Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Too night.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Michael Brown joins me here the former FEMA director talk
show host Michael Brown.
Speaker 3 (00:04):
Brownie, no Brownie, You're doing a heck of a job
the Weekend with Michael Brown.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey broadcasting life from Denver, Colorado. You're listening to the
Weekend with Michael Brown. So happy to have you joining
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(00:50):
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Speaker 2 (00:56):
At Michael Brown USA.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
So the world explode this week because it was announced
that GETMO Guantanamo Bay was going to be used to
house illegal aliens, and everybody went ballistic. Well it's not
new on let's see, would have been about two maybe
(01:20):
three days ago.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
The President said this, Yeah, we may have.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Tough talk from others, but it's not going to mean anything.
They're going to all take them back and they're going
to like it too. They're going to like it. They're
going to take it back, and they're going to like it. Today,
I'm also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments
of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the thirty
thousand person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Most people don't even know about it.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
We have thirty thousand beds in Guantanamo to detain the
worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some of
them are so bad we don't even trust the countries
to hold them because we don't want them coming back.
So we're going to send them out to Guantanamo. This
will double our capacity immediately, right and tough. That's a
(02:06):
tough that's a tough place to get out of today's
signings bring us one step closer to eradicating the scorch
of mon.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Anyway, so you get the point he's going to open
up Gimo. Now, I would imagine, in fact, maybe you
think that, oh, Gimo was just where we house Clay
uh Shake, Mohammed ks N, one of the nine eleven masterminds,
and some of the other nine to eleven, and some
of the enemy combatants from the Afghan and the Iraqi wars. No,
(02:35):
actually it's it's a naval base. Yes, there is a
prison on it where we house some of these enemy combatants,
but it's the big, big as naval base, and it's
a naval base that can handle tens of thousands of people. Now,
keep the number that Trump mentioned, thirty thousand in mind,
(02:56):
because I want you to compare that in a minute
to something else. Pete Hegsath, Secretary of Defense, points out that, yeah,
it's long been a place for migrants.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
So we actually can accommodate thirty thousand criminal migrants at Gitmo.
Absolutely we can, and we can plus that up very rapidly.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
As you mentioned, I served there.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
I know exactly the places where this would happen Guantanamo
has long been a place for migrants. In fact, in
the nineties, tens of thousands of Haitian and Cuban migrants
staged there.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
As part of a crisis.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
We have an even bigger crisis on our hands right now.
It was mentioned seventy five hundred violent illegals have been
captured by Ice in the last nine days.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
God bless them. Where do you move them?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
I'll tell you what we're going to No one's going
to be waiting on the Defense Department.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
We're going to lean forward.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
We've made sure that we are staging on the border
to protect it, that we've got great tails, which are
known as military aircraft to help mass deportations, and Guantanamo Bay,
Jesse is a perfect spot. We don't want illegal criminals
in the United States any not a minute longer than
they have to be. Move them off to Guantanamo Bay
where they can be safely maintained until they are deported
(04:08):
to their final location, their country of origin. There where
they are headed.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
So we feel great about this plan.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
We know we can execute it, and the Defense Department's
prepared to do everything we can. We just lawed DHS
and ICE for what they've done, and we're coming alongside
them to make sure we protect the American people.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Hmmm, so it's already equipped to do that. Let's go
over to MSNBC because the MSNBC, their heads are exploding
over the idea that Donald Trump, that sob Donald Trump
would dare to send illegal aliens to Gimo Pal.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
My friend, necessary conversations. Let's get straight to it. Wantanamo
Bay a place that you and I know well having
been in Miami and in Florida. Maybe a lot of
people don't.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Wait minute, you know it well because you been in Miami,
uh Sweed, Gitmos in Cuba. Now, maybe you've been in
Little Havana. Maybe you've been in Little Cuba in Miami.
But I don't think being in Miami means that you
understand everything about GIPMO.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
No, there's the military facility, but then they also have
a separate detention facility for migrants. And listen, the military
facility they keep the detainees after the sub September eleventh,
two thousand and one terrorist attacks. But we're hearing and
we know the vice president of the National Immigration Law
Center saying, report upon report of conditions in those detention
(05:39):
facilities that don't provide basic health care, they shackle women
when pregnant, and they haven't had protections for communicable diseases
such as COVID. I mean, Paula, the continued the humanization
of migrants is the goal here, right, That's exactly right.
Speaker 6 (05:55):
I think the first thing that comes to mind when
you mentioned one dynamo, when you mentioned the report is
war on terror. And that is precisely the point. That
is what Donald Trump wants us to think about. Look.
I think if you take a step back and you
look at all of these images that we have them
bombarded with just this week, Katie. Now you see the
ice rays, you see troops to point to the border,
You see the images of military planes carrying migrants, and
(06:18):
now the image of one down on Obay. The point
is precisely to get this country to believe that we
are entering, you know, this new chapter on the war
on Terror. And it makes sense for.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
How many of you have equated the deportation and repatriation
of illegal aliens back to their home countries. How many
of you have equated that to the war on terror.
The only time I've ever made it any sort of
correlation or connection between illegal aliens, and the war on
(06:53):
terror is when we find out that people that are
on the terrorists watch list have maybe illegally across the border,
but that's them coming into the country. I've never once
thought about, oh, well, once we find that person, what
are we going to do with them?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
And is that part of the world terror.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
No.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I think that's part of getting rid of the criminal
elements out of this country. But they want you to
equate that.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
This is a war on terror. We're going to terrorize
these illegal aliens and we're going to take them to
get moan.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
We're going to shackle them up just like we did
KSN and they maybe we'll just water board them for
the fun of it. MISNBC is backcrap crazy over.
Speaker 6 (07:34):
A year, and you and I have been talking about
this for so long. For over a year, Donald Trump
made millions of Americans believe that we were not only
being invaded by migrants, but he used one very clear word,
he said, we are also being conquered by migrants. And
so the point that we are in right now is
for Donald Trump to continue to condition Americans to believe
(07:55):
that story and to now believe that the next iteration
of that story means to them and to defeat them,
meaning the terrorists. So I think what one Dynamo Bay
brings up what scares me at least, is that history
tells us that when as Americans we sort of enter
this paranoid state that we're in, we do have a
(08:15):
tendency to turn a blind eye on the violations that
happening one time to obey, you know, we have a
tendency to turn a blind eye on the human rights violations,
the abuses, and all of the darkness that has happened there.
