Trump condemns U.S. air traffic management after deadly midair collision in Washington

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Donald Trump launched a lengthy attack on hiring practices in the military and the Federal Aviation Administration in the wake of the deadliest day in U.S. aviation in 15 years, condemning what he described as efforts to hand control of the country’s airspace to people with severe intellectual and physical disabilities.

Mr. Trump acknowledged he had no evidence that such practices contributed to a tragedy that continued to unfold as he spoke, with emergency responders operating from boats around the wreckage of a passenger jet in which 64 people are presumed dead. No Canadians were on board.

The Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet, operated as American Eagle Flight 5342, collided with a military helicopter while on final approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Wednesday night, plunging into the Potomac River six kilometres from the White House.

“I have common sense, okay, and unfortunately, a lot of people don’t,” Mr. Trump said.

What we know so far about the fatal mid-air crash in Washington, D.C.

The three soldiers on board the U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, manufactured by Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sikorsky Aircraft, are also presumed dead. They had been conducting what U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth called routine annual retraining, on a night flight down a standard air corridor along the Potomac.

The crash appears to be the worst air disaster in the U.S. since 2009, when a Colgan Air Bombardier Q400 fell from the sky into a neighbourhood outside Buffalo, killing 50.

Those on the Wednesday night flight from Wichita, Kan., included athletes, coaches and family members who had been in the state for a national development camp held for young skaters, governing body U.S. Figure Skating said. Also on the plane were 1994 world champion pairs skaters Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, a married couple, Russian state media reported.

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Mr. Trump called the crash “an hour of anguish for our nation.”

But his expression of sympathy quickly gave way to a lengthy condemnation of diversity practices he described as being at odds with securing “geniuses” to critical safety jobs. In particular, he suggested that FAA has sought to elevate people with psychological and mental disabilities into critical roles.

“They want them in and they want them – they can be air-traffic controllers,” Mr. Trump said. “I don’t think so.”

The FAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But on a web page where it describes hiring people with targeted disabilities, it makes no mention of air-traffic controllers, making reference instead to positions such as administrative assistants or accountants.

An internal FAA report obtained by U.S. media said one controller was working two positions at the time of the crash, although such an arrangement is not unusual, experts have said.

Mr. Trump expressed amazement at the circumstances of the crash, which occurred at 8:48 p.m. Wednesday. It was a clear night with extensive visibility, and the two aircraft were operating on normal flight paths. Video footage showed a brightly illuminated jet descending toward the airport as the helicopter flew along the river, before the two vehicles collided in an explosion.

The helicopter “had vision of the plane,” Mr. Trump said.

In radio recordings, the helicopter’s pilot also confirmed visual contact with the American jet. Controllers instructed the Black Hawk to pass behind the jet.

“A mistake was made,” Mr. Hegseth said, pointing to “some sort of an elevation issue” that is now under investigation.

Reagan airport is situated across the Potomac from Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, and airspace in the area is often busy with a mix of civilian and military flights. Past videos posted to social media by passengers have shown commercial aircraft flying out of the airport and passing over military helicopters below.

The passenger jet was on “an otherwise normal approach,” American Airlines chief executive Robert Isom said Thursday.

Jinna Han, 13, and Spencer Lane, 16, were among the skaters killed, said Doug Zeghibe, CEO of the Skating Club of Boston, which lost six members in the crash.

“I certainly don’t have any answers. I really can’t believe that it happened,” said Tenley Albright, a 1956 Olympic gold medallist who was the first American woman to win a world championship. Her grief-stricken reflection stood in stark contrast to Mr. Trump’s political remarks.

“I picture them right here,” she said, gesturing at an empty ice surface behind her.

“It’s just terrible, and it’s sad, and we just feel we need to be together, and that’s why you see so many hugs today.”

In the figure-skating community, the crash brought back memories of a 1961 plane crash near Brussels that killed all 18 members of the U.S. national team at the time, in addition to 16 people travelling with them.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy called this week’s crash “preventable.”

“Whether it was air-traffic control, whether it was military aircraft – helicopters – or the American flight, everything was standard in the lead-up to the crash,” he said.

In recent years, some U.S. politicians have raised alarm over the busy flight schedules at Reagan airport, whose main runway is the busiest in the country. The airport, favoured by legislators for its proximity to the capital, has been adding flights, despite one high-profile near-miss incident.

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Authorities closed the Reagan airport Wednesday night as hundreds of emergency responders came to the scene, scouring the ice-flecked Potomac with boats and helicopters in the dark of night.

When the airport reopened late Thursday morning, crews continued to work on the river, with water temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius. The aircraft lay inverted in waist-deep water, broken into three pieces.

Authorities said they were working to recover all of the bodies from the jet and the helicopter.

Military and civilian investigations have been launched. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada and MHI RJ Aviation Group, which acquired the Canadair Regional Jet program in 2020, will also be involved.

Such work can take years to complete, and Mr. Trump on Thursday acknowledged that “we do not know what led to this crash.”

But, he added, “we have some very strong opinions and ideas.”

He faulted Democratic administrations for relaxing hiring standards to meet other goals, saying he had reversed such mandates in his first term, and then again last week in the days after his inauguration. Air-traffic control and other such work should be in the hands of those with “superior intelligence, and we didn’t really have that,” Mr. Trump said.

“I put safety first. Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first,” he said, criticizing what he called “the FAA diversity push.”

He made repeated reference to the organization “actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions.”

One of those programs was launched in 2019, during Mr. Trump’s first term.

It promised to deliver a year of training to people with disabilities in air route traffic-control centres, which typically oversee aircraft movements at high altitudes, far from airports. They would only be considered for other positions if they met the same qualifications as other candidates, the agency said then.

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