(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has told his members to vote against the resolution brought forward by Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., that would impeach President Joe Biden when it comes to the floor later this week.
“I just think running something on the floor isn’t fair to the American public without making the case and making the argument,” McCarthy said of Boebert’s resolution, suggesting that bringing the resolution to the House floor for a vote at this time could serve to discredit the ongoing GOP investigations.
Boebert sits on the powerful House Oversight Committee and McCarthy said she should be working through that committee given the panel has been investigating matters associated with the Biden administration.
“She’s on Oversight. She should work through Oversight and this investigation. I think we’re much stronger when we work as a team,” he said.
McCarthy said, “We won’t use impeachment for political purposes. We will follow our investigations exactly as we say we would. We’re uncovering something new every day.”
McCarthy repeated these sentiments earlier Wednesday morning to his conference and according to several members in the meeting, McCarthy acknowledged impeachment could pose a threat to the GOP’s slim majority.
“What majority do we want to be? Give it right back in two years or hold it for a decade and make real change?” McCarthy said at the meeting, according to one member.
Several Republicans left the meeting Wednesday morning unhappy with the resolution and with Boebert, who did not attend the conference meeting Wednesday morning.
“We should get to the facts of that [impeachment]. But just doing a privilege motion is wrong. And it’s not right for the country. It’s not right for the House. We, I think that people deserve better,” Rep. Don Bacon told ABC News.
Bacon said he thinks a large majority of Republicans think the move to vote on impeachment is “wrong” and “impeachment is a very serious thing as you go through committee.”
“Impeachment shouldn’t be something that is frivolous and treated in that way,” Bacon said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who herself has introduced impeachment articles against Biden and has a contentious relationship with Boebert, criticized Boebert’s resolution, calling her a “copycat” but saying she will “of course” support the resolution. Greene said she addressed the conference about impeachment, saying it’s the “right thing to do” and pledged to convert all her articles of impeachment to privileged resolutions.
The White House blasted Boebert’s impeachment effort.
“Instead of working with [the president] on the issues that matter most to Americans, like jobs and inflation and health care, extreme House Republicans are staging baseless political stunts that do nothing to help real people, just to try to get attention for themselves,” Ian Sams, White House spokesman for oversight and investigations, tweeted in response to Boebert.
Boebert’s two articles of impeachment, introduced earlier this month, accuse Biden of “unconstitutional dereliction of duty at the southern border” and abuse of power. She revealed Tuesday her intent to bring the articles to the floor for a vote via a privileged motion.
While McCarthy has poured cold water on Boebert’s proposal, he has used Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s resolution to censure Schiff as an example of how Republicans should be holding Democrats accountable.
Although Luna’s first effort to censure Schiff for what she said was his “egregious abuse of the trust of the American people” failed when 20 Republicans joined Democrats in voting to table the resolution, she announced earlier this week her intent to revive the effort, this time stripped of a provision that would have fined Schiff $16 million.
Both McCarthy and Luna have said they expect the revised resolution to pass.
“A majority of 20 are switching their vote to support the new resolution and some members who were out of town will be voting with us. Based on our count, Adam Schiff will be investigated by ethics and censured,” she tweeted Tuesday.
The conference took a key step in its consideration of the Schiff censure resolution Wednesday afternoon, when the House voted 218-208 to strike down a motion to table the resolution.
(WASHINGTON) — The Equality Act, which would protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination, has been reintroduced by four Democratic legislators.
Several representatives – including Representatives Mark Takano and Hakeem Jeffries and Senators Jeff Merkley, Tammy Baldwin, and Cory Booker – are behind the bill, which comes amid a nationwide rise in anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment that has led to an increase in violence and threats against the queer community.
“When I was elected in 2012, I became the first openly gay person of color to serve in Congress,” said Takano at a Wednesday press conference. “Now, we’ve come a long way since then, and the progress towards equality that we’ve made is the result of battles that have been fought for the civil rights of our community over the course of decades.”
He continued, “Yet today, we face a wave of backlash in response to that progress.”
The bill would expand federal civil rights law to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in areas such as public facilities, education, federal funding, employment, housing, credit, and the jury system.
Almost 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced so far this year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. This includes restrictions on LGBTQ+ content in schools, gender-affirming care for transgender youth, and more.
“The purpose of these laws is to facilitate a rise in political extremism by alienating and isolating LGBTQ+ Americans, and the impact of these laws is alarming,” said Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign.
