Tributes pour in as more plane crash victims are identified: ‘My heart is breaking’
Family and friends of those who lost their lives in the deadly American Airlines and Army helicopter collision are sharing tributes online as they wait for more answers about how this tragedy happened.
The midair crash occurred around 9 p.m. Wednesday, when an Army helicopter and an American Airlines plane collided near Reagan National Airport outside of Washington, D.C. All 67 people onboard both aircraft are presumed dead.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves confirmed on X Tuesday night one of the Army pilots who died in the wreck was Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves, a Brooksville native.
His wife, Carrie, also shared a message on Facebook about his death.
REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT CRASH: MILITARY BLACK HAWK HELICOPTER COLLIDES MIDAIR WITH AMERICAN AIRLINES JET
She asked for peace as all the victims’ families continue to grieve, and for the public to “refrain [from] negative comments on social media as these families’ children do not need to suffer more pain.”
“I am sure by now all of you have heard the news of the tragedy that has occurred in DC,” Carrie Eaves wrote on Facebook. “My husband was one of the pilots in the Black Hawk. We ask that you pray for our family and friends and for all the other families that are suffering today.”
She later shared another post, asking for friends to post photos of her late husband in the comment section.
“Let’s celebrate our loving memories,” she wrote.
Gov. Reeves noted he and his wife, Elee, are “praying for the victims’ families and first responders who are assisting.”
Tim Lilley identified his son, 28-year-old Sam Lilley, as first officer on American Airlines flight 5342.
“I was so proud when Sam became a pilot. Now it hurts so bad I can’t even cry myself to sleep. I know I’ll see him again, but my heart is breaking,” Tim Lilley wrote in a Facebook post. “Sam was the First Officer on the flight that crashed in DC last night. He was doing great in his career and his personal life. He was engaged to get married in the fall.”
“It is so devastating to lose someone that is loved so much,” he added.
Scott Hubbard Jr., a friend and former colleague of Sam Lilley, wrote on Facebook: “I had the honor to help welcome him to one of his first flying jobs at SkyLens as the outgoing chief pilot due to starting my career at the airline. He was a phenomenal pilot. I never got to fly with him at the airlines as I changed companies but I was so proud to know him and consider him friend. My heart is heavy for his family and fiancé.”
“You left an everlasting impact on us all and we are grateful for you,” he added. “Blue Skies brother. And my condolences are with all the other crew members, the passengers, and military service members in the helicopter. This is a sad day.”
A flight attendant on board the flight has been identified as Ian Epstein.
“It is with a very heavy heart and extreme sadness that myself along with our children Hannah Epstein and Joanna Epstein and his sister Robbie Epstein Bloom and her husband Steven Bloom and nieces Andi and Dani inform you that Ian Epstein was one of the flight attendants on American Airlines Flight 5342 that collided last night when they were landing in DC,” Debi Epstein, Ian’s wife, wrote in a Facebook post. “Please pray for Ian and our family as we travel to DC. We will update when plans are made.”
Fox News Digital was told that Epstein, who grew up in Montreal, Quebec, had also recently become a flight attendant a few years ago, and loved traveling and his job.
“Ian Epstein was full of life. He loved being a flight attendant because he truly enjoyed traveling and meeting new people. But his true love was his family. He was a father, a stepfather, a husband and a brother! He will be truly missed,” Epstein’s family said in a statement sent to Fox News.
DC PLANE CRASH TIMELINE: MIDAIR COLLISION INVOLVES 67 PASSENGERS, CREW MEMBERS, SOLDIERS
American Airlines has not yet confirmed the identities of Lilley or Epstein.
6 WITH TIES TO BOSTON FIGURE SKATING CLUB KILLED IN MIDAIR COLLISION, OFFICIAL SAYS
D.C. fire and EMS chief John A. Donnelly said during a news conference Thursday that he’s confident all of the bodies from the crash will be recovered.
“I’m confident that we will do that,” he told reporters. “It will take us a little bit of time. It may involve some more equipment.”
TRUMP SAYS REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT CRASH COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED: ‘CLEAR NIGHT’
Fox News Digital has learned the identity of another victim on board flight 5342, a mother of two young children, Wendy Shaffer.
“I’m still waiting to wake up from this nightmare, but I fear this is the truth. Wendy was not just beautiful on the outside, but was a truly amazing woman through and through,” Wendy’s husband, Nate Shaffer, shared in a statement with Fox News Digital.
“She was the best wife, mother, and friend that anyone could ever hope for. Her love, kindness, and strength touched everyone she met. We will miss you more than words can express, Wendy Jo. I love you endlessly! Rest in peace, my love.”
Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia announced that multiple victims were former students in the school system.
“Our hearts are heavy as we process the devastating news of last night’s tragic plane crash over the Potomac River involving an American Airlines flight and an Army helicopter. This unimaginable loss has deeply affected our community, and with great sorrow, we have learned that multiple victims were former LCPS students,” the school district said in a release Thursday. “Many other Loudoun families have also been impacted, and we extend our deepest condolences to all those grieving in the wake of this tragedy.”
Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia wrote in a statement on its website that three students and six parents in the district were killed in the crash. Two of those parents were current or former FCPS staff members.
Doug Zeghibe, the CEO of the Skating Club of Boston, said Thursday that six of its members died in the collision last night.
Zeghibe said 14 skaters were returning home from a national development camp in Wichita, Kansas and six of them were members of his organization.
“Our sport and this club have suffered a horrible loss with this tragedy,” Zeghibe said. “Skating is a tight-knit community where parents and kids come together six or seven days a week to train and work together. Everyone is like family. We are devastated and completely at a loss for words.”
Zeghibe identified skaters Jinna Han and Spencer Lane as two of the victims in the crash. Their mothers were also onboard, the Associated Press reported. Lane later posted a photo on his Instagram story with a view from inside the plane before it departed from Wichita.
“Six is a horrific number for us, but we’re fortunate and grateful it wasn’t more than six,” Zeghibe said. “This will have long-reaching impacts for our skating community.
Two of the members were coaches who were former world pair champions and two were teenagers. Mothers of the athletes died as well, he added.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The Kremlin said Thursday that Russian figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who competed in multiple Olympic Games and medaled in multiple world championships, were among those aboard the American Airlines flight.
Fowl Plains hunting club in Great Bend, Kansas, wrote on Facebook that seven clients died in the crash.
“We’ve always said our clients are more than friends,” the group wrote. “They’re family. Last night we lost 7 family members in the horrific plane crash. 7 family members we’ve had the privilege to hunt with the last few years.”
The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada (UA) shared on X that five of its members died in the crash.
“We are heartbroken to confirm the loss of a fifth UA Brother onboard American Airlines Flight 5342 last night. May they all rest in peace,” the organization wrote in a post on X.
Patel turns tables on Dem senator with viral response: ‘You’ve got two minutes’
Conservatives on social media praised Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, after a thorny exchange with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., during his confirmation hearing on Thursday.
“That’s a general statement and a mischaracterization of what I said,” Patel told Klobuchar in response to questioning about a past quote that the senator suggested showed Patel believes some U.S. Capitol Police officers lied under oath during the Jan. 6 hearings.
“I encourage you to read the rest of the interviews,” Patel added. “This is why snippets of information are often misleading and detrimental to this committee’s advice and consent.”
Klobuchar responded, “If you consent, I would love to have five hours of questions, and then I could read the whole transcripts.”
KASH PATEL HAMMERS ‘GROTESQUE MISCHARACTERIZATIONS’ FROM DEMS AMID FIERY FBI CONFIRMATION HEARING
“You’ve got two minutes,” Patel responded.
“Wow,” Klobuchar replied before moving to another topic.
KASH PATEL FLIPS SCRIPT ON DEM SENATOR AFTER BEING GRILLED ON J6 PARDONS: ‘BRUTAL REALITY CHECK’
Numerous conservatives on social media praised Patel for his “sass” during the exchange.
“Amy Klobuchar continues to get outmaneuvered by Kash Patel at every turn of this committee hearing,” Townhall.com columnist Dustin Grage posted on X.
“Damnnnn,” Mark Levin show producer Rich Sementa posted on X. “Kash Patel For The Win.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“SAVAGE,” conservative commentator Benny Johnson posted on X.
“My favorite moment from this hearing,” former Trump campaign fundraiser Caroline Wren posted on X.
Fox News Digital reached out to Klobuchar’s office for comment.
WNBA player who hurt Caitlin Clark calls for league to ‘take action’ against Trump
Connecticut Sun player DiJonai Carrington incited fierce backlash by wearing an anti-Trump shirt last weekend, and now she’s taking that message even further.
During a press conference before an “Unrivaled” league game Thursday, Carrington declared it’s time for WNBA players to “take action” in response to President Donald Trump’s policies.
“We see that some of the policies are already going into action, and, of course, that means that as the WNBA and being at the forefront of a lot of these movements, it’s time for us to also take action,” Carrington said.
“It definitely needs to happen as women, women’s rights being taken away, like, now, LGBTQ rights being taken away now. They haven’t happened yet, but definitely in the works.”
