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(WASHINGTON) — Boeing CEO David Calhoun apologized to the families of victims of previous plane crashes involving the company’s planes, including the 737 Max, before being grilled by senators Tuesday during a hearing on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal invited the families to the highly anticipated hearing, and many came holding posters of loved ones killed, including in the crash of Lion Air Flight 610 off Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 near Addis Ababa in 2019.

Before Calhoun began his opening statement, he turned and faced the families.

“I apologize for the grief we have caused,” he said. “We are focused on safety.”

Blumenthal thanked the families for joining the hearing.

“The issues before us today have real human consequences [and] real Life and death results,” the senator said.

In his opening statement, Blumenthal hearing pressed Calhoun on whether the executive has made progress in turning the company around.

The senator mentioned the incident in January when a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 shortly after takeoff. He said that the “façade quite literally blew off the hollow shell that had been Boeing’s promises to the world.”

“Mr. Calhoun, you were brought in turn this company around,” Blumenthal said. “But instead of asking what has caused Boeing’s safety culture to erode, you and your colleagues in the C-suite have deflected blame, looked the other way, and catered to your shareholders instead.”

The hearing came after not long after Blumenthal said he received new information about Boeing’s questionable practices.

His office said on Tuesday said a current Boeing employee has come forward as a whistleblower identified the employee as Sam Mohawk, a quality assurance inspector for Boeing in Renton, Washington.

Mohawk alleges that Boeing is cutting corners by losing track of parts that have been labeled as non-conforming or not up to design standards, according to Blumenthal. Sometimes these parts get a second chance because they can be fixed or were mislabeled, but often they should be discarded. Still, the parts sometimes end up in newly built airplanes, Mohawk said, according to the senator.

“He said that he has been told by his supervisors to conceal this evidence from the FAA, and that he is being retaliated against as well,” Blumenthal said in a statement.

A Boeing spokesperson said the company had received on Monday evening the documents supplied to Blumenthal by the whistleblower. The company is reviewing the claims now, the spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“We continuously encourage employees to report all concerns as our priority is to ensure the safety of our airplanes and the flying public,” the spokesperson said.

The latest whistleblower stepped forward as Boeing CEO David Calhoun prepared to sit for a Senate hearing on his company’s “broken safety culture” on Tuesday afternoon. Previous whistleblowers have accused the Arlington, Virginia-headquartered company of cutting corners on safety practices as it builds aircraft.

Calhoun in January said Boeing was “accountable for what happened” during the Alaska flight.

“Whatever the specific cause of the accident might turn out to be, an event like this must simply not happen on an airplane that leaves one of our factories,” he said at the time. “We simply must be better. Our customers deserve better.”

ABC News’ Clara McMichael contributed to this report.

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(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.) — The shooter who killed five and injured over a dozen more at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2022 accepted a plea deal Tuesday in connection with federal hate crimes charges and was given 55 concurrent life sentences.

Anderson Lee Aldrich pleaded guilty to each of the 74 charges of violating provisions of the Matthew Shepard And James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 as well as gun crimes in the Club Q shooting. Aldrich initially pleaded not guilty.

United States District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney accepted the plea agreement, sentencing Aldrich to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, to be followed by a 190-year sentence of imprisonment.

Prosecutors said earlier this year they would not seek the death penalty.

“You went to this community’s safe space and mass murdered people,” said Sweeney, adding that it was appropriate to sentence him to life during Pride month which honors the LGBTQ community. “This community is much stronger than you, stronger than your armor and stronger than your weapons and sure as hell stronger than your hatred.”

Daniel Davis Aston, Kelly Loving, Derrick Rump, Ashley Paugh and Raymond Green Vance were killed in the attack.

Several victims and their families spoke at the sentencing hearing, some who said they wanted the death penalty in his case, while others took the opportunity to tell Aldrich about the pain they’ve felt in the aftermath of the shooting.

“You do not deserve to be sitting here when you took the lives of five people,” said a relative of Paugh. “I want you to feel the pain every day that you’ve caused all of us.”