And that is exactly where we are. So our job
is to ensure that we don't turn a blind eye
so that we don't allow history to repeat itself.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Okay, then let me help her along. I like to
be helpful than I can. So when we get back,
we're gonna we're going to revisit exactly what may have
been done in the past and see if you have
a problem with what has been done in the past.
It's the weekend with Michael Brown. You wanst send me
a text message the numbers three three one zero three
(08:56):
three three one zero three.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Just start a.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Message with either the word Mike or Michael. Tell how
anything ask me anything, and don't forget. Go over and
follow me on X right now. It's at Michael Brown USA.
I'll be right back. Hey, welcome back to the Weekend
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(09:19):
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So in this NBC is really distraught that gip MO
Guantanamo Bay, the naval you know, the technical term is
Guantamino Naval Air Force Base or naval base. Well, let's
(10:04):
do a history lesson. In nineteen ninety four, Bill Clinton
resumed George H. W. Bush's use of Guantanamo base for
processing Haitian refugees, and then later ordered Cuban asylum seekers
that were caught at sea to be held on the base.
(10:27):
Later that same year, nineteen ninety four, Bill Clinton let
me think, Yeah, Bill Clinton was a Yeah, he was
a Democrat, wasn't it.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah, a Democrat MSNBC.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Later that year, in nineteen ninety four, Bill Clinton had
that Now I'm using the term migrant here because these
were migrants. Technically under the law, they were, like Biden did,
they were giving temporary protected status to quote migrants seeking
refuge So don't argue with me. I'm just trying to
(11:02):
use the correct technical language about this particular group of
people as opposed to illegal aliens that cross the border illegally.
You see, you can't call them illegal aliens. When we
fly to the Dominican Republic or to Haiti and we
pick them up and we put them on military planes
(11:24):
or charter aircraft and bring them into the country, you
can't call them illegal aliens. They have TPS, they have
temporary protected status. I hate it, but that's what the
way it is. But my point is, later in nineteen
ninety four at GIPMO, the migrant population just ignore the word,
(11:45):
but the migrant population totaled forty five thousand. I'm just
waiting for the nuclear explosion over at MSNBC. Now, what's
the source for those numbers? I thought I would go to,
you know, a source that MSNBC might actually pay attention to.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Oh yeah, a Washington Post.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Last year, the Post Rights the International Refugee Assistance Project
released a report accusing the US run Migrant Operations Center
at GETMO g MOCK of detaining migrants fleeing Haiti, Cuba,
and other Caribbean countries throughout its history. Many of these
refugees are intercepted by the Coast Guard it's see, and
(12:30):
then detained indefinitely in prison like conditions without access to
the outside world, often with little to no transparency or accountability,
to which I would say, to whom or why do
we owe them any transparency or accountability. You know Catherine
(12:55):
Herridge who used to work for CBS National Secure Reporting.
I think she may have been at Fox for a
while too. I'm not sure she's been down at Guantanomo.
And she's been another reason to follow me on x
at Michael Brown USA, because she's been doing a lot
of reporting about the facilities, and actually, I don't want
(13:16):
to put words in her mouth. You can go read
her own timeline and you can see for yourself what
she has to say about the prison versus the detention area.
It's actually quite nice and she's being able to access.
So what do we currently have. Well, that facility on
(13:42):
the island of Cuba far exceeds the capacity of existing
ICE facilities. The largest ICE facility domestically has about two
thousand beds, and overall across the entire country, ICE has
attention capacity for about forty thousand people. But there are
(14:06):
at least one point four million people in this country
right now who have existing deportation orders issued against them.
And anyone who has a deep deportation order that's already
been issued by a immigration judge, by a federal immigration
judge is no longer entitled to any more due process.
(14:29):
They're subject to immediate deportation. Now, if their home country
will not take them, then what we can do is
we can deport them. We can take them to Guantanamo
until some international humanitarian organization or somebody agrees to take
them to either their home country or to another country
(14:52):
that's agreed to receive these people, which you know, think
about this. You come here from let's say Guatemala, you know,
Central America, and it's you know, if you've ever been
to Central America, it's you know, it's kind of jungle like,
it's a tropical like area. And but you know, Guatemala
won't take you back. But oh, that's interesting. Saudi Arabia
(15:13):
will take you back. So we'll send you to the desert.
So you want to go home on your own? Or
shall we send you out of Arabia? What do you
want to do? Frankly, my dear, I don't give a
damn whatever you want to do. So now, this is
according to the Washington Post, an estimate, eleven million people
(15:34):
are living in the US without legal status. That's according
they say, citing a twenty twenty four report by DHS
I supported the highest number of people in a decade
during fiscal year twenty twenty four, the last full fiscal
year of Biden's term, which I believe is factually true,
(15:55):
which tells you all you need to know about the
Biden administration. Oh, we got an election coming up. Let's
start to reporting some people, and let's try to beat
Trump's old numbers. So that Kamala Harris can go out
and claim that, oh, look, we're deporting more than Neil
than Trump did, which, of course is what you're going
to hear from all these jahoos that wants you to
think that, oh, you know what, we're evil and we're bad,
(16:17):
and we're getting rid of people that we shouldn't be
getting rid of. The Texas Land Commissioner Texas doing a
yeoman's job in helping US seal the border.
Speaker 7 (16:28):
President Trump is announcing the next step in his fast
moving immigration crackdown. The President says he's ordering the Pentagon
to prepare a Guantanamo bay to hold dangerous illegal migrants.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
We have thirty thousand beds in Guantanamo to detain the
worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some of
them are so bad we don't even trust the countries
to hold them because we don't want them coming back.
So we're going to send them out to Guantanamo. That's
a tough that's a tough place to get out.
Speaker 6 (16:57):
Of thirty beds.
Speaker 7 (17:01):
George p to me, that sounds like a perfect fit
if we're looking for housing, and there it is. But
there are critics from especially the left saying that sort
of the memory of as they argue questionable tactics that
occur there, that some of that building is tainted. And
I'm curious your thoughts as to whether that applies here
as we move forward and deploy this illegal immigration crackdown.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
I think it's the right call from our commander in chief.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Now, did you hear that that's the former Texas Land Commissioner.
Do you know who the former Texas Land Commissioner is?
George P. Bush, Jeb Bush's son. You see, not all
Bushes are like my old boss.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
George P.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Thinks, oh, this is the right call by the commander
in chief. At least there's one Bush that's willing to
stand up and tell the truth. It's the Weekend of
Michael Brown. Go follow me on X. It's a Michael
Brown USA.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
We'll be right back tonight. Michael Brown joins me here.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
The former FEMA director of talk show host Michael Brown.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Brownie, No, Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job
the Weekend with Michael Brown.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Hey, you're listening to the Weekend with Michael Brown. I'm
glad to have you with me. I appreciate you tuning in.
