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Markwayne Mullin Sworn in as DHS Secretary During Partial Shutdown; Trump Votes by Mail Despite Criticizing Voting by Mail; Iran Source Says U.S. Outreach But No Full-fledged Negotiations; Federal Investigators Give Update on Deadly Collision at LaGuardia. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired March 24, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": -- collision on Runway 4. Any moment, we expect to hear from NTSB officials. A cockpit voice recorder could offer clues into what happened at LaGuardia and we'll bring that to you live.

And new DHS Secretary, old problem. Will the swearing-in of Markwayne Mullin help Homeland Security solve the standoff that's causing long lines at America's airports? The White House could back a deal to finally pay TSA agents.

And ballot backtracking, President Trump says mail-in voting means mail-in cheating. That was a quote, but CNN has learned that the president voted by mail in today's special election in Florida. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

Any moment, the NTSB will be holding a briefing to update the investigation on that fatal collision at New York's LaGuardia Airport. And we're hoping to learn some new information after investigators say they were able to retrieve the Air Canada's plane cockpit voice recorder.

We're also learning more about the two pilots who were killed when the passenger jet slammed into an airport fire truck on Sunday night. Mackenzie Gunther was the flight's first officer. According to Seneca Polytechnic in Toronto, he graduated from the college's Honors Bachelor of Aviation Technology program just in 2023. And flags at the Seneca campus will be lowered to half-staff today.

Antoine Forest has been identified as the co-pilot on the flight. Forest's great-aunt telling the Toronto Star, quote, "He was always taking courses and flying. He never stopped."

Let's go to CNN's Pete Muntean who is at LaGuardia and is standing by for this briefing. What should we be expecting here, Pete?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, we just heard officially from NTSB media relations staff that this press conference has been moved to a quarter past the hour, 2:15 Eastern time. This will be the most significant release of information yet, since this crash late Sunday night.

We are anticipating hearing from the National Transportation Safety Board about the readout from the cockpit voice recorder on board that Air Canada Express CRJ900 airplane. They had to physically cut into the tail of the aircraft yesterday to remove the voice recorder and the flight data recorder, and drive them to the NTSB's lab at L'Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C. to begin the painstaking work of recovering the data.

Today, they will give us an initial readout of what was on the cockpit voice recorder. It could be incredibly telling. Were the pilots trying to make a last-ditch effort to stop the plane? Were the pilots trying to make an effort to abort the landing and go around? Some major questions here about what was taking place inside the cockpit.

It will also reveal some details about the interplay of the air traffic control communications. It can be very difficult for pilots to hear every specific transmission because, remember, aircraft radio frequencies are based on essentially 1930-1940 technologies. In some cases, controllers and pilots can transmit at the same time, something that's called stepping on one another, makes a squealing noise on the radio frequency and can essentially block communications.

It is not a perfect system. The other thing we will also hear about and this is something that so many people have questions about. NTSB Chair, Homendy tells me this morning that there will be an initial readout of the staffing information from the air traffic control tower here at LaGuardia itself.

There are a lot of questions about that because there have been rumors circulating that one controller was occupying and staffing two frequencies at the same time, which is not necessarily unusual in the air traffic system, but could be a contributing factor in this crash.

The NTSB, she tells me was going through time cards and sign-in sheets to try and precisely determine who was in the air traffic control tower at the specific moment of that collision. Of course, a lot of questions here as well about what was taking place in the airport fire truck that was crossing Runway 4 here at LaGuardia Airport late Sunday night, after nightfall.

The conditions were not perfect, although still considered VFR, visual conditions where the pilots could see essentially what was in front of them. So some major questions here about, if the firefighters saw this collision that was about to take place. Did they try to swerve out of the way? Did they look both ways before they crossed the runway?

We know from the air traffic control recordings they were cleared by the tower to cross the runway and then there was that frantic call by the air traffic controller saying, truck one, stop, truck one stop. So a lot of big information yet to be revealed here. The most significant release of information we've seen since this accident.

KEILAR: All right, Pete. We'll be waiting for that. Thank you so much. Boris?

[14:05:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Today, an Iranian source says there has been outreach between the Trump administration and Tehran, but it hasn't quite reached the level of full-fledged negotiations, even as the regime has been willing to listen to proposals to potentially end the war.

