Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Giles/ U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Investigators will offer updates Tuesday in the probe into the devastating crash between an American Airlines plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed all 67 people on board both aircraft.
The crash happened on the night of Jan. 29 when the PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet, which had departed from Wichita, Kansas, with 64 people on board, was about to land at Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The three soldiers on the helicopter were conducting an annual training flight and night vision goggle check ride for one of the pilots at the time when the two aircraft collided.
Both aircraft plunged into the Potomac River.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jennifer Homendy said last month that there was no indication the helicopter crew could tell there was an impending collision.
The soldiers may have had “bad data” on the altitude from their altimeter, as the pilots had differing altitudes in the seconds before the crash, Homendy said. One helicopter pilot thought they were at 400 feet and the other thought they were at 300 feet.
The transmission from the tower that instructed the helicopter to go behind the plane may not have been heard by the crew because the pilot may have keyed her radio at the same second and stepped on the transmission from ATC, the NTSB added.
The Black Hawk crew was likely wearing night vision goggles throughout the flight, Homendy said.
The NTSB will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. ET Tuesday.
Facebook / Village of Mount Pleasant Police Department
(MOUNT PLEASANT, WI) — I scream, you scream, a 4-year-old boy has called the cops after his mother ate his ice cream, police have said.
The incident occurred last Tuesday in the town of Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin — located seven miles west of Racine — when police were contacted by a 4-year-old boy who said his “mom being bad,” according to a statement released by the Village of Mount Pleasant Police Department last week.
“Officer Gardinier and Officer Ostergaard were dispatched for a 911 hangup,” authorities said. “A little boy called 911 saying his mom was being bad and needed to go to jail.”
When officers arrived at their home, the young boy said, “his mom ate his ice cream and needed to go to jail for it.”
He also told police that “he no longer wanted her to go to jail and just wanted some ice cream.”
The good-spirted officers subsequently left the home once they verified that this was indeed the reason why they had been called out but they returned back the next day, this time to surprise the boy with some ice cream “after he decided he didn’t want mom in trouble anymore,” police said.
The responding officers weren’t the only ones to find humor in the situation either.
“I’m not saying he’s right. All I am saying is I understand,” said one person responding to the Village of Mount Pleasant Police Department’s post about the incident on social media.
“At least he knows how to call for help,” said another response. “It could save someone’s life one day!”
The officers involved even took a picture with the 4-year-old after the whole incident was over and were able to find humor in the situation.
“I love hearing about our amazing officers creating positive relationships with kids,” another social media user said. “Keep the good news coming!”
(MADISON, MS) — Three people died after a medical transport helicopter crashed in Madison County, Mississippi, on Monday afternoon, according to the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
The aircraft was a Eurocopter EC-135 helicopter, which crashed into a wooded area around 1:15 p.m. local time, the Federal Aviation Authority said in a statement.
It was owned and operated by Med-Trans, UMMC said.
UMMC confirmed that no patients were on board, and that the victims were two crew members and a pilot. Their families were being contacted, the medical center said.
“Earlier this afternoon, AirCare 3, our Columbus-based medical transport helicopter, had an accident in rural Madison County, north of the Reservoir,” UMMC said in a statement on Facebook. “Sadly, there were no survivors.”
The FAA was investigating in the immediate aftermath of the crash, and the National Transportation Safety Board said it was “launching a go-team to investigate” starting Tuesday.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves released a statement on X saying, “It’s a tragic reminder of the risks Mississippi’s first responders take every day to keep us safe. Our state will never forget the sacrifice of these heroes.”
ABC News’ Benjamin Stein and T. Michelle Murphy contributed to this report.
(MONTVALE, NJ) — A school bus carrying 31 passengers overturned and landed on its side in New Jersey on Monday, sending at least 13 to the hospital.
The crash occurred on the side of the Garden State Parkway in Montvale, according to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.
Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali said in a post on Facebook that no one died in the incident, and the individual with the most severe of injuries has a pulse.
The bus was headed from Lakewood, New Jersey to New York State when it overturned just south of Exit 172 around 7:30 p.m., according to the mayor.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — As Democrats attempt to rebound from an underwhelming showing in the 2024 election, California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna is not only taking stock of the stinging defeat last fall, but also taking shots at his own political party.