You send me a text message the numbers three three,
one zero three. Start the message with the word Mike
or Michael. Tell me anything, ask me anything, Go follow
me on X. It's at Michael Brown USA. At Michael
Brown USA. I want to talk briefly, and I do
mean briefly about the black Hawk, the Sikorski and the
(18:39):
black Hawkell copter and the regional jet, the crash in
the Potomac River just.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
North of.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Reagane National Airport. I've tried to read as much as
I can about it, simply because what I mean, I'm
not trying to be crass here, but what really prompted
my further attention to it. I mean, it's obviously a tragedy,
and obviously and clearly my heart goes out to the families.
(19:11):
Can you imagine sitting in an airport waiting for your
loved ones to arrive, and you don't know exactly which plane,
but you're if you know anything about DCA, about Reagan National,
the concourse and the terminals. There's a lot of glass
because it's got a great view of the Potomac River
and you can see a lot, and of course you
(19:32):
watch the planes, and so a plane's making it short
final onto I think runway thirty three. I forget which one.
I think runway thirty three, and you see an explosion
and then you know you're you're plane. You're nobody in
your family texts you that, hey, we've landed. You know
(19:52):
which we all do? You land on the airplane. And
one of the first things I do is, you know,
once we've I've got a connection, I text a family member.
I checked my text messages and doesn't come. Can you
imagine the horror of that. It's awful, absolutely awful. But
what piqued my further curiosity is this Blackhawk was doing
(20:16):
a continuity of Government COG COG continuity continuity of government
training session. Now that's not unusual because uh, continuity of
government is a Black Ops secret program that I ran.
(20:38):
In addition to continuity of operations Continuity of operations that
that acronym is coop coop, So yeah, coop and COGG.
One is that the functions of government continue. People that
you know, in case of a huge calamity, a catastrophe
and a war or whatever that you know to be blunt.
(21:02):
Social Security checks continue to be processed, that you know,
government contracts continue to be processed, that military personnel continue
to get paid. So that's continuity of operations. But continuity
of government is a black ops secret program that ensures
that the legislative branch, the judicial branch, and the executive
(21:27):
branch all can continue to function. So part of my
job with these programs was to make certain that we
had and we do a place for Congress to evacuate too,
so that members of Congress could continue to do their work.
We have a location, we have numerous locations, but they're
(21:48):
spread out all over the country. Most are in the
the outer environments of DC, but for example, a place
for the Supreme Court to actually conduct their business, and
obviously a place for the President of the United States
and his staff to operate and do their business. And
part of that COG program, that continuity of government program,
(22:12):
is to make certain that we're able to evacuate the
commander in chief to a secure location in the event
that the White House, like nine to eleven, could have
been under attack, we didn't know. So there are often
training missions where these helicopters fly at very low altitude.
In fact, in that area they cannot exceed two hundred
feet in which they are able to fly, for example,
(22:35):
from a base and at low altitude, fly in land
on the south lawn of the White House or wherever
it might, you know, wherever the president may may be,
the president's out at dinner, so wherever they need to
land to in order to evacuate the president and get
him to an disclosed location. So that's what these pilots,
(22:57):
from my understanding and from the stories I've read, that's
what they were doing. They were practicing some of the runs,
some of the low flight altitude flights that they're supposed
to be doing for continuity of government and continuity of operations. Well,
they exceeded the altitude they're not supposed to that in
that area, to exceed two hundred feet in this helicopter
(23:20):
was flying at four hundred feet. Now, we don't know why,
and I would I would tell everyone don't speculate as
to why, because we don't know yet. The NTSB will
find out. I've heard all sorts of stories too about
the air traffic Control ATC that they were short staff
that day, that they were overworked, that they that and look,
(23:42):
look it's that's not unusual. And whether you want to
claim it's because of DEI whatever staffing problems they have.
They have staffing problems, and many people, whether they're in
the control towers or they're in the area operation the
area not really towers, but the area centers that control
(24:04):
the flights all over the country. There's one just north
of where I'm sitting, outside of Longmont, Colorado, and they
control the traffic everywhere. Well, there's stories that one of
the tower controllers was off that day and another tower
operator was operating or trying to control both the landings
(24:28):
and this and monitoring this helicopter, and that may or
may not be true. I'm just saying all these things
are speculation, but I ran across and all credit for
this goes to Alex Berenson. Alex Berenson is a former
New York Times reporter and he is a sub stack
and it's it has. He asked for a bunch of
(24:50):
pilots to give their assessment of what they think is
going on, and he's published one. The author's name is J. R.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Rudy.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Here's what he wrote. I'm a retired aviation professional with
nearly forty years a flying experience, the first eight year
serve as fighter pilot. Just to say this guy's highly qualified.
He left the Navy. He flew domestically and internationally for
Delta Airlines for more than thirty years, the last twenty
years was out of JFK, And he tells us that
(25:24):
he's also flown into DCA Reagan National countless times, both
as a pilot and as a passenger, and he's made
all these different approaches that everybody's talking about right now.
He writes this though to get to the crux of
his point, it is readily evident that the Army black
Hawk was flying visually instead of instruments, headed south on
(25:48):
Heilo Route one, then transitioning to Route four above DCA
the airport. On the chart, there is a maximum altitude
restriction of two hundred feet which extends from the Key
Bridge to the Wilson Bridge on those two routes, inclusive
of the area of the crash. Uh sixty eight and
subsequent Blackhawks have VHF radios just like commercial jets, so
(26:12):
separate UHF communication should not have been an issue, and
he has a link for the chart showing the area
where these operations occur. The accident, he says, appears to
be a classic CRM Swiss cheese multiple failure event. As
our most aircraft accidents. Any of the following interventions could
(26:33):
have prevented this accident, and he lists them. More timely,
accurate and positive confirmation of traffic by an overtask air
traffic controller. Let me repeat that, more timely, accurate and
positive confirmation of traffic by an over air traffic controller.