At the same time, one of the U.S.' top Middle East allies is urging President Trump to not let up. An official in Saudi Arabia tells CNN they want Iran's cruise and ballistic missile capabilities degraded as much as possible before the war ends.

CNN National Security Analyst, Beth Sanner joins us now. Beth, great to see you, as always. How is Iran's leadership viewing potential negotiations? If the leadership is in disrepair, as the administration says, who would the U.S. even negotiate with?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I definitely think that there are people who negotiate. I mean, one of the people we've heard is the Parliamentary Chief, Ghalibaf, and then there's been a new person replacing the National Security Advisor, Larijani. And he is the new person, Zolghadr is a hardliner, IRGC person.

So there are people there, but I think that what we have to kind of take away from this is, I don't doubt at all that Iran would be willing to negotiate. But at what terms would they be willing to settle this war? And I think that's where we get into this problem, both in terms of how could we actually achieve this in five days?

Meanwhile, U.S. forces are moving into the region in --

SANCHEZ: Right.

SANNER: -- really higher numbers. And then, what is the distance? And I think the distance in what we're asking for and what Iran is asking for has actually grown.

SANCHEZ: Given the additional resources being deployed to the region and actual manpower, and conversely, Iran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz and the impact that has on energy prices around the world, who has more leverage right now if talks get underway?

SANNER: That's a great question. Leverage is something sometimes in the mind of the beholder, right? And so our definitions of leverage would be probably different. So yesterday, Netanyahu said that President Trump, he spoke to President Trump, and that they were convinced that the United States could use leverage that we have in this war from all of the destruction that we have wrought.

And that is significant, right? But when you are the weaker power and you're fighting this war more like an insurgent than as an equal, maybe you think about leverage in a different way. And the fact is that right now, economically, it looks like the U.S. wants this more than the Iranians do.

SANCHEZ: Wow. SANNER: And that's at least the Iranian interpretation. So that would tell you that they feel that they have more leverage, they're emboldened, and they're going to ask for a lot.

SANCHEZ: There's also the potential for hostilities to intensify in northern Israel, on the border with Lebanon, and in Gaza as well. The IRGC has promised that it's going to target the IDF there. What happens if that takes place? That seems like it would derail any progress toward a ceasefire.

SANNER: Yeah, so we have multiple fronts that are on Israel's periphery, right? So they're in full-scale war with Lebanon. And that war is intensifying. There's talk by some of the more right-wing members of the Israeli government to actually have permanent occupation.

And they're talking about dealing with Lebanon like they dealt with Gaza, which means they're perfectly fine for mass destruction. In the meantime, we have the West Bank and many of us are kind of diverting our eyes from that right now.

The West Bank is exploding. And settlers and other Israeli extremists have conducted at least 10 attacks a day on average there, forcing the Israeli government to move a battalion from the front lines of Lebanon to the West Bank.

And then we still have the war kind of on simmer in Gaza. There is a lot going on. And it's costing a lot of money. It's costing a lot of lives. And there is no let up on those fronts, no matter what happens with Iran.

SANCHEZ: Beth Sanner, appreciate the analysis. Thank you so much for being with us.

We want to show you some live pictures now from the White House. This is President Donald Trump preparing to swear in Oklahoma Senator, Markwayne Mullin as the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Mullin, of course, replacing outgoing Secretary, Kristi Noem. Mullin was confirmed by the Senate by a pretty fair margin.

[14:10:00]

We're going to stay on top of this story and bring you the latest as we get it. Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Breaking News to CNN. Let's go live to an NTSB press conference. Jennifer Homendy is discussing the plane crash at LaGuardia Airport. Let's listen.

JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHAIR, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: -- day, full first day on scene and we have a lot to cover. In fact, we started the morning with a two-hour meeting just to organize our investigative groups and walk through what we needed to accomplish today. Fortunately, the entire NTSB team has arrived. Like I said yesterday, we had significant delays with investigators getting here due to backups of TSA lines and in fact, I understand that this press conference had to move because the lines were actually wrapping around the building. But I do have a lot of investigative information to share today.

First, as I mentioned yesterday, we were able to take possession of the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder. That was at 9:57 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Our investigator, our local investigator had immediately began a trip down to our headquarters in Washington, D.C. to take the CVR and FDR to our labs for downloading and for analysis.

We do have some preliminary information to share from the final three minutes of the -- from the cockpit voice recorder.

