Two airport employees have been arrested after police say they illegally obtained footage of the collision between an American Airlines jet and a Black Hawk helicopter last week in Washington, D.C. and gave it to the media.
Employees Mohamed Lamine Mbengue, 21, and Jonathan Savoy, 45, were arrested and charged with computer trespass after allegedly making unauthorized copies of the footage, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police said.
ABC News reports the arrests were made in connection with exclusive footage aired by CNN. The footage showed the jet and helicopter colliding mid-air before exploding into flames and falling into the Potomac River.
Mbengue was charged with the misdemeanor Friday, the same day CNN aired the exclusive surveillance footage, and later released on his own recognizance from the Arlington County Adult Detention Center. Savoy was then charged Sunday and released on a summons by the magistrate assigned to the case, police said.
The Independent has contacted CNN for comment.
All 67 people aboard the two aircraft died in the Wednesday night collision, officials said. Crews have recovered and identified at least 55 bodies while searching the Potomac River. The crash marked the deadliest U.S. air disaster in nearly 25 years.
On Monday, crews from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began using large cranes to remove the wreckage of the jet.
All five people involved in piloting both aircraft were identified last week. Captain Jonathan Campos, 34, and First Officer Sam Lilley, 28, were piloting the American Airlines jet. Meanwhile, Staff Sgt. Ryan O’Hara, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves and Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach were manning the Black Hawk.
Other victims onboard the American Airlines jet included two teenage figure skaters and their mothers, a mother of two from Charlotte, and a civil rights attorney.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation. Crews found two black boxes from the American Airlines jet and a third from the Black Hawk helicopter late last week and are working to process the data.
Now, preliminary flight data from the recorder inside the jet suggests it was cruising at about 325ft, with a 25ft margin of error on either side, when it collided with the Black Hawk, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. However, air traffic control data showed the Army helicopter at 200ft during the collision.
This discrepancy of roughly 100ft has not yet been explained.
President Donald Trump spoke about the crash last week, blaming the deadly incident on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in government while providing no evidence for his claim.
When later asked if he would visit the site of the crash, the president responded: “I have a plan to visit, not the site. Because you tell me, what’s the site? The water? You want me to go swimming?”
