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Pilot and Copilot Killed, Dozens Hurt in Runway Collision at LaGuardia; Trump Administration Sending ICE Agents to Airports Amid TSA Shortages; Trump Postpones Military Strikes on Iranian Power Plants; Oil Prices Fall as Trump Hails Productive Conversations with Iran. Aired 8:00-8:30a ET

Aired March 23, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: On our radar for you this morning, at least four ambulances belonging to a Jewish rescue organization were set on fire outside a synagogue in London today. People in the area, which is home to London's largest Jewish community, say they were woken up by loud explosions and the sound of firefighters rushing to the scene. Police are treating the incident as an antisemitic hate crime and are looking for three masked men.

All right, the National Guard is assisting with search and rescue operations in Hawaii after the worst flooding to hit the state in 20 years battered the island of Oahu. Flash floodwaters destroyed homes, damaged airports and hospitals and cut off access into several towns. More than 230 people have had to be rescued.

No deaths or major injuries have been reported, but damage estimates are now above a billion dollars.

A new hour, CNN NEWS CENTRAL, starts right now.

Breaking this morning, New York's LaGuardia Airport closed after a passenger plane collided with a firetruck while landing. The crash killed two pilots and injured 40 people, including the firefighters. How did this happen and when will the airport reopen?

In other airports, TSA shortages and hours-long security lines going from bad to worse as the administration now deploying ICE agents to more than a dozen airports this morning to help TSA.

And the president now says his threat to obliterate Iran's oil fields is on hold. That just happened this morning.

John and Kate are off today. I'm Sara Sidner with Erica Hill. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking news.

SIDNER: All right, the breaking news for you this morning, LaGuardia Airport in New York closed and a federal investigation underway after a deadly collision on the runway. The pilot and co-pilot of an Air Canada passenger plane were killed when the aircraft slammed into a firetruck that was on the runway while that plane was landing. Dozens of people were injured.

The plane was going about 130 miles an hour when it hit the truck. The harrowing moments leading up to the crash was captured, of course, on air traffic control audio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOWER: Frontier 4195 just stop there please.

TOWER: Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, Truck One, stop, stop, stop!

TOWER: Truck One! Stop! Tuck One! Stop!

TOWER: JAZZ 646, I see you collided with the vehicle. Just hold position. I know you can't move. Vehicles are responding to you now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Absolutely terrifying sound. 72 passengers and four crew were on that flight. 41 people were taken to the hospital, including the two people in the firetruck. Most of those have now been released. About nine remain. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirming this morning that the NTSB is on site and investigating the crash.

Now, LaGuardia Airport will remain closed until at least two o'clock in the afternoon today, deeply impacting a travel situation that is already very chaotic across the country.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is at LaGuardia Airport for us. What are you learning this morning as daybreak happens? You can really see the result of this crash.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and it's really just frightening to see what happened here, just how damaged the plane is and what's left of that crash truck, that fire truck that collided with the plane. I'm going to step out and show you. So Steve could show you here.

Here's what's going on out here at LaGuardia this morning. We've been watching as more emergency officials have been arriving.

The NTSB is on scene, but you could see the plane. It's tilted up. You see the front.

That's the nose of the plane. That's where those two pilots were that sadly died, obviously. And the damage, just the sheer force of this collision with this plane landing, coming in for a landing, traveling at over 100 miles an hour, then colliding with the truck.

And if you look to the left, you'll see that truck. It's yellow. It's on its side.

And then you could see there's damage all around it. There's debris all around that. But again, just the force of this.

Those are heavy trucks. That plane coming in at 100 miles an hour, just crashing into that truck. Now that truck was cleared.

It's a fire truck that was responding to an emergency from a United plane that had some kind of a foul odor on their plane. By all accounts and based on what we could hear on air traffic control and a source that I spoke to, the fire truck was cleared to move. The fire trucks cannot do anything on a runway without being cleared by air traffic control.

