,” Sherr said, adding he saw smoke rise after the second helicopter impacted the ground, prompting him to call 911.
Police said the helicopters were seen flying close together before the crash.
(NEW YORK) — Some parts of the country are expected to face a colder and snowier season this year, but exact conditions will depend on which region you live in, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s winter season outlook.
The seasonal outlook from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, released Friday, predicts that the Upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest will experience possible cooler-than-average temperatures, while much of the southern and eastern United States will face potentially milder temperatures than what is usually expected during the winter season.
NOAA’s winter outlook predicts whether parts of the country will be above, below or near average when it comes to temperatures and precipitation — from December through February.
The outlook does not forecast weather variations that happen over days, weeks or over one month, but rather what the overall average would likely look like.
December, in a particular region, could feature typical winter conditions. However, January and February could still end up being warmer than normal, swaying the three-month average to “above normal” for the entire season.
On the opposite spectrum, prolonged cold spells could happen anytime during the winter and tip the three-month average to “below normal” for the entire season. What the outlook means for a specific local area depends on the typical climate around it.
What does winter look like in terms of snow? While NOAA’s winter outlook does not predict snowfall for the season, it offers clues for what this winter could look like in terms of snowfall.
The outlook forecasts above-average precipitation possible for the Pacific Northwest, the northern Rockies, the Great Plains and the Great Lakes from December to February, which could come in the form of snow if cold enough conditions line up perfectly.
With the season’s snowfall dependent on storms that happen on a day-by-day basis, some of these areas could see these wetter conditions in the form of winter precipitation.
The southern half of the country — from Southern California through much of Texas, the exterior Southeast and the coastal Mid-Atlantic — will possibly see drier conditions than what is average for winter.
What previous winters have taught us According to the Environmental Protection Agency and NOAA, the contiguous United States has been getting warmer every season since the early 1900s.
The EPA and NOAA also found that winters specifically in the contiguous United States have increased by about 3 degrees Fahrenheit — the most of all four seasons.
NOAA reported that winter 2023-24 was the warmest winter on average for the country in 130 years, with more than half of all U.S. states seeing their top-10 warmest winters on record.
The last few winters have featured several snow outliers across the country, including record-breaking snow in the south in late January 2025 that turned deadly and a snow drought in the northeast that lasted more than 700 days and ended for some in 2024.
A Climate Central analysis found that for more than 2,000 locations across the country, nearly two-thirds of them are seeing less snow than they did in the early 1970s.
What’s shaping this winter outlook? A big part of what forecasters look for when predicting the seasonal trends are climate patterns, specifically in the Pacific Ocean.
The most influential one is the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The ENSO is a natural variation of warmer, neutral and cooler waters along the equatorial waters of the eastern Pacific. This natural variation is one of the most significant driving forces of large-scale weather patterns over the Pacific Ocean, and eventually over North America.
Forecasters at the Climate Prediction Center say the ENSO has been in the cooler pattern, or La Niña, since September and expect it to continue for much of the winter before transitioning into a neutral pattern as spring begins.
This would likely put the U.S. in a dominant weather pattern for much of the winter that keeps the southern half of the country warmer and drier, while the Pacific Northwest out to the Great Lakes will likely be cooler and wetter than average.
This would likely put the U.S. in a dominant weather pattern for much of the winter that keeps the southern half of the country warmer and drier, while the Pacific Northwest out to the Great Lakes will likely be cooler and wetter than average.
Danielle Bensky, a Jeffrey Epstein survivor, speaks during the news conference with survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, November 18, 2025. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Danielle Bensky, a survivor of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, said the push by members of Congress and, now, President Donald Trump, to release investigative files has led to a “moment of vulnerability” for herself and other survivors.
Bensky said on Monday in Washington that pending legislation amounted to a noticeable movement towards accountability for Epstein survivors. She called the moment “hopeful,” saying that it also felt like “unprecedented waters.”
“This is a moment of vulnerability,” Bensky said. “This is a moment, as you can see, when we are tapping into those youngest parts of ourselves and saying we’re doing it for that little person that used to exist. We’re doing it for women.”
