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The Situation Room

Investigation Underway After Deadly Miami Cargo Plane Crash; Trump Administration Renews Appeal to Supreme Court to Redistrict Mail Voting; Hawaii Under State of Emergency as Category 3 Hurricane Nears. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 07, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, on the scene, investigators are trying to find out what caused this Amazon cargo plane to overshoot the runway. Five people are dead. The new reporting coming in to The Situation Room.

Plus, campaign confrontation. An armed man is under arrest this morning after pushing through a crowd toward an Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee, and what we're learning about the suspect's past coming up.

Also, invisible injuries in the Coast Guard. They lost a husband and a father. Now, one family's search for answers converges with a groundbreaking discovery about brain injuries in the military.

And how young is too young? Intense debate this morning over this Virginia mother now charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor after letting her five-year-old walk to a neighborhood pond alone. Kerry Anne Parkinson is my guest coming up.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Pamela Brown. Wolf Blitzer is off today, and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin this morning in Miami where there are new details and new images of the deadly Amazon cargo plane crash that killed five people and injured five others yesterday afternoon. Take a look at this witness video.

Which captured, as you see, the moment the plane raced off the runway, crashing into cars and erupting into flames.

In this video posted on social media, you can see the moments just before impact as the plane was going nearly 130 miles an hour when it left the runway, according to flight data. We're also hearing from some of the fire and rescue units first on the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guys, the plane's on fire, plane's on fire. Put your game faces on.

This aircraft overrun the runway. It crossed 67th Avenue. It struck a truck. We do have a patient on the ground. We're looking and surveying the f- area for more patients.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be advised we have three patients, appears to be two black, two black. We have two black and one red. Make this an MCI. We're out of water. Got to back up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: CNN is learning two of the four runways at Miami International Airport are closed today as investigators try to piece together why this deadly crash happened.

I want to bring in CNN's Pete Muntean. What is the latest with this investigation, Pete?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, investigators still assembling on the scene here. Many of them arrived after midnight last night here in Miami after launching a go team from NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C. They really have their work cut out for them here as they try to piece this together, this attempted landing that clearly went wrong.

What is so interesting here is the layout of this scene. I am just north of where this crash took place. This is 67th Avenue Northwest behind me. Runway 3, 0 where this plane was attempting to land, the end of the runway, essentially going left to right here. The plane kept going off of the end of the runway, through four lanes of traffic here, then ultimately coming to rest behind this Amazon warehouse and logistics center in the parking lot here. The plane, still visible there with its tail in the air, and the latest from fire officials here in Miami is that this is still an active scene.

We will hear later this afternoon from NTSB board chair, Jennifer Homendy. She will brief the media sometime later today, the NTSB tells us, as the preliminary data keeps coming in, and the NTSB, of course, will want to look at some of these videos that have been posted online, one of them very, very telling. It shows this Boeing 767 still somewhat airborne as it passed way down the runway.

The two-thirds point is where the airport radar and firehouse is visible. You see the airplane with its left main landing wheels still somewhat airborne. That would typically be the point that an airplane like this would be clearing the runway and taxiing to where it needed to go.

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There's a large ramp here for cargo planes here at Miami International Airport.

Also, the preliminary data available from open source sites, like Flightradar24 and ADSBExchange, paints a very interesting picture here, that this plane at the halfway point of the runway, still going about 200 miles per hour, still would be way too fast. Typically, about half the speed is what an airplane would be going there as it was decelerating on the runway here. And then as you mentioned, still going 130 miles an hour as this airplane ended up going off the end of the runway.

This airplane is branded as an Amazon Air flight, although it is operated by a contractor. Amazon uses only third-party contractors to operate its planes. 21 Air is the company that operated this plane. Its CEO, Keith Winters, has released a statement saying they'll fully comply with this investigation. Pamela?

BROWN: So, tell us more about whether there's a system in place there that could assist with preventing incidents like this, Pete.

MUNTEAN: The FAA has promoted this system called EMAS, Engineered Materials Arresting System. It's at about 70 airports nationwide. I've actually been to the FAA test facility where they came up with this idea in Atlantic City. This airport does not have it, even though there is so much development here clearly off the end of runway 3, 0 at Miami International Airport.

It's a bed of crushable cement, that as the wheels of the airplane go into it, it sinks into it using something called resistive drag. That's the property, the theory that causes the airplane to slow down. Clearly, if it was in place here, maybe this would've been totally different, that system designed specifically to prevent incidents like this.

BROWN: Pete Muntean, thank you so much for bringing us the latest there, very sad.

And happening now, with just two months until the midterm elections, President Trump is renewing his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to restrict mail-in voting, asking the court to allow new post office rules to go into effect, even as ballots in North Carolina are already on their way out to voters, and Alabama is set to mail out ballots this week.

