Father recalls the harrowing night when son was injured in Philadelphia plane crash
ABC News
(PHILADELPHIA, Pa.) — It was just a normal Friday evening for Philadelphia father Andre Howard and his 10-year-old son Trey Howard.
Andre Howard picked up Trey Howard and his two younger siblings from school and drove to a nearby Dunkin’.
“I promised him Tuesday that we would get donuts on Friday after school,” Andre Howard told ABC News.
However, as they were leaving the Dunkin’, about to turn on Cottman Avenue, Andre Howard said the family heard a loud bang, quickly accompanied by a “ball of fire” and black smoke. Little did they know, a medical transport jet had just crashed nearby.
Andre Howard attempted to reverse his truck, using the donut shop as a shield to stop flying debris. Then, he heard his son shout something from the backseat of the car.
“I hear my son telling his sister, ‘Get down, baby girl,'” Andre Howard said.
Trey Howard, who is in the fourth grade, used his body as a human shield to protect his younger sister from incoming debris, his father said.
“I turn around and he has metal out the side of his head,” Andre Howard said.
In efforts to protect his younger sister, Trey Howard was hit with a piece of plane debris or glass, with part of it sticking out of his head, his father said.
As Andre Howard attempted to move his son, the metal protruding from Trey Howard’s head fell out, causing blood to gush everywhere, he said. Andre Howard said he wrapped Trey Howard’s head with socks, while someone else lent a shirt — anything to stop the bleeding.
Andre Howard said he flagged down a police officer on the scene, who drove the family to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where Trey Howard underwent emergency brain surgery, and then was transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Andre Howard said he was told there was a high likelihood his son wouldn’t survive.
However, after the procedure and a full weekend in the intensive care unit, Trey Howard was moved to a regular room on Monday and continues to recover from the harrowing event.
“Am I OK? No. Is his mother OK? No. Is his family OK? No. But we are going to be strong for him every step of this process to get him back to full strength,” Andre Howard said.
When Trey Howard was finally able to speak again, the first thing he asked was, ‘Daddy, did I save my sister?'”
Andre Howard said his son’s selfless act of bravery was “something that not a lot of grown men could do” and called his fourth grader his “superhero.”
The hospital is continuing to monitor Trey Howard’s skull, ensuring all of the debris has been removed, his father said. Until he is able to go home, Andre Howard said his son has been getting many visitors — including his teachers and Philadelphia 76ers player Tyrese Maxey.
“Thank God my son is still here. Thank God we didn’t go into the flame,” Andre Howard said. “I’m just happy he is here.”
The plane crash, which involved a medical transport jet, killed all six people on board, as well as one person on the ground. Officials are still investigating the cause of the crash.
Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — This year was full of first-of-its-kind stories that got Americans talking.
While this year saw Donald Trump’s historic conviction and election to a non-consecutive second term, here’s a look back at some of the most talked about stories of 2024 outside of politics, from Diddy’s arrest to the Menendez brothers’ fight for freedom.
Alaska door plug incident
Minutes after Alaska Airlines flight 1282 took off from Portland International Airport on Jan. 5, a door plug blew out, sparking chaos on the plane.
The flight was nearly full with the exception of a few seats; the two seats next to the missing door plug happened to be empty.
The Boeing 737 Max 9 safely made an emergency landing. No one was seriously injured.
An NTSB preliminary report found that, before the flight, four bolts designed to prevent the door plug from falling off the plane were missing.
A Boeing executive told ABC News this summer that the fuselage came to Boeing damaged from the supplier, and to fix the fuselage, the door plug needed to come off. Before they could get the plug back on, the plane needed to be moved; the overnight team put the door plug back on to seal the plane from the outdoor elements, but didn’t install the bolts because it wasn’t their job, the executive said. The first team never filled out the paperwork when they removed the door, so the next team didn’t know to put the bolts back on, the executive said.
The incident sparked intense scrutiny for Boeing that led to changes in the company, including a new CEO, the government mandating that Boeing slow down production, and increased oversight of the company’s safety and quality management systems.
Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse
On March 26, a container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, collapsing the bridge and killing six construction workers who were filling potholes on the span. Two workers survived.