ABC News spoke with Bensky, who goes by Dani, a day ahead of the long-awaited vote by the House to release the Epstein files. The House is expected to vote Tuesday, after Trump called on Republicans to release all the files, reversing his stance.
The House vote is just step one, though. If it passes as expected, Senate Majority Leader John Thune would then need to bring it up for a vote in the Senate. Passage in the Senate would then send it to Trump’s desk for possible signing.
House Democrats last week released emails subpoenaed from the Epstein estate that mentioned Trump by name multiple times. In one email, written in 2011, Epstein referred to Trump as the “dog that hasn’t barked” and he told accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell that an alleged victim had “spent hours at my house” with Trump.
Trump, who was friendly with Epstein for years, said after Epstein’s arrest in 2019 that they hadn’t spoken in more than a decade after having a falling out. The president on Monday said he would sign a bill to compel the Justice Department to release all files relating to Epstein if it reaches his desk.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last week that emails related to convicted sex offender Epstein released by House Democrats “prove absolutely nothing, other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.” Trump has denied all wrongdoing and denied having any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
Bensky has claimed she was recruited in 2004 when she was an aspiring ballerina in New York City. She alleges she was sexually exploited by Epstein for more than a year.
Bensky was among a group of survivors of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, his convicted accomplice, holding a demonstration Monday evening at the National Gallery of Art — a couple of blocks from the Capitol — at which they displayed a looped video of several survivors holding pictures of themselves at the age they met Epstein.
Maxwell was found guilty in December 2021 of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking of a minor. She is serving 20 years in prison.
Bensky said that being there at the National Gallery of Art gave her a bigger sense of meaning to “make the world safer” for the young kids and teenagers she works with as a dance choreographer.
Rachel Foster, co-founder and executive council chair of World Without Exploitation, an anti-sex trafficking coalition, described on Monday the fight to release the files as “truly bipartisan.”
“Truly a bipartisan effort. It’s not political,” Foster said. “This is about transparency, and this is a moment, if there’s any moment for people from both sides of the aisle to come together and say that victims who have sexual abuse need to have justice, and we all need transparency when it comes to either standing with victims, standing with women and children who have been abused or you’re protecting perpetrators.”
A memorial dedicated to the 19 children and two adults murdered on May 24,2022 during a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School is seen on January 05, 2026 in Uvalde, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(UVALDE, Texas) — A jury has acquitted former Uvalde, Texas, school police officer Adrian Gonzales for his response to the Robb Elementary shooting in May 2022.
After more than seven hours of deliberations, the jury returned a not guilty verdict Wednesday evening on all 29 counts of child endangerment.
As the verdict was read, Gonzalez bowed his head as he heard it. Several of those sitting in the gallery started crying. He hugged his lawyers, shook hands and appeared to be tearing up.
Gonzales was among the first officers to respond to the mass shooting, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed. It took 77 minutes before law enforcement mounted a counterassault to end the rampage.
Prosecutors alleged Gonzales did not follow his training and endangered the 19 students who died and an additional 10 surviving students.
Lawyers for Gonzales, who pleaded not guilty, argued he was unfairly blamed for a broader law-enforcement failure that day.
Ex-officer: Focused on ‘picking up the pieces’ When he walked out of the courtroom on Wednesday night after the jury acquitted him, Gonzales was a man of few words.
“I want to start by thanking God for this — my family, my wife and these guys — he put them in my path,” he told reporters, referring to his lawyers. “Thank you for the jury, for considering all the evidence.”
When ABC News’ John Quiñones asked him, “What does moving on look like to you?” he answered succinctly.
“Picking up the pieces and moving forward,” Gonzales said.
Asked about the frustration of some of the families of victims about the verdict, defense attorney Nico LaHood said he’s “sorry that they feel that way” and vowed to pray for them.
“We pray for them. We’re sorry that they feel that way. We understand that their separation from their loved one is going to be felt as long as they walk on this earth, and we don’t, we don’t ignore that. We acknowledge that we’re just going to continue to pray for them. So I’m very sorry that they feel that way,” he said.
