BREAKING NEWS Investigators reveal disturbing new detail from Hudson River helicopter crash that killed six in NYC
Haunting loud bangs were the last sounds heard from a helicopter moments before it crashed into New York's Hudson River - killing a family of five and the pilot.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the horrifying April 11 crash.
On Wednesday, a preliminary report revealed that witnesses told investigators they heard defeaning 'loud bangs' erupting from the helicopter in the sky, moments before it broke apart into three pieces.
Agustín Escobar, a Siemens executive from Spain, his wife Merce Camprubi Montal and their three children aged four, eight and ten were killed when the sightseeing chopper plummeted into the Hudson River.
The family were on vacation in New York to celebrate the birthday of one of their daughters.
A rotor blade was seen in extraordinary video plummeting into the water, with aviation experts saying that this likely occurred because the main rotor blades separated from the aircraft and sliced the tail.
This is a breaking news story. More to come.
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Daily Mail
17 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Innocent Arizona grandmother arrested and hauled away to jail while gardening after being mistaken for fugitive
An innocent Arizona grandmother wrongfully arrested by US Marshals is suing the government after she was bundled into the back of an unmarked car while gardening. Penny McCarthy, 67, had been working in her front yard last March when six agents approached her with their guns drawn and arrested her. The 67-year-old had been misidentified by the authorities as a 'Carole Rozak' and despite her desperate pleas she was taken in. In a federal lawsuit filed June 10, McCarthy says she spent the next 24 hours in their custody as she begged with agents they had the wrong person. According to the filing, McCarthy said she was fingerprinted and had her DNA taken before she was bused to a federal detention center in Florence. McCarthy said in the filing that over the course of those 24 hours she was strip searched three times. During a press conference in which she recalling the incident McCarthy started to cry and described to reporters how she is a survivor of domestic child abuse. She said: 'I have to be strip searched by one woman for something I didn't do, and then I'm told I'm going to be detained.' She filed her suit under the Fourth Amendment which protects citizens from unreasonable false arrests. The filing says she has asked for compensatory and punitive damages against the US Marshals Service for their 'tortious and unconstitutional acts and omissions'. She is also filing under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows people to sue the federal government when federal officers cause them harm. McCarthy says she was kept in a 'cold cell' overnight before being back in court the next day for an identity hearing, the complaint adds. Her attorneys said in the filing: 'Eventually the government confirmed that Penny's fingerprints and DNA do not match Rozak's and ended the proceedings.' The judge released her after prosecutors asked for more time to get the results of her fingerprints and DNA. The government then dismissed the case against her. She now says she fears being left alone and taking her dog for a walk. McCarthy added that the psychological effects from the ordeal caused her to sell her home and move out of the state. She said: 'I'm still afraid that one day I will be pulled over and again mistaken for a criminal. 'I'm suing because I don't want this to happen to anyone else. Unless someone is held responsible, someone else will go through this same nightmare.' McCarthy spoke with ABC15 after the incident, telling the outlet: 'I truly felt like I was being kidnapped.' Terrifying body camera video showed the moment she was arrested by rifle-wielding officers who barked commands at her. The federal agents rolled up to McCarthy's Phoenix home with guns drawn and immediately told her to put her 'hands up!'. 'We have an arrest warrant,' a federal agent is heard saying on the video. 'For me?' McCarthy responded. 'Yes. For you,' the officer said. 'Who am I?' she asked, seemingly wanting the officers to confirm that she was in fact the person they were looking to apprehend. Multiple agents can be heard in the clip screaming at her and giving her conflicting orders. 'Turn away. Turn around. Turn away. We'll discuss it later. Turn away. You're gonna get hit,' they said. McCarthy is being represented by the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm, who specialize in cases involving abuses of power. Senior Attorney Paul Avelar said: 'The officers' misidentifying Penny was inexcusable and violated state and federal law. 'To make matters worse, even if Penny had been the fugitive they were looking for, the officers' over-the-top display of force was uncalled for, given that the fugitive was wanted only for failing to check in with a probation officer after being released from prison twenty-five years ago for nonviolent crimes.' Rozak, the woman agents said Penny was, was wanted for an outstanding parole violation from 1999. All the crimes she served time for were non-violent in nature, but after her release, she failed to meet with any federal probation officer, according to records. In a statement the US Marshals Service in Arizona said: 'The US Marshals Service acknowledges that Ms Penny McCarthy was mistakenly arrested.'