[14:15:00]

And again, I just want to say it's preliminary and is subject to change. And for that, I'm going to turn that piece over to Doug Brazy.

DOUG BRAZY, AVIATION ACCIDENT INVESTIGATOR, NTSB: Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. The airplane was equipped with an Acron Aviation Model Survivor 25 cockpit voice recorder and an Acron Aviation Model FA2100 flight data recorder. The cockpit voice recorder contained more than 25 hours of good-quality audio across four separate channels.

The flight data recorder contained approximately 80 hours of data and recorded more than 400 parameters. The NTSB will convene a cockpit voice recorder group scheduled for tomorrow at the NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C. to review the accident flight recording and produce a written transcript.

The following is a summary of events captured on the cockpit voice recorder during the final three minutes of the recording. All times are referenced to the end of the CVR recording. Three minutes and seven seconds prior to the end of the recording, the approach controller instructed the airplane to contact LaGuardia Tower. At two minutes and 45 seconds, the flight crew lowered the landing gear.

At two minutes and 22 seconds, the flight crew checked in with the LaGuardia Tower. At two minutes and 17 seconds, the LaGuardia Tower cleared the airplane to land on Runway 4 and advised that they were number two for landing. At time one minute and 52 seconds, the flight crew set the flaps to 30 degrees.

At one minute and 33 seconds, the flight crew set the flaps to 45 degrees. At one minute and 26 seconds, an electronic 1,000 callout occurred from the enhanced ground proximity warning system indicating that the airplane was 1,000 feet above the ground. At one minute and 12 seconds, the flight crew confirmed that the landing checklist was complete.

At one minute and three seconds, an airport vehicle made a radio transmission to the tower, but that transmission was stepped on by another radio transmission, and the source of who made that transmission has yet to be identified.

At 54 seconds, the flight crew acknowledged that the airplane was 500 feet above the ground and on a stable approach. At 40 seconds, the LaGuardia Tower asked which vehicle needed to cross a runway.

At 28 seconds, truck one made a radio transmission to the tower. At 26 seconds, the tower acknowledged that radio transmission. At 25 seconds, truck one requested to cross Runway 4 at Taxiway Delta.

At 20 seconds, the tower cleared truck one and company to cross Runway 4 at Taxiway Delta. At 19 seconds, an electronic 100 enhanced ground proximity warning system callout occurred. At 17 seconds, truck one read back the runway crossing clearance.

At 14 seconds, an electronic 50 callout. At 12 seconds, an electronic 30 callout. And at that same time, the tower instructed a Frontier Airlines flight to hold position.

At 11 seconds, an electronic 20 callout occurred. And at 10 seconds, an electronic 10 callout occurred. At nine seconds, the tower instructed truck one to stop.

At eight seconds, there was a sound consistent with the airplane's landing gear touching down on the runway. At six seconds, there was a pilot transfer of controls from one pilot to the other. And at four seconds, the tower again instructed truck one to stop.

At zero seconds, the recording ended. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.

[14:20:00]

HOMENDY: Mr. Brazy had mentioned that six seconds before the end of the recording, the pilot transferred controls. We do know that the first officer was flying and transferred control to the captain.

With respect to aircraft rescue and firefighting operations, we will be developing a timeline of events. We do know that they were responding to a United Airlines Flight 2384 at the gate, which had two aborted takeoffs. And the ARF, or the Aircraft Rescue and Firefighters, had received information that there were fumes or smoke or some sort of smell in the cabin. So they were en route to address that.

Truck one, which Mr. Brazy had mentioned, had collided with the aircraft. We do know that there were other vehicles behind truck one, which did not begin to cross the runway. We have seen varying information about how many vehicles, so we need to verify that information and will provide it at a later time.

Truck one, however, did not have a transponder. With respect to air traffic control, we have seen different information about how many certified professional controllers were in the facility. And we need to verify that in -- starting with interviews this afternoon. We'll begin to interview the local controller at 4 o'clock this afternoon.

We do have logs, but there's also conflicting information, including dates and times on the logs. So now, we have to go through that and rectify some of those inconsistencies. We do, however, know that there were two people in the cab, two people in the tower cab at the time of collision, the local controller and the controller in charge. Again, local controller and controller in charge.

