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‘Warning signs were all there’ before deadly DC mid-air crash, former air traffic controller says
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport air traffic controllers warned for years about safety risks, long before the Jan. 29, 2025, midair disaster over the Potomac River, when 67 were killed after a military training helicopter collided with a commercial passenger jet.
“The warning signs were all there,” Emily Hanoka, a former Reagan National controller, told CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday. “Controllers formed local safety councils and every time that a controller made these safety reports, another controller was compiling data to back up the recommendation. And many recommendations were made, and they never went too far.”
Hanoka described pressure to keep traffic moving at an airport handling roughly 800 daily flights, including the use of tightly timed operations on a constrained runway system.
“Some hours are overloaded, to the point where it’s over the capacity that the airport can handle,” Hanoka, who clocked out just before the fatal crash that night, added.
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“There was definitely a pressure. If you do not move planes, you will gridlock the airport.”
Notably, it was not the air traffic of the commercial airlines, but a military training aircraft flying at the incorrect altitude through “helicopter alley” that crashed into the unsuspecting airliner.
A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed into the side of an American Eagle regional jet approaching Reagan National just before landing, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft. Federal investigators later issued urgent safety recommendations focused on separating helicopter and fixed-wing traffic near the airport.
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Since the disaster, regulators have moved to tighten procedures.
There were multiple near-misses just a day before the disaster, according to CBS, and 85 near-collisions reported between 2021 and 2024 during the Biden administration.
“There were obvious cracks in the system, there were obvious holes,” Hanoka said. “You had frontline controllers ringing that bell for years and years, saying this is not safe. This cannot continue. Please change this. And that didn’t happen.”
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The airport’s 25 million airline passengers a year is reportedly 10 million more than its intended capacity.
To handle the load, Hanoka described “squeeze play” maneuvers unique to that crammed airspace and three runways where two aircraft are on one runway within seconds of each other.
“A squeeze play is when everything is dependent on an aircraft rolling, an aircraft slowing, and you know it’s gonna be a very close operation,” she said. “And that is a really common operation.”
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Air traffic controllers coming from other locales give the airport’s stress work a hard pass, she said.
“So you’ll get new controllers come in, so they’ve transferred from other facilities and they’ll look at the operation and say, ‘Absolutely not,'” she continued. “And they’ll withdraw from training. And that, when I was there, was about 50%.
“About half of the people that walked in the building to train would say, ‘Absolutely not.'”
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“It was surprising walking into that work environment, how close aircraft were,” Hanoka said.
Reporting last week said the FAA suspended the use of visual separation between helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft in that airspace and shifted controllers toward radar-based separation, while restrictions were also imposed on certain helicopter operations near Reagan National.
The safety concerns Hanoka described align with broader findings from investigators. The National Transportation Safety Board blamed systemic FAA failures and found the crash was preventable, with concerns including overreliance on visual separation and longstanding risks in the airspace around Reagan National.
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Dave McGinnis, former Cardinals head coach and beloved Titans assistant, dead at 74
Dave McGinnis, a former Arizona Cardinals head coach and Tennessee Titans assistant coach, died on Monday. He was 74.
The Titans announced the death of McGinnis, who died after being hospitalized for an illness in early March. The Titans’ news release said that he passed away at Ascension St. Thomas Midtown Hospital with his family by his side.
“My heart aches with the loss of Coach Mac, who was so much more than a coach and broadcaster – he was family,” Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk said in a statement.
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Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell also released a statement on McGinnis.
“As Dave often said, he was a ‘ball coach’ through and through, and no one ever filled that role with more passion, enthusiasm and charisma,” Bidwell said. “Coach Mac truly loved the game and everything – and everyone – associated with it, especially his players. He was one of a kind and will be greatly missed.”
McGinnis found himself in an interim head coaching role during the 2000 season with the Cardinals, the team for which he served as defensive coordinator in 1996. He was retained in the head coaching post from 2001-03.
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In 57 career games, McGinnis went 17-40 with the Cardinals, ultimately being fired after a 4-12 season in 2003.
After he was fired, McGinnis landed with the Titans as a linebackers coach under head coach Jeff Fisher. He would become a mainstay in Nashville, holding that role and eventually being promoted to assistant head coach until 2011.
“Coach Mac gave so much of himself to this organization over the years, and his passion, loyalty and love for the Titans never wavered,” Strunk added. “He cared deeply about the people around him, and that kindness and authenticity left a lasting impact on everyone who knew him. He held a very special place in our family, and his presence in our lives and within this franchise will never be forgotten. We will miss him dearly, and we will always be grateful for the legacy he leaves behind.”
McGinnis’s coaching career began in 1973 when he was an assistant with TCU. He also held posts with Indiana State, Missouri and Kansas State until the 1986 season when he broke into the NFL with the Chicago Bears.