Daily Mail
17 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
New Orleans jail escapee's 'Bonnie and Clyde' accomplice revealed
The girlfriend of one of the inmates who escaped in the huge New Orleans jail break has been arrested while her 'on-again, off-again' lover remains on the lam. Former prison guard Darriana Burton, 28, was charged with 'conspiracy to commit simple escape' after 10 inmates broke free from the Orleans Parish Jail in Louisiana on May 16. Her boyfriend, convicted killer Derrick Groves, 27, is one of two inmates not yet captured. Burton allegedly had 'intentional and active involvement in the planning phase' and is accused of picking up at least one of the inmates after the escape, according to the Louisiana's Attorney General's Office. Burton participated in a video call with Groves two days before the escape and held up another phone to the camera for another, unknown man, to join the conversation and discuss the escape outside the jail's monitoring systems, according to an affidavit obtained by Fox 8. The pair called again later that evening, during which the three had another conversation. This time, the unidentified man reportedly said the prison break plan was a 'bad move' and could 'trigger a manhunt.' Detectives believe, however, that at this point outside contacts had been made aware of the plan and it was already underway. Burton previously worked at the Sheriff's Office from 2022 until she was arrested and charged for bringing contraband into the jail and malfeasance in office in 2023, according to a statement from Attorney General Liz Murrill. Ten prisoners were captured on shocking video footage escaping from the Orleans Parish Jail in New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 16 Groves is one of two inmates who remain at large after ten escaped through a wall behind a prison toilet. The group of escapees used a blanket to protect themselves from the barbed wired fence. He has been linked to four killings, and authorities warned that he may be violent or attempt to locate witnesses in his murder trial. Groves was accused for attempted second-degree murder at 17, but was eventually found not guilty, according to court records obtained by CNN. Then, he was convicted for the second time last year of two charges on second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder for the 2018 shooting on Mardi Gras. Groves was found to have be one of two gunmen who opened fire on 'what should have been joyous Mardi Gras family gathering' with AK-47-style assault rifles, according to the District Attorney's Office. He was found guilty of killing Jamar Robinson and Byron Jackson as well as the attempt on the life of two other victims who were shot. Groves' aunt, Jasmine Groves, pleaded with her nephew to turn himself in to avoid any deadly force in attempts to return him into custody. 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Sterling Williams (pictured), 33, has been arrested for helping a group of violent criminals escape by allegedly turning off the water to their cell block The group of escapees were also said to have been aided by a prison maintenance worker, Sterling Williams, who allegedly turned off the water to the cell they broke out of. Williams said he was forced to do so and the inmates threatened to 'shank' him if he refused, Massey said in his Instagram video, however, that wasn't true. 'Sterling flat-out lied on me,' Massey said. Police have arrested more than a dozen alleged accomplices since the escape last month, including the grandmother of one of the escapees who allegedly helped him escape. Connie Weeden, 59, is accused of helping her grandson Jermaine Donald and allegedly was in regular contact with him before and after the jailbreak. 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The Independent
29 minutes ago
- The Independent
Pentagon investigator admits to faking dozens of Top Secret security clearance background checks
A federal contractor tasked with performing background checks on Department of Defense employees seeking high-level security clearances copped to submitting reams of bogus reports when she claimed to have thoroughly vetted candidates who, in fact, had not been properly checked out. Of 39 allegedly fraudulent investigations Nousheen Qureshi carried out over the course of more than a year for the Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency, at least a half-dozen included fabricated 'interviews' with people who later said they had never even heard from her at all, according to a plea agreement obtained first by The Independent. 'The results of the background investigations conducted by [Qureshi] were used to determine whether to grant security clearances to individuals at various levels, including and up to Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information ('TS/SCI') access,' states the plea agreement, which was unsealed Tuesday in Santa Ana, California federal court. 'To conduct the investigations, [Qureshi] herself had TS/SCI clearance.' Qureshi, a Mission Viejo, California, resident, worked at the time for CACI International, a $7.7 billion Virginia-based conglomerate that bills itself as being 'ever vigilant in helping our customers meet their greatest challenges in national security.' Each of the 299 background investigations she turned in between July 2020 and August 2021 had to be re-worked by the agency, costing taxpayers nearly $250,000 extra, according to the plea agreement. Qureshi was subsequently hired by two other companies to run background checks for the Department of Homeland Security, doing more than 600 of them until her past finally came to light and she was removed from all DHS projects, the plea agreement says. Tucker Atkins, Qureshi's court-appointed lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Since the September 11 terrorist attacks there has been a tremendous increase in the number of security clearances issued by the federal government, according to attorney Dan Meyer, a former U.S. Navy officer who is now a national security partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Tully Rinckey, PLLC. As the system has become more and more overloaded, investigators have seen their workloads double, triple or even quadruple to as many as 40 cases a week, Meyer told The Independent. Along with this, the incentive to cut corners has also increased, said Meyer. 