“All I have left of him now is an urn that I speak to every day at night,” said Adriana Vance, the mother of Raymond Green Vance.

Aston’s parents Jeff and Sabrina spoke about their son Daniel, who was transgender, and denounced the anti-LGBTQ hate he and others have faced.

“He was probably the happiest I’ve ever seen him in the last few years” before the shooting, said Jeff Aston at the sentencing hearing. “He certainly didn’t deserve to go this way.”

As part of the guilty plea, Aldrich admitted to carrying out a bias-motivated attack when he killed five people, injured 19 individuals through gunfire and victimized about 26 other individuals who were targeted “for actual or perceived gender identity or sexual orientation,” in a premeditated attack, Sweeney said at the Tuesday hearing.

The sentencing recommendation details Aldrich’s alleged past use of online platforms “to express anti-gay and anti-transgender views,” use of anti-gay slurs and harassment of a gay co-worker in the years preceding the attack.

In addition to the federal charges, Aldrich was already sentenced to over 2,000 years in state prison in June 2023 after pleading guilty to five counts of murder in the first degree and 46 counts of attempted murder in the first degree. Aldrich pleaded no contest to two bias-motivated crimes.

Aldrich opened fire in Club Q with an AR-15 style rifle and was wearing a tactical vest with ballistic plates and had “at least two additional magazines loaded with ammunition,” on the night of Nov. 19, 2022. The club had just hosted a drag show that night as one of several events to honor Transgender Day of Remembrance on Nov. 20, according to court documents.

Aldrich was only stopped after two patrons forcibly removed their gun.

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(BOSTON) — A 911 outage is impacting the entire state of Massachusetts Tuesday afternoon, according to Boston police.

“The statewide 911 system is down — calls are not going through,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said at a news conference. “We’ve been in touch with the state and all the relevant officials to work on getting this resolved.”

The cause was not immediately clear. The Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety said it’s investigating.

“If you need police services, call your local district station directly,” Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox said. “For medical or fire-related emergencies, you can use the red light call boxes located on street corners.”

Boston fire officials said the fire department can also be reached as 617-343-2880.

Cox said any emergency reported to one service will be seamlessly relayed to the appropriate department.

“We have a robust system in place,” Cox said. “Our agencies are well-coordinated and ready to support each other.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — Just as firefighters were getting the upper hand on multiple major wildfires burning across California, two new blazes broke out and rapidly spread overnight, dealing additional challenges to the crews battling the flames, authorities said.

In what fire officials called an unusually early start to the state’s wildfire season, firefighters were scrambling to gain control of at least six massive wildland fires burning at both ends of the Golden State.

On Monday, two new wildfires erupted in Northern California, including one called the Sites Fire that ignited around 2:30 p.m. PT in Colusa County, about 60 miles north of Sacramento, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). Fueled by tall dry vegetation and fanned by wind gusts of up to 20 mph, the fire quickly spread to 10,000 acres by Tuesday morning, triggering numerous evacuations, according to Cal Fire.

The Sites Fire was 0% contained. A red flag warning signaling high fire danger was already issued for the area when the fire started, officials said.

“Hot dry conditions continue to hamper suppression efforts,” Cal Fire said in an update on the Sites Fire Tuesday morning.

A cause for the fire was under investigation.

The Aero Fire in Calaveras County, in the Sierra foothills about 40 miles east of Stockton, started about 3:30 p.m. PT and spread overnight to 5,249 acres, threatening nearly 3,700 structures, according to Cal Fire. At least three structures were destroyed and another was damaged by the blaze, which was 20% contained on Tuesday morning, officials said.

The Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office issued several evacuation orders for residents living in the fire zone. A shelter for people and their livestock was opened at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds Livestock Evacuation Center in nearby Angels Camp, and another shelter was opened at a veterans hall in Valley Springs, officials said.

