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(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.
(WASHINGTON) — While President Donald Trump’s comments about wanting to “clean out” Gaza and forcibly displace its nearly 2 million Palestinians have stirred outrage and accusations of ethnic cleansing among U.S. allies and international law experts, some members of the Arab American community still believe he was a better choice than Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I don’t regret having supported the president. He promised us an end to the war, and he was able to get a ceasefire for us in Gaza, and for that we are grateful. Imagine how many hundreds of Palestinians we’ve been able to save because of the ceasefire,” Bishara Bahbah, the chairman for Arab Americans for Peace told ABC News.
The Biden-Harris administration faced criticism from the Arab American community due to its perceived unconditional support for Israel in its war on Gaza. More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began after Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people and hundreds more were taken captive.
“President Biden was asleep at the wheel, ignoring our our pleas with him. So we decided to tell President Biden that because you have ignored us, we are going to punish you at the polls, and that’s one of the major reasons why we decided to establish Arab Americans for Trump,” Bahbah said.
Many prominent Arab-American advocacy groups and community leaders threw their support behind Trump or Green Party candidate Jill Stein due to the Biden administration’s stance on Gaza.
“For many people, this was very painful. This was not an easy choice, because they were looking at what was going on in Gaza, it was very hard for them to support President Biden,” and later Vice President Harris, James Zoghby, the cofounder of the Arab American Institute, a political and policy organization that did not support Trump, told ABC News.
Now, with Trump proposing the forcible displacement of Palestinians, and attempting to pressure Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from Gaza — by threatening to cut billions in aid — some groups have maintained their support of Trump and are waiting to see what actions he takes and are maintaining their opposition to Harris and Biden.
“These were grotesque comments. They’re unacceptable comments, they’re absolutely horrific comments. But you know, at the end of the day, when you put them on a scale, they’re comments. It’s rhetoric, and I don’t feel it is appropriate, nor is it honest to sit here and conflate it with the actions of the Biden-Harris administration, or to try and use that rhetoric to use it as a ‘gotcha’ moment to people who voted against the Biden-Harris administration,” Hudhayfah Ahmad, the head of media for the Abandon Harris campaign, told ABC News.
The Abandon Harris campaign, which started as the Abandon Biden campaign, gave both Democratic Party candidates an ultimatum, asking for them to call for an unconditional ceasefire or lose the group’s support. Biden and Harris did not meet the deadline set by the group to call for a ceasefire, according to Ahmad.
The Trump campaign was able to garner support from the Muslim American community largely in the last four weeks before the election by making public calls for a ceasefire and vowing to make it happen, Ahmad said.
“There was never really any support before that,” Ahmad said.
“A considerable chunk of people who had previously committed to voting third party, said that I’m going to vote the Trump-Vance ticket at the top of the ticket, and I’ll vote Green Party down ballot. I heard this from multiple people in multiple swing states,” Ahmad said.
But some community leaders felt that despite the actions of the Biden Administration in Gaza, Trump would be worse.
“I was very much opposed to the hucksters who were trying to sell Jill Stein and to the folks who supported Donald Trump. It was a really not just a bad call, it was a dangerous call. And I felt that despite the insult, despite the hurt, we had a responsibility to think big. [Biden and Harris] were at fault for making our job more difficult,” Zoghby said.
“The pain that we knew would occur if Donald Trump got back into the White House was too great to too many people,” Zoghby said. “Even though [Biden and Harris] didn’t give us what we needed, we still had to recognize that letting Donald Trump back into the White House was was going to be a disaster.”
Arab Americans for Peace — an advocacy group formerly called Arab Americans for Trump — changed its name this month after hearing some of Trump’s rhetoric surrounding the displacement of Palestinians, but a leader told ABC News they have not yet withdrawn their support for Trump.
“Our objective from the very beginning for supporting Trump was peace. We were telling the Biden administration continuously to stop its aid to the Israelis because the Israelis are committing genocide with the arms that are provided by the United States and Western Europe,” Bahbah said.
“The change of the name does not mean that we are withdrawing our support for President Trump. It just means that we are going back to the root cause of our very existence, which is the promotion of peace in the Middle East,” Bahbah said.
Even community leaders who did not support Trump as a candidate argued that he secured a ceasefire.
“Trump did this ceasefire solely for his own self interest and self image and self benefit. Nothing humanitarian about it at all,” Ahmad said.
“It’s hard to say that anyone feels regret [for supporting Trump] when you take into consideration that we are no longer seeing a daily influx of videos and pictures of children, men, women, elderly, being butchered with U.S. weaponry. That has stopped completely,” Ahmad said.
Despite some holding onto support for Trump, his comments on forcibly displacing Palestinians drew sharp criticism from Arab Americans.
