Inside Deadly LGA Crash, Alarming Scientist Deaths, Quadruple Amputee Murder Case: AM Update 3/25

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0:32Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Wednesday, March 25th, 2026, and this is your AM update. We have to rain in ice and stop the violence. We need reform. Now former Senator Mark Wayne Mullen officially sworn in as Homeland Security Secretary, jumping right into massive headaches at airports and in D.C. As DX did not generate an alert due to the close proximity of vehicles merging and unmerging near the runway. New details emerging about multiple breakdowns leading to the deadly Air Canada collision with a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport earlier this week. A bizarre series of deaths among scientists working on UFO research and technology has one U.S.

1:20congressman asking questions about a possible connection. And a wild story about a quadruple amputee athlete now accused of murder. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update.

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2:12Ready to see what you've been missing? Go to firecracker.farm and use code MK for 10 % off your hot salt. Better get to know it now before they run out again. All right, get to it. One more time, that's firecracker.farm. Attorney General Pam Bondi swearing in now former Republican Senator from Oklahoma, Mark Wayne Mullen yesterday as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, stepping into the role as the agency navigates a partial shutdown. Mr. Mullen tapped to replace former Secretary Kristi Noem, whose tenure unraveled amid a series of controversies, including scrutiny over a$220 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign, backlash tied to her handling of a recent ice surge in Minnesota, and allegations of an affair with colleague Corey Lewandowski.

3:00Now Secretary Mullen inheriting a department under immense strain, with critical functions like TSA forced to carry on without pay. Secretary Mullen from the Oval after taking the oath. I have made this very clear that I don't care what color your state is. I don't care if you're red or you're blue. At the end of the day, my job is to be Secretary of Homeland and to protect everybody the same. And we will do that. I'll fight every single day. Today I got the privilege of meeting so many of the employees at DHS. These employees have been there for 30 days without pay. And if you need anything to know their dedication to show up and still protect the homeland that you and I enjoy and the freedoms that we're experiencing.

3:45They're working for free because of political politics. That's all I need to know. I told them, if you're fighting 365 days, understand I'll be fighting 365 days besides you. DHS funding lapsing in mid-February, Senate Democrats refusing to provide the votes needed to reopen the department without reforms to immigration enforcement, like banning masks on ICE agents in the field and requiring judicial warrants for some arrests. Fox News' Chad Pergram yesterday reporting Senate Republicans working on a deal to fund most of DHS, with the exception of programs under ICE that Democrats find controversial.

4:24According to Pergram, the proposal would have funded ICE investigations into groups like cartels, traffickers, and child predators, but would have excluded funding for immigration enforcement and deportations. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer yesterday afternoon throwing cold water on that plan. Look, the bottom line is Democrats, and this is true of just every Democrat in my caucus, has been consistent all along. We have to rein in ICE and stop the violence. We need reform. Every one of my colleagues, everyone, A, believes that we should be unified, and B, We need reforms of ICE, every single one.

5:07And so the impasse continues, today marking the 39th day. ICE agents called in to assist overwhelmed TSA officers at airports, yesterday marking day two on the job. Airports around the country seeing some improvements in wait times. Here, reporting from CNN in Atlanta, ABC in Philly, and NBC in Phoenix. And there seems to be more lines open than normal right now with the TSA workers here. breezing people through. And we've also seen those ICE agents moving through today. A lot of folks are saying they're very pleasant. We are standing in the middle where travelers come to check in for TSA. Yesterday, this was all the way back to the garage.

5:46So good news today, lines aren't too bad. When you see ICE agents being deployed, what goes through your mind? I like it. I mean, I think Trump's going to hold it off. TSA agents set to miss their second full paycheck this weekend if a deal is not made on Capitol Hill. The National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, shining light on the final moments before the deadly Sunday night runway collision at LaGuardia Airport. An Air Canada regional jet arriving from Montreal, landing just before midnight when it collided with a Port Authority fire truck crossing the runway to respond to a separate emergency.

6:27Video showing the aircraft landing on the runway as the firetruck moves directly into its path. The impact crushing the nose of the plane, killing both pilots, identified as Captain Antoine Forrest and First Officer Mackenzie Gunther. Miraculously, no firefighters and no passengers on board the aircraft were killed. Six remain hospitalized as of last night. Many on board crediting the pilots with preventing an even greater catastrophe, describing an unusually hard landing and aggressive braking in the final seconds before the collision. At least 41 people were injured, including a flight attendant who, according to the New York Post, was thrown roughly 300 feet from the aircraft, found on the tarmac still strapped to her jump seat, suffering only a fractured leg.

