Around 9 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, American Eagle Flight No. 5342 collided with a Black Hawk helicopter and crash landed into the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C.
The American Eagle flight was carrying 60 passengers and 4 crew on a routine flight from Wichita, Kansas to Reagan National Airport. The Black Hawk was carrying 3 soldiers. At least 40 bodies have been recovered so far but Chief John Donnelly, District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services, said the efforts have changed from a rescue operation to a recovery operation as all 67 souls are presumed dead.
So, what happened? The Black Hawk was on a training flight for a Battalion which normally secures the air above the capitol. One air traffic control worker was in charge of managing the helicopters and some planes from the Reagan National Airport tower. According to the FAA, this is normally a job done by two controllers in the tower.
Just last week, Convicted Felon, Donald Trump fired top officials from the FAA and thousands of federal workers for being what he called, 'DEI hires'. This seems to have led at staffing shortages at the Reagan National Airport tower in charge of the airspace where the crash occurred.
In his press conference covering the crash, Convicted Felon Donald Trump passed the blame for the crash on everyone else. At one point, he blamed the Biden administration for the staffing shortage in the tower then went on to blame DEI hires.
Trump said, "We have to have our smartest people...It doesn't matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are...They have to be talented, naturally talented. Geniuses. Can't have regular people doing their job. We can't have regular people doing this job. They won't be able to do it, but we'll restore faith in American air travel."
Reporters asked Trump why he was implying DEI hires were the cause of the crash or what evidence he has to support his claims that regular people who didn't deserve the job and he responded with the following.
"...people with severe disabilities are the most underrepresented segment of the workforce, that they want them (to be) air traffic controllers. I don't think so." Trump replied.
Later the same day, the White House released a memo which blamed the Biden administration for recruiting "individuals with 'severe intellectual' disabilities in the FAA."
When pressed on the question of why he believes DEI hires of women, African American, LGBTQ and disabled individuals were to blame for Wednesday's crash, Trump said "It just could have been."
Trump continued to say the Obama and Biden administrations lowered requirements for air traffic controllers in service of DEI. He said, "Their policy was horrible, and their politics was even worse."
It is important to note that experts in the field currently feel everything points to Trump's firing of everyone he personally saw as a DEI hire was at least partially to blame for the crash. But rather than take responsibility or console the nearly 70 families of those lost, he continues to blame gays, women, African American, and disabled people while blaming his favorite talking points, Obama and Biden.
An NTSB investigation is currently ongoing to find everything that went wrong during the moments leading up to the crash.
SOURCES:
Комментарии