(26:54):
In other words, do you see the plane yes? Do
you see the plane at or eleven o'clock? Or do
you see the plane at one o'clock? Whatever the whatever
the asthmuth of this particular plane was, can you cite
and can you tell me that you see the plane
in sight? He also says you need adequate staffing in
(27:16):
the air traffic control tower, the black hawk copilot, the evaluator,
or the instructor taking command of the aircraft or issuing
timely instructions to correct the altitude deviation. This was a
training so there was either there were two pilots and
at least a check pilot. The check pilot should have
(27:38):
said you're above altitude. You need to descend to at
or below two hundred feet. He says observation of the
safety observer. The third pilot should not have been wearing
in VG's night vision goggles. Now we don't know whether
he was or was not. This is just this pilot's observation,
(28:01):
and that the black Hawk I missed one not doing
military training missions in busy, busy airport approach corridor when
a much safer, less congested one is available to the
south of the airport. This what I thought was interested
use of collision avoidance technology by the black Hawk. The
(28:24):
airliners have it, though the helicopter probably did not, and
even if it did, the collision avoidance technology might have
been inhibited at that low of an altitude. But he says,
most important of all is adherence to the published altitudes,
which the black Hawk apparently was not. He writes, if
(28:49):
the American commuter pilots had not accepted the side step
on the Mount Vernon visual approach from runway one to
runway thirty three, there would have been no collision. Mean
by that. So the pilot is on his final approach
when he suddenly gets a of the American jet. He
(29:11):
suddenly gets from the control tower, No, don't land on
Runway one, Shift to run ray runway thirty three. So
as the pilot is on his final and he's beginning
to bank port. He's beginning to turn left rather than
turning on so that he can hit runway one. The
(29:32):
air traffic control has now said, well, well, no, shift
over to runway thirty three. I don't know why the
controller did that, but the pilot could have said, no,
I'm already turning and I'm already lined up for runway one.
I want to stick to runway one. And I would
say I'm not a pilot, and I would add, perhaps
(29:53):
the pilot should have said, if you insist on runway
thirty three, I need to do a go around. He
also says that if the helo was on altitude, they
may have been able to discern the aircraft lights unobscured
in the night sky looking up rather than looking level
into the lights on the west shoreline, if they've been
(30:17):
at altitude. Now, when we get back, I'll address one
more thing, but I think it's totally unknown at this point.
It's the Weekend with Michael Brown. Stay tuned. I'll be
right back. Hey, welcome back to the Weekend with Michael Brown.
Glad to have you with me. I appreciate everybody tuning in,
(30:39):
as I always do when we preach the end of
the program. I want to make sure that everybody understands
just how much I really do appreciate you listening to
the program. I know that there's a lot of things
to do on Saturdays, and you could be doing something
besides this, and the fact that you choose to be
here means a lot to me. And I appreciate you
listening in. And if you want to share information about
the program, help us build the audience, because it's great
(31:03):
and I enjoy doing this and I hope you enjoy
listening to it. So let me just there are a
few things that I would conclude, and I would put
all of these conclusions with a caveat. They're just my conclusions,
and we won't know the facts until the NTSB, the
(31:24):
National Transportation Safety Board, completes its investigation and tells us
what happened. But we do know this. The helicopter was
flying higher than the maximum permitted, and if they had
not been, this collision would not have occurred. And I
don't think, at least based on the information we have publicly,
that the air traffic controller controller did not give timely, accurate,
(31:47):
or complete advice to the helicopter about the commercial air
traffic that was in the area as they were making
their approach to the runways, and the air traffic controller
apparently was saturated with tasks performing dual roles, which is
(32:09):
not unusual, but nonetheless that has to be taken into
consideration and of course does raise the question why was
it a staffing issue? Did somebody get sick at the
last moment, Did somebody have a crisis at the last moment?
Was it because of DEI? Nobody knows, but the fact
(32:31):
remains that the controller was apparently dual task or task
saturated is probably a better way to put it. They
had gusty crosswinds which may have necessitated the steep turn
of the American jet to prevent an overshoot as he
(32:51):
was trying to line up with the center line of
the runway, and then in addition to that was told
to jump over to another runway. That may have been
a factor. Vision goggles may or may not have been
a contributing factor. We don't know that yet. We do
know based on the flight pattern that the helicopter, the
black CLOWK, had an erratic flight path, executed two near
(33:17):
ninety degree turns turning west off course, crossing a particular
point along the Potomac called the Haynes Point, and then
headed directly to the north end of the airport before
then turning back south along the river. Now, given the
airspace there, this is I think condicative of inexperience, unfamiliarity,
(33:42):
and maybe incompetence. Could be any of those, or it
could be all of those. We don't know now why
the pilot of the helicopter didn't maintain altitude because the
night was clear, you can see that by all the videos.
I think that's indicative of either not being familiar with
(34:05):
that particular helicopter, It could be indicative of a lack
of flying experience. It could be an indication of just incompetence.
And that could also be all exact you know, made
even worse if they were using night vision goggles. I
know this because I've seen it, I've experienced it, and
(34:28):
I know I just know it to be true. And
that is military pilots, whether they're in jets or helicopters,
fixed winging or rotary, doesn't make any difference. They love
to do low level flying. Especially if you've ever been
in DC as long as I was, you see them
doing it up and down the river all the time.
(34:49):
You see them doing it as they come into the
District of Columbia. Now oftentimes that's on training missions, or
that'll be the excuse, but it's pretty cool. I mean,
for one who's gotten to off in Marine one from
the south lawn of the White House and then fly
around the Washington Monument and then fly near the Lincoln
Memorial at low level, it's pretty damn cool. So if
(35:12):
a passenger like me loves to do it, imagine a
pilot loving to do it, particularly when nobody else can.
You're doing something that nobody else can do. That area
is because of Andrews, because of Fort Belvoir, because of
(35:33):
all of the traffic in there. That's one of the
busiest places in the world for aircraft, and it's a
highly sensitive area. If this was an inexperienced pilot, I
don't think they should have been using night vision goggles
in that area. If they were, we don't know, And
until they get more experience, probably should not be flying
(35:56):
in that area for training. Even if they were doing
coop and COG trail, they probably need more flight time
and ought to be doing that. Perhaps in the day
before they do it in the evening or do it
somewhere else. I've never flown. I don't have a pilot's license.
I've been in the jump seats, but I've never flown.
(36:19):
So despite all of the speculation that you hear, just
remember that all of it is speculation until the NTS
releases its report, whether it's about the control tower, the controllers,
the pilots, whatever, but that's what we know so far.
Thanks for joining everybody, have a great weekend. I'll see
(36:41):
you next Saturday.
Too night.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Michael Brown joins me here the former FEMA director talk
show host Michael Brown.
