Douglas Chevalier/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — An American Airlines regional jet collided with a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia on Wednesday night before both aircraft plummeted into the Potomac River.
Sixty-four people were on the plane, which departed from Wichita, Kansas. Three Army soldiers were aboard the helicopter, which was on a training flight at the time, officials said. No survivors are expected.
The incident recalls a similar tragedy that took place 43 years ago.
On Jan. 13, 1982, Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th Street Bridge in downtown Washington, D.C., and plunged into the icy waters of the Potomac.
The Boeing 737-200 that was en route to Tampa departed from Runway 36 at Washington National Airport at 4 p.m., despite the dangerous blizzard conditions, according to various media reports at the time.
The plane, struggling to gain altitude, only rose a few hundred feet in the air after takeoff before suddenly dropping toward the bridge, shearing off the tops of cars and crashing into the river.
In total, 78 passengers, crew members and motorists died in the crash, according to officials. Five people were rescued from the frigid waters of the Potomac.
The National Transportation Safety Board determined the cause of the crash to be pilot error, along with improper deicing procedures. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a report that the flight “experienced difficulty in climbing immediately following rotation and subsequently stalled.”
“Loss of control was determined to be due to reduction in aerodynamic lift resulting from ice and snow that had accumulated on the airplane’s wings during prolonged ground operation at National Airport,” the FAA said.
Flight attendant Kelly Duncan, the only crew member on board who survived, told ABC News in 1982 that the crash seemed unreal.
“My next feeling was that I was just floating through white and I felt like I was dying and I just thought, ‘I’m not really ready to die,'” she said at the time.
(NEW YORK) — The Gulf Coast is digging out from a once-in-a-lifetime snowstorm that struck from Texas to Florida, closing airports, crippling roadways and leaving freezing temperatures in its wake.
At least 11 deaths have been attributed to the storm and accompanying cold blast.
In Dale County, Alabama, one person was killed in a house fire after leaving their stove on to keep them warm and a second person was killed in a car accident, according to the local coroner.
One person died from hypothermia in Georgia and two people died in the cold in Austin, Texas, officials said.
Southwest of San Antonio, five people died when a tractor-trailer collided with other vehicles on an icy road, the Texas Department of Safety said.
In Moncks Corner, South Carolina, a 71-year-old man died while shoveling snow, according to the Berkeley County Coroner’s Office.
This storm brought more snow to some cities than any other storm in at least the last 130 years.
Florida saw its most snow on record, with 9.8 inches of snow recorded in Milton, northeast of Pensacola.
Pensacola also saw an all-time record for the city with 8.9 inches.
Texas experienced its first-ever blizzard warning. Beaumont, Texas, recorded 5.2 inches of snow — an all-time record.
Mobile, Alabama, saw an all-time record high of 7.5 inches.
In Louisiana, Baton Rouge saw 7.6 inches.
New Orleans recorded 8 inches, marking the most snow in the city since 1895.
And the danger isn’t over. An extreme cold warning is in effect Thursday morning from Mississippi to the Florida Panhandle, with temperatures dropping as low as 12 degrees in parts of the Gulf Coast.
For Louisiana, this is the coldest it’s been in over 100 years, state climatologist Jay Grymes said.
While snow has melted in many areas, the freeze remains a serious threat. Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Joe Donahue is urging “everyone to avoid unnecessary travel.”
Many of the areas hit hard by the storm will thaw soon; temperatures are expected to climb to the 50s and 60s by Sunday.
The main gate at the prison in Guantanamo at the US Guantanamo Naval Base on October 16, 2018, in Guantanamo Base, Cuba. (Photo by SYLVIE LANTEAUME/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — When Jose, a Venezuelan migrant who was seeking asylum in the United States, was awoken by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official at 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 8, he sensed he was being sent to Guantanamo Bay, home of the notorious U.S. prison camp that administration officials said would house the most violent “worst of the worst” migrants apprehended on American soil.
“When we got on the [military] plane, they put restraints on our hands, feet, and waist,” said Jose, who requested that his last name not be used out of fear of retribution. “They searched us and then sat us in a chair, tying us to it and binding our feet together. We hoped it wouldn’t be Guantanamo but in the end, that’s where we ended up.”
Jose is one of the more than 170 migrants who spent two weeks at the naval base before being sent to Venezuela. He told ABC News that while he had a suspicion he was being sent to Guantanamo, he claims U.S. officials never told him and the other migrants where they were being sent.
“Our minds were racing, thinking we were kidnapped, wondering who would get us out of there,” said Jose. “Because no one tells you anything.”
Jose told ABC News that he had traveled to Mexico’s northern border to wait for an asylum appointment that he requested through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection app, prior to it being shut down by the Trump administration. After three weeks of waiting and “no food or a place to stay,” he decided to surrender to authorities at the U.S. southern border. He was detained at a detention center until he was transferred to Guantanamo.
