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Six People Killed in NC Private Jet Crash; Dems Release New Photos from Epstein Estate Ahead of Deadline; Ghislaine Maxwell Asks Court to Release Her from Prison 3-3:30p ET

Aired December 18, 2025 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We're learning more about a deadly private plane crash in North Carolina. At least six people killed. A source says a person associated with NASCAR was aboard the plane.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Plus, the manhunt for the Brown University shooter continues for a sixth day. And sources tell CNN they're investigating a potential link between that shooting and the killing of an MIT professor. We have the latest.

We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

A tragic breaking news just a week before Christmas, a source tells CNN that six people were killed after a private jet crashed in North Carolina. A federal source says a person associated with NASCAR was on board the Cessna. The crash happened at about 10 A.M. Eastern Time as the plane was trying to land at Statesville Regional Airport, which has no control tower.

SANCHEZ: Statesville is about 40 miles north of Charlotte. And a witness recorded this footage just moments after the impact. It appears to show where the plane skidded across the field, tearing through the ground before it stopped and then burst into flames. CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean is on top of this for us. Pete, give us the latest you've learned.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: This is not just any Cessna. This is a business jet, a small to mid-sized business jet that can seat between six and eight people, 15,000 pounds in total. A Cessna Citation II, built in 1981. This plane took off, according to the flight tracking data, from ADS-B Exchange, open source information at about 10:06 A.M. local time from the Statesville Municipal Airport. That's in Iredell County, north of Charlotte, the epicenter for NASCAR.

So, no wonder that sources are telling me that a person associated with NASCAR was on board this flight. You can see the wreckage there after the fireball of this plane. We know that six people were on board, a pilot and five passengers. These are live pictures from the Statesville Regional Airport. You can see the weather a bit murky there. Fog, drizzle, low clouds, some rain has been moving through the area, part of a larger weather system. Of course, investigators will want to look at that as a potential factor in this crash. But let's look at the flight path because this really tells the story of this plane and this flight that was doomed from the start.

This plane took off from Statesville Regional Airport to the east. So that's the path emanating from the airport at the top right corner, rounding the bend there at the top and then sort of paralleling that highway out to the southwest. We're looking north here.

The plane did a bit of a zoom climb up to about 4,000 feet, which is still quite low. Clearly, something went wrong, though. And the plane turned back only about six or eight miles from the airport, straight back to the airport, entered what's called the downwind leg there. You can see that sort of right turn, so a northeasterly path, and then to the east, and then made a turn to the left, back to the airport.

It appears, at least from the video, that this plane impacted the ground short of Runway 28 there at Statesville Regional Airport, plowing through a perimeter road and a fence, and then you can see the smoking wreckage there. This is one of the airports used so heavily by NASCAR crews because of its proximity to Charlotte. That is the video that shows essentially the path through the trees there and then the skid marks across the road leading up to Runway 28 there.

This, and so many other videos that are popping online, is what investigators will lean into pretty heavily, at least here initially. Also, that flight track, and then, of course, the data from the plane. Hopefully, an airplane like this has a cockpit voice recorder on board because at least we've been able to tell that there's not been all that much air traffic control audio captured by the open-source scanner geeks out there who grab all this on LiveATC.net.

Although the FAA will be able to provide any sort of tapes of air traffic control audio if this pilot was talking to air traffic control shortly after lifting off from the Statesville Airport there, potentially radioing a problem, although we do not know that just yet. So, things clearly unfolding here by the moment. We're getting very scant preliminary details. Still a lot to confirm here, but it begs mentioning that NASCAR has been hit over and over again by tragic crashes involving small aircraft year after year. Dale Earnhardt Jr. escaped with his life, one of the largest names in the sport back in 2019, a crash also involving a Cessna Citation.

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There have been crashes involving the Hendrick Motorsports teams, killed 10 people back in Virginia in 2004. Headline after headline involving those involved in NASCAR using private aircraft. This plane, this Citation, is known to be an airplane that is relatively easy to fly, doesn't have a swept wing like a lot of other business jets. It has a straight wing, making it very similar to trainer airplanes that you learn to fly in, making it much more forgiving. We will see if that factored into this crash here. Clearly, a struggle to get this airplane back on the ground. The initial reports say this happened on landing, but that landing was

right after the takeoff. Clearly a problem, this plane had to return very quickly.

