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New Details on Fatal Collision Between Plane, Fire Truck and LaGuardia; Top Republicans Optimistic About DHS Deal After White House Meeting; Oil Prices Fluctuate After Trump Postpones Iran Strikes. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 24, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, years of warnings before the deadly collision at LaGuardia Airport. The NTSB expected to reveal new information about the crash today as we learned pilots have long raised concerns about air traffic control there, including missteps and close calls.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: And the chaos meantime already queuing up once again at airports nationwide this morning. So, are the ICE agencies who've been deployed to more than a dozen airports, are they actually helping to ease the strain on the wait times? Are they helping TSA agents who, of course, are showing up without paychecks?

Plus, the new reporting this morning on a possible deal in Congress to end this partial government shutdown.

And history up in smoke, a fire ripping through a more than century- old courthouse leaving it a total loss.

John and Kate are out this week. I'm Erica Hill with Sara Sidner. This is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: This morning in New York, new details and even more questions surrounding the deadly crash at LaGuardia Airport that left two pilots of the plane dead and injured dozens of passengers and crew. Right now, the NTSB is on the ground investigating the crash. They were able to recover the plane's cockpit, voice and flight data recorders from the wreckage but they are warning that answers on how and why this crash happened could take weeks.

New security camera footage captured the devastating moment of impact right here, oof, between the inbound Air Canada flight and the Port Authority fire truck. The plane was traveling at about 100 miles per hour on the ground despite reported attempts to try and slow down. One of the passengers described the terrifying moments of that crash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REBECCA LIQUORI, ON BOARD AIR CANADA PLANE THAT COLLIDED WITH FIRE TRUCK: We hit a very rough landing. It almost felt like the plane jolted. And after that, you hear the pilot try to brake, and it was like a grinding noise. And then after, that it was a huge just boom and we just all jolted out of our seats. And it was eerie, an eerie couple of seconds. And then we realized, okay, the flight crew is not able to give us guidance. I was actually sitting next to the emergency exit door. So, I opened the emergency exit, let out passengers, let myself out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Wow. What a story we're also hearing from the daughter of the flight attendant who was miraculously found alive, strapped in her jump seat outside of the plane. Solange Tremblay's daughter said her mother was seated directly behind the pilots when the plane landed and was ejected more than 300 feet from the plane. She suffered multiple fractures and was taken to the hospital for surgery for a broken leg.

CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean is joining me now from LaGuardia. Pete, the NTSB asking for patients, and this is typical because this, it takes time to conduct these kinds of investigations, but where do things stand this morning? What are you learning?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, NTSB investigators have called planting the flag here is what they have done first, and now they are digging into the data.

I just spoke to NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, and she tells me we will get an initial summary, an initial readout of the cockpit voice recorder onboard that Air Canada Express CRJ-900 Jet. Investigators had to cut into the tail of the airplane to recover the voice recorder and the data recorder. And because air travel is such a mess right now, they rushed that down to their lab in Washington, D.C., by car. They drove it there instead of typically flying it to D.C. to begin this analysis.

NTSB Chair Homendy says there was a system here in place called AGS-DX (ph). That is a surface collision warning system designed to prevent the same type of incident we saw here at LaGuardia late Sunday night. The FAA is now analyzing the data from that system that warns controllers of these collisions on the ground in the making, but she says that will take some days to fully analyze.

The big issue here is that it has taken time for NTSB investigators, a team of about 25 here on the site, to get to the crash scene.

[07:05:08]

There are a lot of challenges, Homendy says, that the scene is very dangerous because of a large debris field, not only across runway four here where this collision took place, but also on Taxiway Delta, where that fire truck was crossing the runway about halfway down this 7,000- foot long runway, and then in the grassy areas around it.

And then there is the issue of simply getting investigators here because air travel is such a mess, and I want you to listen to this incredible sound bite from NTSB Chair Homendy in her press conference yesterday, in which she laid out the initial facts of this case and said, in one case, their air traffic control specialist, the woman at the NTSB who specializes in interviewing air traffic controllers, one of the biggest factors in this case, was not able to get here because she was snarled in those long TSA lines. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER HOMENDY, NTSB CHAIRWOMAN: We have one, our air traffic control specialist, who was in line with TSA for three hours, until we called in Houston to beg to see if we can get her through, so we can get her here. So, it's been a really big challenge to get the entire team here and they're still arriving as I speak.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Let me just set the scene here for you, Sara. The plane is off in the distance behind me, still sitting on its tail because the nose of the plane is gone. It is seated on its tail right now, and there's a large flashing X here on Runway Four at LaGuardia. The runway remains closed and will remain that way for days, NTSB Chair Homendy says, along with the FAA publicly available alerts.

