Welcome to the beat. I'm Ari Melburgh. We are following a lot of news tonight, including these hearings for two very significant cabinet picks.

So we have a full breakdown and some special guests on that coming up. Our top story is a tragedy unfolding in Washington that affects the whole country, this aviation disaster that has left 67 people dead.

A Black Hawk helicopter colliding with American Airlines flight

5342. 64 people were on the plane. Three people were on the helicopter. Officials are saying

both aircraft were on normal flight paths at the time of this horrific collision.

NTSB officials giving this update earlier today.

We have not recovered the flight data recorders yet.

We know they're there.

They are underwater. This is not unusual for the NTSB.

We have many times recovered flight data recorders in water.

That's what we're learning. The collision was captured on camera and this is one of these

terrible moments. Again, we always give caution. If you don't want to watch it, it'll be up on

screen for a moment. But as soon as it occurred, it was on all newscasts last night.

It was on the Internet.

People could see this collision.

This was 9 p.m. last night, the two red circles.

Get closer until that flash.

We also have the air traffic control audio.

That's your day in sight.

That's two five. That's is a crash, crash. Crash.

I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone.

So I haven't seen anything since they hit the river.

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