“We are totally opposed to the idea of displacing Palestinians out of Gaza. Gaza belongs to the Palestinians, and it is not for anyone in the world to tell the Palestinians to leave that territory,” Bahbah said.
“Like my father, Palestinians are prepared to die on their homeland. And will not immigrate or be forced out of their homeland,” Bahbah said.
“There’s time to wait and see how things will evolve before I can say ‘I am really angry with the president, and I no longer supporting him.’ That is not the case right now, because it’s just the beginning of that process. But I also believe that the coming four years are going to be critical for the Israel-Arab conflict,” Bahbah said.
He said Arab Americans for Peace decided to support Trump because he promised to end the war in Gaza and ensure lasting peace in the Middle East.
He believes Trump’s pressure on Netanyahu stopped the war in Gaza.
But Bahbah said he believes Trump’s recent comments on Gaza are providing Israel cover to “destroy” the West Bank, drawing attention away from what is happening there.
Other leaders in the Arab community strongly disagreed with Trump’s comments on Gaza, and are skeptical of the motivations behind Trump’s comments on wanting to forcibly displace Palestinians.
“I think the purpose is to provide Netanyahu the cover to end this ceasefire after phase one and secure the hostages and go no further. Because I don’t think Trump is interested at all in seeing this through on the terms that were negotiated — which ultimately requires a full Israeli withdrawal and the reconstruction,” Zoghby said.
Netanyahu has faced criticism for not laying out a plan for what happens in Gaza after the war is over. The ceasefire agreement requires a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, but remains unclear if the ceasefire will reach its final stages.
“I could get as indignant as everybody else about [Trump’s comments] and it being illegal, but there’s so much in that involves Israel’s behavior toward Palestinians — and the U.S.’s enablement of Israel doing it — that is illegal, immoral,” Zoghby said.
Now they are awaiting on Trump to deliver lasting peace, Bahbah said.
“We continue to insist and be a voice of reason, telling the president what we want as an Arab American community, and that is lasting peace in the Middle East based on a two state solution, keeping in mind that what brought us to this point is the Biden-Harris administration by allowing Israel to literally destroy the Gaza Strip,” Bahbah said.
But support for Trump is conditional on what actions he takes, some activists say.
“We are not beholden to anybody or to any party. We will support whomever we think will end the wars and provide a permanent resolution to the Arab Israeli conflict and peace in the Middle East,” Bahbah said.
The group Abandon Harris plans to throw its support behind third-party candidates in the future, Ahmad said.
“Our movement is solely structured behind morals, values, principles — not parties, not individuals, not candidates,” Ahmad said.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal appeals court is hearing arguments Monday over the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act last week to deport more than 200 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador with no due process.
The hearing comes hours after a federal judge ruled that the migrants deserved to have a court hearing before their deportations to determine whether they belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang.
In a ruling denying the Trump administration’s request to dissolve his order blocking the deportations, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote that Trump’s “unprecedented use” of the Alien Enemies Act does not remove the government’s responsibility to ensure the men removed could contest their designation as alleged gang members.
Trump last week invoked the Alien Enemies Act — a wartime authority used to deport noncitizens with little-to-no due process — by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States. Boasberg temporarily blocked the president’s use of the law to deport more than 200 alleged gang members to El Salvador, calling the removals “awfully frightening” and “incredibly troublesome.”
An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement subsequently acknowledged in a sworn declaration that “many” of the noncitizens deported last week under the Alien Enemies Act did not have criminal records in the United States.
“The Court need not resolve the thorny question of whether the judiciary has the authority to assess this claim in the first place. That is because Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on another equally fundamental theory: before they may be deported, they are entitled to individualized hearings to determine whether the Act applies to them at all,” Judge Boasberg wrote in his ruling Monday, adding the men were likely to win their case.
Judge Boasberg acknowledged that the use of the Alien Enemies Act “implicates a host of complicated legal issues” but sidestepped the larger question of whether the law was properly invoked, instead focusing on the due process deserved by the men. He added that the men have been irreparably harmed by their removal to an El Salvadoran prison where they face “torture, beatings, and even death.”
“Federal courts are equipped to adjudicate that question when individuals threatened with detention and removal challenge their designation as such. Because the named Plaintiffs dispute that they are members of Tren de Aragua, they may not be deported until a court has been able to decide the merits of their challenge,” he wrote.
Judge Boasberg also cast doubt on the Trump administration’s allegation that the decision risks national security, noting that the men would still be detained within the United States if they had not been deported.
During a court hearing on Friday, DOJ lawyers acknowledged that the men deported on the Alien Enemies Act have the right to a habeas hearing — where they could contest their alleged membership in Tren de Aragua — but declined to vow that each man would be given a hearing before they were removed from the country.