According to LaHood — who said he spoke with some of the jurors after the verdict — the jury was saddened by the trial but couldn’t see through some gaps in the prosecution’s case.
“They were very mindful and deliberate,” LaHood said. “Obviously, they were saddened, because they know what the other families are mourning still, but they said there were a lot of gaps in the evidence, and some of it didn’t make sense.”
Jason Goss, another attorney for Gonzales, told reporters that he believes the verdict clears his client’s name.
“The evidence showed that not only did he not fail, but he put himself in great danger,” Goss said. “So, you can imagine how somebody who has had the entire country look at him as somebody who was not willing to do his duty. He is a proud man who does do his duty. And he went in there. When it was time for him to go, he went in there.”
Families of the victims react
For Jacinto Cazares — whose 9-year-old daughter Jackie died in the shooting — the verdict was yet another instance of the legal system failing to deliver justice after one of the worst mass shootings in US history.
“We had a little hope, but it wasn’t enough,” he said outside the court. “Again, we are failed. I don’t even know what to say.”
Cazares said he was hopeful that the jury might have reached a different conclusion but “prepared for the worst.”
“I need to keep composed for my daughter. It has been an emotional roller coaster since day one. I am pissed,” he said.
Jesse Rizo, Jackie’s uncle, told reporters he was concerned about the message the verdict might send to police officers who respond to future mass shootings.
“I respect the jury’s decision, but what message does it send?” he said. “If you’re an officer, you can simply stand by, stand down, stand idle, and not do anything and wait for everybody to be executed, killed, slaughtered, massacred.”
When asked about the defense case by ABC’s John Quiñones, Jackie’s aunt Julissa Rizo pushed back on the defense narrative that Gonzales acted heroically that day.
“The defense said he did as much as he could,” Quiñones said.
“That’s not true,” she responded. “There were two monsters on May 24. One was the shooter, and the other one was the one that never went in, that could have avoided this.”
How the trial unfolded Each of the 29 counts Gonzales faced carried a maximum penalty of two years in prison, and h. could have spent the rest of his life in prison if he was convicted.
Prosecutors claimed Gonzales had a unique opportunity to stop the carnage when he arrived and learned gunman Salvador Ramos’ location from a teaching aide. The aide testified that she repeatedly urged Gonzales to intervene, but said the officer did “nothing” in those crucial moments. Prosecutors also argued Gonzales failed to act once he got inside the school.
Before jurors were sent to deliberate, District Attorney Christina Mitchell gave an impassioned plea, saying, “I know this case is difficult, and it has been difficult. But we cannot continue to let children die in vain.”
The defense argued that Gonzales did everything he could in that moment — including gathering critical information, evacuating children and entering the school — and said Gonzales acted on the information he had. The defense also highlighted that other officers arrived in the same timeframe as Gonzales and that at least one officer had an opportunity to shoot the gunman before he entered the school.
This case marks the second time in U.S. history that prosecutors have sought to hold a member of law enforcement criminally accountable for their response to a mass shooting.
In 2023, a Florida jury acquitted Scot Peterson, a former Broward County sheriff’s deputy, who was charged with child neglect and culpable negligence for his alleged inaction during the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Peterson’s lawyers argued his role as an armed school resource officer did not amount to a caregiving post needed to prove child neglect in Florida, and that the response to the shooting was muddled by poor communication.
Former Uvalde Schools Police Chief Pete Arredondo — who was the on-site commander on the day of the Robb Elementary shooting — is also charged with endangerment or abandonment of a child and has pleaded not guilty. Arredondo’s case has been delayed indefinitely by an ongoing federal lawsuit filed after the U.S. Border Patrol refused repeated efforts by Uvalde prosecutors to interview Border Patrol agents who responded to the shooting, including two who were in the tactical unit responsible for killing the gunman at the school.
“What happened to Uvalde on May 24 can happen anywhere, at any time,” she said. “If it’s going to happen, and if we have laws mandating what the responsibility of a law enforcement peace officer is for a school district, then we better be ready to back it up.”