“Firefighters had a small decrease in winds and an increase in relative humidity overnight that assisted crews with construction of fireline,” Cal Fire said in a statement Tuesday. “The Aero Fire is burning in an area that has not experienced a large fire since 2003 and is burning in grass and oak woodlands.”

An investigation into the cause of the blaze is underway.

The Sites and Aero fires ignited as firefighters were gaining control of the Point Fire in Sonoma County near the Wine Country towns of Healdsburg and Geyserville. As of Tuesday morning the Point Fire, which started Sunday afternoon, had burned more than 1,200 acres and was 40% contained, according to Cal Fire.

The Point Fire destroyed two structures and a firefighter was injured battling the blaze, Cal Fire said. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Another major Northern California fire, the Junes Fire in Butte County, was 95% contained Tuesday after burning 1,056 acres, according to Cal Fire. The blaze, which started on Saturday, destroyed one structure, Cal Fire said.

In Southern California, firefighters were making significant progress battling two major blazes in the Los Angeles area.

The largest Southern California fire, the Post Fire, erupted on Saturday afternoon near Gorman, in the Tejon Pass area about 70 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. It has burned more than 15,600 acres, prompted the evacuations of 1,200 campers at the Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area and forced the closure of Lake Pyramid, according to Cal Fire.

On Tuesday morning, the Post Fire was 24% contained, but ridge-top gusty winds of up to 55 mph were hampering efforts by firefighters to expand containment, Cal Fire said.

“Fire weather conditions are making it difficult to control the fire,” Cal Fire said in a statement. “Important structures like power lines, dams, and oil pipelines are at risk. To limit the spread and to increase containment fire crews are building and reinforcing fire lines around the permitter. Aviation assets are also being used to slow down the fire and to extinguish hot spots.”

Meanwhile, firefighters gained the upper hand on the Hesperia Fire, which also started on Saturday evening in San Bernardino County, triggering an evacuation warning for local residents. According to Cal Fire, the blaze, which burned 1,078 acres, was 72% contained on Tuesday morning.

Firefighters are also battling at least 11 other smaller wildfires across the state, which had all burned less than 1,000 acres, according to Cal Fire.

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(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.) — The shooter who killed five and injured over a dozen more at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2022 is expected to accept a plea deal Tuesday and be sentenced in connection with federal hate crimes charges.

Anderson Lee Aldrich is expected to plead guilty to each of the 74 charges of violating provisions of the Matthew Shepard And James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 as well as gun crimes in the Club Q shooting, according to court documents filed on Jan. 9.

Federal prosecutors are recommending a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, to be followed by a 190-year sentence of imprisonment, according to court documents filed on June 4. Prosecutors said in a Jan. 9 filing they would not be seeking the death penalty.

The sentencing recommendation details Aldrich’s alleged past use of online platforms “to express anti-gay and anti-transgender views,” use of anti-gay slurs and harassment of a gay co-worker in the years preceding the attack.

In addition to the federal charges, Aldrich was already sentenced to over 2,000 years in state prison in June 2023 after pleading guilty to five counts of murder in the first degree and 46 counts of attempted murder in the first degree. Aldrich pleaded no contest to two bias-motivated crimes.

Aldrich opened fire in Club Q with an AR-15 style rifle and was wearing a tactical vest with ballistic plates and had “at least two additional magazines loaded with ammunition,” on the night of Nov. 19, 2022. The club had just hosted a drag show that night as one of several events to honor Transgender Day of Remembrance on Nov. 20, according to court documents.

Aldrich was only stopped after two patrons forcibly removed their gun.

Daniel Davis Aston, Kelly Loving, Derrick Rump, Ashley Paugh and Raymond Green Vance were killed in the attack.

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(NEW YORK) — A person of interest is in custody in connection with the rape of a 13-year-old girl in a Queens, New York park last week, police sources told ABC News.

The person, an Ecuadorian migrant who entered the U.S. in 2021, was picked up overnight after community members recognized him from a photo and video released by police, according to the police sources. The person was taken to the hospital for evaluation.