7:18Audio from the control tower capturing the stunned reaction in the aftermath of the crash. That wasn't good to watch. Yeah, I know I was here. I tried to reach out to myself. We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up. No, man, you did the best you could. Investigators now focusing on four key areas that may have contributed to the crash, starting with a critical visibility gap on the ground. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy confirming the fire truck that entered the runway did not have a transponder installed, meaning controllers could not see its precise location in real time on their equipment.

7:55That lack of clarity compounded by a failure of the airport's runway safety system called Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X, or ASDX, described here by Homendy. ASDX is a runway safety system which allows air traffic controllers to track surface movement of aircraft and vehicles. Their analysis shows that the ASDX system did not alert. ASDX did not generate an alert due to the close proximity of vehicles merging and unmerging near the runway, resulting in the inability to create a track of high confidence. What it looks like on a replay are two blobs on Taxiway Delta. Hamendy also identifying a possible critical breakdown in radio communications.

8:48One minute before the crash, a vehicle at the airport, Hamendy did not make clear which one, making a radio transmission to the air traffic control tower that was reportedly stepped on, meaning interrupted or blocked by another transmission. The NTSB chair also addressing questions about staffing in the air traffic control tower, confirming two controllers were in the tower at the time, handling multiple roles per standard overnight practice. Hamandia indicating investigators are working through conflicting reports about who was tasked with tracking each movement on the tarmac. Flight recorder data recovered from the flight, revealing the chaotic final seconds before impact.

9:28Within seconds of touching down, Captain Forrest taking control of the aircraft, braking hard. FAA-licensed commercial pilot Anthony Roman yesterday on Fox, crediting the pilots for saving the lives of their passengers. I believe they sacrificed themselves by remaining in a straight line. They could have veered the aircraft to the right or left in an attempt to miss that truck, but that would have created a greater problem and probably more passengers severely injured and or lost. Coming up, a missing Air Force general, a vanished rocket scientist, and several other high-profile deaths in the American scientific community, leading a U.S.

10:15congressman to raise questions about a connection. And a bizarre murder case out of Maryland, a quadruple amputee athlete accused of killing a passenger while driving a car.

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11:52Congressman Tim Burchett, Republican from Tennessee raising concern about a disturbing potential pattern after a string of disappearances and deaths involving high-level scientists and military researchers. 68-year-old retired Air Force Major General William Neal McCasland, long connected to UFO programs, spent years overseeing highly classified research programs reported missing in late February after leaving his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. McCaslin's wife telling authorities he left home on foot with only a backpack and a revolver. According to his bio, McCaslin worked on a number of advanced defense and space programs, including serving as commander of the Air Force's$2.2 billion science and technology research lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, a facility where he is believed to have overseen the Air Force Space Weapons Program and UFO research, though the military denies it.

12:51Post-retirement, McCaslin briefly consulting with musician and co-founder of the band Blink-182, Tom DeLong, as DeLong began investigating how to push for more government transparency on UFOs. Eight months before McCaslin's disappearance in New Mexico, another rocket scientist vanishing from California. 60-year-old Monica Jacinto Reza reported missing on June 22nd after setting out on a hike in the Angeles National Forest. According to the New York Post, Reza hiking with two companions who say she disappeared during the outing, prompting a months-long search ultimately turning up no trace of her.

13:32Reza previously working as a materials scientist at a company called Aerojet Rocketdyne, where she helped invent a new kind of metal used in advanced propulsion rocket engines, the kind that are crucial for, you know, space travel. That research reportedly funded for years in part by the Air Force Research Laboratory overseen by General McCasland. Now, it remains unclear whether the two ever knew each other. In addition to these two disappearances, though, three more cases involving scientists in the fields of chemical biology, nuclear fusion, and astrophysics, who were recently murdered or found dead, also now drawing attention.

14:16In December, 47-year-old MIT physicist Nuno Loreiro shot and killed in Massachusetts. You may remember this case. Authorities identified the suspect as the man who also committed the mass shooting at Brown University. The suspect discovered days later dead in a storage unit of an apparent suicide. According to the Daily Mail, Lorero had recently been named director of MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center. In mid-February, 67-year-old astrophysicist Carl Grillmeier fatally shot outside his Yano, California home in the early morning hours. Police later arresting a man named Freddy Snyder for carjacking and then linking him to the shooting of Grillmeier.

