Final day of NTSB hearing on DC midair collision: investigators press for answers on tech that could have prevented crash

Final day of NTSB hearing on DC midair collision: investigators press for answers on tech that could have prevented crash

The National Transportation Safety Board questioned witnesses Friday on collision avoidance technology and organizational safety systems to manage risk. It is the third and final day of investigative hearings probing January's midair collision between a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet, operated by PSA airlines. It was the first major midair collision in the United States in decades, killing 67 people over the Potomac River, near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The airport, often called by its code DCA, is considered by the Federal Aviation Administration to be a "special qualification airport" and anyone who flies there must undergo specific training due to the complex and challenging characteristics of the airspace. PSA pilots are all qualified to operate there and receive FAA-approved training, PSA's Assistant Director Flight Operations, Technical, Grant Clow testified. "Think of it like a consolidated playbook of DCA-related guidance that we extract from all the different manuals and resources that we have as like an orientation guide for both new pilots and pilots that maybe have recently upgraded or have been away for a while to kind of re-familiarize themselves with information specific to DCA," he said. However, neither this document nor any of the airline manuals provided to PSA pilots had information specifically describing helicopter operations or routes around at the airport at the time of the accident, according to Clow. The Army's reluctance to use an anti-collision technology known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast, or ADS-B, and why the FAA allowed military helicopter pilots to fly without it was a key topic of questioning Friday. "ADS-B out" transmits radio signals with GPS location, altitude, ground speed and other data once per second, independent of air traffic control. However, on January 29, the Black Hawk was flying following an FAA memorandum which allowed it to be turned off. There are currently no rules stating the military must use the collision avoidance system nationwide, an FAA official testified, as ADS-B requirements are determined by location. Lt. Col. Paul Flanigen of the US Army said the Department of Defense has "concerns" with the technology. "I pretty sure most people are aware of the fact that it's inherently open source," Flanigen testified. "It has some spoofing vulnerabilities which make it non-conducive for those sensitive missions, which not just the Army, but all of DOD has to operate on." Earlier this week, a bill was introducedthat would require aircraft operators to install ADS-B technology on all flights and require the Army to keep it turned on in almost every case. The NTSB has also called for aircraft to be equipped with "ADS-B in," the ability to receive data from surrounding aircraft and display it on a cockpit screen for pilots. The NTSB can make recommendations, but it is up to the FAA to mandate something. On Friday, the FAA agreed it should be required, but stopped short of saying it will act on the issue. "Does the FAA, right now, support requiring that any newly manufactured aircraft registered in the US be equipped with ADS-B in?" NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy asked. "Yes, ma'am," Frank McIntosh, FAA chief operating officer replied. "Do you also support or oppose requiring that any aircraft required to be equipped with ADS-B out today… also be required to install and operate ADS-B in?" Homendy followed up. "Yes, ma'am," McIntosh replied again. "Your position has shifted, and I appreciate that," Homendy said. The first two days of testimony highlighted critical moments leading up to the collision as investigators probed witnesses about standard safety practices that should have occurred, altimeters that displayed incorrect altitude, and the helicopter route that came perilously close to the path planes use landing at the airport. There were over ten hours of testimony on each of the first two days of the hearing. Friday could go even longer to make sure everyone has an opportunity to ask questions, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said. The NTSB asks questions, but parties to the investigation including the Army, PSA Airlines, air traffic controller's union and FAA can also examine witnesses. On Thursday, an FAA witness acknowledged the air traffic control tower failed to warn the pilots flying the American Airlines regional jet, operated by PSA Airlines. "No safety alerts," were given, Nick Fuller, the FAA's acting deputy chief operating officer of operations, testified. "Should the local controller have let the PSA crew know that there was a helicopter there?" Homendy asked. "Yes," Fuller acknowledged. The tower did warn the pilots of the Black Hawk helicopter about the approaching regional jet and they said they would avoid it,transcriptsof the cockpit voice recorders and air traffic control audio released revealed. Yet, moments later, the aircraft collided. Multiple air traffic controllers and pilots at Reagan National Airport told the NTSB they struggled with the constant stream of planes, leading to a "make it work" attitude among them. "This is 'we just make it work,' because we don't have another choice," NTSB investigator Brian Soper said they told him in on-site interviews. "There are airplanes coming in and everything was related to the capacity, the demand or the amount of traffic." Another witness, Rich Dressler of Metro Aviation, which operates medical helicopters in Washington said the way the Army flies helicopters around the city makes him uneasy. "Is there any unit that when you hear it makes you feel uncomfortable?" Soper asked. "Sadly, yes," Dressler responded. "I don't like saying that 12th aviation battalion gives us all pause in the community. And I'm speaking from my group there; we are all very uncomfortable when those two units are operating." An NTSB determination of the collision's probable cause is expected in January. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com

byAllias Grif

in

August 01, 2025

Final day of NTSB hearing on DC midair collision: investigators press for answers on tech that could have prevented crash