And by all accounts, that's what happened here. It was clear to move.

[08:05:00]

We spoke with a passenger this morning who was on that plane. He described what it was like as the plane was landing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK CABOT, PASSENGER ON AIR CANADA FLIGHT: We went down for a regular landing. We came in pretty hard. We immediately hit something and it was just chaos in there.

About five seconds later, we had come to a stop in that short period. I mean, everybody was hunkered down and everybody's screaming. Pretty quickly, we didn't have any directions because the pilot's cabin had been kind of destroyed. So somebody said, let's get the emergency exit and get the door and let's all jump out. And that's exactly what we did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PROKUPECZ: And it all just happened so suddenly and while the air traffic controller was telling the truck to stop and that passenger describing how they could feel the brakes like a hard break. Sadly, it all was a little too late and this collision happened. We hope later today to hear from the NTSB on what they're learning more specific data as they start to investigate what happened here.

SIDNER: Shimon, thank you for being there. And those pictures are pretty incredible. The whole airport closed with that jet that is just torn to shreds in the very front. Appreciate it -- Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: And that deadly crash is, of course, only going to add to the travel chaos that we're seeing across the country. This morning, we have new images to show you of ICE agents at multiple airports amid this partial government shutdown. Now the Trump administration says those agents will be helping with these massive wait times that we've seen.

This, of course, coming from shortages among TSA staffers. They're struggling to keep up with a shorter staffing load. And they're also, of course, it's important to remember working without pay right now. A source telling CNN the ICE agents will deploy to 13 U.S. airports that starts today.

What is still in question, though, is how exactly they're going to be helping. What duties will they be performing? CNN's Ryan Young is live at Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson International Airports, where last hour, Ryan, you took us outside where we still couldn't even see the end of the TSA precheck line to get to security.

I know you've seen ICE agents there in the airport. Have you been able to learn a little bit more about how they're actually being used this morning?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 100 percent. Of course I can. We've been able to talk to several people who work here at the airport have figured out that ICE is supporting the management of people.

So they are watching this area here. We've actually been able to follow some of the agents as they've been working through the day. I will get to that more in a second.

I want to show you something right here. That is normally the screen that shows the times in which people have to stand in this line. Those are all off right now.

And so people who get in these TSA precheck lines have no clue for how long it may take them. And this guy was walking right by. So I wanted to ask him a quick question.

You've been waiting in line for how long?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over three hours.

YOUNG: You got up with what time this morning? You got here thinking that you'd be able to make it through.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got up at 3:30. Got here at 4:45.

YOUNG: And the line went?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I went inside, flipped around, went outside, not serpentines through baggage claim and then serpentines again down the main hall here.

YOUNG: You travel a lot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the time.

YOUNG: What's this like?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a disaster, an unmitigated disaster. It's chaos and people are missing their flights. I've already rebooked my flight twice today.

So I'm going home and be back tonight.

YOUNG: Good luck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

YOUNG: Thank you for stopping. So getting back to that ICE and we'll have that conversation a second

as we flip the camera around. Here's one of the ICE agents right here.

He's standing here watching over the atrium. You see this shorter line that's going on right now. This shorter line is the main checkpoint.

And then if you look up top here, you can see the officers from APD here as well. So this is what I've been told about the ICE agents. They are here to support the Atlanta police officers.

The Atlanta police officers have actually added more officers to the airport, including SWAT to be on standby for whatever may be needed. They wanted to make sure security was at a high level here. But as of right now, the ICE agents aren't doing anything with helping anyone get through the security lines any faster.

They do more of the perimeter patrol as we speak.

HILL: All right, kind of keeping people in line. Ryan, appreciate it. We'll continue to check in with you.

We mentioned 13 airports, including not just Atlanta, but Newark International as well, where those ICE agents are being deployed. Jason Carroll is standing by in Newark. Jason, there's actually a ground stop there, not related to ICE agents, I want to point out.

But what is happening for this ground stop there at Newark Liberty?