For those who may be watching and aren't familiar with aviation, the local controller manages active runways and the immediate airspace surrounding the airport. That local controller had signed on at 10:45, and the shift would have ended at 6.45 a.m. That doesn't mean that he was in position at 10:45, but that he had just signed in at 10:45 p.m.

The controller in charge is responsible for safety of operations, all safety of operations. He had clocked in or signed in at 10:30 p.m., and that shift would have ended at 6:30 a.m. Again, that was signing in at 10:30 p.m.

The controller in charge was also doing the duties of the clearance delivery position. The clearance delivery controller provides pilots with their departure clearance. It is not clear who was conducting the duties of the ground controller.

We have conflicting information. We have some information saying it was the controller in charge. We have some information saying it was the local controller.

The ground controller duties are that they manage all aircraft and vehicle movements on the taxiways, and that generally excludes active runways. So these two positions were combined into two positions. And what we do know is that that is in the standard operating procedures for LaGuardia.

It's for the midnight shift. It's also common practice across the national airspace, where you would have two controllers in the tower cab during the midnight shift. The midnight shift, as a reminder, is one that we have many times at the NTSB raised concerns about with respect to fatigue.

Again, I do not know. We do have no indication that was a factor here. But it is a shift that we have been focused on in past investigations.

Now, we also know, as I had mentioned yesterday, that LaGuardia has ASDE-X. ASDE-X is a runway safety system which allows air traffic controllers to track surface movement of aircraft and vehicles. Yesterday, I mentioned that we requested from FAA the ASDE replay of the event. That is a replay of the display of information that would have been available in the tower cab.

[14:25:00]

We also asked the tech center for the analysis of ASDE. Their analysis shows that the ASDE-X system did not alert. The analysis, and I'm going to quote the analysis here. I will repeat it a second time. ASDE-X did not generate an alert due to the close proximity of vehicles merging and unmerging near the runway, resulting in the inability to create a track of high confidence. Again, the analysis is, quote, "ASDE-X did not generate an alert due to the close proximity of vehicles merging and unmerging near the runway, resulting in the inability to create a track of high confidence." Now, I saw the replay and there were two targets, so radar, because there's no transponder, you have radar. So two targets with radar returns on Taxiway Delta.

What it looks like on a replay are two blobs on Taxiway Delta. We also don't see any of them go in front of the plane, on the runway. We do also know from the replay that the runway status lights were functioning according to the replay and -- but we still have to verify that with tech ops from the FAA.

Now, I do want to address one thing which is reports of distraction. I have seen a number of reports from press about distraction, whether there was distraction among controllers. Look, this is -- I would caution pointing fingers at controllers and saying distraction was involved. This is a heavy workload environment.

You had a United Airlines flight. We still have to determine what happened at shift change which was around 10:30. We have to determine who else was in the tower and the facility and available at the time. We know that that controller was still on duty for several minutes afterwards.

Normally, they would be relieved. We have questions about that. Was anybody available to relieve that controller? We don't know that yet. We also have questions about what else was occurring. What other traffic they were dealing with at the time.

So one thing I will close with before I take questions is we rarely, if ever, investigate a major accident where it was one failure. Our aviation system is incredibly safe because there are multiple, multiple layers of defense built in to prevent an accident. So when something goes wrong, that means many, many things went wrong. And so here, that's why we're here.

We're here to prevent this from reoccurring, prevent this from happening again. And that's going to take some time. So with that, I will take questions. I ask that you raise your hand, state your name and your affiliation.

MUNTEAN: (Inaudible). What would you say now that you know positions were combined in the control tower cab on Sunday night? Is that a safe practice? And does it make you upset that the positions were combined?

HOMENDY: So there's a little bit of a difference. The question is on combining positions because we saw the combining of positions in the midair collision that occurred near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport about a year ago.

Our understanding right now, and again, this is preliminary and subject to change. Our understanding is that in the DCA midair, there were procedures followed, a list like traffic volume, staffing available, training, workload, that was considered in order to combine positions like the helicopter position and the local control position in DCA.

In this situation, for the midnight shift, it is standard operating procedure that they only have two on duty and those two performed the duties of other controllers. That is our understanding right now. However, we're going to further dig into that as part of our investigation.

Certainly, I can tell you that our air traffic control team has stated this is a problem, that this is a concern for them for years, that they have had this concern for quite a long time. I can understand it's a concern, especially if there's a heavy workload.

MUNTEAN: The ASDE-X did not work and during the near collision --