Robinson continued, “It has been nearly a decade since this bill was first introduced … It is time for Congress to catch up with our country and pass the Equality Act.”
The HRC, one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organizations, declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States earlier this month.
The organization cited the record-breaking wave of legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community and an increasingly hostile environment.
The news follows warnings from the Department of Homeland Security about growing threats of violence and extremism against LGBTQ+ people.
“President Lyndon Johnson said that ‘freedom is a right to share. fully and equally in American society,’ ‘the right to be treated in every part of our national life as a person equal in dignity and promise to all others,'” Merkley said at the press conference.
He continued, “We are here at this moment when that is not the case in America.”
(NEW YORK) — New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana are under heat alerts Wednesday with the heat index — what the temperature feels like with humidity — expected to reach as high as 122 degrees in some areas.
Temperatures hit records on Tuesday and more are possible across Texas on Wednesday, including in Houston, where it could be up to 99 degrees; San Angelo, where it could be up to 110 degrees; Midland, where it could be up to 108 degrees; and Laredo, where it could be up to 113 degrees.
Temperatures in San Angelo and Del Rio, Texas, hit all-time record highs on Tuesday, reaching 114 degrees and 113 degrees, respectively.
The hottest place in the country Tuesday was Rio Grande Village, Texas, where temperatures reached 118 degrees. Record highs were reported all the way to North Dakota. Grand Forks hit 100 degrees, while Fargo reached 98 degrees and Jamestown hit 99.
Also, a new round of severe weather is expected Wednesday in the western Plains from South Dakota to western Texas, with the biggest threat being damaging winds and large hail.
Temperatures will cool slightly after Wednesday with thunderstorms rolling through, but temperatures are still expected to be above seasonal norms. Extreme heat will be back by next week.
Six states from Florida to Virginia are under flood alerts for more heavy rain over the next 48 to 72 hours.
Some areas could see additional 5 to 7 inches of rain and more flooding is expected.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — A cheek swab taken from Bryan Kohberger is a statistical match to DNA evidence found at the Moscow, Idaho, crime scene where four University of Idaho students were murdered late last year, according to new court documents.
Kohberger, a 28-year-old criminology Ph.D. student at Washington State University, is accused of fatally stabbing Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21.
Investigators found a Ka-Bar knife sheath on the bed with the bodies of Mogen and Goncalves. The sheath was face down, partially under Mogen’s body and the comforter on the bed, according to court documents.
DNA evidence was found on the Ka-Bar knife sheath that came from a single source that was male.
After assuming the investigation from Idaho State Police, the FBI submitted the possible suspect DNA to publicly available genetic genealogy services to determine potential relatives of the suspect. The FBI then used common genealogical techniques to develop a family tree that led to Kohberger.
The DNA was 5.37 octillion times more likely to be Kohberger’s than a random person from the general population, according to the documents.
Law enforcement previously said they had obtained DNA from the knife sheath and matched it to DNA from Kohberger’s father found in the trash outside the family home. Now, the new documents show a match directly from a cheek swab taken from Kohberger.
Kohberger, was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains on Dec. 30. Kohberger, who was arrested on four counts of first-degree murder and burglary, has been extradited from Pennsylvania to Idaho. He is being held awaiting trial.
The judge entered a not guilty plea on Kohberger’s behalf last month.
(QUINCY, Wash.) — A 26-year-old active-duty member of the U.S. Army has been identified as the suspected gunman who shot five people, two fatally, at a campground near a music festival in Washington state over the weekend, authorities said.
The soldier, Spc. James M. Kelly, who is stationed at the Joint Base Lewis McChord, was taken into custody after he was shot and wounded by an undercover police detective, who once served in the U.S. Marines, according to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office.
The shooting unfolded about 8:25 p.m. Saturday at a campground near the Gorge Amphitheatre in Quincy, Washington, which at the time was hosting the Beyond Wonderland electronic music festival.
Kelly was treated at a hospital for his injuries and booked at the Grant County Jail on suspicion of murder, officials said.
It was not immediately clear is Kelly has hired an attorney or will be appointed a public defender.
A motive for the deadly shooting rampage remains under investigation by the sheriff’s office and the North Central Washington Special Investigations Unit.
Killed in the incident were 29-year-old Brandy Escamilla and her fiancée, Josilyn Ruiz, 26, both of Seattle, according to the Grant County Coroner’s Office.