JASON CAROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've just gotten word about this ground stop a little bit more information about it. Apparently, there was some sort of a burning smell in the control tower. And so the control tower for a period of time was evacuated.

But we're hearing now that that situation is getting under control and that that ground stoppage should be over in about the next 20 minutes or so.

[08:10:00]

In terms of lines, you've been hearing so much about that, different story here at Newark Airport. Look, you can see estimated security wait time less than 10 minutes. You can see here not much of things looking pretty much out of the ordinary here.

I mean, this is the type of line you'd see on any given day here at Newark Airport. But what we did spot here are some of the ICE agents, we've got some video of that, saw the ICE agents making their way through Terminal A. Again, unclear specifically what exactly their role is going to be.

You remember over the weekend, President Trump did warn if some sort of a settlement was not reached, he was going to deploy ICE agents to various airports. And so again, we have seen them here at Newark International Airport.

Over the weekend, we also heard from the border czar. He spoke to CNN about what ICE's role would be. Here's a little bit more of what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: This is about helping TSA do their mission and get the American public through that airport as quick as we can. While adhering to all the security guidelines and the protocols, we're simply there to help TSA do their job in areas that don't don't need their specialized expertise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLL: So again, not much of the lines that we're seeing here at Newark Airport. In terms of ICE, we have been speaking to passengers who have been arriving three hours before their flights, talking to them about what they think about ICE agents getting here. We spoke to one woman from California.

She said that, look, let TSA agents do their jobs. Let ICE do what they have to do. Another man traveling out to Nashville, Tennessee, put it this way.

He said, look, the TSA agents are not getting paid. He sees this situation is being very unfair. TSA not getting paid ICE coming out. They are getting paid.

So hearing from passengers about ICE. But in terms of lines, not much to speak of here at Newark. Back to you.

HILL: All right, so we'll take that good news out of Newark. Jason, Ryan, thank you both -- Sara.

SIDNER: Thank you so much.

All right, coming up. Deadline extended. President Trump now backing off his threat to obliterate Iran's power plants. Now saying talks with Iran are happening. We'll get to that in a bit.

And gas prices surged to nearly $4 a gallon. Why experts warn the current pain may just be the beginning.

And my Florida Gators, the reigning national champs, heartbreak and the final seconds of last night's action. All of Sunday's hardwood madness ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Breaking news this morning, President Trump says he will hold off on military strikes on Iran's power plants for five days after, he says, the U.S. and Iran held, quote, productive conversations. Trump had threatened to strike if Tehran did not allow the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz by tonight.

Joining us now, CNN, political and global affairs analyst Barak Ravid. This just came in this morning. And so I know it's a fast thing to have to try to figure out what happened here. But what do you know about this? This was this was a bit of a surprise, at least to many who thought that deadline was fast approaching.

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yes, I think it was a big surprise. At least last night, I spoke with several U.S. officials but none of them thought that the ceasefire is coming or that there's any diplomatic opening.

And I think that from what I learned in the last few minutes is that over the weekend, several countries from the region tried very hard to at least buy more time and sort of prolonged Trump's 48 hour ultimatum to the Iranians to try and get some sort of diplomacy going. And those countries spoke to both Iran -- Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi and White House envoy Steve Witkoff to try and get more time. And I think that at least this initial effort, as we saw, was successful because it managed to get Trump to say, OK, I'm giving it another five days for diplomacy to see if we can get something going.

By the way, those talks, as far as I understand, are not just about the Strait of Hormuz. They're about trying to launch a diplomatic process that ends the war. Obviously, the Strait of Hormuz is a very big part of it, but it is not just something that is focused on the Strait of Hormuz. It's much wider.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, that's huge, if indeed they're talking about how to end this war and that those conversations are actually going on. You mentioned the foreign minister involved in this.

So there is someone, because at some point the president, President Trump said that he didn't know who to talk to because so many of the leadership had been killed. It sounds to me like what you're learning is that the foreign minister is very much involved in this and maybe heading this up. So does it appear there is a diplomatic path out of this?

