Two airport employees have been charged after allegedly leaking to CNN video footage of last week’s fatal plane and helicopter crash in Washington, D.C.
The two videos aired by CNN on Friday offered the clearest views of the Jan. 29 collision over the Potomac River that killed 67 people.
American Airlines Flight 5342 is seen descending into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport as the Army Black Hawk helicopter travels straight into it, creating an explosion in the sky.
The control tower at Reagan National Airport is seen after an American Airlines plane collided with a military Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River last week. Al Drago via Getty Images
Lamine Mbengue, 21, of Rockville, Maryland, was arrested Friday and charged with computer trespass for “making an unauthorized copy of Airports Authority records,” a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said in a statement.
He was booked into the Arlington County Adult Detention Center and released on his own recognizance.
Jonathan Savoy, 45, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, also was charged Sunday with computer trespass. He was released on a summons by the magistrate.
Neither had an attorney listed as representing them. A spokesperson declined to say whether Mbengue and Savoy remain employed.
Salvage crews began removing some of the crash wreckage from the Potomac on Monday, recovering an engine and pieces of the plane’s fuselage.
Work to recover the helicopter’s remains will begin once the airplane has been recovered, said the National Transportation Safety Board, which is overseeing the investigation.
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