Final day of NTSB hearing on DC midair collision: investigators press for answers on tech that could have prevented crash The National Trans...

Read More

Lawyer says he's not been allowed to see 5 immigrants deported by the US to a prison in Eswatini

Lawyer says he's not been allowed to see 5 immigrants deported by the US to a prison in Eswatini

MANZINI, Eswatini (AP) — Fiveimmigrantsdeported by the United States to Eswatiniin a secret deal last month had served their criminal sentences before they were sent to be held in a prison in theAfrican country, a lawyer working on their cases said Friday. The Eswatini lawyer also said the men from Cuba, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Vietnam sent to southern Africa underPresident Donald Trump's third-country deportation programhave been denied access to legal representation while being held in Eswatini's main maximum-security prison. The lawyer, Sibusiso Nhlabatsi, said he hasn't been allowed to see the men and that he filed court papers Thursday against the head of Eswatini's correctional services department and the country's attorney general, demanding access to them. He said he is representing them on behalf of lawyers in the U.S. and was prevented from seeing them by Eswatini prison officials on July 25. It's unlawful for the men, who have been in Eswatini for around two weeks, to be denied access to a lawyer, he added. The Eswatini government has said the menwill be held in solitary confinementuntil they can be deported to their home countries, which could take up to a year. "They have served their sentences," Nhlabatsi told The Associated Press. "If a person has committed a crime and they have served a sentence, why are you then keeping them in a prison?" Nhlabatsi said the men have not been able to communicate with their families or receive visitors since arriving in Eswatini, although prison officials said they were in the process of setting up devices to allow them to speak with their families. He alleged their ongoing detention could have legal implications for Eswatini, a small country bordering South Africa and one of the world'slast absolute monarchies, ruled by a king accused of cracking down on dissent. TheTrump administration has come under scrutinyfor its choice of African countries to strike deportation deals with. It deported eight immigrants described as violent criminalsto South Sudan in early Julyin an operation that was halted by a legal challenge in the U.S. The eight were held for weeks in a converted shipping container at an American military base in nearby Djibouti while the case was decided. A Supreme Court ruling eventually cleared the way for them to be sent to South Sudan. Both South Sudan, which is in danger of tipping into civil war, and Eswatini have poor rights records and governments accused of being repressive. Critics say the deportees, who the administration says were in the U.S. illegally, will likely be denied due process in those countries. The five sent to Eswatini were also described by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as serious criminals. Their convictions included murder and child rape, the department said in social media posts, calling them "uniquely barbaric." The department, which did not say if they had completed their sentences, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. An Eswatini government spokesman also declined to comment on Nhlabatsi's allegations, saying it was now a matter for the courts. Nhlabatsi said the deportees are being held at the Matsapha Correctional Complex near the administrative capital, Mbabane, the same prison said to hold pro-democracy activists on trumped up charges. The government has declined to say where the five men are being held, citing security concerns. Eswatini's statement about the five men ultimately being deported to their home countries appears to contradict claims by the U.S. that their home countries refused to take the men back. Activists in Eswatini have demanded that the details of the agreement with the U.S. be made public but the government has said they are "classified." South Sudan has also declined to give details of its agreement to take deportees from the U.S. ___ AP news on the Trump administration:https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump

byAllias Grif

in

August 01, 2025

Lawyer says he's not been allowed to see 5 immigrants deported by the US to a prison in Eswatini

Lawyer says he's not been allowed to see 5 immigrants deported by the US to a prison in Eswatini MANZINI, Eswatini (AP) — Fiveimmigrants...