The sheriff’s office identified the victims wounded in the shooting as 31-year-old Andrew “August Morningstar” Caudra of Eugene, Oregon; 20-year-old Lily A. Luksich of Millcreek, Washington; and 61-year-old Lori Williams, who was working as a security guard at the music festival.
Luksich attended the music festival with Kelly, who allegedly shot her in her lower extremities, according to the sheriff’s office.
Williams was responding to the shooting in a utility task vehicle when she came under fire.
“During her response, she encountered the suspect who shot in her direction multiple times,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “Williams was struck by a single bullet that penetrated the windshield and struck her in the right side of her face, shattering her glasses and causing bruising and lacerations.”
Escamilla and Ruiz were walking through the campground when they were randomly shot and killed, officials said.
Undercover Det. Edgar Salazar, a member of the Moses Lake Police Department, also responded to the reports of gunfire and confronted Kelly, whom he located with Luksich in an agricultural field adjacent to the campground, according to the sheriff’s office. Kelly was allegedly firing randomly into a crowd when he was shot by Salazar, the sheriff’s office said.
Other law enforcement officers took Kelly into custody and provided him with medical aid.
The 35-year-old Salazar, who was working undercover at the music festival, previously served in the U.S. Marines and is a firearms instructor and street crimes detective, according to the sheriff’s office.
The shooting prompted promoters of the electronic dance festival to cancel the event’s second day.
Lt. Col. Mike Burns, a U.S. Army Special Operations Command spokesman, said in a statement that Kelly joined the Army in 2021 and is a fire support specialist assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
(NEW YORK) — Hunter Biden’s plea agreement and pretrial diversion has been assigned to a federal judge who was appointed by President Donald Trump, but in the past has supported presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle.
U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika of the District of Delaware has been assigned to the case, according to a docket entry Wednesday, and will have the power to either approve or reject a plea agreement prosecutors brokered with Hunter Biden’s legal team.
Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, agreed to a plea deal Tuesday regarding a pair of tax-related misdemeanors and a deferred prosecution agreement on a felony gun charge following a five-year Justice Department probe.
Despite her appointment to the federal bench by a Republican, Noreika’s nomination was initially endorsed by two Democratic U.S. lawmakers, Delaware Sens. Chris Coons and Tom Carper, according to paperwork Noreika filed as part of her confirmation process.
She has in the past has contributed to both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, giving $2,500 to Mitt Romney in 2012, $2,300 to John McCain in 2008 and $1,000 to Hillary Clinton the same year, according to campaign disclosure filings.
Noreika also donated several thousand dollars to Tom Cotton’s Senate campaign between 2013 and 2014, and $1,000 to Rick Santorum’s Senate campaign in 2005.
She has not made any federal political contributions in the last nine years.
A native of Western Pennsylvania, Noreika attended Lehigh University and Columbia University before enrolling at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, where she graduated summa cum laude in 1993. She spent more than 25 years in private practice in Wilmington, Delaware, where her practice focused on patent law, before her nomination to the district court in 2017.
As part of his plea deal, the younger Biden will acknowledge his failure to pay taxes on income he received in 2017 and 2018, according to the agreement. For the gun charge, he will agree to pretrial diversion, with the charge being dropped if he adheres to certain terms.
He will likely avoid jail time if Noreika signs off on the deal.
The agreement would potentially end a yearslong probe by the Justice Department, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
(BUCHAREST, Romania) — Andrew Tate, the notorious influencer detained in December by Romanian officials, made his first court appearance as a defendant on Wednesday after being charged with rape, human trafficking and creating an organized crime group.
Tate faces the charges along with his brother, Tristan, another internet personality, and two women, both Romanian nationals, prosecutors said. The court hearing on Wednesday was intended to establish whether they would remain under house arrest, or face a lighter form of judicial surveillance that would allow them to leave their Bucharest compound.
A decision on their detention is expected to be handed down Friday.
Neither of the Tate brothers responded to ABC News’ questions outside the court, though Andrew Tate did issue a short statement to the assembled media following the hearing.
Tate, who has amassed a huge online following and continues to be active on social media, thanked his supporters and said, “we are not the first affluent and wealthy men who have been unfairly attacked.”
“I also want to give a very special thanks to Romania and Romanian people,” Tate said. “The number of Romanian people who send me messages is absolutely fantastic. This is my home, I love this country, I’m gonna stay here regardless no matter what, and I look forward to being found innocent.”
Andrew and Tristan Tate, along with two women, both Romanian nationals, were charged on Tuesday with rape, human trafficking and creating an organized crime group, local prosecutors said in a statement.