So, let's go live now to CNN Senior White House Reporter Betsy Klein at the White House for us. Betsy, this decision could have a major impact on how voters cast their ballots, right?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: It certainly could, and it comes as we are seeing mail-in voting become increasingly popular. Nearly 50 million Americans cast their vote by mail in the 2024 election. Most of those, according to Pew Research, voted for Democrats. But President Trump has spent years making unsubstantiated claims about illegal mail-in voting, and he has really spent part of his second term prioritizing mail-in voting and targeting that. He signed an executive order back in March that really lays out new mail- in voting requirements.

What this does is give the U.S. Postal Service sweeping new powers to withhold delivery of mail-in ballots. It requires state and local officials to upload lists of mail voters to portals. It also requires special barcodes on envelopes for tracking. Not surprisingly, this immediately hit legal challenges from dozens of states. The Supreme Court is now considering an emergency appeal that would allow the U.S. Postal Service to implement this rule with just 57 days to go before the midterm election. And some election officials are warning that it is too late to implement this.

The Trump administration arguing for the urgency here, they say that ballots have already gone out in North Carolina, as you mentioned. Other states will soon follow. And they write in this emergency filing over the weekend, quote, once those ballot envelopes enter the mailstream, there is no retrieving them. And while the injunction allows the Postal Service and the states to continue taking steps to ensure that their envelopes satisfy the rule's requirements, each day the injunction is in place risks sowing confusion and chaos because the injunction makes those preparatory steps voluntary rather than mandatory.

Now, the states and voting rights groups involved in this challenge have until Wednesday to respond. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. I want to ask you about something else, Betsy, because President Trump is suggesting now that New Mexico should be renamed, quote, New America. What more can you tell us about that?

KLEIN: Yes, just the latest example of President Trump using social media to rename a geographic location. We saw this as he issued that executive order last year renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, and then a couple of weeks ago, he renamed Lake Ontario Lake America.

Now, the president does have the authority to rename geographic landmarks like this. He does not, however, have the constitutional ability to legally rename a state. So, what happens next? President Trump doesn't get to decide. Only New Mexico can. Pam?

BROWN: All right. Betsy Klein, thank you much.

Still ahead, CNN is on the ground at the Nepali-Chinese border, getting unprecedented access of what's left of the crossing after deadly flooding.

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And it's the story igniting a parenting debate across the country. A Virginia mom is convicted after letting her five-year-old walk to a pond alone in their gated community. She'll join us in about 30 minutes to tell her story and what she's facing now.

You're in The Situation Room, and we'll be right back.

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BROWN: Happening now, a state of emergency is issued for Hawaii this morning as Hurricane Lowell, a Category 3 storm, is barreling toward the islands. It is the third storm in just over three weeks to target Hawaii. [10:15:03]

So, let's go live now to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam. Derek, hurricane and tropical storm warnings are in effect for some of the Hawaiian Islands. Who is at risk here?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's a significant update because just overnight as the track shifted a little further east, it gets the threats closer to Kauai County. That's where the hurricane warnings are.

Let me show you what it looks like inside of the hurricane. This is new video from the hurricane hunters, the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron. That is a stadium effect, a textbook. You can see all the way up to blue sky overhead. That's the center, the most powerful part of the storm, of course, right along the periphery of the center of the eye wall. That's what they were flying in just a few minutes ago.

Notice that movement, northeast. The fact that it's got an easterly trajectory is concerning for me. Let me show you why. Because the computer models, which were several hundred miles off the western islands of Hawaii, have now brought it closer and closer, and that subtle change is now increasing the risk of tropical storm force winds for the outer westernmost islands of Hawaii, including Kauai. But those high elevations can also increase the risk of hurricane force gusts. It's already raining across that area. Unfortunately, the Kauai airport or whether the Kauai radar is currently down.

But this is forecast to remain a hurricane, at least a category two, as it makes its closest approach tonight and into early Tuesday morning. 175 miles, that's what separates the outer edges of tropical storm force winds and the center of the storm. Hurricane force winds extend over 60 miles from the center. That means the closer and the further it shifts eastward, the more direct impacts we will feel over the western portions of Hawaii.

It's not just Kauai. We're talking about Oahu, Maui, and into the big islands, getting significant rainfall totals. Pamela, we could see over a foot of rain in many of these locations. Flash flooding and mudslides are a risk.

BROWN: We'll keep tracking. Derek Van Dam, thank you. You got it.

And happening now, officials in Nepal say the death toll from last month's catastrophic flooding has risen to 1,355, and nearly 5,000 are still missing.

CNN has been granted unprecedented access and was taken by Chinese officials to see firsthand what is left of the Gyirong Port. That's the crossing at the China-Nepal border.

CNN's Simone McCarthy is on the ground there and filed this report.

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SIMONE MCCARTHY, CNN SENIOR CHINA REPORTER: So, we're walking into the main hard-hit port area. Now, I mean, even just some of the ground here is incredibly unstable. It's like -- it feels like it's almost hollow underneath. You can see there's quite large rocks here. There's also excavation going on behind us. A number of workers are actively in the midst of some of the, the response and repairs here. We've been told as well as we were walking over that there are the risk of loose rocks.

