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8:43 AM PT -- A FAA spokesperson tells TMZ ... A Cessna 310 crashed around 10:20 a.m. local time on Friday, April 11, after departing from Boca Raton Airport in Florida. Three people were on board. The plane was headed to Tallahassee International Airport. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate. The NTSB will lead the investigation and provide any updates.

A small plane crashed into a car in Florida, sparking an inferno ... and the fiery aftermath is all on video.

Authorities tell TMZ ... a single-engine plane crashed into a car at 10:12 AM ET Friday in Boca Raton.

The crash happened near a busy intersection along Interstate 95... close to Boca Raton Airport, about 50 miles north of Miami.

The helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River was literally falling apart in mid-air ... with a new angle of the incident showing multiple mechanical pieces flying off the chopper into the river.

Watch the clip -- recorded by CCTV cameras -- of the Thursday afternoon crash ... the helicopter is flying along when what appear to be huge pieces of machinery, probably the rotor blades, come off, plummeting toward the Hudson and causing the helicopter to fall like a stone from the sky.

While the majority of the helicopter causes a huge splash, the other pieces cause smaller disturbances in the water -- though, these pieces of the helicopter must have been quite large to cause such splashes.

Wendy Williams is being forced to choose her friends very carefully ... at least if she wants to be allowed to leave her assisted living facility.

Wendy was all smiles Thursday night in NYC, as she was granted permission to go out to dinner with her niece Alex Finnie, Don Lemon, and his husband Tim Malone. The foursome hit up Italian eatery Il Cantinori in Greenwich village, and it's no wonder Wendy looked so happy -- because just 24 hours earlier, the guardianship refused to let her leave the facility.

TMZ broke the story ... Wendy was less than an hour from a Wednesday night dinner reservation when her guardian blocked her from leaving. While Wendy wasn't told why she couldn't go, it's looking clearer now.

On Wednesday, she was going out to eat with her niece ... and also powerhouse attorney Joe Tacopina -- he's now Wendy's personal lawyer, and intends to push hard to end the guardianship.

The helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River Thursday afternoon -- killing all six passengers -- was en route to its base to refuel, the tour company's CEO revealed.

New York Helicopter Tour CEO Michael Roth told the Telegraph the pilot, whose identity remains unknown, confirmed they were heading back to base for gas, adding ... "It should have taken him about three minutes to arrive, but 20 minutes later, he didn’t arrive."

The chopper plummeted into the Hudson just off Jersey City, N.J. at 3:15 PM local time. Though a rescue mission commenced immediately, no survivors were pulled from the craft.

A security guard tried to give a heads up to the band playing onstage right before the roof collapsed at the Dominican Republic nightclub that killed 221 people.

New video surfaced showing the moments before Tuesday's early morning tragedy at Jet Set Club in Santo Domingo -- and the guard dressed in a dark suit is seen on the side of the stage as merengue star Rubby Pérez performs in front of a packed crowd.

In the clip, the guard gestures at band members behind Pérez, then he shines a flashlight at them and says something. After that, the guard points the flashlight at the roof just before it collapses.

A helicopter plummeted from the skies above New York City on Thursday, crashing into the Hudson River -- and the terrifying incident was caught on video.

Multiple people have been killed, according to various local reports. Several shocked eyewitnesses recorded the chopper on video -- a portion of it can be seen at the surface of the water .... while the rest appeared to be submerged.

According to police, the helicopter came down near Pier 40 at Hudson River Park, but closer to the New Jersey side of the river, shortly after 3 PM local time.

A trans military helicopter pilot says she's the victim of a right-wing defamatory attack by a popular social media influencer ... just minutes after a Black Hawk helicopter crashed into an American Airlines jet ... killing all 67 people on board both aircrafts.

Jo Ellis is a Black Hawk helicopter pilot with the Virginia Army National Guard claims in a new lawsuit, she was smeared as the pilot involved in the tragic crash. Ellis says Matt Wallace, an influencer with 2.3 million followers, posted her picture and claimed she was the pilot of the doomed Black Hawk, alleging it was a "trans terror attack."

Wallace claimed Ellis intentionally crashed the chopper into the jet due to her "depression" and "Gender Dysphoria."

Actor and comedian Russell Brand won't be addressing the halls of higher learning this week after all ... a college in Florida has decided to reschedule a speaking engagement after confirming his attendance earlier this week -- all this in the wake of sexual assault allegations against him.

Brand -- who's facing charges in London of sexual assault by four women, as well as a lawsuit and an investigation in NYC on similar charges -- was set to take part in a panel discussion at the New College of Florida this weekend about free speech and censorship.

A spokesman for the college tells TMZ the decision to reschedule "follows changes in event logistics," listing the unavailability of the venue where the event was planned to be held, and citing ticket availability issues.

The death toll from the nightclub rooftop collapse tragedy in the Dominican Republic is on the rise ... with more than 100 people now reported dead.

