Southeast
DC plane crash: ATC staffing levels under scrutiny as barges arrive to help salvage ops
Barges are expected to arrive in the D.C. area on Saturday to help with salvage operations from Wednesday’s deadly plane crash at Regan National Airport (DCA) as questions remain as to how an Army Black Hawk helicopter could have collided with an American Airlines plane midair, killing 67 people.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Todd Inman said Friday the barges will help with salvage operations to ensure the remaining victims are recovered. He said their remains would immediately be turned over to them and the D.C. Medical Examiner’s Office for identification and then returned to their families.
At least 40 bodies had been pulled from the Potomac River on Friday. Both black boxes have been recovered.
NTSB investigators examine the so-called black box recovered from the American Airlines plane that crashed with a U.S. Army Black hawk helicopter near Washington, D.C, Thursday, Jan.30, 2024. (NTSB)
DC PLANE CRASH INVESTIGATORS RECOVER AMERICAN AIRLINES BLACK BOXES AFTER MIDAIR COLLISION
A new report by the New York Post suggests that the Black Hawk was flying nearly twice as high as it should have been and that the helicopter was not equipped with a new technology that would have alerted air traffic control to its dangerously deviated path. Meanwhile, a preliminary report indicated that staffing levels at the time of the collision were “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.”
The Black Hawk chopper was flying more than 300 feet above the Potomac River at the time of the deadly smash, even though aviation guidelines require helicopters on that route to stay below 200 feet, the outlet reports.
The news would corroborate President Donald Trump’s view that the military aircraft was traveling too high.
“The Black Hawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200-foot limit,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday. “That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???”
Trump on Thursday signed an executive order calling for an immediate assessment of aviation safety.
A graphic of the two flight paths. (Fox News)
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which oversees the aviation industry, said he’s been briefed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and detailed the sequence of events that resulted in Wednesday’s deadly midair collision.
“Flight 5342 was initially scheduled to land on Runway 1 at Reagan but was redirected to Runway 33,” he wrote on X. “Meanwhile, the helicopter was traveling along Route 1 before being shifted to Route 4.”
“We know that air traffic control confirmed with the helicopter crew that they had visual contact with the plane. Controllers then instructed the helicopter to move behind the plane,” he added. “However, instead of complying, the helicopter moved in front of the aircraft. The two aircraft collided mid-air, resulting in a catastrophic explosion.”
In an episode of “The Verdict” podcast, Cruz said the collision may have been avoided if the Army had outfitted the Black Hawk with an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast device, a relatively new technology that allows air traffic control operators to see an aircraft’s altitude.
“The Black Hawk helicopter had a transponder, so it was appearing on radar. It did not have technology called ADS-B, which is technology that pings the location of an aircraft, and it does so using GPS rather than radar,” he said. “ADS-B is more accurate and more reliable than simply a transponder that is pinging on radar.”
A general view of the control tower at Reagan National Airport, Friday, January 31, 2025. Flights have resumed since the tragic crash on Wednesday night where an American Airlines jet collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter. (Leigh Green for Fox News Digital)
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER LEFT EARLY FROM WORK BEFORE CRASH: REPORT
Meanwhile, a preliminary FAA report indicated that a single air traffic controller was monitoring both airplanes and helicopters at the time of the devastating crash.
Staffing levels at the time of the collision were “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” the New York Times reports, citing the report. Additionally, a tower supervisor allegedly let another air traffic controller leave work early Wednesday night. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) calls for one controller to monitor planes, while another monitors helicopters.
The Times report said the tower at the airport was nearly a third below targeted staff levels, with 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023, citing the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan, an annual report to Congress that contains target and actual staffing levels.
The targets set by the FAA and the controllers union call for 30.
Five current and former controllers told the outlet that the controller in the tower should have more proactively directed the helicopter and the plane to fly away from each other. Instead, the controller asked the helicopter to steer clear of the plane.
Another New York Times report suggests that more than 90% of the country’s 313 air traffic control facilities operate below the staffing levels recommended by the FAA.
Photos of some of the victims following the collision between an American Airlines jet and a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter (Getty Images)
The New York Times reported that as of January, 285 facilities were below levels set by the FAA and the union that represents controllers. In at least 73 facilities, at least a quarter of the workforce is missing.
The Army has named the other soldiers killed in the collision. They were identified as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland, and Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia.
The family of the third solider killed in Wednesday’s deadly midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is requesting their identity not be publicly released, the Army said Friday.
The doomed American Airlines plane was carrying more than a dozen people returning from a training camp following the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas, where the flight originated. Those victims included Spencer Lane and Jinna Han, both 16, who were promising skaters at The Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, Massachusetts, as well as Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov who together won a 1994 world championship in pairs figure skating.
The American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas collided in midair with a military helicopter while approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport. According to reports there were no survivors amongst the 67 people on board both aircraft. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration will restrict helicopter traffic around DCA, effective Friday.
The decision was made with the support of Trump and in consultation with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to a post on X from Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy.
“Today’s decision will immediately help secure the airspace near Reagan Airport, ensuring the safety of airplane and helicopter traffic,” Duffy wrote.
The restricted area includes Memorial Bridge to South Capitol Street Bridge, excluding the Tidal Basin, Haines Point to Wilson Bridge and over the top of DCA.
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Southeast
Dem governor under fire after illegal alien allegedly stabs woman to death at bus stop: ‘Heinous’
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EXCLUSIVE: The Department of Homeland Security is calling on Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger to ensure local law enforcement cooperates with federal immigration officials by handing over an illegal immigrant with a lengthy criminal record who allegedly killed a woman earlier this week at a Virginia bus stop.