The individual has several prior arrests since entering the U.S., sources said.

The sexual assault took place at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday when two schoolmates, a 13-year-old male and a 13-year-old female, were approached by a man in Kissena Park. The man flashed what police described as a “large machete-style knife” and forced the 13-year-old victims to walk for several minutes into a wooded area.

The individual then forcibly removed the cellphones of both victims, tied the boy and girl’s wrists together with a shoelace and sexually assaulted the female victim before fleeing the location on foot in an unknown direction.

The two 13-year-olds were taken to the hospital in stable condition after they returned to school to explain what happened.

Investigators recovered the shoelace used to tie the children’s hands together, along with a water bottle the suspect left behind.

The individual being sought was described as a Hispanic male, approximately 5-foot-5, in his 20s, with curly hair and last seen wearing red sneakers and carrying a green backpack. He appeared to have dental braces and had a tattoo of a boar or a bull with red eyes on his chest.

“The entire police department is focused on getting justice for this young survivor,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joe Kenny said last week during a press conference.

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(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s office on Tuesday said a current Boeing employee has come forward as a whistleblower, an announcement that comes hours before the airplane manufacturer’s chief executive is scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill.

The senator’s office identified the employee as Sam Mohawk, a quality assurance inspector for Boeing in Renton, Washington.

Mohawk alleges that Boeing is cutting corners by losing track of parts that have been labeled as non-conforming or not up to design standards, according to Blumenthal. Sometimes these parts get a second chance because they can be fixed or were mislabeled, but often they should be discarded. Still, the parts sometimes end up in newly built airplanes, Mohawk said, according to the senator.

“He said that he has been told by his supervisors to conceal this evidence from the FAA, and that he is being retaliated against as well,” Blumenthal said in a statement.

A Boeing spokesperson said the company had received on Monday evening the documents supplied to Blumenthal by the whistleblower. The company is reviewing the claims now, the spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“We continuously encourage employees to report all concerns as our priority is to ensure the safety of our airplanes and the flying public,” the spokesperson said.

The latest whistleblower is stepping forward as Boeing CEO David Calhoun prepares to sit for a Senate hearing on his company’s “broken safety culture” on Tuesday afternoon. Previous whistleblowers have accused the Arlington, Virginia-headquartered company of cutting corners on safety practices as it builds aircraft.

Blumenthal in his opening statement during Tuesday’s hearing is expected to press Calhoun on whether the executive has made progress turning the company around.

The senator will mention the incident in January when a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 shortly after takeoff. He’ll say that the “façade quite literally blew off the hollow shell that had been Boeing’s promises to the world,” according to excerpts of his prepared remarks viewed by ABC News.

“Mr. Calhoun, you were brought in turn this company around,” Blumenthal is expected to say, according to his prepared remarks. “But instead of asking what has caused Boeing’s safety culture to erode, you and your colleagues in the C-suite have deflected blame, looked the other way, and catered to your shareholders instead.”

Calhoun in January said Boeing was “accountable for what happened” during the Alaska flight.

“Whatever the specific cause of the accident might turn out to be, an event like this must simply not happen on an airplane that leaves one of our factories,” he said at the time. “We simply must be better. Our customers deserve better.”

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(NEW YORK) — Heat alerts have been issued for Tuesday in at least 19 states in the Midwest and Northeast, with some states expecting to see their hottest days in 30 years.

Areas in the Ohio Valley and up to Maine could see their warmest weather in three decades.

New York City is expecting a five-day heat wave with temperatures above 90 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

The city hasn’t experienced five consecutive days above 90 degrees since June 1988.

The heat wave brought record highs to at least six cities on Tuesday. Toledo, Ohio, hit 99; Chicago, Illinois, hit 97; Cleveland, Ohio, hit 96; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, hit 94; and Erie, Pennsylvania, hit 91. The sixth city, Syracuse, New York, touched a record 94 degrees on Tuesday and is expected on Wednesday to climb to 97.