The crash affected entry into the Port of Baltimore for weeks, with the debris blocking entry for other ships. Crews worked to remove about 50,000 tons of steel, concrete and asphalt from the channel and from the container ship, the Department of Justice said.
The collapse is considered “one of the worst transportation disasters in recent memory,” Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said.
In October, the operators of the vessel that destroyed the bridge agreed to pay nearly $102 million for costs stemming from the federal response.
According to the cost estimates provided by the Maryland government, the bridge’s reconstruction will cost between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion, Shailen Bhatt, administrator for the Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, said in May.
School shooter’s parents convicted
Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of Michigan high school shooter Ethan Crumbley, were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison in April after each was found guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter in separate trials.
The trials were a rare case of parents facing criminal charges over their role in a shooting carried out by their child.
Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 years old at the time of the 2021 shooting, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing four students at Oxford High School.
Prosecutors said Jennifer and James Crumbley ignored several warning signs in the days leading up to the shooting. The parents also bought their son the gun used in the shooting and failed to secure the weapon and limit their son’s access to it, prosecutors argued.
Alec Baldwin’s ‘Rust’ case dismissed, armorer convicted
A judge dismissed Alec Baldwin’s “Rust” case in July, on day three of his involuntary manslaughter trial for the fatal on-set shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
The defense said in its argument for dismissal that live ammunition that came into the hands of local law enforcement related to the investigation was “concealed” from them.
The judge agreed to dismiss, saying the state’s discovery violation regarding the late disclosure of a supplemental report on the ammunition evidence “injected needless delay into the proceedings,” approached “bad faith” and was “highly prejudicial to the defendant.”
Meanwhile, “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March. She was found not guilty of tampering with evidence.
Prosecutors said Gutierrez repeatedly failed to maintain proper firearm safety, arguing her negligence led to Hutchins’ death.
Gutierrez was sentenced in April to 18 months in prison.
5 charged in Matthew Perry’s ketamine death
Five people were charged in August 2024 in connection with last year’s ketamine death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry.
Erik Fleming, who admitted in court documents that he distributed the ketamine that killed Perry, and the actor’s live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, who admitted in court documents to administering the ketamine on the day Perry died, pleaded guilty.
Iwamasa and Fleming face up to 15 years and 25 years, respectively.
Two doctors are among those charged: Dr. Mark Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to Dr. Salvador Plasencia, a licensed medical doctor he has known for at least 20 years, with the understanding it would be sold to Perry, who was struggling with a ketamine addiction, according to prosecutors.
Chavez has pleaded guilty and faces up to 10 years in prison.
Two defendants pleaded not guilty: Plasencia and Jasveen Sangha, a woman allegedly known as “The Ketamine Queen,” who is accused of selling Perry the batch of ketamine that killed him, the Department of Justice said.
Sangha and Plasencia face charges including conspiracy to distribute ketamine and are set to go on trial in March 2025. If convicted of all charges, Sangha would face a mandatory minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison. Plasencia would face up to 10 years for each ketamine-related count and up to 20 years for each records falsification count, according to prosecutors.
Georgia high school shooting
A 14-year-old student, Colt Gray, is accused of opening fire at Apalachee High School in Georgia on Sept. 4, killing two students and two teachers and injuring several others.
The suspect’s father, Colin Gray, is also facing charges for allegedly knowingly allowing his son to possess the weapon used in the shooting, according to the GBI.
Investigators believe the teen received the AR-style gun used in the shooting as a Christmas present from his father, according to sources.
The father and son have both pleaded not guilty.
Hurricanes Helene and Milton
On Sept. 26, Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida as a powerful Category 4 storm.
As Helene moved north, it wreaked havoc in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee.
Helene destroyed homes and roads, stranded residents without phone service and water, and claimed the lives of nearly 250 people throughout the Southeast.
Helene is now the deadliest storm in North Carolina’s history. Western North Carolina, including the city of Asheville, was especially hard hit.
Weeks later, on Oct. 9, Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm, bringing tornadoes, powerful winds and flooding rains. Hurricane Milton killed at least 23 people in Florida.