Read More

Undocumented children will be barred from Head Start preschool under new Trump rule

Undocumented children will be barred from Head Start preschool under new Trump rule

Undocumented children will no longer qualify for federally funded preschool through the Head Start program under a major policy shift the Trump administration announced Thursday. In a news release, the Department of Health and Human Services said it wasrescinding a nearly 30-year-old interpretation of federal lawissued under President Bill Clinton that allowed undocumented immigrants to access certain programs because they were not considered "federal public benefits." As President Donald Trump pursues his anti-immigrant agenda, this change may be the most direct and far-reaching effort to target children after hisattempts to end birthright citizenship. His administration has alsoramped up immigration enforcementanddeportations,withheld funding for English learners, andthreatened to punish states that offer in-state tuition to undocumented college students. Administration officials have said theyhope many immigrants will "self-deport" if the United States makes life here more uncomfortable. Health and Human Services leaders cast the change as a way to protect benefits for Americans. "For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans' tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration," Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a press release. "Today's action changes that — it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people." Early childhood education advocates, meanwhile, condemned the change as violating both the spirit and the letter of the 1965 law that authorized Head Start. They also warned the change could scare away eligible families,Chalkbeatreports. "This decision undermines the fundamental commitment that the country has made to children," Yasmina Vinci, the executive director of the National Head Start Association, a nonprofit that represents Head Start staff and families, saidin a written statement. "Head Start programs strive to make every child feel welcome, safe, and supported, and reject the characterization of any child as 'illegal.'" The change is also at odds with how the Supreme Court has treated K-12 education. In thelandmark Plyler v. Doe decisionfrom 1982, the justices ruled that children have a right to a free public education regardless of immigration status. However, the courts have upheld laws restricting immigrants' access to welfare benefits. Head Start provided preschool to over 544,000 children from low-income families,according to the latest federal datafrom the 2022-23 school year, while Early Head Start served more than 186,000 infants, toddlers, and expectant parents. The program, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year,has reached 40 million children but has recently faced a number of challenges, from federal staff layoffs to threats of eliminating the program. Head Start will now be considered a public benefit, the Trump administration said, because it offers services that are similar to welfare. Officials said the change aligns with Trump's executive orders, including aFebruary order titled "Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders." "While Head Start provides for school readiness, it also provides low-income children and their families with 'health, educational, nutritional, and social and other services, that are determined based on family needs assessment,'"federal officials wrote in a notice announcing the change. "Further, it may serve as child care for parents of young children." Classifying Head Start as welfare, rather than education, could be a Trump administration strategy to avoid having to address whether the protections extended to undocumented children in Plyler apply here, said Nate Ela, an assistant professor of law at Temple University, in an email. Reflecting Trump's America First agenda, Health and Human Services officials said in their press release that Head Start will be "reserved for American citizens from now on." But a spokesperson for the Administration for Children and Families clarified that U.S. citizen children and "qualified" immigrant children would be eligible for Head Start.Under federal law, that includes legal permanent residents, children who've been granted asylum, refugees, and children with humanitarian parole. In its statement, the National Head Start Association said providers were alarmed that programs would have to check the citizenship or immigration status of children before they could enroll. The law that governs Head Start has never required documentation of immigration status as a condition to enroll, the organization said, and "attempts to impose such a requirement threaten to create fear and confusion among all families." It is unclear exactly how the new rules will be enforced. Guidance based on the new legal interpretation is forthcoming, the Administration for Children and Families spokesperson said. "​​Are they going to monitor us when they come out for their federal review?" asked Lauri Morrison-Frichtl, the