KEILAR: Pete, thank you so much for that. Let's bring in David Soucie. He's a CNN safety analyst and former FAA safety inspector. When we look at this flight path that this plane took, David, I wonder if you can speak to the possibilities here because at a certain point it makes a turn left heading back to the airport and it almost gets there, right? It almost gets there, but then has difficulty landing, which obviously is quite a complicated process when it does come to fly in a plane. But what kinds of things have you seen before where a plane gets almost all the way back to the field only for something like this to happen?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, there could be a couple of things going on, but before I speak to that, I wanted to talk about this particular airplane, which is 44 years old, but the aircraft I've worked on these airplanes for many years, since the '80s. I've taken engines off, I've worked on this airplane inside and out. It's a very reliable. And as Pete mentioned, it's one -- it's known for being easy to fly with the straight wing.

So, a couple of the things that you look at when it comes back around is how low it was coming back to the airport. It clearly was limping along in some manner. I don't think there was enough weather or interference with visual flight at that point to interfere with the visual approach to the airport, but it was clearly having a hard time maintaining that altitude. So, that would relate to perhaps an engine failure of some kind, but again, this aircraft with the TFE731 fan engines is perfectly capable of making that turn back on one engine and making a safe landing.

So, there's still a lot to be learned, but I think as far as this aircraft goes, it's a great aircraft. It's taken care of itself for a lot of years. The only one I was involved in is in 2006, there was an accident with one that I was involved with, but that was the only one and it doesn't look like that was the same thing that happened here.

SANCHEZ: Notably, something that Pete mentioned earlier stuck with me as you were describing doing maintenance on aircraft like this one. He explained that these are fairly common, these Cessna Citations, and that when it comes to private jets, it's relatively affordable, though often because of their age, they require a lot of expensive maintenance. I wonder if you could speak to what is the most common type of maintenance that is necessary and what potential pitfalls there may be.

SOUCIE: Well, some -- the TFE731 engines, as I mentioned before, have had some issues with the turbine blades and those have been had to be replaced and removed, but there's airworthiness directives and things that have improved that since then, which I'm certain this aircraft with a new airworthiness certificate back in 2025 would have those upgrades.

The biggest maintenance problem you're going to have with this aircraft is transitioning between what we call today a glass cockpit and whether this aircraft had been upgraded to a glass cockpit. It's unlikely that it had, but at that point it makes difficult changing from a visual flight over to an instrument flight, especially during a takeoff, and there's been mention of this by the NTSB back in the 2006 report about how difficult that can be in this aircraft.

So, those are the kinds of things maintenance-wise you would see with the airplane, but again, it's of course way too early to speculate, but those are the types of things I'd be looking for in the investigation at this point.

KEILAR: When you're having some kind of difficulty, whether it's an engine out or what have you with the plane, what kind of complications can that pose specifically upon landing? David, can you speak to that?

SOUCIE: Well, pilots are trained to make sure that they're flying the aircraft first. That's the first thing they need to do is make sure they're flying. Communications even comes second to that. So in this particular aircraft, the S/II, you can certify this airplane with one pilot. It doesn't have to have two. I'm not sure if this one had the STC for that or not, but it's likely that it did where it's just a single pilot.

So, if you have some kind of confrontation, some kind of anomaly that happens in flight, you're there by yourself trying to fly this airplane, maintain communications, maintain separation, look visually around you to see if you're turning into someone coming on, especially in this airport, which is an uncontrolled airport where there's not somebody telling you, hey, you have traffic at this point or that point.

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You're on your own. You're out there visually trying to find and make sure that there's nothing else going on. So there's a lot -- a lot on your plate. Maintaining altitude and flying the aircraft needs to be the number one thing. And the fact that he was able to make this turn and come back, I assume it was a he -- I don't know who the pilot was at this point, but that they were able to come back and get at least lined up the way that they did, tells you that they were aware, they're cognizant of what's going on. But obviously it fell short and they weren't able to make that runway.