No trial date has been set, and such trials can take years in the Romanian judicial system.
They have all been in police custody — first in jail, then under house arrest — for about six months as they awaited the full charges.
“Tate’s legal team are prepared to cooperate fully with the appropriate authorities, presenting all necessary evidence to exonerate the brothers and expose any misinterpretations or false accusations,” a spokesperson for the siblings told ABC News on Tuesday.
ABC News’ Dragana Jovanovic contributed to this story.
(WASHINGTON) — Congress is in a race against the clock to regulate artificial intelligence and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is unrolling the early-stage steps that the chamber will take to try to get a handle on the rapidly evolving technology.
Artificial intelligence, or AI, poses potential peril to humankind, science and technology experts warned last month, writing in a statement posted on the Center for AI Safety’s website that “mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”
Now, Congress is wading into the regulatory space, with leaders from both parties leading efforts to educate their members on and draft legislation around regulating artificial intelligence.
Schumer outlined early steps Wednesday for how Congress can rise to the challenge of regulating the industry before it’s too late.
“We have no choice but to acknowledge that AI’s changes are coming, and in many cases are already here. We ignore them at our own peril,” his prepared remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies read. “Many want to ignore AI because it’s so complex. But when it comes to AI, we cannot be ostriches sticking our heads in the sand. The question is: what role does Congress and the federal government have in this new revolution?” Schumer said.
Schumer’s SAFE Innovation framework, unveiled Wednesday, outlines four pillars that he hopes will guide future bipartisan collaboration on legislation governing AI: security, accountability, protecting our foundations and explainability. Lawmakers, Schumer said, should focus their efforts on ensuring U.S. security pertaining to AI and accountability to ensure issues like misinformation and bias are addressed. AI should also uphold democratic values, and lawmakers should understand why it chooses certain outputs, Schumer said.
The framework is not legislative text, and it’s not clear how long it will take for Congress to begin putting together legislative proposals. There has not yet been any legislation introduced in Congress to deal with regulating AI, though a bicameral group of lawmakers introduced a proposal earlier this week that would create a blue-ribbon commission to study AI’s impact.
Schumer is encouraging his committee chairs to work with top committee Republicans to begin drafting regulatory proposals.
To aid in that effort, he’s calling in the experts. In addition to the new framework, Schumer announced plans Wednesday to convene a series of forums this fall that will bring together industry leaders to discuss with one another and educate members on AI.
The goal, Schumer said, is to put Congress in a position to regulate before AI presents serious issues. It’s a relatively new approach for Congress, which typically reacts to issues as they bubble up.
“By the time we act, AI will have evolved into something new,” Schumer will say “AI is evolving so quickly — but also has such complexity — that a new approach is required.”
Schumer isn’t the only leader convening experts to discuss the subject. Earlier this year, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy hosted two AI experts from MIT for an all-member session, Fox News reported. The Senate heard from one of those professors, Antonio Torralba, at a separate session earlier this month.
The administration is also turning its attention to AI.
President Joe Biden appeared at a roundtable event focused on AI in California on Tuesday, describing artificial intelligence as something that has “enormous promise and its risks.”
The president added that next month, Vice President Kamala Harris will lead a meeting of “civil rights leaders of America, consumer protection groups and civil society to continue our administration’s ongoing engagement on AI.”
ABC News’ Fritz Farrow contributed to this report.
File image of the Titan submersible prior to commence diving. (Ocean Gate)
(NEW YORK) — A submersible carrying five people has gone missing while on a tour of the underwater wreckage of the Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
The deep-sea vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, lost contact about an hour and 45 minutes after submerging on Sunday morning with a 96-hour oxygen supply. The United States Coast Guard, in coordination with the Canadian Coast Guard and the Canadian Armed Forces, immediately launched a search and rescue operation for the 21-foot sealed craft, named Titan.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 21, 9:00 AM EDT
Would-be crew member of missing sub speaks out
Digital marketing tycoon Chris Brown originally planned to go on Sunday’s submersible tour of the Titanic wreckage but withdrew due to safety concerns. His friend, Hamish Harding, is among those aboard the missing vessel.
Brown, who described himself as a “modern day adventurer,” admitted that he knew “very little” about the tour operator, OceanGate Expeditions, prior to signing up. But he said the deep-sea trip initially sounded “like a great idea.”
“The Titanic’s obviously an iconic wreck,” Brown told ABC News’ Michael Strahan during an interview Wednesday on Good Morning America.
