Two airport employees have been arrested for allegedly leaking to CNN surveillance video of last week’s deadly collision between a commercial plane and a Black Hawk helicopter.
A pair of Maryland men are reportedly facing charges of computer trespass in connection with the leak of video of the midair crash in Washington, D.C., according to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
The National Transportation Safety Board stated on Tuesday that the Army Black Hawk helicopter involved in the midair collision was likely flying too high.
On Friday, police arrested 21-year-old Mohamed Lamine Mbengue of Rockville for reportedly leaking footage of the air travel disaster.
On Sunday, 45-year-old Jonathan Savoy, 45, of Upper Marlboro was arrested for his alleged role in the video leak.
Both men have since been released from the Arlington County Adult Detention Center.
Both suspects were employees of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
Authorities did not reveal how the suspects obtained or distributed the footage.
CNN obtained the chilling footage, which offered the clearest view of the moment an American Eagle flight collided with an Army Black Hawk at a low altitude last Wednesday near the Ronald Reagan National Airport. Both aircraft plummeted into the frigid waters of the Potomac River.
WTOP-FM reported that CNN anchor Kate Bolduan presented the video on Friday by saying the footage “appears to be surveillance video from the airport.”
The National Transportation Safety Board gave an update on its investigation into the deadly air travel disaster on Tuesday. The NTSB stated that the Army Black Hawk helicopter involved in the midair collision was likely flying too high.
NTSB acquired flight traffic data that confirmed the Black Hawk helicopter was flying at 300 feet at the time of the deadly collision, which is 100 feet higher than the 200-foot ceiling for helicopters flying in the National Capital Region. The agency added that the information was taken from “the best-quality flight track data.”
However, air travel safety officials noted that the data was rounded to the nearest 100 feet.
The NTSB stressed that this information is from a preliminary investigation and that details would need to be verified by other “data points.”
Officials also said there was a sudden change in the plane’s pitch, which indicates that the pilot attempted to increase altitude before the fatal crash.
“NTSB investigators continue to transcribe the cockpit voice recorders for both aircraft,” the NTSB said in the statement. “Synchronization work for the Black Hawk flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder is ongoing.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, recovery crews have retrieved all of the 67 people involved in the midair collision from the Potomac River, including 64 passengers and crew on the airliner and three crew members on the helicopter.
Recovery teams have begun to remove the CRJ700 passenger jet and Black Hawk helicopter from the Potomac River.
The Navy unit involved in recovering the wreckage was also involved in the response to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last spring, said Col. Francis Pera of the Corps of Engineers.
Authorities have since restricted helicopters in the airspace around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The midair collision is the deadliest domestic plane crash in nearly 20 years.
Two days after the commercial airliner and Black Hawk helicopter collision, a small medical plane crashed into a neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia. All six passengers on the plane as well as a person on the ground are believed to have been killed in the plane crash. There were also 22 people injured in the plane crash.
As Blaze News reported, a United Airlines airplane was forced to abort a “high-speed” takeoff on Sunday after an engine burst into flames in Texas. The plane, carrying 104 passengers, was able to safely evacuate all of the passengers and crew without injuries, according to authorities.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Saturday, “We’ve had a heart-wrenching week in aviation.”
“A couple days ago, I had a chance to sit down with a few of the family members who lost loved ones in the D.C. crash. Their pain is unimaginable,” Duffy stated. “I committed transparency to them. When I know information, I’m going to share it with them, but also with the American people.”
The Blaze Originals documentary “Countdown to the Next Aviation Disaster” investigates why there have been so many “close calls” of commercial airliners in recent times.
BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere’s investigation unearthed several eyebrow-raising developments in how airports are using outdated technology, DEI practices that exclude the most qualified would-be air traffic controllers, and severely understaffed air traffic towers.
Billionaire Elon Musk shared the documentary on the X social media platform last week.
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Air crash, Plane crash, Dc plane crash, Disasters, Cnn, Plane crashes, Air travel, Air travel disaster, Air travel emergency, Crime