Reported by Mark Gruenberg and John Bachtell for People’s World.
The normal control tower staffing at the Washington airport is one controller per plane and one per helicopter. When the crash happened the staffing level was only half that with just one aircraft controller having to do both jobs. In fact, there was only one controller in the tower having to handle a constant flow of airplanes and helicopters.
In addition to moving fast to cut FAA personnel on his first day in office and freezing federal hiring a few days later, Trump did not appoint someone to head the FAA itself until after the crash. Despite his failures, as families of victims and a nation was in shock and grieving, the president disgustingly came out and blamed DEI, Biden, and Obama for the crash that sent all passengers and crew to their deaths as they plunged into the icy Potomac River. Neither Biden nor Obama had disasters of this nature happen on their watch. It was the worst airline disaster in the nation since 2001.
Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said this morning that under the advice of Elon Musk, Trump, when he took office, immediately fired everyone on the FAA’s safety committee and that, after the crash, the president was desperate to divert attention away from what he did.
Continuing his campaign against diversity initiatives in the federal government, Trump played that card in discussing the fatal collision of a Blackhawk Army helicopter with an American Eagle jet over Washington National Airport. With absolutely no evidence, Trump charged that Democratic-backed diversity initiatives at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) weakened safety oversight there, implying they led to the collision.
Trump began by calling the crash, which killed 67 people, “a tragedy of terrible proportions.”
That attitude didn’t last long. Trump promptly began playing the blame game, with minorities, as usual, as his targets. Trump’s vice-president, J.D. Vance, and his man in charge of the military, former Fox “news” commentator Pete Hegseth, echoed his charges.
The Airline Pilots Association said it was “shocked and saddened” by the crash and the deaths of passengers and crew members. The jet’s pilot and co-pilot were union members. ALPA is also sending its accident investigation team to help the National Transportation Safety Board’s probers.
AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Greg Regan and Secretary-Treasurer Shari Semelsberger called the crash “the darkest day in aviation history” since 2009. “We are devastated by the loss of all 64 souls on board Flight 5342, including 60 passengers and four crew members, as well as the three service members aboard the Black Hawk helicopter. Our hearts are with the families, friends, and loved ones of all who perished. May their memories be a blessing.
“The aviation industry is widely unionized, and a loss of this magnitude is felt across our entire labor family. An injury to one is an injury to all. We extend our deepest condolences to our siblings at the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), whose members were crewing the plane. Our sympathies are also with UA Steamfitters Local 602, who had four members on the flight” along with figure skaters from the U.S. and abroad.
Refuting Trump, Regan pointed out that “dedicated” NATCA controllers perform “essential work…every day to keep our flying skies safe.
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