executive director of the Illinois Head Start Association. "Will there be something attached to our grant that we have to certify?" The latest version of the law governing who is eligible for Head Start says nothing about immigration status, but it does say that the program can use federal funds to train staff, counsel children, and provide other services that are "necessary to address the challenges of children from immigrant, refugee, and asylee families, homeless children, children in foster care, limited English proficient children, children of migrant or seasonal farmworker families, [and] children from families in crisis." The law says that children who are experiencing homelessness or whose families have incomes below the federal poverty line qualify. The Migrant Seasonal Head Start program also guarantees child care for the children of farm workers and seasonal workers. This is not the first attempt to roll back educational rights for immigrant children and families.A number of Republican state legislators have backed bills that would limit enrollmentfor immigrant children or track their immigration status in ways that could intimidate families. So far, none has been successful. Meanwhile, the author of a brief from the conservative Heritage Foundation thatcalled on states to charge undocumented children tuition to attend public schoolnowworks in the Education Department. Federal officials estimated that the Head Start change would free up $374 million a year for U.S. citizens and qualified immigrants to access Head Start, which represents about 3% of the program's annual budget in recent years. But keeping children out of Head Start could lead to more costs down the road for public schools, advocates warned. Kindergartners who don't go to preschool may need more help with basics like learning their ABCs, colors, and how to work with classmates. They also may have missed out on health screenings. "We're really shortchanging our community by cutting them off from strong early childhood programs that are going to put them on the right path to be successful in K-12 schools where they have a guaranteed right to attend," said Xilonin Cruz-Gonzalez, co-founder of the National Newcomer Network and deputy director of Californians Together, groups that advocate for immigrant rights in education. There are typically many more children in poverty who qualify for Head Start than the program has funding to serve.A 2024 Government Accountability Office report found, for example, that for every 100 young children in poverty, there were typically 28 Head Start seats, with much larger gaps in some states. Keeping out immigrant children wouldn't necessarily close those gaps. The main factor limiting Head Start seats is a lack of trained teachers, said Diane Schilder, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a public policy think tank. "A lot of programs are having challenges hiring teachers in preschool and infant-toddler classrooms who meet the requirements because the wages are not adequate," Schilder said. Low-income families are less likely to have documents proving their children are citizens, Schilder said, andanti-immigrant sentimentcan scare away even eligible families from applying. Parents are less likely to work when they don't have access to child care. The effects of these changes would be felt most strongly in urban areas and in communities with a large agricultural workforce. Head Start providers worry that verifying children's immigration status will create more administrative work and could make it harder for all families to enroll. Federal officials estimated the cost of assembling documents and reviewing paperwork would be an additional $21 million a year. And there would be more transition costs to change Head Start protocols, the federal notice stated. Federal officials said the change would take effect as soon as it is published in the Federal Register. It has not been published, but has been submitted, the Trump administration said. The public will have 30 days to submit comments. For now, Heather Frenz, the executive director of the Colorado Head Start Association, said her organization is telling Head Start providers to wait for further instructions before un-enrolling any children. Reconsidering the eligibility or enrollment of children who are already attending Head Start would be expensive and time-consuming, Frenz said. The process involves everything from measuring children's height and weight to drawing up individual plans. And if undocumented children miss out on preschool and other services Head Start provides, Frenz said it could "put a lot of strain" on other public entities when those children get older. "They may not speak English or have never seen a dentist," Frenz said. "That's going to be a heavy load on the public school education system." Chalkbeat New York reporter Michael Elsen-Rooney, Chalkbeat Philadelphia bureau chief Carly Sitrin, Chalkbeat Chicago bureau chief Becky Vevea, and Colorado bureau chief Melanie Asmar contributed reporting. This storywas produced byChalkbeatand reviewed and distributed byStacker.