15:01The Daily Mail reporting Grillmeyer played a key role in the discovery of water on a faraway planet, potentially pointing to signs of life 160 light-years away from Earth. On March 17th in Massachusetts, the body of 45-year-old pharmaceutical scientist Jason Thomas found in a lake. People magazine reporting Thomas had been struggling with the recent deaths of both of his parents, who reportedly died within one hour of each other. Thomas, the assistant director of chemical biology at Novartis, reported missing in December of last year. Thomas was reportedly working on using chemistry and biology to create new medicines, including for cancer.

15:42Novartis, his employer, has active contracts with the Pentagon. Local police noting there is no evidence of foul play, but not releasing a cause of death for Thomas. The growing number of disappearances and deaths now prompting questions about whether these cases are isolated, or possibly connected. Congressman Burchett, one of the leading voices in Congress pushing for transparency on UFOs, now referred to as UAPs or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, telling the Daily Mail the incidents are worth paying attention to. Quote, The numbers seem very high in these certain areas of research. I think we'd better be paying attention, and I don't think we should trust our government.

16:23The congressman also criticizing federal agencies, including the FBI, for what he describes as a lack of transparency on the missing scientists. Mr. Burchett describing General McCaslin's disappearance in February as a national security issue due to the general's past defense work. Congressman Burchett yesterday on The Benny Johnson Show saying the timing of these events raises the possibility of a conspiracy. The OV suggests there might be a conspiracy play. Well, they ought to start thinking there is because the FBI shows up when the guy's missing. He had some, everybody's thinking it's UFO, but he had some nuclear secrets.

16:59There's just too many of them disappearing, Benny. I'm just, nothing happens by coincidence in this town or around this town. Something's going on. It was the week after the president announced he was going to start releasing some of those files too. So America needs to start paying attention. Some of the UFO files? Yep. Yep. And that may be coincidental, but we had several folks who have left this earth or disappeared that had some close proximity to a lot of that. And that's been going on for a while. That's nothing new. This is the most bizarre story I've ever heard of, except for this next one.

17:40This next headline sounds more like a twisted game of Mad Libs than news. A quadruple amputee, cornhole champion, now charged with murder, and it only gets stranger from there. According to the Charles County Sheriff's Office in La Plata, Maryland, 27-year-old Dayton James Weber is accused of fatally shooting a passenger in his own vehicle Sunday night during an argument. Weber, who lost all four limbs as an infant after a severe bacterial infection led to sepsis, later becoming a competitive cornhole player. Because why not? earning national attention, including a 2023 ESPN profile. I'm thankful for the Lord and giving those surgeons the power that he did that day to be able to make such a miracle happen.

18:27Everybody's got their reasons for being here, but my reason I feel like is to inspire other people just by me doing my daily tasks. Investigators say Weber, the quadruple amputee, was driving a car when he picked up 27-year-old Bradrick Michael Wells, along with two additional passengers from work on Sunday, with Wells riding in the front seat. At some point, an argument broke out, and witnesses say Weber pulled a gun. How? We don't know. Shooting passenger Wells twice in the head. He then allegedly pulled over the vehicle, asking the other passengers for their help in removing Wells from the front seat.

19:07The two witnesses reportedly refused, then exited the vehicle as Weber drove away with Wells still in the front seat. The witnesses then flagging down police reporting the incident just before 10.30 p.m. About two hours later, a nearby resident calling 911 to report a body located in a yard. Wells pronounced dead at the scene. Weber's car located by the Albemarle County Police Department in Charlottesville, Virginia, about 140 miles away. The suspect found at a nearby hospital where he was receiving treatment for an undisclosed medical issue. There must have been many. He was taken into custody upon release from the hospital with authorities charging him as a fugitive from justice.

19:53Weber now facing first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and additional charges awaiting extradition back to Maryland. The case raising a central question, how did he do this? Authorities have not detailed how Weber was able to both operate the vehicle and carry out the shooting, you know, without any arms or legs. But social media videos posted by Weber show him to be an extremely capable person, shooting handguns, rifles, even climbing a ladder without assistance. How, you might ask? He has no prosthetics, but he does have stumps where his limbs used to be, and he's very good at using them.

20:34Charles County Sheriff's Office Media Relations Officer Diane Richardson releasing a statement that reads, quote, It's early in the investigation, but there's no evidence to suggest anyone else was involved in the shooting and that he acted alone. The defendant has yet to enter a plea, but as of now, we don't expect him to point the finger at anyone else. And that'll do it for your AM Update. I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for the MK Show, live on SiriusXM's The Megan Kelly Channel 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash megankelly, and on all podcast platforms.

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