ABC News spoke with Jose and another Guantanamo detainee, Jhoan Bastidas Paz, in Spanish, and reviewed court testimonies from three other detainees about their experience on the naval base before they were released. They allege U.S. officials transferred them to Guantanamo despite their having no criminal records, and several claim they were denied phone calls with their attorneys and relatives despite repeated demands.
“From the moment we were there, we tried to kick the doors, we went on countless strikes,” Jose said. “We clogged the toilets and protested, we covered the cameras because the confinement is unbearable.”
Jose told ABC News the room in which he was placed had “cobwebs and a disgusting smell.” He said that he spent 10 days without a mattress.
“They give you food … but it’s like they don’t give you any, [it’s] very little food,” Jose said. “There came a point where I would lick the plate. The food had no salt, but I would still eat it as if it were very tasty, because I was hungry.”
Jose said he and the other detainees were only allowed outside twice in two weeks and were denied phone calls with their relatives and families.
“There are four cages outside,” Jose said. “That’s the yard. You leave one room to go into another cell.”
Representatives from the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Bastidas Paz had surrendered to authorities after crossing the U.S. southern border from Mexico in 2023. He was charged with “improper entry” to which he pleaded guilty, and was in a detention center in El Paso, Texas, until he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay.
Both Jose and Bastidas Paz told ABC News they are not members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, despite the U.S. government saying they are.
“We’re not from Tren de Aragua or anything, we’re not criminals, we’re immigrants,” Bastidas Paz said. He said that officials never told him he was being sent to Guantanamo and then to Venezuela.
“I don’t think it’s fair that they’re taking us there, like that, with lies, because practically we’re being taken there, kidnapped, without telling us anything, and when we realize it, they leave us there, and I don’t think it’s fair,” Bastidas Paz said.
Bastidas Paz told ABC News that he went on a hunger strike with other detainees while they demanded information from officials. He also claims he was only allowed to shower three times during the time he was in Guantanamo.
“We are immigrants and we haven’t committed any crime to be taken to that very ugly prison,” Bastidas Paz said.
Jose said he has not been able to sleep since he arrived in Venezuela.
“I haven’t slept at all because of the fear that I might fall asleep and … I’d wake up back there,” he told ABC News. “That’s the terror I feel.”
(NEW YORK) — The so-called “murder hornet” has been eradicated from the United States, five years after the invasive species was first discovered in Washington state, officials declared Wednesday.
There have been no confirmed detections of the northern giant hornet — the hornet’s official name — for the past three years, the Washington State Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.
The eradication was the result of a yearslong effort to find and eliminate the hornets that involved state, federal and international government agencies, officials said.
“We are proud of this landmark victory in the fight against invasive species,” Dr. Mark Davidson, the deputy administrator at USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said in a statement. “The success of this effort demonstrates what’s possible when agencies and communities unite toward a common goal.”
WSDA Director Derek Sandison said in a statement he was “incredibly proud of our team, which has dedicated years of hard work to safeguarding our state and the nation from this invasive threat to our native pollinators and agriculture.”
The public also played a large part in helping eradicate the pest by reporting sightings, officials said.
“Without the public’s support for this effort, it is unlikely we would be announcing the eradication of northern giant hornet today,” Sven Spichiger, WSDA’s pest program manager, said in a statement. “All of our nest detections resulted directly or indirectly from public reports. And half of our confirmed detections came from the public. The people of Washington can be proud that we did this by working together.”
The northern giant hornet, which is native to Asian countries including China and Japan, was first detected in North America in August 2019 in British Columbia, Canada. It was confirmed in Washington state four months later when a resident in Whatcom County reported a dead specimen. That incident appeared to be a separate introduction originating from a different country than the British Columbia one, officials said.
Four hornet nests found inside alder tree cavities in Whatcom County were eradicated between October 2020 and September 2021.
Trapping efforts continued in Whatcom County through 2024, and no additional hornets have been detected in the area, WSDA said.
A community member reported a “suspicious hornet sighting” in Kitsap County in October, though WSDA was unable to obtain the hornet to confirm the species, the department said. Traps placed in the area and public outreach did not yield any additional evidence or reports of suspected sightings, it said.
“All we can say is that the image appears to be a hornet of some kind. How it came to be in Kitsap County, we don’t know,” Spichiger said.
WSDA said it will conduct trapping in the area in 2025 as a “precautionary measure.”
The northern giant hornet could have posed a “significant threat” to honey bees and other pollinators had it become established in the U.S., officials said. The hornets can kill an entire honey bee hive in just 90 minutes. Their sting is also more painful than that of a typical honey bee.
“By tackling this threat head-on, we protected not only pollinators and crops, but also the industries, communities, and ecosystems that depend on them,” Davidson said.