Diddy arrested
Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested in New York City in September and charged with sex trafficking by force, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy.
Prosecutors allege he ran an “enterprise that he engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor or, kidnapping, arson and other crimes.”
Combs is accused of using violence, threats and coercion to force women to engage in sex acts with male prostitutes, sometimes lasting days and often recorded. Combs allegedly called the activity “freak offs.”
Federal prosecutors said Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.”
Combs has pleaded not guilty. His trial is set for May 2025.
The music mogul is also facing numerous civil lawsuits with claims mirroring the criminal allegations.
Menendez brothers’ fight for freedom
The notorious Menendez brothers case came back into the spotlight this year when Netflix released a scripted series and a documentary, both of which added momentum to Erik and Lyle Menendez’s push to be released from prison.
The brothers — who were convicted in the 1990s for the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez — have three possible paths to freedom.
One path is through resentencing. The Los Angeles County district attorney announced in October that he was recommending the brothers’ sentence of life without the possibility of parole be removed, and they should instead be sentenced for murder, which would be a sentence of 50 years to life. Because both brothers were under 26 at the time of the crimes, with the new sentence, they would be eligible for parole immediately.
The DA’s office said its resentencing recommendations take into account factors including the defendants’ ages, psychological trauma or physical abuse that contributed to carrying out the crime and their rehabilitation in prison.
The second path is their habeas corpus petition, which was filed last year for a review of new evidence not presented at trial: a letter Erik Menendez wrote before the murders detailing his allegations that his father sexually abused him; and a new victim who has come forward alleging he was also sexually assaulted by Jose Menendez.
The third path is the brothers’ request for clemency, which they’ve submitted to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The brothers’ next court hearing is in January 2025.
Delphi trial
In November, Delphi, Indiana, resident Richard Allen was found guilty in the murders of two teenage girls, Abby Williams and Libby German, who were killed on a local hiking trail in 2017.
The mysterious case captivated the nation for years. As police searched for answers, they released a clip of the unknown suspect’s voice — a recording of him saying “down the hill” — which was recovered from Libby’s phone. Police also released a grainy image of the suspect on the trail found on Libby’s phone.
Allen was arrested in 2022. He admitted to police he was on the trail that day, but he denied any involvement in the crime.
A major focus of Allen’s trial was his multiple confessions in jail to corrections officers, a psychologist and his wife. The defense argued Allen was in a psychotic state when he made the numerous confessions.
Allen was sentenced on Dec. 20 to 130 years in prison.
UnitedHealthcare CEO killing
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4 while he was on his way to an investors conference.
Thompson’s murder ignited online anger at the health insurance industry and some people online celebrated the suspect.
The slaying also sparked a massive manhunt for the masked gunman, with the NYPD releasing images of the suspect found via surveillance cameras.
On Dec. 9, suspect Luigi Mangione was apprehended after he was spotted at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
The ghost gun allegedly in his possession when he was arrested was matched to three shell casings recovered at the scene of the murder, the NYPD said. Fingerprints recovered from a water bottle and a Kind bar near the crime scene were also been matched to Mangione, police said.
Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate, allegedly had a spiral notebook detailing plans about how to eventually kill the CEO, according to law enforcement officials.
One passage allegedly said, “What do you do? You whack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention,” the officials said.
Mangione is in custody in New York City where he’s facing state and federal charges. The federal charges make him eligible for the death penalty.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso, Clara McMichael and Nadine El-Bawab contributed to this report.
(LOS ANGELES) — A perfect storm of weather and climate conditions made the California wildfires nearly impossible to contain once they ignited, according to experts.
In a typical fire management scenario, containing the fire by setting up a perimeter and trying to keep it from spreading further is often the first line of defense for firefighters to get the blaze under control, according to Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources’ team of experts on fire research in California.
But a confluence of events — hurricane-force winds, low humidity levels and dry conditions — allowed the fires to explode after the initial spark, Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told ABC News.
Trying to contain the fire under the wind scenario was “untenable,” Quinn-Davidson said.
“Keeping people safe was the No. 1 objective — evacuating people, keeping firefighters safe,” Quinn-Davidson said.