SIGN UP FOR TUBI AND STREAM SUPER BOWL LIX FOR FREE
Carrington wore a shirt that said, “The F— Donald Trump Tour” Friday while walking into Wayfair Arena in Miami, Florida.
The player is most known for her interactions with women’s basketball phenom Caitlin Clark during Clark’s rookie WNBA season in 2024.
Carrington gave Clark a black eye after poking her during a game between Clark’s Indiana Fever and Carrington’s Connecticut Sun in the first round of the playoffs in September. Carrington laughed with Fever teammate Marina Mabrey after the incident.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Carrington has said she didn’t intentionally poke Clark in the eye and that she wasn’t laughing about the incident. However, she made light of the controversy over Clark’s black eye in an Instagram Live video in October.
In the video, Carrington and her girlfriend, NaLyssa Smith, who plays on the Indiana Fever with Clark, were in their kitchen when Smith poked Carrington in the eye.
“Ow, you poked me in the eye,” Carrington said. Smith apologized, and the two laughed.
“Did you do it on purpose?” Carrington asked.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Carrington provoked Clark fans prior to the eye-poking incident with multiple statements berating Clark and her fan base.
During a game in June, Carrington fouled Clark after Clark received an inbound pass from teammate Kristy Wallace. Clark caught the pass and started toward the basket. Carrington was late getting to Clark due to a screen by Aliyah Boston, and she bumped into Clark.
Later that month, Carrington posted on X, saying Clark should do more to speak out about people using her name for “racism” and other forms of prejudice. She also called the Fever fans the “nastiest” in the league.
Top Republican on Senate health committee says he’s ‘struggling’ to confirm RFK Jr
The top Republican on the Senate’s chief health committee, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., indicated Thursday during Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s second confirmation hearing of the week that his vote for Trump’s nominee to head Health and Human Services was not a lock, noting that he was “struggling” to confirm Kennedy over his inability to admit vaccines are safe and don’t cause autism.
Kennedy faced two separate hearings in front of Senate lawmakers this week in his bid to be the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy was probed frequently over his views on vaccines, which have been a sticking point for many senators as they figure out whether to vote in favor of Kennedy’s nomination or not.
RFK JR RIPS DEM SENATOR FOR PUSHING ‘DISHONEST’ NARRATIVE ON PAST VACCINE COMMENTS: ‘CORRECTED IT MANY TIMES’
During the hearings, Kennedy refused to reject claims he has posited publicly in the past that vaccines cause autism and argued he is not anti-vaccine but rather “pro-safety.” Kennedy added during the hearings that his plan as HHS secretary would be to “follow the science,” noting that if the science says he is wrong on vaccines, he will publicly apologize.
But senators, like Cassidy, have suggested during Kennedy’s confirmation hearings that the science says vaccines are safe — and they don’t cause autism.
“My responsibility is to learn, try and determine, if you can be trusted to support the best public health,” Cassidy, a former physician, said during his closing remarks at Kennedy’s Thursday confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). “A worthy movement called ‘MAHA,’” Cassidy continued, “to improve the health of Americans, or to undermine it, always asking for more evidence, and never accepting the evidence that is there … That is why I’ve been struggling with your nomination.”
DOCTOR DEFENDS RFK JR’S VACCINE STANCE: ‘HE’S NOT AGAINST VACCINES’
Cassidy repeatedly asked Kennedy during the Thursday hearing to publicly declare that vaccines don’t cause autism, but he refused. “That would have an incredible impact,” Cassidy said.
“There are issues we are, man, ultra-processed food, obesity, we are simpatico. We are completely aligned,” Cassidy continued during his closing remarks. “And as someone who has discussed immunizations with thousands of people, I understand that mothers want reassurance that the vaccine their child is receiving is necessary, safe and effective. We agree on that point, the two of us, but we’ve approached it differently. And I think I can say that I’ve approached it using the preponderance of evidence to reassure, and you’ve approached it using selective evidence to cast doubt.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Meanwhile, Cassidy pointed out the massive “megaphone” Kennedy has as a descendant of former President John F. Kennedy, and questioned whether he will use his credibility “to support” or “to undermine” the nation’s public health and its confidence in vaccines.
“I got to figure that out, for my vote,” Cassidy said.
Amazon reverses course on Elon Musk’s social media platform after Trump election
Amazon has increased its ad spending on X, which is owned by Elon Musk, more than a year after it removed many of its advertisements from the platform, according to a report.
Other companies like Apple cut some or all of their spending over concerns of rising hate speech after Elon Musk, a confidante of President Donald Trump and head of the Department of Government Efficiency, bought the platform in 2022.