SANCHEZ: Just to -- to pull on a -- on a thread of something you mentioned a moment ago, David. You were describing the likelihood or the potential for visibility to have been an issue. And just looking at this video, you see that the conditions are not great but there's a good chance you're saying that -- that it really didn't contribute.

SOUCIE: Well, I'm not saying that there's a good chance I'm saying that it may or may not have. But it would align with what the NTSB recommended back in 2006 that it's difficult to transition from visual into instrument just after takeoff. That's when there's a lot going on. You're trying to make sure you're clear you're bringing gear up you're bringing flaps up, you're making sure to stabilize the aircraft at the same time. If you have to transition over to instrument conditions which looking at this gray area at this point it could very well be that after takeoff there needed to be some visualization something that changed from just looking out to being instrument flights.

So, if they're transitioning or if it was tried to be transitioned from that to the other, that's something that has been noted by the NTSB back in 2006 and there's been some mitigating actions taken by the FAA on the certification of this particular model of aircraft that have been implemented later in the later models of the S/II and the later models of the -- of the Cessna Citation.

SANCHEZ: One of many things undoubtedly that investigators will be looking at. David Soucie, we appreciate you sharing your expertise.

SOUCIE: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still to come. House Democrats releasing a second batch of images from Jeffrey Epstein's estate as the clock ticks down toward a deadline tomorrow for releasing the DOJ's files on the late sex offender. We're going to discuss with an Epstein survivor.

KEILAR: Plus, a troubling development in the search for the Brown University gunman. Police now probing a possible connection to the killing of an MIT professor two days later. We'll have that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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SANCHEZ: Just one day before the Justice Department's deadline to release the Epstein files. House Democrats are now sharing dozens of new photos from the Epstein estate. One of the images is a female's foot with a quote written on it from the book "Lolita" a story about an older man's sexual obsession with an underage girl. Another image shows this text exchange that reads, quote, "I don't know, try to send someone else. I have a friend scout. She sent me some girls today but she asks a thousand dollars per girl. I will send you girls now. Maybe someone will be good for J?"

Also included a partly blacked out picture of a female's Ukrainian passport. The lawmakers notably didn't provide additional context on the photos and we can't say when or where they were taken or who took them. Let's get the perspective of one of Jeffrey Epstein survivors. Jess Michaels joins us now.

Jess, thank you so much for being with us.

I understand that you're choosing not to look at these photos at these images. I wonder if you could share why.

JESS MICHAELS, JEFFREY EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: Thank you first for having me on, Boris. It's nice to meet you. I am choosing not to look at the photo dumps when they come up, because it feels a lot like waiting and waiting and waiting and then trauma and triggering. And then, waiting, waiting, waiting and then another dump of trauma and triggering. And I just would rather look at the images if -- if at all when I choose. I think that it's important for all of us to get to choose when we look at them. And that's why we're hoping people when they're sharing them across social media. They're being conscious of that, that they put trigger warnings. They put covers on their carousels et cetera.

SANCHEZ: After the photos that were released last week came out, a Democrat on House Oversight told our colleague, Jim Sciutto, that they're hoping that by making these pictures public it could induce people to come forward to provide testimony. And there's also some people in these pictures that they're trying to identify so they can contact them. What do you make of that strategy?

MICHAELS: I think that's accurate. We've all -- many of us -- have had survivors that have never come forward reach out to us through social media through email. So, I think it's important to note that just because you see our faces all the time doesn't mean we're the only ones that are survivors of Jeffrey Epstein. There are hundreds to a thousand and some of them are only coming to the surface now because they feel safe enough.

SANCHEZ: Have you heard from DOJ regarding tomorrow's document release or the House Oversight Committee.

MICHAELS: No, it's extremely disappointing.

SANCHEZ: Why?