The prolonged record heat is forecast to continue from the Ohio Valley and eastern Great Lakes to the I-95 corridor into this weekend.

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(LOS ANGELES) — A wind-whipped Southern California wildfire that started over the weekend ballooned to more than 15,600 acres on Monday, prompting the evacuation of more than 1,000 campers from a park, closing a popular recreation area on Father’s Day and threatening a major freeway in and out of Los Angeles, authorities said.

The Post Fire, which began after 2 p.m. PT on Saturday near Gorman, California, in the Tejon Pass area of Los Angeles County, saw flames jump from 5,000 acres to 14,625 acres by Sunday evening, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).

By mid-morning Monday, the fire spread to 15,610 acres, fueled by dry brush and wind gusts of 50 to 65 miles per hour, according to Cal Fire and National Weather Service. Firefighters managed to increase containment from 2% on Sunday to 8% on Monday, eventually reaching 20% containment Monday night, according to Cal Fire.

More than 1,140 firefighters, including air tankers and helicopter crews, are battling the fire from the ground and sky, authorities said.

Joe Sirard, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Oxnard, California, told ABC News a red flag warning signaling high fire risk has been issued for the area until at least 6 p.m. Tuesday. Sirard said gusty winds of more than 60 mph are forecast for the area Monday night.

Capt. Sheila Kelliher Berkoh of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said firefighting conditions were challenging due to the high wind gusts, low humidity of around 15% and temperatures in the low to mid-80s.

“It’s hot, it’s windy, it’s super slippery,” Berkoh told ABC News Monday of the area where firefighters are battling flames. “Those ridgelines are tough and with the fire coming at you, you can’t make a direct attack at that. So, you’re really trying to come around the side.”

She said 11 bulldozers were being used to cut containment lines as firefighters gained a handle on the fire from the ground.

Berkoh said firefighters are crossing their fingers and praying that the fire, now moving from the north to the west into remote vacant areas, doesn’t shift.

“Let’s hope that it doesn’t change direction and push the fire to the east because that’s into a little more populated area and then we’ll have a big fight on our hands,” Berkoh said.

Three hikers who were stranded when their off-road vehicle broke down in the fire zone had to be rescued Sunday morning, the Los Angeles County Fire Department told ABC News. The rescued hikers were taken to a hospital and treated for minor injuries, officials said.

At least one structure was destroyed by the fire, Cal Fire said. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

About 1,200 campers at the Hungry Valley Park State Vehicular Recreation Area were ordered to evacuate Saturday night, and authorities closed Pyramid Lake, which was expecting thousands of visitors for Father’s Day, due to the threat of the Post Fire, Cal Fire said.

The fire was burning parallel to Interstate 5, a major arterial highway in and out of Los Angeles. The freeway was briefly closed on Saturday, triggering a traffic jam, officials said.

Meanwhile, a second Southern California wildfire was burning near Hesperia in San Bernardino County. The blaze started about 6:49 p.m. PT on Saturday and had burned 1,078 acres by Sunday afternoon, according to Cal Fire.

The wind-driven fire was pushing east Sunday toward the Arrowhead Equestrian Estates in Hesperia, where residents remained under an evacuation warning Monday, according to Cal Fire.

The Hesperia Fire is 72% contained as of Monday evening. There are no immediate reports of injuries or damage and the cause remains under investigation.

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(NEWNAN, Ga.) — Six people died and five others were hurt in a house fire in Georgia early Monday, officials said.

Those who died ranged in age from 6 to 70 years old, Coweta County Coroner Richard Hawk said.

Firefighters responded to the house in Coweta County — about 40 miles southwest of Atlanta — around 5 a.m. and found more than half of the house engulfed in flames, Coweta County Fire Rescue said.

All 11 people inside the house were evacuated, according to fire rescue officials.

Six people died and five others were hospitalized, some with serious injuries, officials said.

One firefighter also suffered minor injuries, officials said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, according to officials.
 

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