Musk has called himself a “free speech absolutist.”
Apple, which cut all of its spending on X in 2023, is now reevaluating, as are other brands, The Wall Street Journal reported.
STUART VARNEY: AMERICA’S TECH TITANS JUMPED ON THE TRUMP TRAIN
But some companies are returning to the platform with ad buys still much lower than before Musk bought Twitter, which he renamed X, according to the Journal.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and other tech CEOs, like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple head Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, all attended Trump’s inauguration last week, and Amazon, Meta and Apple all donated to Trump’s inaugural committee.
New ad revenue could be crucial for X, which is still struggling after Musk bought it for $44 billion.
“Our user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we’re barely breaking even,” Musk revealed in a letter this month to staff, the Journal reported, adding that Musk has denied sending the email.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Last summer, X filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and GARM members CVS Health, Mars, Orsted and Unilever, alleging an illegal ad boycott of the platform.
FOX Business has reached out to Amazon for comment.
‘Unprecedented’ number of electric vehicles slamming brakes on LA fire cleanup
Highly combustible lithium-ion batteries used in electric and hybrid vehicles are complicating cleanup efforts in the Los Angeles neighborhoods ravaged by wildfire damage.
Phase 1 of the federal cleanup is underway, as surveyors with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) work to remove and dispose of hazardous materials, including lithium-ion batteries found in charred vehicles and decimated homes. The EPA warned that batteries should be considered “extremely dangerous,” even if they are believed to be intact, and “can spontaneously re-ignite, explode, and emit toxic gases and particulates even after the fire is out.”
The Palisades and Eaton fires aftermath is estimated to require the “largest lithium-ion battery pickup, cleanup, that’s ever happened in the history of the world,” EPA incident commander Steve Calanog reportedly told local KNBC. He explained that removing lithium-ion batteries — even those that do not appear damaged — from fire wreckage requires “technical sophistication and care,” as hazardous material crews find and deionize the batteries so they can be crushed or safely shipped for disposal.
“We don’t know the long-term effects of all this exposure, and we haven’t seen this on this large of a scale and this many electric vehicles,” Los Angeles City Fire Capt. Adam VanGerpen told KNBC. “This is an unprecedented amount of electric vehicles with lithium-ion batteries in there.”
LOS ANGELES WILDFIRES: LAWSUIT ALLEGES VIDEO SHOWS WHAT STARTED EATON FIRE
According to the California Energy Commission, more than 99,000 zero-emission vehicles were sold in Los Angeles County in 2024 alone, including battery electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell electric vehicles.
The Tesla models Y, 3 and Cybertruck were the top three selling zero-emission models sold in Los Angeles County last year, according to the commission’s online tally.
Authorities are warning that residual heat poses danger for days, weeks and even months after the initial fires, potentially causing lithium-ion batteries to spontaneously combust.
“With the lithium-ion batteries, even if they look like they are intact they could have damage on the inside, so they continue to off gas and the off-gas from these batteries can be toxic to your health,” VanGerpen said.
Besides in electric and hybrid vehicles, lithium-ion batteries can be found in personal electronics, vaping devices, power tools and home energy storage systems, which have become increasingly popular during California’s power outages.
LOS ANGELES WILDFIRES: CALIFORNIA CITIES VOW TO ‘SHUT DOWN’ EPA’S DUMPING SITE FOR ‘TOXIC’ WASTE
President Donald Trump toured the Palisades Fire burn area on Friday. His executive order issued that same day to provide water resources in California and improve disaster response will allow the EPA “to complete its hazardous materials mission responding to the Los Angeles, California Wildfires as soon as practical,” the EPA said Monday in a statement. “EPA’s work removing hazardous materials is Phase 1 of the federal cleanup response.”
“According to the EPA incident commander, there will be upward of 1,000 people working on Phase 1 cleanup by this weekend,” the statement continued. “This work, conducted at no cost to residents, is a mandatory process to ensure the safety of residents and the workers who will — after the hazardous material is gone — conduct the Phase 2 debris removal in the burn footprints, and to prevent these materials from being released into the environment.”
Phase 2, which begins automatically once Phase 1 is complete, will involve debris removal and will be coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“Under President Trump’s leadership, EPA is doing everything within our power to expedite cleanup of hazardous debris and to help provide Californians safer access to their property as soon as possible,” EPA Acting Deputy Administrator Chad McIntosh said in a statement. “With President Trump’s Executive Order, he has authorized a whole of government response to the catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles — an effort that has never been seen before. EPA is working with local, state and federal partners in addition to the private sector to aid in California’s recovery.”