We have also heard from anonymous pilot reports that were compiled by the Federal Aviation Administration where pilots warned of a possible collision here way before this. They said that this could be another DCA, another Reagan National Airport collision in the making because the airport is simply at capacity, so many things to dig into here for investigators.

SIDNER: So many things and going to snarl traffic even more with all that's happening with the TSA.

Thank you so much, Pete Muntean, for your reporting. I'm glad you're here. All right, Erica?

HILL: So, as we take a closer look at what is happening at airports across the country now, when it comes to those wait times, when it comes to TSA staffing shortages, a potential breakthrough to tell you about that could end this partial government shutdown, it would mean TSA workers could get paid again.

So, all of this coming after top Senate Republicans emerged from a meeting at the White House last hopeful of a deal. The proposal would fund all of the Department of Homeland Security except for a small portion of the ICE budget. That would then be moved later. Republicans are trying to muscle through a separate bill knowing that they don't have the Democratic votes there to fund other ICE enforcement operations.

All of this coming after the Trump administration, of course, deployed ICE to more than a dozen airports, 14 airports, across the country. We're told that they're going to help with the wait times, but the reality is they can't help with security screening. So, how does that actually impact wait times?

CNN's Ryan Young is live at Atlanta's Hartfield-Jackson International Airport. So, Ryan, you were walking us through yesterday in terms of what you were seeing. Did you see a noticeable impact on wait times with those ICE agents having been deployed?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not -- yes, not early on. We saw the impact later on through the afternoon. There was almost no lines, no waiting after 1:30 yesterday, but that's simply not the case during the morning rush. Take a look, we wanted to give you this perspective. The camera's more than 50 yards away and you can see the sea of people here and the TSA pre-check line. It's one of the longest lines that we have here at the airport on the other side of the north side. It is still an expanded, long line with people waiting for over an hour to get through their flights.

This is the pain point for a lot of travelers because obviously you arrive at the airport, especially the business travelers in the morning think they're going to breeze through security, and then they're being hit with the reality. This could be a two-hour wait from here. One of the things that we learned, why they turn off the machines up front is because when they track travelers, that machine does not track people who are walking through the baggage area because it was never intended to track passengers as they were over here waiting for the TSA security lines.

Talking about those ICE agents, yes, they are here, they're walking around the perimeter, but they are not helping check people in. So, when you see this line and our camera will pan over, you can just see the sea of people throughout this airport. They've been trying to coordinate this all day long, making sure they change the plan, bringing extra agents in if they can, to put them in certain locations to move them through.

[07:10:01]

If you are a sky priority member, there's even a sky priority line just for you. But you got to think the impact of this days and days of this. We've been tracking this for more than nine days with all these people stuck, so many different stories about the fact that people have missed their flights. This just continues and they want to see something done. They want to see something done now. Hearing a lot of people say Congress shouldn't get paid until this gets fixed.

HILL: Yes, we have definitely heard a lot of that. Ryan, I appreciate it. Thank you. Sara?

Well, oil prices, it turns out, back above $100 a barrel this morning, gas prices steadily climbing as well, coming very close once again to that average of $4 a gallon. So, no matter what happens to oil, the prices you see at the pump, I hate to tell you, those could be here for a while. We'll take a closer look.

Plus, the National Guard is now helping with cleanup after the devastating flash floods in Hawaii. The extensive damage there, we're talking about the worst floods in over 20 years.

And a man who is a quadruple amputee accused of shooting and killing another man, then driving away with his body. We have that investigation, those updates for you this morning.

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[07:15:00]

SIDNER: All right. Breaking overnight, oil prices climbed overnight to $100-plus a barrel but they've dropped slightly this morning. Yesterday, price slid after President Trump held good conversations, as he put it, with Iran, but the reprieve didn't last long. Brent Crude, the global oil benchmark, was just over $101. WTI, the U.S. benchmark, is back up to about $90, in a bit, a barrel. Americans have been seeing gas prices steadily climbing since the war began. They rose again overnight for the 24th straight day. And now we are very close to that $4 a gallon on average.

CNN's David Goldman is joining me now. When it was said, it takes two to TACO, referring to the Wall Street acronym, Trump always chickens out, but a lot needs to happen before Americans feel, and we talked about this yesterday, any relief from gas prices, what is happening here? Why do we see these prices jump up and then go down? And obviously sometimes what the president says has an impact, but now they've come back down. Why?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yes. Well happy Taco Tuesday, first of all. And, second of all, I think that there are a couple things that the market is looking for, right? One is, is this war going to end? But then the bigger thing is, is the Strait of Hormuz going to reopen. Because that is the critical channel where 20 percent of the world's oil flows through. And so we need to get that strait open if we want gas prices to ever go back below $3, which is where we were before. So, until that happens, we're not going to move.