The fires have prompted mandatory evacuation orders for tens of thousands of people and ripped through entire neighborhoods in a matter of hours. At least five people have died and several others were injured as a result of the fires, according to officials.
What we know about the containment of the wildfires so far
Five separate wildfires in the same region is proving difficult for firefighters to contain as they battle the flames amid high Santa Ana winds.
The Palisades Fire, which had burned through at least 300 structures and more than 17,000 acres in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in Los Angeles County, was 0% contained as of Thursday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as CAL Fire.
Also in Los Angeles County, the Eaton Fire has burned more than 10,000 acres near the Altadena and Pasadena neighborhoods and is 0% contained, according to the state fire agency.
The Hurst Fire, burning near Diamond Road and Sylmar in Los Angeles County, was about 10% contained on Thursday as it neared 1,000 acres burned, according to Cal Fire.
On North Woodley Avenue and Sepuleveda Basin in Los Angeles County, the Woodley Fire was 0% contained after sparking on Wednesday,
The Lidia Fire, on Canyon Road in Los Angeles County, was 40% contained on Thursday, according to Cal Fire.
“Right now, it is still a very, very dangerous situation, and anybody in that zone needs to evacuate,” Cleetus said.
Why firefighters weren’t able to contain the fires immediately
Several meteorological impacts contributed to the inability to contain the fires quickly, including humidity as low as 10% and a windstorm with gusts up to 100 mph that carried embers far and wide to ignite a tinderbox landscape Just 0.16 inches of rain has fallen in the region since May, according to meteorology and fire experts, leaving the landscape parched.
Containing the fire as winds gusted at those speeds in some spots would have been virtually impossible, the experts said.
“This is just a catastrophic influence of factors that has made it really, really difficult to contain these fires,” Cleetus said.
In addition, the urban setting makes managing these types of fires much more difficult, the experts said.
In Northern California, where fires tend to be fueled by large amounts of brush in forests and wildlands, firefighters can better manage them through fire-suppression activity, Quinn-Davidson said.
But in a populated region like Los Angeles County, the spread is moving quickly from house to house as people try to evacuate — in this case even ditching cars that block roads in an attempt to outrun the flames, Quinn-Davidson said.
“There’s nothing more dangerous and difficult than fighting in close and urban settings,” Cleetus said.
In addition, the firefighters have been using residential water supplies and have seen some instances where hydrants ran dry, Quinn-Davidson said.
Climate change also played a role in the severity of the fires
Wildfires are a natural and necessary part of Earth’s cycle, but climate change and other more direct human influences have increased their likelihood, research shows.
Wildfires in the western U.S. have become larger, more intense and more destructive in recent decades due to a combination of factors, including rapid urbanization and human-amplified climate change, according to the federal government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment, a breakdown of the latest in climate science, published in November 2023.
Warming temperatures, drier conditions and shifts in precipitation are contributing to an increase in the frequency of large wildfires and acres of land burned in the U.S. each year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has signed a transgender bathroom ban for students into law.
The law requires students in the state’s K-12 schools, as well as colleges and universities, to use the restroom or facility that aligns with their sex assigned at birth.
The law notes it is not intended to prevent schools from building single-occupancy facilities and does not ban someone of the opposite gender from entering to help another person.
Ohio joins at least 14 other states in banning transgender people from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
Supporters say the ban eases concerns about student’s privacy and protection. Critics of the bill say it creates unfounded fears about transgender students and may instead put trans students in danger of discrimination or violence.
DeWine’s office previously declined ABC News’ request for comment ahead of the bill’s signing. He told reporters this past summer that he has to look at “specific language” in the legislation.
“I’m for people, kids, to be able to go to the bathroom with the gender assignment so that they have that protection, but I’ll have to look at the specific language,” DeWine told reporters.
Transgender health care, bathroom access, sports participation and more have been a key focus for Republican legislators nationwide in recent years — a wave that has prompted hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills in the 2024 legislative session alone, as tracked by the American Civil Liberties Union.
DeWine has gone against state Republican legislators on transgender issues in the past. He vetoed a transgender youth care ban bill in December 2023, which would have restricted gender-affirming puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgeries.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
