Donald Trump has said that the military Black Hawk helicopter that was in a catastrophic collision with an American Airlines jet in Washington DC was “flying too high, by a lot”, as investigators on Friday continued to piece together the reasons for the disaster.
All 64 people on the passenger plane, along with the three people in the army helicopter, died on Wednesday night after the two aircraft crashed into each other in midair very close to the Reagan National airport. The bodies of more than 40 people had been recovered from the icy Potomac River by Friday morning, where the wreckage now lies.
As investigators sought to analyze the black box voice and data recorders from both aircraft, there have been claims that the staffing levels in the air traffic control tower, and the congested skies around the capital, played a role in the crash.
In a highly unusual and subjective move, especially at these early stages of a painstaking official accident investigation, the US president weighed in on social media, not just to repeat his statement about the helicopter’s altitude that he made on Thursday, but with his own comments. Trump alleged that the helicopter was flying above the required height limit in the clear night sky on Wednesday, as the commercial jet was on final approach to land at Reagan.
On Friday morning, ABC News aired claims that the Black Hawk was flying at 400ft, when it should have been at 200ft.
“The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???”
In the wake of the disaster, Trump has also implied, without any evidence, that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in aviation administration and air traffic control under previous Democratic administrations contributed to the crash.
“It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are,” Trump said on Thursday about air traffic controllers. “They have to be talented, naturally talented. Geniuses. Can’t have regular people doing their job.”
Investigators have pointed out that the causes of the crash and any potential lessons from it are still to be determined. Previously, reports abounded from anonymous sources in government that double the number of air traffic controllers should have been dealing with guiding aircraft that night.
Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, told ABC’s Good Morning America on Friday that “we don’t have determination” yet as to if staffing levels contributed to the crash, adding that data and voice recorders were now being analyzed.
“A lot of people have given different opinions on this, we take all of that information in,” Inman said when asked about Trump’s comments on DEI. “What we look to are the experts in all of these individual fields and the board comes out with a probable cause.
“The only conclusion I know is we met with several hundred family members who lost their loved ones in the Potomac. We don’t need that to happen any more,” he said, choking up as he spoke on air.
An initial Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report obtained by US media organisations said staffing levels were “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic” before a military helicopter collided with a passenger jet in the heart of Washington DC.
According to the report, the separate roles of coordinating helicopter traffic and arriving and departing planes had been combined when the collision happened, the Associated Press reported. The Washington Post said two people were handling the jobs of four inside the control tower.
The cause of the crash remains unclear. Investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from American Eagle flight 5342, an American Airlines flight operated by PSA, the National Transportation Safety Board said late on Thursday. The recorders are now at the NTSB’s labs for evaluation. Inman said officials aimed to release a preliminary report on the incident within 30 days.
A person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press that the positions handling helicopters and planes are regularly combined when controllers need to step away from the console for breaks, are in the process of a shift change or air traffic is slow. Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal procedures, the person said the staffing situation on Wednesday night was at a normal level.
But the initial FAA report, obtained by the New York Times, the Associated Press and others, concludes differently, saying that the staffing was “not normal” either for the time of day or the amount of air traffic over the city, which has more than 100 helicopter flights a day on average.
The helicopter and the passenger plane had been flying in a “standard flight pattern” on a clear night before the crash, the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, said. He added that it was not uncommon for military aircraft to be seen in the skies over the US capital, including near Reagan National airport, which is in Arlington, Virginia.
The chief executive of American Airlines, Robert Eisen, said: “At this time we don’t know why the military aircraft came into the path of the PSA aircraft.” He urged friends and family of those affected to call 1-800-679-8215, which is the helpline the airline has set up.
A day before Wednesday night’s collision near Reagan National airport, a different jet there had to abort its landing and make a second approach after a helicopter appeared near its flight path, the Washington Post reported.
The US army had an increase in very serious aviation incidents during the last fiscal year, with 15 flight and two ground incidents that resulted in deaths of service members, destruction of aircraft or more than $2.5m in damage to the airframe, the Associated Press reported.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed reporting
Article by:Source: Oliver Milman and agencies