McGinnis served as linebackers coach for Chicago from 1986-95 before getting a promotion with the Cardinals. He also held roles with the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams before leaving coach after the 2016 campaign.
McGinnis returned to Nashville to join Titans Radio in 2017, where he served as a color announcer for games.
“I love Dave McGinnis, and I don’t know that I’ve met anybody who was created for football, and a football life, more than Coach Mac,” said Burke Nihill, president and CEO of the Titans. “He just loved the game. Obviously, he played it for a long time and coached it for longer, and with everything he has done for us over the years as color commentator and a Titans personality. He lived such a special football life. He was such a special guy.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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US military kills 2 suspected cartel operatives in latest Eastern Pacific lethal strike, SOUTHCOM says
The U.S. military carried out another lethal strike targeting suspected cartel operatives in the Eastern Pacific on Monday, killing two individuals believed to be involved in narcotics trafficking, according to U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).
“Applying total systemic friction on the cartels,” SOUTHCOM said in a post on X. “On April 13, at the direction of #SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the post continued. “Two male narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No U.S. military forces were harmed.”
The strike comes two days after SOUTHCOM conducted similar operations against two other suspected vessels operated by designated groups.
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Officials said intelligence confirmed those vessels were traveling along known drug trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were actively engaged in narcotics operations.
Two men were killed in the first strike and three in the second, while one individual survived the initial attack.
SOUTHCOM said it immediately called on the U.S. Coast Guard to conduct search and rescue operations for the lone survivor. No U.S. forces were injured in either operation.
The operations are part of a broader U.S. military effort to disrupt cartel-linked trafficking networks at sea, with officials increasingly describing such groups using terrorism-related designations.
The strikes were carried out under Joint Task Force Southern Spear, an ongoing mission focused on targeting transnational criminal organizations operating along key maritime drug routes in the region.
The Eastern Pacific remains a major corridor for narcotics trafficking, where cartels frequently rely on small, fast-moving vessels to transport drugs north toward the U.S. and Central America.
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The use of the term “Designated Terrorist Organizations” reflects a more aggressive posture by the Trump administration, which has expanded the use of military force against suspected narcotics traffickers beyond traditional law enforcement approaches.
SOUTHCOM has not released additional details about the identities of those killed or the specific groups involved.
The command is responsible for military operations in Central and South America and the Caribbean, including counter-narcotics missions aimed at disrupting drug trafficking networks that threaten U.S. interests.
The U.S. has carried out dozens of strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels in recent months as part of a broader campaign to dismantle cartel-linked trafficking operations and increase pressure on transnational criminal organizations.
Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.
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Los Angeles hotel industry ‘struggling’ under wage mandate signed by Mayor Karen Bass, new survey finds
Hotels in Los Angeles, California are struggling, a new report from industry researchers claimed in a new report.
“Hotels are struggling to keep up with rising operating costs coupled with falling demand,” the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) researchers said last week.
According to AHLA, the city’s minimum wage mandate and other policies led to increased “costs without flexibility to reflect market conditions and demand levels.”
A phased-in minimum wage hike in Los Angeles mandated up to $30 per hour for airport and hotel workers. The law was signed into law last year by Mayor Karen Bass, mandating that their hourly wage must be raised by $2.50 each year until they reach $30 in 2028.
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The AHLA is the largest hotel association in America, representing more than 30,000 members from all segments of the industry nationwide. Its methodology stated it was a “member survey of Los Angeles hotel operators and owners” that featured “16 questions in multiple-choice, select-all-that-apply, and ranking formats.”
The report claimed that the policies led to reduced hiring and cuts in labor hours. Other issues that arose included delayed or canceled hotel investment and development, reduced airline operations and restaurant closures.
“The report finds that hotels across Los Angeles are facing increasing financial and operational pressure as rising labor and operating costs outpace revenue growth, noting that development is slowing, investment is shifting to other markets, and some hotels have closed or delayed expansion plans,” the report stated.
The report found that none of the members believe Los Angeles is a favorable environment to make investments and 80% said that the city is not a good place for long-term hotel investment. Almost all the members surveyed said that rolling back the regulations would make the city’s market more attractive.
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AHLA said that hotels are the backbone of Los Angeles’ tourism economy, investing millions of dollars in the city every year.
“Los Angeles hotels generate $12.5 billion in annual economic activity, support nearly 64,000 jobs, and produce more than $1.1 billion in state and local tax revenue that funds essential public services,” according to the report.
This isn’t the first time the AHLA has released a report showing adverse effects of the minimum wage mandate after Bass signed it into law. The AHLA previously commissioned another study that found hotels have eliminated or expect to eliminate 6% of positions, roughly 650 jobs, since the Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance took effect in September.
The Los Angeles City Council and Mayor Bass’ office did not respond to Fox News Digital‘s requests for comment.
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