byAllias Grif

in

August 01, 2025

Undocumented children will be barred from Head Start preschool under new Trump rule

Undocumented children will be barred from Head Start preschool under new Trump rule Undocumented children will no longer qualify for federal...

Read More

Colombia ex-president Uribe sentenced to 12 years of house arrest, document shows

Colombia ex-president Uribe sentenced to 12 years of house arrest, document shows

By Luis Jaime Acosta BOGOTA (Reuters) -Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was sentenced on Friday to 12 years of house arrest for abuse of process and bribery of a public official, according to a sentencing document seen by Reuters and a source with knowledge of the matter. Uribe was convicted of the two charges on Monday by Judge Sandra Liliana Heredia in a witness-tampering case that has run for about 13 years. He has always maintained his innocence. The sentencing document, also published by local media, came hours ahead of the hearing where Heredia will read the sentence in court. Uribe will also be fined $578,000, the document showed, and barred from public office for more than eight years. Uribe, whose legal team has said he will appeal the ruling, is to report to authorities in Rionegro, in Antioquia province, where he resides, and then "proceed immediately to his residence where he will comply with house arrest," the document said. The conviction made him the country's first ex-president to ever be found guilty at trial and came less than a year before Colombia's 2026 presidential election, in which several of Uribe's allies and proteges are competing for top office. It could also have implications for Colombia's relationship with the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that Uribe's conviction was a "weaponization of Colombia's judicial branch by radical judges" and analysts have said there could be cuts to U.S. aid in response. Uribe, 73, and his supporters have always said the process is a persecution, while his detractors have celebrated it as deserved comeuppance for a man who has been accused for decades of close ties with violent right-wing paramilitaries but never convicted of any crime until now. TESTIMONIES FROM FORMER PARAMILITARIES Uribe, who was president from 2002 to 2010 and oversaw a military offensive against leftist guerrillas, was charged over allegations he ordered a lawyer to bribe jailed paramilitaries to discredit claims he had ties to their organizations. Those claims stemmed from leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda, who collected testimonies from former paramilitaries who said Uribe had supported their organizations in Antioquia, where he once served as governor. Uribe alleged in 2012 that Cepeda orchestrated the testimonies in a plot to tie him to the paramilitaries, but the Supreme Court ruled six years later that Cepeda had not paid or pressured the ex-paramilitaries. Instead, the court said it was Uribe and his allies who pressured the witnesses. Cepeda has been classed as a victim in the case and attended Monday's hearing. Two jailed former paramilitaries testified that Diego Cadena, the lawyer formerly representing Uribe, offered them money to testify in Uribe's favor. Cadena, who is also facing charges, has denied the accusations and testified, along with several other ex-paramilitaries, on Uribe's behalf. Each charge carried a potential sentence of six to 12 years. Uribe, who was placed under house arrest for two months in 2020, is head of the powerful Democratic Center party and was a senator for years both before and after his presidency. He has repeatedly emphasized that he extradited paramilitary leaders to the United States. Colombia's truth commission says paramilitary groups, which demobilized under deals with Uribe's government, killed more than 205,000 people, nearly half of the 450,000 deaths recorded during the ongoing civil conflict. Paramilitaries, along with guerrilla groups and members of the armed forces, also committed forced disappearances, sexual violence, displacement and other crimes. Uribe joins a list of Latin American leaders who have been convicted and sometimes jailed, including Peru's Alberto Fujimori, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Ecuador's Rafael Correa, Argentina's Cristina Fernandez and Panama's Ricardo Martinelli. (Reporting by Carlos Vargas and Luis Jaime Acosta, additional reporting by Nelson BocanegraWriting by Julia Symmes CobbEditing by Rosalba O'Brien)

byAllias Grif

in

August 01, 2025

Colombia ex-president Uribe sentenced to 12 years of house arrest, document shows

Colombia ex-president Uribe sentenced to 12 years of house arrest, document shows By Luis Jaime Acosta BOGOTA (Reuters) -Former Colombian P...

Read More

EU chief's texts to a pharma boss during pandemic were likely erased, the NYT reports

EU chief's texts to a pharma boss during pandemic were likely erased, the NYT reports

BRUSSELS (AP) — Text messages exchanged between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and a pharmaceutical boss during theCOVID-19pandemic were seen by her top adviser and have likely been destroyed, the New York Times reported Friday. Von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla exchanged the messages as COVID-19 ravaged European communities from Portugal to Finland and the EU scrambled to buy millions of hard to find vaccines. She was under intense scrutiny to deliver. The U.S. newspaper took the European Union's executive branchto courtafter it refused to share the messages under the bloc's transparency laws. In May, the court said the commission had failed to provide a credible explanation for declining access. In a letter to the Times dated July 28, the commission said von der Leyen's head of cabinet, Bjoern Seibert, had last month examined the phone she uses and its Signal app and "did not find any messages corresponding to the description given" in the newspaper's request. It said Seibert also checked her phone in 2021 and found the messages only helped to ensure that calls between von der Leyen and Bourla could be arranged as needed, so they were not kept as official documents. The commission insists text messages and other "ephemeral" electronic communications do not necessarily constitute documents of interest that should be saved or made public. Von der Leyen herself was responsible for deciding whether the texts constituted documents of value and worth keeping. The commission also noted in its letter that her phone has been replaced "several times" since the messages were exchanged, the last time in mid-2024. Her cabinet said the old messages were not saved and the phones were "formatted and recycled." Critics accuse von der Leyen and Seibert of centralizing power in the EU's powerful executive branch, tightly controlling who works in the cabinets of the various policy commissioners and vetting communications. Von der Leyen survived a July 10no-confidence votein the European Parliament, the first against a commission president in over a decade, which was called in part over the text messaging scandal dubbed Pfizergate, the alledged misuse of EU funds and doubtful allegations about election interference.

byAllias Grif

in

August 01, 2025

EU chief's texts to a pharma boss during pandemic were likely erased, the NYT reports

EU chief's texts to a pharma boss during pandemic were likely erased, the NYT reports BRUSSELS (AP) — Text messages exchanged between Eu...

Read More