A three-judge appeals panel is hearing arguments Monday over the Trump administration’s request to overturn Judge Boasberg’s ruling blocking the deportations.
If the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns Boasberg’s blocking of the president’s use of the centuries-old wartime law, the Trump administration could exercise the authority to deport any suspected migrant gang member with little-to-no due process.
Lawyers representing the Venezuelan men targeted under Trump’s proclamation have argued that the president exceeded his authority by using the Alien Enemies Act against a gang — rather than a state actor — outside of wartime.
“The President is trying to write Congress’s limits out of the act,” the plaintiffs argued, adding that U.S. presidents have used the law three other times during or immediately preceding a war.
But the Trump administration has argued that the judiciary does not have the right to review the use of the Alien Enemies Act, alleging the deportations fall under the president’s Article II powers to remove alleged terrorists and execute the country’s foreign policy.
“The President’s action is lawful and based upon a long history of using war authorities against organizations connected to foreign states and national security judgments, which are not subject to judicial second guessing,” DOJ lawyers have argued in court filings.
The Trump administration is asking the appeals court to overturn Boasberg’s temporary restraining order blocking the deportations, while Judge Boasberg continues to examine whether the Trump administration deliberately defied his order by sending the men to an El Salvadoran prison rather than returning them to the United States as he directed.
“The government’s not being terribly cooperative at this point, but I will get to the bottom of whether they violated my order and who ordered this and what’s the consequence,” Boasberg said on Friday.
With deportations under the Alien Enemies Act temporarily blocked, the Trump administration has vowed to use other authorities to deport noncitizens. Over the weekend, Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez announced that the country had reached an agreement to resume repatriation flights of Venezuelan migrants from the U.S.
“We’re going to keep targeting the worst of the worst, which we’ve been doing since day one, and deporting from the United States through the various laws on the books,” border czar Tom Homan told ABC’s Jon Karl on Sunday.
The three-person panel hearing today’s arguments includes two judges nominated by Republican presidents, including one nominated by Trump himself. The D.C. Circuit is the last stop before the Trump administration could take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Trump nominated three judges during his last term, solidifying the court’s conservative majority.
(POLK COUNTY, N.C.) — Evacuation orders were issued Sunday for parts of Polk County, North Carolina, where three large wildfires have burned more than 3,000 acres combined and two of the blazes remain out of control, according to authorities.
The three separate fires — the Black Cove Fire, Deep Woods Fire and the Fish Hook Fire — were all burning about 30 miles southeast of Ashville, according to the North Carolina Forest Service.
The fire ignited last week but grew rapidly over the weekend, fueled by low humidity and dry vegetation, officials said. The fires are burning in an area where Hurricane Helene swept through in September, leaving behind numerous downed trees, which are also helping to fuel the fires, officials said.
The Black Cove Fire had burned 2,076 acres and was 0% contained as of Sunday night, according to Kelly Cannon, spokesperson for Polk County government. The Deep Woods Fire was also 0% contained on Sunday after burning 2,545 acres, Cannon said.
Evacuation orders issued Saturday evening by the North Carolina Department of Public Safety remained in effect Sunday for residents in the area of the Black Cove Fire, officials said.
The Fish Hook Fire in Polk County was 50% contained on Sunday, after burning 199 acres, Cannon said. Evacuation orders were lifted Sunday, allowing residents to return to their homes.
The causes of the fires remain under investigation.
Due to multiple wildfires in the area, the North Carolina Division of Air Quality issued a “Code Red” alert signaling unhealthy air for Polk County, and a “Code Orange” in Rutherford County, signaling unhealthy air for people sensitive to smoke. South Carolina wildfires
Wildfires extended into neighboring South Carolina, prompting Gov. Henry McMaster to declare a state of emergency on Saturday.
A wildfire in the Table Rock State Park on the South Carolina-North Carolina border in Pickens County, South Carolina, started on Friday night and quickly spread to 35 acres, according to McMaster.
On Sunday, the Table Rock Fire had grown to 110 acres, according to Pickens County Emergency Management. Information on how much of the fire has been contained as of Sunday afternoon was not immediately available.
McMaster said his executive order declaring a state of emergency for the Table Rock Fire area will help bolster resources for firefighters working to contain the blaze. The governor said his order includes a statewide ban on residents setting outdoor fires until further notice.
“Given the elevated risk of wildfires throughout the state, the statewide burning ban will remain in effect until further notice. Anyone who violates this ban can and will go to jail,” McMaster said.
It’s the second time this month that McMaster declared a state of emergency in his state due to wildfires. A series of wildfires broke out during the weekend of March 2 and 3 in the Carolina Forest near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in Horry County, quickly spreading to more than 1,600 acres and threatening the communities of Walkers Woods and Avalon before firefighters brought the blaze under control, according to the South Carolina Forest Commission.