Speaker 3 (00:04):
Brownie, no Brownie, You're doing a heck of a job
the Weekend with Michael Brown.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey broadcasting life from Denver, Colorado. You're listening to the
Weekend with Michael Brown. So happy to have you joining
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Be sure and tell your friends and neighbors and everybody
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(00:50):
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Speaker 2 (00:56):
At Michael Brown USA.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
So the world explode this week because it was announced
that GETMO Guantanamo Bay was going to be used to
house illegal aliens, and everybody went ballistic. Well it's not
new on let's see, would have been about two maybe
(01:20):
three days ago.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
The President said this, Yeah, we may have.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Tough talk from others, but it's not going to mean anything.
They're going to all take them back and they're going
to like it too. They're going to like it. They're
going to take it back, and they're going to like it. Today,
I'm also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments
of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the thirty
thousand person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Most people don't even know about it.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
We have thirty thousand beds in Guantanamo to detain the
worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some of
them are so bad we don't even trust the countries
to hold them because we don't want them coming back.
So we're going to send them out to Guantanamo. This
will double our capacity immediately, right and tough. That's a
(02:06):
tough that's a tough place to get out of today's
signings bring us one step closer to eradicating the scorch
of mon.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Anyway, so you get the point he's going to open
up Gimo. Now, I would imagine, in fact, maybe you
think that, oh, Gimo was just where we house Clay
uh Shake, Mohammed ks N, one of the nine eleven masterminds,
and some of the other nine to eleven, and some
of the enemy combatants from the Afghan and the Iraqi wars. No,
(02:35):
actually it's it's a naval base. Yes, there is a
prison on it where we house some of these enemy combatants,
but it's the big, big as naval base, and it's
a naval base that can handle tens of thousands of people. Now,
keep the number that Trump mentioned, thirty thousand in mind,
(02:56):
because I want you to compare that in a minute
to something else. Pete Hegsath, Secretary of Defense, points out that, yeah,
it's long been a place for migrants.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
So we actually can accommodate thirty thousand criminal migrants at Gitmo.
Absolutely we can, and we can plus that up very rapidly.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
As you mentioned, I served there.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
I know exactly the places where this would happen Guantanamo
has long been a place for migrants. In fact, in
the nineties, tens of thousands of Haitian and Cuban migrants
staged there.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
As part of a crisis.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
We have an even bigger crisis on our hands right now.
It was mentioned seventy five hundred violent illegals have been
captured by Ice in the last nine days.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
God bless them. Where do you move them?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
I'll tell you what we're going to No one's going
to be waiting on the Defense Department.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
We're going to lean forward.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
We've made sure that we are staging on the border
to protect it, that we've got great tails, which are
known as military aircraft to help mass deportations, and Guantanamo Bay,
Jesse is a perfect spot. We don't want illegal criminals
in the United States any not a minute longer than
they have to be. Move them off to Guantanamo Bay
where they can be safely maintained until they are deported
(04:08):
to their final location, their country of origin. There where
they are headed.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
So we feel great about this plan.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
We know we can execute it, and the Defense Department's
prepared to do everything we can. We just lawed DHS
and ICE for what they've done, and we're coming alongside
them to make sure we protect the American people.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Hmmm, so it's already equipped to do that. Let's go
over to MSNBC because the MSNBC, their heads are exploding
over the idea that Donald Trump, that sob Donald Trump
would dare to send illegal aliens to Gimo Pal.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
My friend, necessary conversations. Let's get straight to it. Wantanamo
Bay a place that you and I know well having
been in Miami and in Florida. Maybe a lot of
people don't.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Wait minute, you know it well because you been in Miami,
uh Sweed, Gitmos in Cuba. Now, maybe you've been in
Little Havana. Maybe you've been in Little Cuba in Miami.
But I don't think being in Miami means that you
understand everything about GIPMO.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
No, there's the military facility, but then they also have
a separate detention facility for migrants. And listen, the military
facility they keep the detainees after the sub September eleventh,
two thousand and one terrorist attacks. But we're hearing and
we know the vice president of the National Immigration Law
Center saying, report upon report of conditions in those detention
(05:39):
facilities that don't provide basic health care, they shackle women
when pregnant, and they haven't had protections for communicable diseases
such as COVID. I mean, Paula, the continued the humanization
of migrants is the goal here, right, That's exactly right.
Speaker 6 (05:55):
I think the first thing that comes to mind when
you mentioned one dynamo, when you mentioned the report is
war on terror. And that is precisely the point. That
is what Donald Trump wants us to think about. Look.
I think if you take a step back and you
look at all of these images that we have them
bombarded with just this week, Katie. Now you see the
ice rays, you see troops to point to the border,
You see the images of military planes carrying migrants, and
(06:18):
now the image of one down on Obay. The point
is precisely to get this country to believe that we
are entering, you know, this new chapter on the war
on Terror. And it makes sense for.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
How many of you have equated the deportation and repatriation
of illegal aliens back to their home countries. How many
of you have equated that to the war on terror.
The only time I've ever made it any sort of
correlation or connection between illegal aliens, and the war on
(06:53):
terror is when we find out that people that are
on the terrorists watch list have maybe illegally across the border,
but that's them coming into the country. I've never once
thought about, oh, well, once we find that person, what
are we going to do with them?
Speaker 2 (07:11):
And is that part of the world terror.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
No.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I think that's part of getting rid of the criminal
elements out of this country. But they want you to
equate that.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
This is a war on terror. We're going to terrorize
these illegal aliens and we're going to take them to
get moan.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
We're going to shackle them up just like we did
KSN and they maybe we'll just water board them for
the fun of it. MISNBC is backcrap crazy over.
Speaker 6 (07:34):
A year, and you and I have been talking about
this for so long. For over a year, Donald Trump
made millions of Americans believe that we were not only
being invaded by migrants, but he used one very clear word,
he said, we are also being conquered by migrants. And
so the point that we are in right now is
for Donald Trump to continue to condition Americans to believe
(07:55):
that story and to now believe that the next iteration
of that story means to them and to defeat them,
meaning the terrorists. So I think what one Dynamo Bay
brings up what scares me at least, is that history
tells us that when as Americans we sort of enter
this paranoid state that we're in, we do have a
(08:15):
tendency to turn a blind eye on the violations that
happening one time to obey, you know, we have a
tendency to turn a blind eye on the human rights violations,
the abuses, and all of the darkness that has happened there.