'And once they start falsifying documents, there's a greater incentive to falsify documents because you've got to hide it once you've done it,' he said. Further, Meyer pointed out, the Trump administration has publicly undercut the importance of rigorous security clearances, where he said sends a message out to the rank-and-file, 'who start to think, 'Hey, maybe this isn't so important.'' A sham background report such as those generated by Qureshi can lead to extremely serious counterintelligence issues, according to Seamus Hughes, a senior researcher at the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center, a partnership between the University of Nebraska at Omaha and DHS. 'Intelligence officials are trusted with some of the nation's most important secrets. Fabricating background interviews and gaming the process has the potential to put those secrets at serious risk,' Hughes told The Independent. 'There's been an increasing number of criminal cases recently against government employees with high-level security clearances leaking classified information. A thorough security clearance review is paramount to preventing such disclosures.' The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency is responsible for ensuring U.S. government job candidates, as well as those already on the payroll, can be trusted with, among other things, classified information. As 'America's gatekeeper,' the Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency conducts over two million background checks each year on people applying for both civilian and military roles, and reinvestigates current employees' security clearances at regular intervals. Qureshi began working at CACI in June 2018, and was assigned to the Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency security clearance investigations, according to her plea agreement. 'In that capacity, [Qureshi] conducted background investigations for the Department of Defense,' the plea agreement says. 'The investigations included applicants for DoD employment, DoD employee background reinvestigations, and investigations for security clearances of defense contractors' employees.' Qureshi was responsible for interviewing friends, acquaintances, and associates of those under investigation, and writing reports on her findings, according to the plea filing. It says the clearances in question went all the way up to the TS/SCI level, which allows individuals with a demonstrated 'need to know' to access highly classified materials. To ensure security clearance investigations are being done properly, the agency's Quality Management Oversight Group randomly selects reports to review and re-contacts the individuals interviewed with written questionnaires about the process, the plea explains. In June 2021, amid a routine probe into one of Qureshi's reports, the agency heard from 'J.F.,' a person she had spoken to as part of background investigation into a Top Secret security clearance candidate identified in the plea filing as 'M.C.' 'J.F.'s response to DCSA stated that he provided information to [Qureshi] about M.C.'s drug use,' the plea states. '[Qureshi's] report of J.F.'s interview did not contain this derogatory information.' It also says that Qureshi 'willfully falsely reported that she had interviewed M.C.'s landlord, S.R., and that S.R. stated that M.C. had lived at a Lancaster, California residence alone.' However, the plea filing goes on, Qureshi 'well knew' that she had not interviewed S.R., and S.R. 'had not stated M.C. lived alone.' 'In a subsequent interview with S.R., DCIS Special Agents learned that M.C. lived at the Lancaster residence with four roommates and that two rooms at the residence were used as vacation rentals,' the plea continues, adding that Qureshi's 'false statements were material to the decisions' that followed by DCSA as to granting M.C. a security clearance. The plea agreement, which does not specify if M.C.'s clearance was ultimately approved or not, says CACI then pulled a sample of Qureshi's other background investigations, to recheck her work. Of the cases CACI reviewed, it came to find out that 'six individuals claimed they had not been interviewed' at all by Qureshi, who, the plea maintains, 'submitted six separate reports stating that she had interviewed those individuals and provided factual narratives of their conversations.' As a result, the plea says CACI fired Qureshi in August 2021. Once she was gone, the Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency 'reworked the 299 background investigations' Qureshi had conducted over the prior year, for which she had spoken to 1,025 sources, according to the plea. In all, it says special agents discovered no fewer than 39 false reports, and pegs the cost of redoing them at $240,306.04. Two months later, Qureshi hired on as an investigator at a pair of other federal contractors, Omniplex World Services Corporation and ADC Ltd., the plea filing states. It says the two companies had contracts with DHS to perform background checks on prospective employees applying for jobs at the agency. Between late October 2021 and February 2024, when the DHS Office of Inspector General connected the dots and had Qureshi removed from all assignments connected to the agency, she conducted 608 background investigations on applicants to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to the plea. Messages seeking comment sent on Wednesday to CACI, Omniplex and ADC went unanswered. In 2020, another CACI employee conducting security clearance investigations for DCSA pleaded guilty to fabricating nearly 70 reports in 11 months. Two years later, a Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency staffer pleaded guilty to falsifying reports as part of security clearance investigations. In 2024, another agency investigator pleaded guilty to near-identical charges, admitting to having made up more than 40 security clearance interviews that never actually took place. Qureshi pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements, a charge that carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. In Qureshi's case, however, prosecutors are recommending she be sentenced to probation and home detention. Qureshi is due to appear in court on June 16.