“OceanGate had put forward this program to go down and do a 3D scan of the wreck,” he added. “So it’s a chance for an expedition, exploration and adding a bit of science into the situation.”
Brown said safety concerns ultimately led him to pull out of the trip, but he declined to go into detail.
“I’m not really sure that this is the time to be going into that sort of thing,” he added. “I think that the focus right now has to be on trying to rescue these people. It’s not fair on the families and friends to be making speculation about what might’ve happened or how it happened at this point.”
Brown said he feels “no” apprehension about joining similar projects in the future but noted that it’s important to “think about all the risks.”
“If you don’t have an appetite for those risks, then you might not go ahead,” he said. “You may try and mitigate those by bringing in some expertise from outside. You might have other risks or dangers that could be mitigated by changing the time of when you go out there.”
Jun 21, 7:33 AM EDT
New details emerge about how the missing sub navigated the ocean
The submersible that was reported missing while on a tour of the underwater wreckage of the Titanic is an unorthodox vessel with a relatively unproven history, according to company press materials and experts familiar with underwater vehicles.
News of the vessel’s disappearance prompted a flurry of interest in the company OceanGate Expeditions and its deep-sea submersible called the Titan.
The company’s founder and CEO, Stockton Rush, who is one of the five people aboard the missing vessel, manned the Titan’s first “validation dive” to 4,000 meters in 2018, according to the company. The company then began offering tourists the opportunity to dive to the depths of the Titanic in the following years, selling tickets for the 2023 journey for $250,000.
Jun 21, 6:57 AM EDT
‘Banging’ picked up by sonar in search area, source says
A source familiar confirmed to ABC News that there were reports of “banging” that were picked up by sonar in the search area on Tuesday morning, but nothing has yet been found.
The U.S. Coast Guard had said early Wednesday that an aircraft with sonar capability “detected underwater noises in the search area,” but remotely operated vehicles were unable to find the origin of the sound.
Jun 21, 6:34 AM EDT
Titanic mapping company ‘fully mobilized’ to help
Magellan, an international exploration company that digitally mapped the Titanic wreckage last year, said Wednesday that it is “ready to support” the search for the missing submersible and is “fully mobilized to help.”
The U.K.-based company told ABC News that it was contacted by the submersible’s operator, OceanGate Expeditions, early Monday and “immediately offered our knowledge of the specific site and also our expertise operating at depth considerably in advance of what is required for this incident.”
“We have been working full-time with U.K. and U.S. agencies to secure the necessary air support to move our specialist equipment and support crew,” Magellan said in a statement.
When asked for comment about media reports that U.S. authorities have failed to give Magellan the necessary permits to participate in the search, the company told ABC News it “does not not wish to comment on any specific media report.”
Jun 21, 12:34 AM EDT
USCG: Canadian aircraft detected ‘underwater noises’ but search ‘yielded negative results’
“Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted early Wednesday morning. “As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue.”
The data from the P-3 has been shared with U.S. Navy experts for further analysis, the Coast Guard added.
Jun 21, 12:34 AM EDT
Lawsuit alleged flaws with Titanic sub now missing
A former employee of OceanGate alleged in a 2018 counterclaim lawsuit that he was fired for raising concerns about quality control and testing of potential flaws in the same experimental submersible that went missing this week.
David Lochridge, an engineer and submarine pilot, claimed in his counterclaim against OceanGate that he was hired in 2015 by the Everett, Washington, company to ensure the safety of all crew and clients during the submersible and surface operations of the vessel called Titan. But when he expressed concerns about the design and testing of the minisub’s hull, he said he was terminated by the company.
OceanGate had initially sued Lochridge alleging, among other things, breach of contract, fraud and misappropriation of trade secrets — all claims he denied.
In its lawsuit, OceanGate accused Lochridge of breaching his contract by discussing the company’s confidential information with the Occupational Health and Safety Administration “when he filed a false report claiming that he was discharged in retaliation for being a whistleblower.”
Jun 20, 10:15 PM EDT
Latest Coast Guard bulletin spells out timeline for missing sub search
The U.S. Coast Guard sent out its latest release Tuesday night on the search for the missing submersible at the Titanic crash site.
According to the latest release:
Sunday, June 18, 8 a.m. ET: Submersible launches, supposed to resurface at 3 p.m., but an hour and 45 minutes into the dive, it loses contact.
Sunday, June 18, 5:40 p.m. ET: Coast Guard receives report of overdue submersible.
