Ghoulish Reporter Blasted For Asking To See Final Text Messages Between Man And His Wife Who Was On American Airlines Flight That Crashed In DC

Have some damn respect, man.

Absolutely heartbreaking news out of Washington DC last night, when a military helicopter on a training flight over the Potomac River collided with an American Airlines flight out of Wichita, Kansas that was on its final approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

It’s obviously still way too early to say what went wrong, but in air traffic control audio from the time before the incident you can hear controllers ask the helicopter whether they can see the plane. After confirming that they have the Bombardier CRJ-700 in sight, the two collide just a few seconds later and erupt into a fireball before crashing into the icy river.

Rescue operations continued throughout the night, but this morning officials provided a tragic update, announcing that there are not believed to be any survivors. American Airlines flight 5342 was believed to have been carrying 60 passengers and four crew, while three soldiers were aboard the helicopter, making it the deadliest airline disaster in the United States since November 2001.

As the tragic scene unfolded last night, the families of those onboard the plane were desperate for information, amid conflicting reports about whether survivors had been pulled from the water. But rather than give them privacy and space as they waited to learn the fate of their loved ones, one ghoulish reporter decided to shove a camera into the face of a man who whose wife was aboard the American Airlines flight.

Larry Miller, a reporter for local CBS affiliate WUSA9 in Washington DC, met a man who was waiting at DCA for information about his wife. The guy was clearly in shock and distraught, revealing that his wife had texted him just a few minutes before the crash to let him know that they were about to land.

And then for some reason, Miller asked to SEE the last text messages that the man exchanged from his wife, with the husband opening up his phone and telling Miller that his responses to the text never went through, and that’s when he was afraid that something had gone wrong.

Just absolutely heartbreaking, but why in the hell would you put a camera in that man’s face right now? Give him some space, dude. Your story and ratings can wait.

And the internet wasted no time in calling out Miller for his disgusting report:

https://twitter.com/_willcompton/status/1884828359084953816

https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1884822225380933943

https://twitter.com/SuperAndrea/status/1884822438212518349

https://twitter.com/TheTonus/status/1884822624557027817

https://twitter.com/jhomenuk/status/1884820461680308489

https://twitter.com/TheRoyGreenShow/status/1884974221010362600

https://twitter.com/Princesswikki/status/1884973287995822269

https://twitter.com/ChndlrVlndr/status/1884889668623245693

https://twitter.com/Similac6/status/1884822059823296992

https://twitter.com/tatianaryann18/status/1884945301435191592

https://twitter.com/BenGoldey/status/1884821353544495478

https://twitter.com/theajayjain/status/1884822191218229306

https://twitter.com/tnf_ii/status/1884959704788472280

https://twitter.com/MikeLester/status/1884966076536029271

Absolutely disgusting.

Of course now that we know there are likely no survivors, the focus will turn to recovering the victims and trying to find out what went so horribly wrong.

Late last night, President Donald Trump sent out a post claiming that the accident appeared to be preventable:

“The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”

It was also revealed that several passengers on the ill-fated flight were figure skaters returning from the US Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, with U.S. Figure Skating releasing a statement earlier this morning:

“U.S. Figure Skating can confirm that several members of our skating community were sadly aboard American Airlines Flight 5342, which collided with a helicopter yesterday evening in Washington, D.C. We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts.”

DCA is set to reopen this morning, and hopefully we’ll get some answers soon about just what went wrong in the tragic situation soon.