After watching Democrats swap nominees and struggle to deliver a cohesive message to voters in the last campaign cycle, Khanna told ABC News in an exclusive interview that he believes a political reform agenda focused on combating corruption “is what we should run on in 2026” and laments the political costs that came as Democrats campaigned on other priorities in 2024.
“It was a mistake,” Khanna said, adding he “didn’t hear any political reform agenda” from President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris during their respective presidential campaigns. “Trump became the outsider. It was a mistake we didn’t run on the theme of reform. Getting money and lobbyists out of politics — that should be our mantle.”
Now, Khanna is introducing the Drain The Swamp Act, which would permanently prohibit White House officials from accepting gifts from lobbyists — reinstating a Biden-era mandate that established ethics and lobbying rules for appointees in the administration.
“Anti-corruption has to be core to rebuilding the Democratic brand,” Khanna, serving in his fifth term, said. “Democrats need to be seen as owning the mantle of reform.”
Khanna said he finds it striking that one of President Donald Trump’s first acts of his second term was to sign an executive order to overturn Biden’s order — creating the impetus to craft an agenda that takes aim at Washington’s revolving door between lobbyists and lawmakers.
“It’s part of a broader sense that Democrats have to run on anti-corruption,” Khanna said, complaining that the Democratic Party enabled Trump to “co-opt” the “drain the swamp” theme of anti-corruption. Khanna said it has cost his party not only two presidential elections in 2016 and 2024, but also majority control of Congress.
“We need to be zealous,” Khanna said — explaining his vision for a five-point anti-corruption agenda.
Khanna wants to ban former members of Congress from ever lobbying Congress, and he wants to impose 12-year term limits for members and 18-year term limits on Supreme Court justices. Khanna says he believes timed-out justices should return to serve on lower courts after they leave a post on the high court. Khanna also advocates for a “binding code of ethics” for Supreme Court justices amid ethics pressure on the court.
“If Democrats want to rebuild, start with anti-political corruption,” Khanna stressed, adding he has received a positive reception from a range of people such as billionaire Mark Cuban and even Republican voters who are supportive of his pledge to “drain the swamp.”
Khanna also calls for a ban on members of Congress and their families from holding and trading individual stocks during the member’s tenure in office, as well as a ban on members of Congress and candidates running for House or Senate seats from accepting contributions from political action committees.
As for his own future political interest — whether reelection, the California governor’s mansion or even the White House in 2028 — Khanna is keeping his cards close, but his options open.
“Ro believes that anti-corruption and economic patriotism need to be the driving themes of the Democratic Party for 2026 and 2028, regardless of who gets into the fray or leads the party,” Sarah Drory, a Khanna spokeswoman, told ABC when asked about the congressman’s political prospects.
Nevertheless, Khanna’s profile continues to grow as he faces voters and weighs his future options — sometimes even before Republican audiences on Fox News or in GOP-held districts.
After Trump delivered a joint address to Congress last week, Khanna went on “Fox News Sunday” and admitted that it “was not a good look” as Democrats protested not only the president, but also rejected the invited guests in the First Lady’s box.
“We should have stood for the boy with cancer. You stand for the president of the United States, out of respect for the American people,” Khanna said on the program. “I mean, you stand for the widow of the firefighter.”
“The story should have been on President Trump,” Khanna continued. “We should have been talking about the Medicaid cuts. Instead, we’re talking about our own behavior. And that’s a distraction from us getting out our economic message.”
Khanna will also hold three in-person town hall meetings during a “Benefits Over Billionaires” tour on March 23 in GOP-held districts, where his anti-corruption agenda will take stage alongside his progressive bona fides.
“It’s smart to have a clear message,” Khanna told ABC News. “We’re the party that’s going to save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.”
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge has blocked the removal of a Palestinian activist from the United States while weighing a petition challenging his arrest, court documents show.
Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Columbia University over the weekend, despite having a green card, his attorney told ABC News, sparking an outcry from civil rights groups.
ICE agents arrested Khalil — a leader in the Manhattan university’s encampment movement — on Saturday night, claiming that his student visa had been revoked, his attorney, Amy Greer, said in a statement to ABC News.
However, Khalil is in the United States on a green card and not on a student visa, Greer said Sunday. Despite informing agents about his legal status, ICE detained him, she said.
President Donald Trump claimed Khalil was a “Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student” and said this is the “first arrest of many to come” in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday.
