CNN news anchor Kaitlan Collins was moved to tears as she spoke to a heartbroken father who lost his wife and daughter in the tragic Washington, DC, plane crash.
Andy Beyer – the father of 12-year-old Brielle Beyer and husband of Justyna Beyer, 42 – sat down with Collins on ‘The Source’ Monday night, telling the journalist just how much his loved ones meant to him.
Brielle and Justyna were among the 67 people who lost their lives on Wednesday evening after an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet just as it was coming in to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Collins, who was visibly emotional throughout the entire interview, asked Andy how he’s been holding up since losing two of the most important people in his life.
‘I go through these moments of extreme sadness and tears. Then I get flat and numb. And then I feel guilty I’m not just crying all the time. You know?’ Andy said as he choked up.
Toward the end of their discussion, Collins asked the grieving father and husband how he’s able to talk about his loved ones and why it’s important for him to do so.
‘They, like all the victims, they deserve to be remembered. They deserve to have their story known to the world. I mean, everybody dies, right? And they live on through our memories, and I want them to have a memory of them so that they live on. That’s why I want to share their story,’ he said as he cried.
Collins soon wiped away tears from her face as she and Andy sat in silence for a few moments before she said: ‘Thank you for doing so, Andy, and I think everyone would be really touched to hear from you, so thank you for coming on to talk about that.’
CNN news anchor Kaitlan Collins teared up as a father and husband of two DC plane crash victims spoke about who they were on Monday night
Brielle Beyer, 12, and her mother Justyna Beyer, 42, were among the 67 people who died in the horrific crash last week after an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet
He detailed the exact moment he knew that something was wrong, telling the reporter that he and his son were waiting for the plane to arrive in a parking lot near the airport.
‘We were supposed to pick them up, me and my son, like we did from these trips all the time. We were waiting for them nearby Regan in a parking lot, and we were texting with them right before they were supposed to land and the tracker said landed and the texts went from blue to green,’ Andy explained.
‘Then firetrucks started going by and at that point I knew something was wrong,’ he said, adding that once he confirmed there was a crash, he broke the news to his son.
‘He came in the front seat with me. He had a really long cry. He let out a «No!» It really hurt. That’s how we found out before anything was really official. We already knew.’
Collins then asked what it was like being the father of Brielle, who was on the national skating team.
‘It was the most amazing gift that I could’ve asked for. I mean, all I ever wanted, when I was like a little kid, I remember just wanting a family to love, you know.
‘And we were living our dream, and she was like the dream girl that you could ask for. You know, my son is a dream son too – she was just the dream girl from the moment that I met her.
‘And she just kept exceeding our expectations from the time she was a baby to the time she was reading chapter books at age three, to how she excelled in figure skating and made friendships.
Andy said that he and his son were waiting in a parking lot near the airport when they suddenly saw firetrucks and ‘knew something was wrong.’ (Pictured: The moment the Black Hawk and commercial airliner collided)
Andy said that although many people tell you to ‘soak it all in’ with your family, he and his wife always did. (Pictured: The Beyer family)
‘She just was this social butterfly – smiled in the smallest moments, she was a joy and gift,’ he said.
Andy added that although many people tell you to ‘soak it all in’ with your family, he and his wife always did.
‘We did soak it all in, and you just never think that something like this could ever happen to you and that it could be taken away from you,’ the father said.
Collins then mentioned how Brielle beat cancer when she was just four months old.
‘Yeah, that was hard because that was like waking up to a nightmare, but at least it was hope then, you know?’ Andy replied.
‘And we went through so many cycles of loss and then relief, you know to get a bad result, and then there was still hope. And when she was finally more or less cleared, we just had this sense of relief.
‘And so, for this to happen after, we just didn’t think anything so bad could ever happen again. That cancer was like one in 100,000. Plane travel is supposed to be safe.’
Investigators are currently probing whether the crew of the Army Black Hawk helicopter were wearing night vision goggles at the time of the midair crash.
Investigators are currently probing whether the crew of the Army Black Hawk helicopter were wearing night vision goggles at the time of the midair crash. (Pictured: Part of the plane being recovered from the Potomac River on Monday)
The soldiers on board the military helicopter were performing a required night training when they crashed into the passenger airliner.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the crew ‘did have night-vision goggles’ with them, but did not say if they were in use at the time of the collision.
After the Army initially refused to identify the third pilot of the H-60 Black Hawk, they later named her as Captain Rebecca M. Loback, 28, from Durham, North Carolina.
Pilot in charge Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves and crew chief Staff Sergeant Ryan O’Hara were both named on Friday as the two others on board the helicopter.
Along with the plane passengers, four crew members lost their lives that fateful night – Captain Jonathan Campos, First Officer Samuel Lilley, and two flight attendants, Danasia Elder and Ian Epstein.
It was later revealed that both Campos and Lilley tried to pull the plane’s nose up in the last few seconds before the crash, according to preliminary data from the plane’s flight recorder.
At one point very close to the impact, there was a slight change in pitch, an increase in pitch,’ National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Todd Inman said in a press conference Saturday night.
