Two employees of the authority that manages Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport were arrested over their alleged involvement in leaking surveillance footage of last week’s deadly midair aircraft collision to CNN.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) staffers are accused of making an unauthorized copy of records and are facing charges of computer trespass, the agency said Monday.
The legal trouble is tied to the chilling video obtained by CNN last week that offered a horrifying new vantage point to crash over the Potomac River, ABC News reported.
The Wednesday night collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet killed all 67 people on both aircrafts.
The exclusive videos gave a closer and clearer look at the air disaster, including one clip in which the chopper is darting from the left side of the screen as the American Airlines flight approached the airport.
A second short clip shows the Black Hawk, which was carrying three soldiers, and the Bombardier CRJ700 steaming toward each other before the two smash into each other and explode.
Both videos were shot on cell phones, CNN reported Friday.
Mohamed Lamine Mbengue, 21, of Rockville Maryland was charged Friday and Jonathan Savoy, 45, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, was charged Sunday, the MWAA said in an email.
Mbengue was booked into Arlington County Adult Detention Center and later released while Savoy was issued a summons by the magistrate and cut loose.
The airport authority did not divulge further details Monday night.
The authority was created by Congress more than 30 years ago and is tasked, in part, with operating Reagan National and Dulles International airports.
Officials began pulling the wreckage of the doomed American Airline flight Monday as most victims’ bodies have been recovered from the icy river.
After parts from the plane are taken to shore, the Black Hawk chopper will then be recovered.
The military helicopter was carrying Army Capt. Rebecca Lobach, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves and Staff Sgt. Ryan O’Hara while the commercial flight was bringing home more than dozen people connected to the tight-knit figure skating world.
Questions remain over how the midair crash could have happened with an investigation by a federal agency ongoing.
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