“We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again,” he added.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Khalil is a former Columbia University graduate student and was arrested by ICE “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism.”
“Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” McLaughlin said in a statement Sunday night. “ICE and the Department of State are committed to enforcing President Trump’s executive orders and to protecting U.S. national security.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also shared an article about Khalil on Sunday night and posted on X, “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
Baher Azmy, one of the lawyers representing Khalil, called his client’s alleged alignment with Hamas “false and preposterous.”
“So setting aside the false and preposterous premise that advocating on behalf of Palestinian human rights and to plead with public officials to stop an ongoing genocide constitutes alignment with Hamas, his speech is absolutely protected by the Constitution, and it should be chilling to everyone that the United States government could punish or try to deport someone because they disapprove of the speech they’re engaged in,” Azmy told ABC News on Monday.
Greer said she is challenging Khalil’s arrest, which occurred at his university residence.
“Overnight we filed a habeas corpus petition on Mahmoud’s behalf challenging the validity of his arrest and detention,” she said Sunday.
At one point during a phone call with agents, they hung up on Greer, a representative of her law firm told ABC News.
Greer said they initially did not know Khalil’s whereabouts following his arrest. His wife, who is eight months pregnant and a U.S. citizen, was unable to find him at an ICE facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he was purportedly transferred, Greer said — adding that he might have been transferred to Louisiana.
An attorney for Khalil confirmed to ABC News on Monday that he’s currently being held at a detention facility in Jena, Louisiana.
“ICE’s arrest and detention of Mahmoud follows the U.S. government’s open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia University for criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza,” the lawyer said. “The U.S. government has made clear that they will use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress that speech.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, called for Khalil’s release.
“The Department of Homeland Security’s lawless decision to arrest him solely because of his peaceful anti-genocide activism represents a blatant attack on the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech, immigration laws, and the very humanity of Palestinians,” the group said in a statement on Monday. “We and other civil rights groups are in communication with Mahmoud’s legal counsel. This fight is just starting.”
Several hundred protesters massed Monday in lower Manhattan to demand his release, carrying signs that said “No political prisoners in the United States” and “Release Mahmoud Khalil.”
“He was arrested for speaking out against genocide,” said Marian Osman, one of the organizers. “We have a right to free speech. Political speech is protected speech in this country.”
After Trump posted that Khalil would not be the last pro-Palestinian demonstrator arrested, Osman pledged protesters would not be intimidated.
“We are just getting started,” she said. “I don’t think protesters should be scared. I think protesters should be upset and angry.”
The arrest occurred just days after Trump took to social media threatening to defund universities that allowed “illegal protests” and claiming “agitators” will be sent back to their home countries.
“All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on [sic] the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump posted on Truth Social on March 4.
Columbia released the following statement on Sunday: “There have been reports of ICE around campus. Columbia has and will continue to follow the law. Consistent with our longstanding practice and the practice of cities and institutions throughout the country, law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter non-public University areas, including University buildings.”
“Columbia is committed to complying with all legal obligations and supporting our student body and campus community,” the statement continued.
(NEW YORK) — A New York resident making s’mores in their backyard is suspected of accidentally igniting a series of wildfires over the weekend that swept through hundreds of acres of the Pine Barrens region of Long Island, authorities said Monday.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said the “operating theory” is that a fire was started at about 9:30 a.m. ET Saturday when a resident used cardboard to start a fire to make s’mores, a confection that includes toasted marshmallows and chocolate sandwiched between graham crackers.
“The individual making s’mores was unable to get the fire lit due to the winds, but they used cardboard to initially light that fire,” Catalina said during a news conference on Monday. “The person subsequently discovers that the fire does ignite in the backyard area and all goes up in fire.”
Catalina said the initial fire was extinguished by 10:30 a.m., but investigators believe embers blew about an eighth of a mile southeast of the s’mores fire and started a second blaze just before 1 p.m. in the Manorville community of Suffolk County.
Northwest winds of up to 45 mph quickly spread embers from Manorville, igniting a fire in Eastport and another fire in the publicly protected Pine Barrens region of West Hampton, according to Catalina.
“It was initially reported that there were four separate fires, or reported at one time,” Catalina said. “All of those fires are in a direct line with the strong northwest wind that was blowing that day. And it is believed that the embers from each fire traveled and continuously started more fires. So that is the operating theory right now.”
