Two employees at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority have been arrested over leaked video of an American Airlines passenger jet colliding with an Army helicopter.
The plane, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, was approaching Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night when it was hit by a Black Hawk Army helicopter conducting a training flight.
Footage of the incident quickly went viral, sparking several reactions online.
That video was leaked to CNN by two members of staff at the airport, authorities now say, according to ABC.
The duo have been charged with computer trespass for allegedly making an unauthorized copy of Airports Authority records.
Mohamed Lamine Mbengue, 21, of Rockville, Maryland, was arrested on January 31 over the breach. He was booked into Arlington County Adult Detention Center but later released.
Then on Sunday, 45-year-old Jonathan Savoy, from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, was arrested for the same incident. He was released on a summons by a magistrate.
According to Mail Online, data from the passenger jet’s flight recorder showed its altitude as 325 feet, plus or minus 25 feet, when the crash happened Wednesday night. Data in the control tower, though, showed the Black Hawk helicopter at 200 feet at the time.
The 100-foot discrepancy is yet to be explained, but if the impact did occur at 325ft, the crash would have occurred well-above the maximum allowed altitude of 200ft for helicopters in the area.