General Juan Manuel Méndez -- director of the D.R.'s emergency operations center -- says at least 113 people were killed and another 155 were injured when the roof collapsed at the Jet Set nightclub. Merengue musician Rubby Pérez was among the dead.

National police are still conducting a search-and-rescue operation at the venue, located in the country's capital city, Santo Domingo.

Billy McFarland and the Fyre Festival 2 team are sticking by the location for the event ... claiming they've been working closely with Playa Del Carmen to ensure the festival happens -- despite the government's claims to the contrary.

Here's the deal ... earlier this week, officials for Playa Del Carmen -- a small town just south of Cancún in Mexico -- wrote a message in Spanish, part of which translates to "There is no existence of a registry nor plans that would indicate such an event taking place in this municipality."

They also add, "... No such event with that name will take place in our city" -- indicating they haven't even heard of the event before.

A soccer coach who a California family says was the last person who had contact with their dead son is a person of interest in the boy's disappearance and was arrested on an unrelated sexual assault case ... TMZ has confirmed.

Missing 13-year-old boy Oscar Omar Hernandez was found dead in a ditch earlier this week in Oxnard and his family says he was last seen with his soccer coach, 43-year-old Mario Edgardo Garcia Aquino.

Our law enforcement sources tell us ... Aquino was questioned by cops and was arrested ... but not for Oscar's death or disappearance.

Russell Brand has been spotted for the first time since being charged with rape and sexual assault in London over alleged incidents dating back to 1999.

The English comedian and actor was photographed walking outside Florida's Gasparilla Inn around 10:30 AM on Friday -- shortly after the charges were announced.

He appeared to be on a family vacation ... as he was on a stroll with his wife, Laura. Two of their three children were also photographed.

Has A.I. entered the White House? There's an interesting theory circulating social media claiming President Trump's new sweeping reciprocal tariffs -- slapping a minimum 10% tariff on nearly 100 countries -- were formulated with the help of artificial intelligence.

The theory comes after several X users claimed they duplicated the same tariff plan via OpenAI’s ChatGPT and similar programs.

For background, the White House announced it calculated the size of the trade deficit between the U.S. and a given country and divided that by how much America imports from the chosen country. That number was then divided in half, reaching the new tariff rate.

Crypto trader Jordan "Cobie" Fish shared a screenshot asking ChatGPT to "calculate the tariffs that should be imposed on other countries so that the US is on even playing fields when it comes to trade deficit" with a baseline of 10% ... and it answered with a noticeably similar plan to what the White House used.

ChatGPT warned Cobie the plan fails to take into account the "intricate dynamics of international trade -- such as elasticities, retaliatory measures, and supply chain nuances."

Plus, Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok created a similar plan when instructed with the same prompt. It also cautioned one must "consider production costs, subsidies, and labor standards abroad" when hoping to achieve an "even playing field."

Furthermore, Grok warned such a formula could cause "retaliation or higher costs for US consumers."

Other X users have noticed similar formulas generated via 4o, o3 high, Gemini 2.5 pro, and Claude 3.7.

Economist James Surowiecki says he was also able to reverse-engineer the "fake tariff rates" ... calling the simplicity of it all "extraordinary nonsense."

When Trump announced his new tariffs Thursday, he said they were necessary to boost domestic manufacturing, create revenue for the U.S. and restore fairness to global trade.

A UK mom walked into an unthinkable situation when she found her 1-year-old consuming her father's cremated remains ... and she even has video of the mortifying situation.

Check out the clip ... the Lincolnshire mother, Natasha Emeny, is in disbelief as she analyzes the shocking scene, which shows an empty urn with ashes surrounding it.

She pans the camera across the room to reveal mounds of ashes on her couch ... and her son's orange shirt and mouth covered with them. The redhead tot sounds upset as he appears to realize he did something wrong.

The trailer for the newest season of "South Park" was just released ... and, as usual, the creative team behind the show ain't holding back -- blending some of the biggest news stories in the world with the show's trademark irreverent humor.

Watch the video ... the trailer begins with a shot of a dark, live-action playground -- and, a message on the screen notes the "acclaimed drama" is returning.

Fan-favorite character Randy Marsh then pops up onscreen and offers his daughter ketamine ... explaining he feels she could really benefit from it.

8:14 AM PT -- A rep for Cory Booker confirms to TMZ he did not wear a diaper during his record-setting Senate speech ... meaning he gabbed for over 24 hours without going to the bathroom.

Cory Booker went full marathon mode this week, breaking the record for the longest Senate speech -- and he’s dishing on all the tricks he used to pull it off ... including how he avoided a single nature break.

At a press conference after his epic speech, the New Jersey Senator spilled the secret to his endurance -- he had fasted for days and cut out water beforehand, which definitely helped him dodge any mid-lecture bathroom breaks.

Cory gave more insight into how standing strong for 25 hours and 5 minutes in total came at a cost -- explaining that skipping water gave him some brutal muscle cramps along the way.