Catalina said the department has 25 arson investigators probing the blaze to determine the exact cause of the fire, but added, “So far, our investigation is pointing strongly toward an accidental origin for Saturday’s fires.”
The combined fires burned about 600 acres of wildland and prompted New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to declare a state of emergency. At least two commercial structures were damaged, officials said.
Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine said Monday that two volunteer firefighters were injured battling the blazes on Saturday, with one being airlifted to Stony Brook Hospital in Stony Brook with second-degree burns to the face. The other hospitalized firefighter suffered a non-life-threatening head injury, Romaine said.
The fires in Suffolk County are “100% contained,” Amanda Lefton, the acting commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, said. Firefighters will remain on-scene over the next few days to prevent any spot fires from igniting, Lefton said.
Romaine said that at one point during Saturday’s blazes, firefighters feared the blaze would jump Sunrise Highway and spread into the more populated communities of Suffolk County.
He said the fire was fueled by hundreds of dead pine trees in the Pine Barrens region.
“Without the combined efforts of everyone involved, we would not have been able to stop this fire,” Romaine said. “This was a fire that could have been far more serious than it was.”
More than 600 firefighters from 80 volunteer Suffolk County fire departments responded to the blaze, battling flames and smoke visible from as far away as Connecticut, Romaine said.
(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Monday he’s asking the court to withdraw the previous district attorney’s motion for resentencing for the Menendez brothers, calling the brothers’ claims of self-defense “lies.”
“We are prepared to go forward” with the hearing regarding their resentencing case, Hochman said at a news conference Monday. “However, we are asking the court to withdraw the previous district attorney’s motion for resentencing, because we believe there are legitimate reasons and the interests of justice justifies that withdrawal.”
The resentencing hearing is set for March 20 and 21.
The request to withdraw the resentencing motion is “based on the current state of the record and the Menendez brothers’ current and continual failure to show full insight and accept full responsibility for their murders,” Hochman said in a statement. “If they were to finally come forward and unequivocally and sincerely admit and completely accept responsibility for their lies of self-defense and the attempted suborning of perjury they engaged in, then the Court should weigh such new insight into the analysis of rehabilitation and resentencing — as will the People.”
Lyle and Erik Menendez are serving life without the possibility of parole.
In October, then-LA County District Attorney George Gascón announced he supported resentencing for the brothers. Gascón recommended their sentences of life without the possibility of parole be removed, and said 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, they would be eligible for parole immediately with the new sentence.
The DA’s office said its resentencing recommendations take into account many factors, including rehabilitation in prison and abuse or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón praised the work Lyle and Erik Menendez did behind bars to rehabilitate themselves and help other inmates.
Weeks after Gascón’s announcement, he lost his race for reelection to Hochman.
When Hochman came into office on Dec. 3, he promised to review all the facts before reaching his own decision. He said that effort included speaking to all the prosecutors and defense attorneys involved as well as reviewing thousands of pages of court filings, trial transcripts and confidential prison records.
Hochman’s announcement on Monday comes days after one of the brothers’ cousins, Tamara Goodell, slammed the DA in a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Civil Rights Division.
Goodell accused Hochman of being “hostile, dismissive and patronizing” during two meetings in January with family members who want the brothers released. She said the “lack of compassion was palpable, and the family left feeling not only ignored but further intimidated and revictimized.”
Goodell wants Hochman removed and the case turned over to the attorney general’s office.
This case dates back to 1989, when Lyle Menendez, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, shot and killed their parents, Kitty and Jose Menendez, in the family’s Beverly Hills home.
The defense claimed the brothers acted in self-defense after enduring years of sexual abuse by their father. Prosecutors alleged they killed for money.
Their first trial ended in a mistrial. Lyle and Erik Menendez were convicted in 1996 following their second trial.
The brothers were sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole.
Besides resentencing, the brothers have been pursuing two other paths to freedom.
One is their habeas corpus petition, which they filed in 2023 for a review of two new pieces of evidence not presented at trial: a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuse from his father, and allegations from a former boy band member who revealed in 2023 that he was raped by Jose Menendez.
Hochman announced in February that he’s asked the court to deny the habeas corpus petition, arguing the new evidence isn’t credible or admissible.