And that is exactly where we are. So our job
is to ensure that we don't turn a blind eye
so that we don't allow history to repeat itself.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Okay, then let me help her along. I like to
be helpful than I can. So when we get back,
we're gonna we're going to revisit exactly what may have
been done in the past and see if you have
a problem with what has been done in the past.
It's the weekend with Michael Brown. You wanst send me
a text message the numbers three three one zero three
(08:56):
three three one zero three.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Just start a.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Message with either the word Mike or Michael. Tell how
anything ask me anything, and don't forget. Go over and
follow me on X right now. It's at Michael Brown USA.
I'll be right back. Hey, welcome back to the Weekend
of Michael Brown. Glad to have you with me. Appreciate
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(09:19):
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(09:40):
So you get all six days of Michael Brown. It'd
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don't forget follow me on X at Michael Brown USA.
So in this NBC is really distraught that gip MO
Guantanamo Bay, the naval you know, the technical term is
Guantamino Naval Air Force Base or naval base. Well, let's
(10:04):
do a history lesson. In nineteen ninety four, Bill Clinton
resumed George H. W. Bush's use of Guantanamo base for
processing Haitian refugees, and then later ordered Cuban asylum seekers
that were caught at sea to be held on the base.
(10:27):
Later that same year, nineteen ninety four, Bill Clinton let
me think, Yeah, Bill Clinton was a Yeah, he was
a Democrat, wasn't it.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah, a Democrat MSNBC.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Later that year, in nineteen ninety four, Bill Clinton had
that Now I'm using the term migrant here because these
were migrants. Technically under the law, they were, like Biden did,
they were giving temporary protected status to quote migrants seeking
refuge So don't argue with me. I'm just trying to
(11:02):
use the correct technical language about this particular group of
people as opposed to illegal aliens that cross the border illegally.
You see, you can't call them illegal aliens. When we
fly to the Dominican Republic or to Haiti and we
pick them up and we put them on military planes
(11:24):
or charter aircraft and bring them into the country, you
can't call them illegal aliens. They have TPS, they have
temporary protected status. I hate it, but that's what the
way it is. But my point is, later in nineteen
ninety four at GIPMO, the migrant population just ignore the word,
(11:45):
but the migrant population totaled forty five thousand. I'm just
waiting for the nuclear explosion over at MSNBC. Now, what's
the source for those numbers? I thought I would go to,
you know, a source that MSNBC might actually pay attention to.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Oh yeah, a Washington Post.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Last year, the Post Rights the International Refugee Assistance Project
released a report accusing the US run Migrant Operations Center
at GETMO g MOCK of detaining migrants fleeing Haiti, Cuba,
and other Caribbean countries throughout its history. Many of these
refugees are intercepted by the Coast Guard it's see, and
(12:30):
then detained indefinitely in prison like conditions without access to
the outside world, often with little to no transparency or accountability,
to which I would say, to whom or why do
we owe them any transparency or accountability. You know Catherine
(12:55):
Herridge who used to work for CBS National Secure Reporting.
I think she may have been at Fox for a
while too. I'm not sure she's been down at Guantanomo.
And she's been another reason to follow me on x
at Michael Brown USA, because she's been doing a lot
of reporting about the facilities, and actually, I don't want
(13:16):
to put words in her mouth. You can go read
her own timeline and you can see for yourself what
she has to say about the prison versus the detention area.
It's actually quite nice and she's being able to access.
So what do we currently have. Well, that facility on
(13:42):
the island of Cuba far exceeds the capacity of existing
ICE facilities. The largest ICE facility domestically has about two
thousand beds, and overall across the entire country, ICE has
attention capacity for about forty thousand people. But there are
(14:06):
at least one point four million people in this country
right now who have existing deportation orders issued against them.
And anyone who has a deep deportation order that's already
been issued by a immigration judge, by a federal immigration
judge is no longer entitled to any more due process.
(14:29):
They're subject to immediate deportation. Now, if their home country
will not take them, then what we can do is
we can deport them. We can take them to Guantanamo
until some international humanitarian organization or somebody agrees to take
them to either their home country or to another country
(14:52):
that's agreed to receive these people, which you know, think
about this. You come here from let's say Guatemala, you know,
Central America, and it's you know, if you've ever been
to Central America, it's you know, it's kind of jungle like,
it's a tropical like area. And but you know, Guatemala
won't take you back. But oh, that's interesting. Saudi Arabia
(15:13):
will take you back. So we'll send you to the desert.
So you want to go home on your own? Or
shall we send you out of Arabia? What do you
want to do? Frankly, my dear, I don't give a
damn whatever you want to do. So now, this is
according to the Washington Post, an estimate, eleven million people
(15:34):
are living in the US without legal status. That's according
they say, citing a twenty twenty four report by DHS
I supported the highest number of people in a decade
during fiscal year twenty twenty four, the last full fiscal
year of Biden's term, which I believe is factually true,
(15:55):
which tells you all you need to know about the
Biden administration. Oh, we got an election coming up. Let's
start to reporting some people, and let's try to beat
Trump's old numbers. So that Kamala Harris can go out
and claim that, oh, look, we're deporting more than Neil
than Trump did, which, of course is what you're going
to hear from all these jahoos that wants you to
think that, oh, you know what, we're evil and we're bad,
(16:17):
and we're getting rid of people that we shouldn't be
getting rid of. The Texas Land Commissioner Texas doing a
yeoman's job in helping US seal the border.
Speaker 7 (16:28):
President Trump is announcing the next step in his fast
moving immigration crackdown. The President says he's ordering the Pentagon
to prepare a Guantanamo bay to hold dangerous illegal migrants.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
We have thirty thousand beds in Guantanamo to detain the
worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some of
them are so bad we don't even trust the countries
to hold them because we don't want them coming back.
So we're going to send them out to Guantanamo. That's
a tough that's a tough place to get out.
Speaker 6 (16:57):
Of thirty beds.
Speaker 7 (17:01):
George p to me, that sounds like a perfect fit
if we're looking for housing, and there it is. But
there are critics from especially the left saying that sort
of the memory of as they argue questionable tactics that
occur there, that some of that building is tainted. And
I'm curious your thoughts as to whether that applies here
as we move forward and deploy this illegal immigration crackdown.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
I think it's the right call from our commander in chief.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Now, did you hear that that's the former Texas Land Commissioner.
Do you know who the former Texas Land Commissioner is?
