Skip to main content
'UNAUTHORIZED'

Airport Workers Accused of Leaking Plane Crash Footage to CNN Arrested

The apparent surveillance footage was shown by CNN Friday morning.

By William Vaillancourt

Two Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority employees have been arrested and charged with leaking official airport records after apparent surveillance footage from Reagan National Airport showing last week’s collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter was shown on CNN.

Mohamed Lamine Mbengue, 21, of Rockville, Maryland, was charged Friday with computer trespass for “making an unauthorized copy of Airports Authority records,” authority spokeswoman Crystal Nosal said, according to The Washington Post.

Two days later, 45-year-old Jonathan Savoy of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, was charged with the same crime.

Both were booked and released.

A crane retrieves a wing from the wreckage in the Potomac River, in the aftermath of the collision of American Eagle flight 5342 and a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed into the river, by the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., February 3, 2025.

A crane retrieves a wing from the wreckage in the Potomac River, Feb. 3.

Eduardo Munoz/Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

The security footage they are alleged to have provided to CNN was shown Friday morning on News Central.

On the night of the collision, the network showed footage obtained from an EarthCam camera positioned on Washington, D.C.‘s Kennedy Center. EarthCam footage is available to the public.

The collision remains under investigation by various agencies.

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE
William Vaillancourt
William VaillancourtReporter

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.

TRENDING NOW