The third path to freedom is through the brothers’ request for clemency, which has been submitted to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
On Feb. 26, Newsom announced that he’s ordering the parole board to conduct a 90-day “comprehensive risk assessment” investigation into whether the brothers pose “an unreasonable risk to the public” if they’re granted clemency and released.
“There’s no guarantee of outcome here,” Newsom said. “But this process simply provides more transparency … as well as provides us more due diligence before I make any determination for clemency.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(SANFORD, Fla.) — A 17-year-old was arrested on Sunday after posting a video online allegedly plotting a shooting at a high school in Florida, according to the Sanford Police Department.
Officials said they received an anonymous tip on Saturday regarding a “video of an unknown male threatening to shoot up Seminole High School.”
The video “pictured the subject with multiple guns, vests and other items of concern,” authorities said in a statement on Sunday.
Timothy A. Thomas, 17, was ultimately confirmed as the student in the video, police said. Thomas was charged with intimidation through a written or electronic threat of a mass shooting or act of terrorism, police said.
Thomas is a student at Elevation High School, which is approximately 4 miles from Seminole High School. He was found at his residence and “taken into custody without incident,” officials said.
The weapons — which were seized after the teen’s arrest — were “extremely realistic Airsoft replicas,” according to police.
Sanford Chief of Police Cecil Smith applauded the “swift dedication and arrest” of the suspect.
“This fact action and teamwork most likely prevented a tragedy and saved multiple lives,” Smith said in a statement.
Serita Beamon, superintendent of Seminole County Public Schools, said she was “thankful” for law enforcement’s prompt response to the threats.
“The safety of our students and staff is our highest priority, and we will continue to take any potential threat seriously, and act quickly,” Beamon said in a statement.
Anyone with additional information about the incident should reach out to the Sanford Police Department or Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS (8477).
(NEW YORK) — Climate change could threaten the future use of satellites and significantly reduce the number of spacecraft that can safety orbit Earth, according to new research.
Global warming is causing space debris to linger above the planet for longer periods of time, leaving less space for functioning satellites and posing a growing problem for the long-term use of Earth’s orbital space, a study published Monday in Nature Sustainability found.
While increasing levels of human-caused greenhouse gases cause a warming effect on Earth’s lower atmosphere, it has an opposite impact on the upper atmosphere, William Parker, a PhD candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and author of the study, told ABC News.
The radiation from greenhouse gas emissions is also causing Earth’s upper atmosphere to cool, according to Parker.
“We’re basically losing energy in the upper atmosphere, and that causes the cooling and the contraction,” he said.
The cooling effect has created a long-term contraction of the upper atmosphere — similar to how a balloon shrinks in a freezer, Parker said. Typically, the upper atmosphere slowly pulls space debris out of Earth’s lower orbit. But the cooling and contracting effect is causing less drag in the thermosphere, causing the space junk to linger longer, he explained.
The debris also poses a threat to every active satellite, Parker added.
“As long as it’s up there, it’s a persistent hazard,” Parker said.
There is currently “tons of debris” in Earth’s low orbit, said Parker, who has been researching the dynamics of spacecraft close to the Earth. That debris has been created by collisions, explosions between satellites and anti-satellite weapons tests that have occurred over the last several decades. Thousands of pieces of space debris are in orbit, but the number grows to the millions when counting smaller fragments measuring less than 10 centimeters, Parker said.
The longer the space debris remains in the upper atmosphere, the more crowded the space becomes, Parker said. And Earth’s orbital space is limited.
“It’s a complicated operating environment today,” Parker said.
Rising greenhouse gas emissions could reduce the total number of satellites that can safely orbit Earth by up to 66% by the end of the century under a high emissions scenario — equivalent to 25 million to 40 million satellites, according to the researchers.
Entities that operate in space may need to increasingly conduct active debris removal, which can cost tens of millions of dollars for a single operation and involve sending up a satellite to remove debris, Parker said.
In 2022, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission passed a rule that every satellite that’s launched from the U.S. has to be able to remove itself from orbit five years after the end of its mission.
A drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions will be necessary to prevent further complications with space operations, Parker said.
“An upside there is that reducing greenhouse gas emissions doesn’t just help us on Earth, it also has the potential to protect us from long-term sustainability issues in space,” he noted.