Monday, June 19: Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and C-130 Hercules aircraft, as well as a Canadian P8 aircraft equipped with underwater sonar capability, search for the missing submersible, according to a previous release.
Tuesday, June 20, 7 a.m. ET: Bahamian research vessel Deep Energy arrives.
Tuesday, June 20, 4 p.m. ET: C-130 crew from Air National Guard 106th arrives.
Jun 20, 8:33 PM EDT
Experts expressed Titan safety concerns in 2018 letter
Members of a committee specializing in submersibles expressed “unanimous concern regarding the development” of Titan in a 2018 letter addressed to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who is one of the passengers aboard the missing vessel.
The letter was obtained by The New York Times and was later authenticated by ABC News.
The letter warned of possible “catastrophic” problems with Titan’s development that could have “serious consequences for everyone in the industry.” The letter goes on to say that OceanGate’s safety claims were “misleading to the public” and insisted Titan be reviewed by a third-party organization.
The letter, which was addressed from the Marine Technology Society, was never approved to be sent to OceanGate though was quickly leaked to its CEO, according to committee chair William Kohnen.
“The letter did represent in 2018 the consensus by many people in the industry that they were not considering following the standard safety protocols and designs that the industry uses,” Kohnen told ABC News.
Though he wishes it was not leaked at the time, nor now to The New York Times, Kohnen said he stands by the letter and its warnings.
“The company had indicated that their state of innovation was beyond, beyond what was allowable within the regulatory standards we have today and that they would proceed without certification,” Kohnen said. “That worried a number of people in the industry.”
Kohnen acknowledged that OceanGate did “heed” some of the comments made in the 2018 letter.
-ABC News’ Amanda Maile and Victor Ordoñez
Jun 20, 6:02 PM EDT
NASA weighs in on missing submersible
NASA released a statement Tuesday on the Titan, saying it remains “hopeful the crew will be found unharmed.”
“NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center had a Space Act Agreement with OceanGate, and consulted on materials and manufacturing processes for the submersible. NASA did not conduct testing and manufacturing via its workforce or facilities,” the agency said.
-ABC News’ Gina Sunseri
Jun 20, 6:17 PM EDT
Search teams have covered 7,600 square miles
Search and rescue teams have now covered 7,600 square miles — an area bigger than the state of Connecticut — as they scour the ocean for the missing submersible, Coast Guard officials said.
A grid depicting the expanding search area is expected Tuesday night, according to a public information affairs lieutenant for the First District of the U.S. Coast Guard.
-ABC News’ Miles Cohen
Jun 20, 3:09 PM EDT
US Navy sending salvage experts, equipment to help with submersible
The U.S. Navy said it’s sending to the search site experts and equipment “designed to provide reliable deep ocean lifting capacity for the recovery of large, bulky, and heavy undersea objects.”
The equipment, which can lift up to 60,000 pounds, and the experts will arrive in Canada Tuesday night, the Navy said.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said earlier Tuesday that the Navy was”on standby” to help with the search for the missing submersible, because the Navy has “some deep-water capabilities that the Coast Guard wouldn’t necessarily have.”
President Joe Biden is “watching events closely,” Kirby said, adding that Biden and the White House offer their thoughts “to the crew onboard, as well as to the — what is no doubt — worried family members back on shore.”
Jun 20, 1:24 PM EDT
3 Air Force C-17’s transporting equipment to Newfoundland
Three U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft will be transporting commercial equipment from Buffalo, New York, to Newfoundland, Canada, to help with the search efforts, according to a U.S. official.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 20, 1:16 PM EDT
Search area larger than Connecticut, about 41 hours of oxygen left
Efforts to locate the missing submersible are ongoing, and the “complex” search covers an area larger than the state of Connecticut, Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick said at a news conference Tuesday.
Crews are scouring the ocean 900 miles east of Cape Cod and 400 miles south of St. John’s, Canada, he said.
The missing five-person crew on the submersible has about 41 hours of oxygen left, Frederick noted.
“We will do everything in our power to effect a rescue,” Frederick said.
“We have a group of our nation’s best experts,” he said, and once the sub is located, “those experts will be looking at what the next course of action is” to rescue the crew members.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the crew and their families and their loved ones,” Frederick added.
Jun 20, 12:58 PM EDT
Former ABC News correspondent recounts moment his sub was trapped in Titanic’s propeller
In 2000, Dr. Michael Guillen, then an ABC News correspondent, was filming from the wreck of the Titanic when his vessel became trapped in the propeller.
