67 people have been confirmed dead after American Airlines flight 5342 and a U.S. army Black Hawk helicopter collided and crashed into the Potomac River late Wednesday night.
The crash took place just 30 seconds before the plane was about to land at Reagan National airport just outside of Washington D.C. after departing from Wichita, Kansas. The flight, carrying 4 crew members and 60 passengers, and the helicopter, carrying 3 soldiers, have all been confirmed dead after being plunged into the icy Potomac River following an explosive collision.
Reagan National airport operates in one of the most complex airspaces in the U.S., with the D.C. airspace seeing a high volume of commercial jets and military aircrafts. The chief executive of American Airlines, Robert Isom, has said the collision took place, “on an otherwise normal approach”, and it has been confirmed that both the passenger jet and the helicopter were operating on standard flight paths.
Though many questions remain unanswered as to what precisely led to the fatal crash, it has been revealed that the army helicopter had been flying at a height of 350 feet when it was supposed to be flying below the plane at a height of 200 feet. It has also been revealed that at the time of the collision there had been only one air traffic controller, juggling a job meant for two, which has been clued to have led to the miscommunications leading up to the crash. A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman said the agency could not comment on the ongoing investigation, which is being led by the National Transportation Safety Board.
In the wake of the midair collision, President Trump has declared it to be an “hour of anguish for our nation”. Mr. Trump then proceeded to blame diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs as well as former democratic presidents and their “big push to put diversity into the FAA’s program,” as the leading cause of Wednesday night’s disaster, seeming more comfortable exhibiting blame than consolation.
Just eight days prior to the airborne accident that took place over the Potomac, President Trump eliminated all members of a key aviation security advisory group and fired the heads of the Transportation Security Administration as a part of his efforts to remake the Department of Homeland Security and his “commitment to eliminating the misuse of resources and ensuring that the DHS activities prioritize our national security.”
The Aviation Security Advisory Committee, which was mandated by Congress after the 1988 PanAm 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, will continue to exist but without any members to carry out the duty of examining safety issues at airlines and airports.
The Trump administration has also put into a place a hiring freeze and return-to-work mandates for many government facets it deems “disagreeable”. It is possible this could have affected federal aviation employees, though to what extent it is unclear.
Democratic lawmakers believe the hiring freeze applies to air traffic controllers. Rick Larsen, the ranking member of the House committee on transportation and infrastructure, issued a statement saying, “Hiring air traffic controllers is the No 1 safety issue according to the entire aviation industry. Instead of working to improve aviation safety and lower costs for hardworking American families, the administration is choosing to spread bogus DEI claims to justify this decision.”
When asked by reporters as to whether he was getting ahead of himself in blaming DEI initiatives for the crash, President Trump simply responded, “I have common sense, OK?”
