- CF: The Frank
- Posts
- šµ DC Airport Incidents
šµ DC Airport Incidents
Citizen Frank
January 31, 2025
Good evening. Itās Thursday, January 30.
On Tuesday night, just 24 hours before a deadly collision between a military helicopter and a regional jet at Reagan National Airport, a different passenger jet coming in for a landing at the airport alerted the tower it had to abort. The reason: risk of possible collision with a helicopter.
A similar situation played out less than a week earlier, on Jan. 23, when a flight from Charlotte suddenly pulled out of its approach at National. The captain informed passengers that he was tracking a helicopter and needed to abort the landing.
āThey had to circle back around because there was a helicopter in the flight path,ā Richard Hart, a passenger returning from a business trip, recalled the pilot announcing. āAt the time I found it odd. ā¦ Now I find it disturbingly tragic.ā
At least six senior FBI leaders have been ordered to retire, resign or be fired by Monday, according to sources briefed on the matter, extending a purge that began last week at the Justice Department across the street from the FBI headquarters.
The senior officials are at the executive assistant director level or special agent in charge level and include those who oversee cyber, national security and criminal investigations, the sources told CNN. Some were notified while Kash Patel, President Donald Trumpās pick to lead the agency, sat answering questions from senators for his confirmation hearing Thursday.
Trump transition officials in recent months have signaled plans to push aside leaders promoted by former FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The Ukrainian news outlet Strana has published leaked details of President Trumpās alleged plan to end the war in Ukraine in 100 days.
According to Newsweek, which said it couldnāt verify if the details were accurate, the plan starts with holding a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in late January or early February, followed by meetings with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February or March.
The leaked plan calls for a ceasefire to be declared by Easter, which falls on April 20. The truce would involve Ukraine withdrawing troops from Russiaās Kursk Oblast.
Eight more hostages were freed from the Gaza Strip by Hamas-led militants on Thursday in a sometimes chaotic process that briefly delayed Israelās release of 110 Palestinian prisoners and underscored the fragility of the ceasefire that began earlier this month.
The exchange of hostages for prisoners is a key part of a ceasefire agreement aimed at ending the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas. Fifteen hostages and hundreds of prisoners have been released so far, and militants still hold dozens more hostages abducted in their Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.
Also on Thursday, Hamas confirmed the death of Mohammed Deif, head of its military wing and one of the alleged masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack. Israel said six months ago he was killed in an airstrike in Gaza.
The disturbing rise in near misses at our nationās airports is no accident. A class-action lawsuit by the Mountain States Legal Foundation has amassed a trove of documents shedding new light on an Obama-era Federal Aviation Administration initiative that rejected prospective air traffic controllers based solely on their race.
A 2013 FAA document, āController Hiring by the Numbers,ā raised the issue in stark terms, asking, āHow much of a change in job performance is acceptable to achieve what diversity goals?ā
When failure is measured in human blood, the answer should have been none.
Former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday evening to serve as the next Department of the Interior secretary.
His confirmation passed in a 79-18 vote in the Senate chamber.
Burgum ran in the 2024 Republican primary, dropping out of the race ahead of Iowaās caucuses.
Friends of Melania Trump have their claws out for Anna Wintourās āCondĆ© Nasty,ā they say, after Vogue dissed the first lady with a scathing fashion op-ed.
Bill White ā a friend of Melania, as well as Donald Trumpās nominee for US Ambassador to Belgium ā said of the first lady, āWe love and adore her. We have cancelled all our subscriptions to CondĆ© NASTY. I encourage everyone who loves America to do the same.ā
CondĆ© Nastās fashion bible, Vogue, sneered of Trumpās official White House pic, āTrump looked more like she was guest starring on an episode of āThe Apprenticeā than assuming the role of first lady of the United States,ā and, āmore like a freelance magician than a public servant.ā Ouch!
An Iraqi man who triggered violent international protests when he burned a Quran in Stockholm in 2023 has been shot dead in Sweden, a killing the countryās prime minister suggested could be linked to a foreign power.
Salwan Momika, a 38-year-old refugee and anti-Islam activist, was attacked in his apartment late on Wednesday. The killing appears to have happened while he was livestreaming on TikTok.
It is unclear whether his death was captured on camera, but a viewer of the stream was alarmed enough to alert the police, according to a person familiar with the events. In a video circulating online, a person who appears to be a Swedish police officer turns off the stream after Momikaās death.
Reply