Police in Fairfax County, Virginia, arrested an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone earlier this week on charges of second-degree murder after he allegedly fatally stabbed a woman, Stephanie Minter, 41, who was found dead at a local bus stop with several wounds to the upper body.
The alleged suspect, Abdul Jalloh, 32, also has a criminal history of more than 30 arrests, according to DHS, including for rape, malicious wounding, assault, identity theft, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, assault and pick-pocketing.
The request from the Trump administration comes after the newly elected Democratic governor of Virginia signed an executive order to end cooperation between federal immigration officials and state and local law enforcement, a move several Democratic Party governors have taken recently amid President Donald Trump’s move to increase deportation operations around the country.
The DHS request asking Virginia officials to cooperate with ICE also comes after an illegal immigrant allegedly murdered someone just days after being released from jail for a separate crime in December.
Abdul Jalloh, 32, and Gov. Abigail Spanberger (Department of Homeland Security/Getty Images)
“We are calling on Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Virginia’s sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this murderer and violent career criminal from their jail without notifying ICE,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis.
“This illegal alien’s murder of an innocent, beautiful American woman came less than 24 hours before Governor Spanberger’s demonization of ICE law enforcement. This heinous criminal is a perfect example of why we need cooperation from sanctuary jurisdictions and the importance of third country removals for the safety of the American people.”
Spanberger’s representatives did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Jalloh entered the United States illegally in 2012, according to DHS, and immigration officials lodged an immigration detainer against him in 2020, whereupon he was granted a final order of removal by a judge who said he could be removed to any country other than Sierra Leone.
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Protesters, using whistles to alert neighborhoods to ICE activity, face off with Minneapolis police officers in Minneapolis Jan. 24, 2026. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)
DHS indicated that ICE cooperation to ensure Jalloh’s deportation is evident after a case Fox News covered in December when a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador, Marvin Morales-Ortez, 23, allegedly killed a man just a day after Fairfax County jail officials let him go.
The immigrant from El Salvador had been in custody on charges of malicious wounding and brandishing a gun, but police released him after the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, led by George Soros-backed prosecutor Steve Descano, dropped the charges.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Fairfax County Sheriff’s office to inquire about why the man had not been handed over to ICE.
The sheriff’s office said, “ICE was aware of Morales-Ortez’s incarceration and elected not to seek a judicial warrant to ensure he remained in custody.
Marvin Morales-Ortez, who is living in the country illegally, was released from Fairfax County custody and then allegedly committed a murder the next day. (Fairfax County Police Department/Getty Images)
“The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office follows all local, state and federal laws when determining whether a person is subject to release from the ADC,” the sheriff’s office told Fox News Digital at the time. “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is automatically notified any time a person is booked into the ADC.”
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The same sheriff’s office did not get back to Fox News Digital’s media inquiry for this story on DHS urging officials to cooperate with federal officials.
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Southeast
Illegal immigrant arrested after showing up to Florida Border Patrol office for contract IT work
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FIRST ON FOX: An illegal immigrant who reported to a U.S. Border Patrol site in Florida to perform some Information technology contractual work was arrested when authorities were made aware of his citizenship status, officials said.
Angel Camacho, a Venezuelan citizen, reported to a USBP center in Dania Beach, Florida, Jan. 6 to do some IT work when U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials began vetting him, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Fox News Digital.
During its investigation, it was revealed Camacho was in violation of U.S. immigration laws, authorities said.
Angel Camacho reported to a Florida U.S. Border Patrol center to perform contractual work when he was arrested, a Department of Homeland Security official said. (Getty Images )
“CBP vets all external visitors before allowing them to enter secure facilities to ensure safety and operational integrity,” DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement.
“During the vetting process, CBP uncovered this individual was a tourist visa overstay in the country for over five years.”
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This photo shows a U.S. Border Patrol patch on a border agent’s uniform in McAllen, Texas, Jan. 15, 2019. (Suzanne CordeiroAFP via Getty Images)
Camacho was arrested and transferred to ICE custody, Bis said.
His criminal history includes theft and resisting a Florida Highway Patrol officer, officials said. Federal authorities have nabbed several illegal immigrants in the process of trying to obtain employment in law enforcement and education.
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One Sierra Leone citizen was recently arrested as he was training to become a Pennsylvania corrections officer.
Another illegal immigrant, Ian Roberts, served as the former superintendent of Iowa’s largest district, Des Moines Public Schools, before he was arrested by ICE.
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A Georgia high school teacher was arrested Wednesday after allegations of inappropriate contact between a teacher and a minor student surfaced at Lee County High School.
Danielle Weaver, 29, of Leesburg, is charged with child molestation and improper sexual contact by an employee, agent or foster parent, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI).
Lee County High School requested the Leesburg Police Department investigate the allegations on Feb. 3, and the GBI was called to assist the following day.
Danielle Weaver, 29, of Leesburg, Ga., is charged with child molestation and improper sexual contact by an employee. (Lee County Sheriff’s Office)
Investigators identified Weaver as the “subject,” and identified the victim as a student under 18 years old at Lee County High School, according to officials.
GBI agents continued the investigation along with the Leesburg Police Department, and arrest warrants were obtained for Weaver on Tuesday.
A Google Maps street view photo of Lee County High School in Leesburg, Ga. (Google Maps)
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Weaver turned herself in to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday, and was later released on bond, according to a report from WALB News.
This investigation is active and ongoing, according to the GBI.
The incident allegedly happened at a high school in Georgia. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
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Once complete, the case file will be given to the Southwestern Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for prosecution.
Leesburg is located in South Georgia, and is about an hour and a half north of Tallahassee, Florida.
Lee County High School’s communications team did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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