Wingtip of one plane hits another on taxiway at Reagan airport: FAA
ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — The wingtip of an American Airlines plane hit another American Airlines plane on a taxiway at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
No one was hurt, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said. Both planes returned to gates and airport operations weren’t impacted, the agency said.
Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., tweeted that his plane was “stationary on the runway” when another plane “bumped into our wing.”
“Thankfully everyone is ok!” he added.
“The plane shook violently,” Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., another member of Congress on the flight, told ABC News Live. “It was pretty clear that we got hit.”
“The pilot came on and told us we weren’t going anywhere except back to the gate,” he said.
“This is not a time to be cutting the FAA[‘s jobs] when they’re understaffed already,” he said, calling it “deeply concerning.”
Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., who was also on the flight, agreed with Gottheimer, writing on social media, “I’m grateful no one was hurt today, but this incident underscores this urgent need restore all FAA jobs that keep our runways safe.”
The representatives’ flight was headed to JFK International Airport in New York. The other plane was headed to Charleston, South Carolina.
The FAA said it’s investigating.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Pete Marocco, the Trump administration official tasked with dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, told State Department staff on Tuesday night that he is stepping away from his role at USAID and returning to his previous role at the State Department, according to an email obtained by ABC News.
“It’s been my honor to assist Secretary Rubio in his leadership of USAID through some difficult stages to pivot this enterprise away from its abuses of the past,” Marocco said in the email. “Now that USAID is under control, accountable and stable, I am going to return to my post as the Director of Foreign Assistance to bring value back to the American people.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio named Marocco USAID deputy administrator in early February, and Marocco — along with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency — led the widespread effort to dismantle the agency by laying off thousands of employees, revoking funding for more than 80% of its programs, and shedding its Washington, D.C., headquarters.
Marocco said in his email that he is leaving now that “USAID is under control, accountable, and stable” — however many of the administration’s moves are currently being challenged or stalled in the courts, with a judge on Tuesday ruling that the dismantling of USAID was unconstitutional.
A State Department official confirmed that Marocco would return to his role as the agency’s Director of Foreign Assistance, and that two political appointees would assume the responsibilities of the deputy administrator.
Those two individuals are Jeremy Lewin, who will serve as USAID COO and Deputy Administrator for Policy and Programs, and Ken Jackson, who will be USAID CFO and Deputy Administrator for Management and Resources, according to Marocco’s email.
Lewin, 28, has been working with DOGE at the State Department, helping in the effort to dismantle USAID, sources told ABC News. He graduated in 2022 from Harvard Law School, where he co-authored multiple op-eds with renowned liberal constitutional law expert Laurence Tribe.
He was later hired as an associate in the Los Angeles office of the law firm Munger, Towles & Olsen, according to a now-defunct profile on the firm’s website.
Lewin appears to have no apparent government experience, though his law firm bio claimed that he had “confidentially advised senior global policymakers — including the U.S. President and senior Congressional leaders, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zekelsnkyy, and senior members of the G7 and UN — on matters of international law and policy.”
Critics of the Trump administration say its efforts to nullify the agency will cripple American influence overseas and carry devastating effects for some of the most vulnerable populations in the world, which relied on U.S. funding for health care, food, and other basic needs.
In a statement shared by the State Department, Marocco said that “the crisis-level issues that had plagued USAID were far worse than we anticipated,” and that “It has been an honor and a privilege to help restore accountability and transparency at USAID.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Social Security numbers and other personal details of at least two former congressional staffers who investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy were revealed by this week’s release of declassified records ordered by President Donald Trump.
Joseph diGenova, 80, and Christopher Pyle, 86, both had their names, birth dates, birth places and Social Security numbers unmasked in the document released by the National Archives — potentially putting them at risk of identity theft and fraud.
The Washington Post spoke to both of the former staffers and ABC News confirmed that both men’s Social Security numbers were in the newly-published documents.
It is unclear how many other people whose Social Security numbers are in the documents and are also still alive. The Washington Post reported that data of more than 200 former congressional staffers and others was made public.
Of those, more than 80 people with birth dates between 1930 and 1952 — putting them in their 70s, 80s or 90s — also had their Social Security numbers and birth dates published.
Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 23 directing the release of all remaining records related to the assassination, saying it was in the “public interest” to do so.
The records were posted to the National Archives’ website on Tuesday, joining recently released records posted in 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2017-2018.
Tuesday’s initial release contained 1,123 records comprising 32,000 pages. A subsequent release on Tuesday night contained 1,059 records comprising 31,400 additional pages.
More than 60,000 pages related to the 1963 assassination were released. Many of the pages had been previously disclosed, but with redactions. Many, but not all, redactions have been removed.
The records were posted to the National Archives webpage under the headline “JFK Assassination Records — 2025 Documents Release.”
(CLEARWATER, FL) — One person was killed and multiple people were injured when a boat struck the Clearwater Ferry in Clearwater, Florida, on Sunday evening.
All of the injured individuals were people on the ferry, according to the Clearwater Police Department.
There were 45 people aboard the ferry, including two crew members, when it was hit by a passing boat, police said.
“It’s been declared a mass casualty incident by the fire department due to the number of injuries. All local hospitals have been notified,” Clearwater PD wrote in a post on X on Sunday night.
“Multiple trauma alerts have been called with helicopters transporting two of the more seriously injured,” the post continued.
The incident took place near the Memorial Causeway Bridge in Clearwater. Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg was notified at approximately 8:40 p.m., the Seventh Coast Guard District wrote on X.
The boat that struck the ferry fled the scene, Clearwater PD said in a social media post on Sunday night.
After the crash, the ferry came to rest on a sand bar just south of the bridge. First responders and emergency personnel were then able to remove “all patients and passengers” from the ferry, police said.
“We were just enjoying the ride, and then all of a sudden we hear the first mate yelling, ‘Hey, hey, hey,'” one passenger told ABC affiliate WFTS in Tampa.
“And then we looked back behind us and this big yacht just came through the boat,” said the passenger, who was riding the ferry with his two kids and his wife, who is 31 weeks pregnant with the couple’s third child.
The Coast Guard says there were six people on board the recreational boat, which left the scene. Authorities said it was later found by a responding agency.
“The boat that fled the scene has been identified by another law enforcement agency,” Clearwater PD said. However, further details about the second vessel involved in the incident have not yet been made available.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will be taking the lead on the crash investigation, police said.