George P. Bush, Jeb Bush's son. You see, not all
Bushes are like my old boss.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
George P.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Thinks, oh, this is the right call by the commander
in chief. At least there's one Bush that's willing to
stand up and tell the truth. It's the Weekend of
Michael Brown. Go follow me on X. It's a Michael
Brown USA.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
We'll be right back tonight. Michael Brown joins me here.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
The former FEMA director of talk show host Michael Brown.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Brownie, No, Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job
the Weekend with Michael Brown.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Hey, you're listening to the Weekend with Michael Brown. I'm
glad to have you with me. I appreciate you tuning in.
You send me a text message the numbers three three,
one zero three. Start the message with the word Mike
or Michael. Tell me anything, ask me anything, Go follow
me on X. It's at Michael Brown USA. At Michael
Brown USA. I want to talk briefly, and I do
mean briefly about the black Hawk, the Sikorski and the
(18:39):
black Hawkell copter and the regional jet, the crash in
the Potomac River just.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
North of.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Reagane National Airport. I've tried to read as much as
I can about it, simply because what I mean, I'm
not trying to be crass here, but what really prompted
my further attention to it. I mean, it's obviously a tragedy,
and obviously and clearly my heart goes out to the families.
(19:11):
Can you imagine sitting in an airport waiting for your
loved ones to arrive, and you don't know exactly which plane,
but you're if you know anything about DCA, about Reagan National,
the concourse and the terminals. There's a lot of glass
because it's got a great view of the Potomac River
and you can see a lot, and of course you
(19:32):
watch the planes, and so a plane's making it short
final onto I think runway thirty three. I forget which one.
I think runway thirty three, and you see an explosion
and then you know you're you're plane. You're nobody in
your family texts you that, hey, we've landed. You know
(19:52):
which we all do? You land on the airplane. And
one of the first things I do is, you know,
once we've I've got a connection, I text a family member.
I checked my text messages and doesn't come. Can you
imagine the horror of that. It's awful, absolutely awful. But
what piqued my further curiosity is this Blackhawk was doing
(20:16):
a continuity of Government COG COG continuity continuity of government
training session. Now that's not unusual because uh, continuity of
government is a Black Ops secret program that I ran.
(20:38):
In addition to continuity of operations Continuity of operations that
that acronym is coop coop, So yeah, coop and COGG.
One is that the functions of government continue. People that
you know, in case of a huge calamity, a catastrophe
and a war or whatever that you know to be blunt.
(21:02):
Social Security checks continue to be processed, that you know,
government contracts continue to be processed, that military personnel continue
to get paid. So that's continuity of operations. But continuity
of government is a black ops secret program that ensures
that the legislative branch, the judicial branch, and the executive
(21:27):
branch all can continue to function. So part of my
job with these programs was to make certain that we
had and we do a place for Congress to evacuate too,
so that members of Congress could continue to do their work.
We have a location, we have numerous locations, but they're
(21:48):
spread out all over the country. Most are in the
the outer environments of DC, but for example, a place
for the Supreme Court to actually conduct their business, and
obviously a place for the President of the United States
and his staff to operate and do their business. And
part of that COG program, that continuity of government program,
(22:12):
is to make certain that we're able to evacuate the
commander in chief to a secure location in the event
that the White House, like nine to eleven, could have
been under attack, we didn't know. So there are often
training missions where these helicopters fly at very low altitude.
In fact, in that area they cannot exceed two hundred
feet in which they are able to fly, for example,
(22:35):
from a base and at low altitude, fly in land
on the south lawn of the White House or wherever
it might, you know, wherever the president may may be,
the president's out at dinner, so wherever they need to
land to in order to evacuate the president and get
him to an disclosed location. So that's what these pilots,
(22:57):
from my understanding and from the stories I've read, that's
what they were doing. They were practicing some of the runs,
some of the low flight altitude flights that they're supposed
to be doing for continuity of government and continuity of operations. Well,
they exceeded the altitude they're not supposed to that in
that area, to exceed two hundred feet in this helicopter
(23:20):
was flying at four hundred feet. Now, we don't know why,
and I would I would tell everyone don't speculate as
to why, because we don't know yet. The NTSB will
find out. I've heard all sorts of stories too about
the air traffic Control ATC that they were short staff
that day, that they were overworked, that they that and look,
(23:42):
look it's that's not unusual. And whether you want to
claim it's because of DEI whatever staffing problems they have.
They have staffing problems, and many people, whether they're in
the control towers or they're in the area operation the
area not really towers, but the area centers that control
(24:04):
the flights all over the country. There's one just north
of where I'm sitting, outside of Longmont, Colorado, and they
control the traffic everywhere. Well, there's stories that one of
the tower controllers was off that day and another tower
operator was operating or trying to control both the landings
(24:28):
and this and monitoring this helicopter, and that may or
may not be true. I'm just saying all these things
are speculation, but I ran across and all credit for
this goes to Alex Berenson. Alex Berenson is a former
New York Times reporter and he is a sub stack
and it's it has. He asked for a bunch of
(24:50):
pilots to give their assessment of what they think is
going on, and he's published one. The author's name is J. R.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Rudy.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Here's what he wrote. I'm a retired aviation professional with
nearly forty years a flying experience, the first eight year
serve as fighter pilot. Just to say this guy's highly qualified.
He left the Navy. He flew domestically and internationally for
Delta Airlines for more than thirty years, the last twenty
years was out of JFK, And he tells us that
(25:24):
he's also flown into DCA Reagan National countless times, both
as a pilot and as a passenger, and he's made
all these different approaches that everybody's talking about right now.
He writes this though to get to the crux of
his point, it is readily evident that the Army black
Hawk was flying visually instead of instruments, headed south on
(25:48):
Heilo Route one, then transitioning to Route four above DCA
the airport. On the chart, there is a maximum altitude
restriction of two hundred feet which extends from the Key
Bridge to the Wilson Bridge on those two routes, inclusive
of the area of the crash. Uh sixty eight and
subsequent Blackhawks have VHF radios just like commercial jets, so
(26:12):
separate UHF communication should not have been an issue, and
he has a link for the chart showing the area
where these operations occur. The accident, he says, appears to
be a classic CRM Swiss cheese multiple failure event. As
our most aircraft accidents. Any of the following interventions could
(26:33):
have prevented this accident, and he lists them. More timely,
accurate and positive confirmation of traffic by an overtask air
traffic controller. Let me repeat that, more timely, accurate and
positive confirmation of traffic by an over air traffic controller.