“When we collided with the propeller, and I started seeing those big chunks of metal raining down on us … the first reaction I had was, ‘This can’t be happening,'” he recalled to ABC News on Tuesday.
“We got caught by this underwater turn and just drove us right into the blades,” Guillen said.
“This voice came into my head and said, you know, ‘This is how it’s going to end for you,'” he recalled. “I’ll never forget those words.”
“I’m very aware of what these poor souls on board the ship the Titan are experiencing,” he said. “I am just heartbroken about it.”
Jun 20, 11:35 AM EDT
French sending assistance
At the request of French President Emmanuel Macron, a French ship named Atalante is diverting to the area of the missing submissive and should reach the area Wednesday night.
The ship has an exploration robot that can dive up to 4,000 meters, according to a spokesman for France’s Ifremer Institute.
Jun 20, 9:04 AM EDT
‘It’s a race against time’
Per Wimmer, an explorer and global financier, told ABC News he was “shocked” and “horrified” to hear of the missing submersible.
“It felt very personal. … I’ve been wanting to go down to the Titanic for more than a decade,” Wimmer said.
He estimated that there’s been between 150 and 200 missions to the Titanic.
There “are very, very few submersibles in the whole world that can go down to the depth of Titanic, which sits at 3,800 meters, or about 12,000 feet,” Wimmer said. “It’s very deep — most submersibles can go down to about 1,000 meters.”
“It’s a race against time, because there’s only 96 hours of oxygen on board. And after that, if you haven’t reached the surface, you starve of oxygen,” he said.
“Our best hope at the moment is that the safety mechanism will be activated,” he said. “It is supposed to be able to float to the surface, little by little, and then they can open the hatch and hopefully get out again. That is the only hope we have, because you do not have enough time to get another submersible that can go that deep.”
Jun 20, 8:19 AM EDT
What to know about the 5 people aboard the missing sub
Renowned explorers and a father-son duo were among the five people aboard a submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday while touring the Titanic wreckage, ABC News has learned.
ABC News has confirmed and identified four of those on aboard as Hamish Harding, a British businessman, pilot and space tourist; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French diver and Titanic expert; Shahzada Dawood, a Pakistani businessman, and his son Suleman Dawood.
Jun 20, 7:48 AM EDT
US Coast Guard commander talks search for missing sub
The United States Coast Guard commander leading the search for a missing submersible off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, said Tuesday morning that crews in multiple aircraft have flown over an area of the Atlantic Ocean “roughly about the size of Connecticut” while “looking for any signs of surfacing.”
“As we continue on with the search, we’re expanding our capabilities to be able to search under the water as well,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, told ABC News’ Robin Roberts during an interview on Good Morning America.
A commercial vessel with remotely operated vehicles is now on scene that will allow rescuers to search underwater, according to Mauger.
“This is a complex case,” he added. “The Coast Guard doesn’t have all the resources to be able to affect this kind of rescue, although this is an area that’s within our search zone.”
In many cases, Mauger said, the Coast Guard’s role is to coordinate all of the assets and technical expertise that can be used in a search, in addition to operating aircraft or ships when necessary.
“In this particular case, we’ve established a unified command with the United States Navy, with the Canadian Armed Forces, with the Canadian Coast Guard and with the private operator OceanGate Expeditions to make sure that we understand what’s needed and deploy all available equipment to the scene that could be used to locate this submersible, whether it’s on the surface or down beneath the surface,” he said.
Crews have been working “around the clock” to locate the deep-sea vessel since it lost contact with its operator on Sunday morning, according to Mauger.
In the last 24 hours, a Canadian aircraft has been dropping sonar buoys into the water that can pick up sound the submersible may be emitting. Vessels that have the capability to listen with their own sonar equipment are also on scene, according to Mauger.
“If they are making sound, that’s certainly one of the ways that we’re going to use to locate them,” he said.
Jun 20, 6:18 AM EDT
Missing sub is believed to be deeper than NATO rescue capability
A tourist submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday is believed to be at depths that greatly exceed the capabilities of the NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS), according to a spokesperson for the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense.
“As the host nation for NATO’s multinational submarine rescue capability, we continue to monitor the incident in the North Atlantic and will guide and assist in any response activity as appropriate,” the spokesperson told ABC News in a statement on Tuesday.
The U.K. has not been approached to offer assistance in the ongoing search for the deep-sea vessel off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, according to the spokesperson.