I'm standing in the location that was once a five-storey border checkpoint. This used to be a bustling hub of transit between Nepal and China with travelers, travel agents, people involved in trade coming over that border, moving through what was once a huge building here. This is the spot where a huge wall of water washed over a five- storey building in video that was captured on surveillance footage on August 26th when devastating floods and landslide hit the China-Nepal border.

I'm standing now in the area where that building was. This is Gyirong Port in Tibet where CNN is part of a small group of foreign reporters who've been given access to this site, the first time that foreign media have been allowed entry. And now to see what the impact of that was here where there's just -- I mean, you would never know that there had been anything here at all.

There's actually a sign which is indicating that this was a foundation. You can still see some rebar, but that's really the only thing that remains. There have been no survivors found in this location. And right now, the rescue teams are just contending with this heavy, heavy mud. The road that we took to get in here was actually layered in some places with five feet of mud. It took the better part of a week for emergency workers to be able to enter via road.

One of the other things that we can notice is that the floodwaters actually reached so high up onto the mountain. So, you can see some of the greenery has actually been scraped away there as a result of just how high those floodwaters came as they barreled through this area. We asked one of the responders how long he thought the operations would continue, and he wasn't able to give an answer.

They've put up a Chinese flag to memorialize what was here, but there's just absolutely nothing left. This area has also been a focal point for families who are desperate for information about what happened to loved ones that they believe were at this border crossing at the time when that landslide and flooding hit this area.

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They're still waiting for answers. The government has yet to publish publicly a list of who was at the border crossing at the time.

Families are really desperate for more information about what happened here. And looking around, it's -- you can see that there's no answers immediately visible.

Simone McCarthy, CNN, Gyirong Port.

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BROWN: All right. Simone McCarthy, thank you. And you can help those impacted by the floods by going to cnn.com/impact.

And coming up, an Illinois mother is accused of killing her two-year- old son. Questions now surround text messages before the incident. CNN's Whitney Wild is live in Chicago for us with this story. Whitney?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, coming up, Pam, we'll tell you what police say she told them about why she carried out this crime, and then we will also tell you what a neighbor saw horrifically as she walked into that home.

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BROWN: Well, new this morning, an Illinois mother is set to appear in court tomorrow on a first-degree murder charge in connection with the death of her two-year-old son. Court documents say Corie Walsh became very invested with the Lindsay Clancy trial and was texting her friends about it just before her toddler's death. Her attorney says the mother of four was experiencing a mental health crisis.

Let's go live now to CNN Law Enforcement Correspondent Whitney Wild in Chicago. Whitney, these details are so disturbing. What are you learning from investigators?

BROWN: Well, Pamela, it's the timeline here that I think has investigators fixated on the role that the Lindsay Clancy trial may have played in this tragedy.

So what we know, according to police, is that she was on a group -- the mother, Corie Walsh, was on a group text with her friends about the Lindsay Clancy trial up until 12:30 Tuesday. By 4:00, police were responding to a report of an unresponsive toddler. A neighbor went inside the home and found two-year-old Barrett Walsh hanging from a rafter. That neighbor tried to bring the two-year-old down, tried to perform CPR, tried to save that toddler's life, but tragically, that toddler was pronounced dead about an hour later at a hospital nearby.

That neighbor also found Corie Walsh in an upstairs bathroom actively trying to harm herself. So, the neighbor grabbed the knife, threw it into the sink, and as police arrived, they found the neighbor pushing a towel against Corie Walsh's thighs. Law enforcement finding Corie Walsh basically covered in blood in a bathtub.

They say that after this incident, she told them that she did this because two-year-old Barrett was the devil and was the Anti-Christ, and also gave them information about this crime that they say was consistent with the evidence that they themselves witnessed as they went inside that home.

At the time of this tragedy, there was a baby inside that home, and then horrifically, Pamela, two school-aged children came home around the time Barrett Walsh was found. Corie Walsh's husband was not in town at the time. He was traveling. He flew home. She is now in custody.

Law enforcement is trying to keep her in custody because they say that following this incident, she also made comments about harming her other children and harming her husband. As you mentioned, she has a court date tomorrow.

Her attorney says that this is clearly a psychotic episode. Here's the statement from her attorney, Andrea Lyon. She says, this is a tragedy for the Walsh family, all of whom are mourning the loss of this child. It is also a tragedy that Corie herself was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time this happened. It is our hope that through a thorough presentation and investigation of the facts that all of us will come to see this heartbreak for what it is.

Again, that is Corie Walsh's attorney. Law enforcement saying plainly, Pamela, this is first-degree murder. Back to you.

BROWN: Whitney Wild, thank you.

And help is available. If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health, just call or text 988.

And coming up, new details about the armed suspect accused of lunging at the Democratic nominee for Ohio governor during a rally.

We'll be right back. Stay with us.

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