(26:54):
In other words, do you see the plane yes? Do
you see the plane at or eleven o'clock? Or do
you see the plane at one o'clock? Whatever the whatever
the asthmuth of this particular plane was, can you cite
and can you tell me that you see the plane
in sight? He also says you need adequate staffing in
(27:16):
the air traffic control tower, the black hawk copilot, the evaluator,
or the instructor taking command of the aircraft or issuing
timely instructions to correct the altitude deviation. This was a
training so there was either there were two pilots and
at least a check pilot. The check pilot should have
(27:38):
said you're above altitude. You need to descend to at
or below two hundred feet. He says observation of the
safety observer. The third pilot should not have been wearing
in VG's night vision goggles. Now we don't know whether
he was or was not. This is just this pilot's observation,
(28:01):
and that the black Hawk I missed one not doing
military training missions in busy, busy airport approach corridor when
a much safer, less congested one is available to the
south of the airport. This what I thought was interested
use of collision avoidance technology by the black Hawk. The
(28:24):
airliners have it, though the helicopter probably did not, and
even if it did, the collision avoidance technology might have
been inhibited at that low of an altitude. But he says,
most important of all is adherence to the published altitudes,
which the black Hawk apparently was not. He writes, if
(28:49):
the American commuter pilots had not accepted the side step
on the Mount Vernon visual approach from runway one to
runway thirty three, there would have been no collision. Mean
by that. So the pilot is on his final approach
when he suddenly gets a of the American jet. He
(29:11):
suddenly gets from the control tower, No, don't land on
Runway one, Shift to run ray runway thirty three. So
as the pilot is on his final and he's beginning
to bank port. He's beginning to turn left rather than
turning on so that he can hit runway one. The
(29:32):
air traffic control has now said, well, well, no, shift
over to runway thirty three. I don't know why the
controller did that, but the pilot could have said, no,
I'm already turning and I'm already lined up for runway one.
I want to stick to runway one. And I would
say I'm not a pilot, and I would add, perhaps
(29:53):
the pilot should have said, if you insist on runway
thirty three, I need to do a go around. He
also says that if the helo was on altitude, they
may have been able to discern the aircraft lights unobscured
in the night sky looking up rather than looking level
into the lights on the west shoreline, if they've been
(30:17):
at altitude. Now, when we get back, I'll address one
more thing, but I think it's totally unknown at this point.
It's the Weekend with Michael Brown. Stay tuned. I'll be
right back. Hey, welcome back to the Weekend with Michael Brown.
Glad to have you with me. I appreciate everybody tuning in,
(30:39):
as I always do when we preach the end of
the program. I want to make sure that everybody understands
just how much I really do appreciate you listening to
the program. I know that there's a lot of things
to do on Saturdays, and you could be doing something
besides this, and the fact that you choose to be
here means a lot to me. And I appreciate you
listening in. And if you want to share information about
the program, help us build the audience, because it's great
(31:03):
and I enjoy doing this and I hope you enjoy
listening to it. So let me just there are a
few things that I would conclude, and I would put
all of these conclusions with a caveat. They're just my conclusions,
and we won't know the facts until the NTSB, the
(31:24):
National Transportation Safety Board, completes its investigation and tells us
what happened. But we do know this. The helicopter was
flying higher than the maximum permitted, and if they had
not been, this collision would not have occurred. And I
don't think, at least based on the information we have publicly,
that the air traffic controller controller did not give timely, accurate,
(31:47):
or complete advice to the helicopter about the commercial air
traffic that was in the area as they were making
their approach to the runways, and the air traffic controller
apparently was saturated with tasks performing dual roles, which is
(32:09):
not unusual, but nonetheless that has to be taken into
consideration and of course does raise the question why was
it a staffing issue? Did somebody get sick at the
last moment, Did somebody have a crisis at the last moment?
Was it because of DEI? Nobody knows, but the fact
(32:31):
remains that the controller was apparently dual task or task
saturated is probably a better way to put it. They
had gusty crosswinds which may have necessitated the steep turn
of the American jet to prevent an overshoot as he
(32:51):
was trying to line up with the center line of
the runway, and then in addition to that was told
to jump over to another runway. That may have been
a factor. Vision goggles may or may not have been
a contributing factor. We don't know that yet. We do
know based on the flight pattern that the helicopter, the
black CLOWK, had an erratic flight path, executed two near
(33:17):
ninety degree turns turning west off course, crossing a particular
point along the Potomac called the Haynes Point, and then
headed directly to the north end of the airport before
then turning back south along the river. Now, given the
airspace there, this is I think condicative of inexperience, unfamiliarity,
(33:42):
and maybe incompetence. Could be any of those, or it
could be all of those. We don't know now why
the pilot of the helicopter didn't maintain altitude because the
night was clear, you can see that by all the videos.
I think that's indicative of either not being familiar with
(34:05):
that particular helicopter, It could be indicative of a lack
of flying experience. It could be an indication of just incompetence.
And that could also be all exact you know, made
even worse if they were using night vision goggles. I
know this because I've seen it, I've experienced it, and
(34:28):
I know I just know it to be true. And
that is military pilots, whether they're in jets or helicopters,
fixed winging or rotary, doesn't make any difference. They love
to do low level flying. Especially if you've ever been
in DC as long as I was, you see them
doing it up and down the river all the time.
(34:49):
You see them doing it as they come into the
District of Columbia. Now oftentimes that's on training missions, or
that'll be the excuse, but it's pretty cool. I mean,
for one who's gotten to off in Marine one from
the south lawn of the White House and then fly
around the Washington Monument and then fly near the Lincoln
Memorial at low level, it's pretty damn cool. So if
(35:12):
a passenger like me loves to do it, imagine a
pilot loving to do it, particularly when nobody else can.
You're doing something that nobody else can do. That area
is because of Andrews, because of Fort Belvoir, because of
(35:33):
all of the traffic in there. That's one of the
busiest places in the world for aircraft, and it's a
highly sensitive area. If this was an inexperienced pilot, I
don't think they should have been using night vision goggles
in that area. If they were, we don't know, And
until they get more experience, probably should not be flying
(35:56):
in that area for training. Even if they were doing
coop and COG trail, they probably need more flight time
and ought to be doing that. Perhaps in the day
before they do it in the evening or do it
somewhere else. I've never flown. I don't have a pilot's license.
I've been in the jump seats, but I've never flown.
(36:19):
So despite all of the speculation that you hear, just
remember that all of it is speculation until the NTS
releases its report, whether it's about the control tower, the controllers,
the pilots, whatever, but that's what we know so far.
Thanks for joining everybody, have a great weekend. I'll see
(36:41):
you next Saturday.
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