Initial reports indicate that the depths of water involved greatly exceed that which the NSRS team can safely operate — 610 meters for the NSRS submersible and 1,000 meters for the NSRS remotely operated vehicle, according to the spokesperson.
The NSRS is based at the home of the U.K. Royal Navy Submarine Service in HM Naval Base Clyde, the U.K. Royal Navy’s headquarters in Scotland. Introduced in 2006, the tri-national capability team can respond to a stricken submarine in rescuable water which is capable of mating with the NSRS submarine rescue vehicle, according to the spokesperson.
Jun 20, 5:03 AM EDT
Former Navy sub captain on rescue options
Rescuers racing against the clock to save the five people trapped in a tourist submersible nearly two miles deep in the Atlantic Ocean are facing major obstacles that could make saving the people onboard extremely difficult, according to a former U.S. Navy submarine commander.
Retired Capt. David Marquet told ABC News on Monday that this type of rescue operation is complicated because there aren’t nearby U.S. or Canadian underwater vessels that can go as deep as the Titanic wreckage, which sits 13,400 feet below the ocean’s surface. Also, the ocean is pitch black at that depth.
“The odds are against them,” Marquet said. “There’s a ship in Boston that has this ability to either lower cable and connect to it or have a claw. It’s still a thousand miles away.”
Even if a vessel was able to locate the submersible and lower a cable, it’s extremely difficult to safely navigate the waters and attach it, according to Marquet.
“You’ve got to get it exactly right,” he told ABC News. “It’s sort of like … getting one of those toys out of those arcade machines. In general, you miss.”
Rescuers do have one advantage, Marquet said, as weather conditions off the coast of Newfoundland are not rough and will not disturb any boat or vessel there.
Marquet added that if the five people aboard are still alive, they would be asked to sleep to conserve their oxygen.
“We would put the vast majority of the crew to sleep because that’s when you’re using the least amount of oxygen and you’re expelling the least amount of carbon dioxide,” he said.
Jun 20, 4:27 AM EDT
What to know about the missing sub
A submersible on a tour of the Titanic wreckage was reported overdue by its operator OceanGate Expeditions on Sunday, prompting the United States Coast Guard to launch a search and rescue effort for the 22-foot, 23,000-pound vessel.
Designed with life support to sustain five crew members for 96 hours, the submersible would need to be rescued in three days to save its five passengers, according to the Coast Guard.
Stockton Rush founded Washington-based OceanGate in 2009 to make deep-sea exploration more accessible to scientists and tourists. Fourteen years, more than 200 dives and three submersible designs later, the company now finds itself in a desperate search to recover the submersible carrying five people aboard that’s gone missing off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
OceanGate confirmed Monday it had lost contact with a submersible, saying in a statement: “We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely. Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families. We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”
(LONDON) — A Delta Airlines pilot has been arrested in Scotland for allegedly being over the alcohol limit, known as the “Drink-Fly” limit, police said.
Lawrence Russell Jr., 62, was charged under the Section 93 of the Railways and Transportation Safety Act and appeared on Monday afternoon at Edinburgh Sheriff’s Court, according to the court. He had been arrested at about 10 a.m. Friday at Edinburgh Airport, a Police Scotland spokesperson told ABC News.
Russell made no plea to the charge and has been remanded in custody, “committed for further examination,” a Police Scotland spokesperson told ABC News.
Russell is expected to appear in court again “within the next eight days,” the court’s press office told ABC News.
Russell was scheduled to be the pilot of Delta flight DL209, which was bound for New York’s JFK airport, from Edinburgh, Scotland, Delta said. The EDI-JFK flight was subsequently cancelled, with alternative flights provided to customers, the airline said.
In a statement, Delta said: “Delta confirms that one of its crew was taken into custody this morning at EDI Airport. Delta is assisting the authorities with their ongoing enquiries … we apologise to customers impacted by the cancellation.”
According to the U.K. Railways and Transport Safety Act, a person commits an offense if “he performs an aviation function at a time when the proportion of alcohol in his breath, blood or urine exceeds the prescribed limit.”
In the case of breath, the prescribed limit is 9 micrograms of alcohol per 100 milliliters, and 20 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters in the case of blood, according to the Act.
Delta pilot Gabriel Lyle Schroeder was arrested in Sept. 2019 at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport for allegedly attempting to fly while intoxicated, police said at the time.
In a statement sent to ABC News, Delta said its alcohol policy is “among the strictest in the industry” and that the company is “cooperating with local authorities” as they investigate in Scotland.