SIDNER: You have this confusing sort of back and forth between the United States and Iran, where the president saying, were having these talks, Iran's, you know, state media saying, no, were not talking at all. Does that affect the market where there's just this uncertainty about exactly what is going on?

GOLDMAN: Uncertainty is exactly why the market is fluctuating. That's exactly what's going on. And there are a few things that need to happen if we're going to start to see some steady declines. The first is getting that Iran deal through, if there is such a deal. But I'm not an Iran expert. My kids remind me that every day. But there are talks between -- supposedly between the United States and Iran that are ongoing, we're going to find out by the end of the week. But Trump has also said that he wants $200 billion still in war funding. Iran says they're not actually talking.

So, the market doesn't know what to make of any of that. And that's why you're seeing some of that fluctuation.

SIDNER: Yes. I think a lot of people don't know what to make about it. But when it comes to even if this all gets sorted out, and let's say, a day, optimistically, that's insane. But let's say it gets sorted out in a couple of days or by the end of the week, will that then bring gas prices down or will that you have to sort of wait for it to start to trickle down? GOLDMAN: I love your optimism, but oil doesn't come back on like a switch. We talked about this yesterday too. It's an engineering feat. And so all of the production that was stopped because there was nowhere to put it that needs to come back on, that can take weeks. And then after that, you need to get all of those destroyed facilities back on. That could take months or years.

SIDNER: Right. That's -- therein lies the rub.

David Goldman, thank you so much. It's great to see you.

All right, coming up ahead, an incredibly rare moment in the courts, Secretary of State Marco Rubio takes the stand to testify in the trial of his longtime friend, a former congressman who was accused of secretly lobbying for Venezuela.

And a rookie Texas Ranger pitcher probably thought he was getting pulled from the game when the coach came to the mound. What his coach said that left him with a huge smile, even chuckling a little bit there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

HILL: How about a little history to start off your Tuesday morning? History made last night in Iowa City. For the first time ever in the women's NCAA tournament, a first 14 headed to the Sweet 16 after tenth seed Virginia stunned the number two Iowa in a double overtime thriller.

CNN's Andy Scholes joining us now with more on all the madness. March is the worst month for weather, the best month for sports.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: I agree with you on that, Erica. And we are now down to the Sweet 16 in both the men's and women's tournaments in Virginia just coming through with the biggest upset of the women's tournaments thus far. So, they're ten seed playing at two seed Iowa. This game is in overtime at this point. Cavs down two, Kymora Johnson, the floater, ties the game with 13 seconds left. She led the way with 28 points.

Iowa then had a couple of chances to win it in O.T., but the shot and the putback going to be no good. We'd go to a second overtime, and that's when Virginia would pull away. They were 13-point underdogs, but they pulled off the upset, becoming the first ever first four team in the women's side to make it the Sweet 16. Final now is 83-75.

Now, it was not as close of a game in Storrs, Connecticut. Husky star Azzi Fudd starring in her final home game for UConn. She had at least 6 of her 34 points in the first half, single handedly outscoring Syracuse. At one point, the first half of this game, the Huskies, they went on a 31-0 run. UConn was up on Syracuse 65 to 12 at halftime, which was the second largest halftime lead in tournament history. They won by 53. Huskies have now won 52 in a row as they look to win back- to-back titles. The women's tournament, it resumes on Friday. [07:25:01]

All right, Major League baseball season, it will start tomorrow. Teams around the country playing their final exhibition games, the Rangers hosting the Royals. At fifth inning, Manager Skip Schumaker came out to the mound and pitcher Carter Baumler, he thought he was being pulled from the game. You see, he has got a big smile on his face, because that was the moment Schumaker decided to tell him he was going to make the opening day roster for the first time in his career.

The 24-year-old, he was all smiles. Baumler has battled injuries and has never pitched above AA, but now he is a Big Leaguer. And Schumaker said he, Erica, he wanted to make the moment special and he figured the best way to do it was to go out and do a mound visit and tell him in front of his teammates, which was pretty cool.

HILL: That is pretty nice. Andy, good to see you. Thank you.

SCHOLES: All right.

HILL: Still ahead here, could there be an end in sight for those lengthy airport wait times? We'll take a look at the plan that just may be shaping up to end the partial government shutdown.

Plus, a jury finding Bill Cosby sexually assaulted a woman in the 1970s, the award for that accuser.

Stay with us.

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