MICHAELS: Because if -- if this is supposed to be a way to follow through with the bill that was signed and there hasn't been any effort to reach out to survivors and let them know what's coming even after we have to force Congress to -- to join with us and ask for transparency it feels like another level of negligence.

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SANCHEZ: Wow. Do you think that there's any way, that there -- there's any potential for this latest bid by Ghislaine Maxwell to get her convictions wiped, to get them overturned? You're -- I think you're bracing yourself for the possibility, right? That -- that there's -- that this effort by her to get her conviction overturned might somehow block the full release of these documents. Do you think that might happen?

MICHAELS: I don't know if that's what will happen. What I'm most frustrated with is that the American people have seen the second sweetheart deal in plain sight in this decade-long sex trafficking scandal, and nobody's doing anything about it. So to me, that's the state of our Department of Justice right now.

SANCHEZ: Wow. You know, the chief of staff at the White House, Susie Wiles, was asked by Vanity Fair about Maxwell being transferred to this lighter security facility, and there's been extensive reporting about some of the accommodations that she has received there. When she was asked, Wiles said that President Trump didn't really know anything about it, and when he found out about it, it -- it upset him. What do you make of that? MICHAELS: It's been five months, six months, so to -- to say that he's

upset about it now, or even that this has happened, to be -- to made -- made aware of it and to do nothing, this is the Department of Justice. Their -- their -- this is the same issue that we have been talking about, not just me, other -- other survivors that have been involved in this for decades, that there is a level of negligence, incompetence that's happened on the part of the -- the Department of Justice over five administrations, and this is just falling in suit with everything we've seen from every administration before that.

SANCHEZ: Jess, when you also hear that the Chief of Staff reveals to a reporter that she's aware that President Trump's name is in the file and that he's not in the file, in her words, doing anything awful, but saying that he was on Epstein's plane, he's on the manifest, they were, quote, "sort of young, single, whatever. I know it's a passe word, but sort of young, single playboys together."

And I -- and I should note, nothing that's been released thus far has indicated that President Trump is taking part in anything related to Epstein's wrongdoing. Nevertheless, when you hear that coming from the Chief of Staff, that Trump and Epstein had this relationship where they were playboys together, what comes to mind?

MICHAELS: I think we're talking, too, about two different things. There's the crimes that were happening with Jeffrey Epstein, and then there is the negligence, incompetence, and corruption that's happening with the cover-up. And so, what we feel -- what I feel, because I can only speak for myself, I can't speak for every other survivor, what I feel is that right now, this cover-up that has lasted through this administration is telling about this administration about this administration. Actions speak louder than words.

So -- so to the actions we have seen in this cover-up are -- are deeply, deeply troubling. And that's why I'm also joining Maria's -- Maria Farmer's negligence case against the FBI and the Department of Justice, the government, and the Southern District of Florida for these decades -- decades of negligence and incompetence that could have saved a lot of -- a lot of trauma and tragedy.

SANCHEZ: Jess Michaels, thank you so much for sharing your story with us.

MICHAELS: Thank you for having me.

SANCHEZ: Appreciate it.

Ahead, President Trump touting the state of the U.S. economy during a primetime address to the nation, the White House insisting new inflation data backs up his claims, but are Americans really buying that message? We'll discuss.

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SANCHEZ: So, the White House is celebrating today's new inflation report. Showing it's slow to 2.7 percent year-over-year in November. That's down from 3 percent in September, the lowest since July. But government shutdown may have actually impacted the collection of that data.

KEILAR: Yes, so can we really be sure? This coming after a new Fox poll of registered voters found just 39 percent approving of President Trump's handling of the economy. A majority of voters polled, 58 percent, said the Trump administration is focused on the wrong things.

We're joined now by Chuck Todd, host of The Chuck ToddCast and former moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press."

All right, Chuck, I just wonder what you thought. How did President Trump do selling his year one achievements?

CHUCK TODD, HOST, "THE CHUCK TODDCAST": Well, in fairness, as much as you and I may have opinions, we'll find out what the public thinks, but I don't think that's going to be as effective as they were hoping it would be.

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I think the tone he took, I think the scattershot nature of how he sort of ...