RAVID: Well, it's a big question mark. You know, it just happened 30 minutes ago. And, you know, I think, A, President Trump decided to give it more time, I think was a good decision. But it still doesn't mean that an agreement is around the corner.

And it also doesn't mean that the talks that are ongoing with Iran's foreign minister, who is, I think his main quality at the moment is that he's the only one who answers the phone over there.

[08:20:00]

Because many other people are in hiding and are not communicating over the phone. So it doesn't mean that the leadership that is running the show right now, mainly the commanders of the IRGC, that they are ready for any kind of deal. The Iranian foreign minister, although he's a government official, senior government official, he does not call the shots. Or at least he's only one part of a much bigger decision making process.

So I think, you know, we should first try to find more details about what exactly happened. And second, keep our expectations low when it comes to the ability to get a deal. There's more time on the clock, which is super important because a U.S. strike on Iranian power plants would have triggered a massive Iranian retaliation against power plants all over the region, against desalination factories, against critical infrastructure, which would dramatically escalate this war.

So the fact that President Trump gave it another five days is a hugely important step and usually important decision because it means that he understands that, you know, what kind of escalation such a strike would trigger and that he's willing to try and find a diplomatic off ramp.

SIDNER: Yes, all those things true at this hour. There's a lot to learn about this and whether or not it will actually work. But there is a reprieve, at least five days to try to talk it out.

Barak Ravid, it is always a pleasure to have you with your expertise on this. Appreciate it.

All right, coming up gas prices coming closer and closer to $4 a gallon on average, just how high they might go in for how long.

And the White House installs a statue of Christopher Columbus made out of remains of one that was toppled in Baltimore doing the 2020 racial justice protests. Those stories and more ahead.

[08:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: New this morning. Gas prices up again. The national average is now just under $4 a gallon. Oil prices are falling slightly this morning.

That's after President Trump walked back his deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting that ongoing talks between the United States and Iran could end the war. The president posting in part that he's instructed the Defense Department to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for -- and here's the key part here -- he says for a five day period, that initial deadline was said to expire less than 12 hours from now.

CNN senior business reporter David Goldman joins us now. So oil prices coming down a smidge. We'll take what we can get. Following those comments from the president. We know the markets could be pretty reactive to what we see.

But does that mean that prices will actually go down at the pump?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Well, eventually, if this keeps up, we don't know that this is going to keep up, as you just said. So five days. We've got a lot to learn over these next five days.

And if oil prices keep falling, eventually gas prices will fall too. The question is when. And so what we look at when we're looking at gas prices, oil that's bought today at 90, right, that needs to be shipped to a refinery, and it needs to be refined. And then it needs to be shipped to a storage facility and then offloaded onto a tanker and then brought to your gas station that might not need to fill up for a little while.

And so it's going to be weeks before you see gas prices just at this $90 crude level. And so, you know, I don't know that prices are going to get much lower anytime soon. In fact, they might continue to get higher before them.

HILL: Right, especially if they weren't just buying at 90. Right.

GOLDMAN: Exactly.

HILL: It was when it was a little bit more. So, really nothing we can do except, I guess, follow it.

GOLDMAN: Yes.

HILL: Right?

GOLDMAN: That's right.

HILL: And fill up when you can.

GOLDMAN: And fill up when you can.

HILL: All right, thanks for being the bearer of bad news. I'm kidding.

Always good to see you. And thank you for keeping track of it for us. It is Monday.

Happy Monday, my friend. Happy rainy Monday here in New York City.

Ahead here, we are following the breaking news this morning. Also out of New York City, two people confirmed dead after a plane collided with a fire truck on the runway at LaGuardia as that train plane was trying to land. More details on that fatal crash.

Plus dozens injured after a charter bus crashes off a freeway exit ramp. What we know about the condition of those on board.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END