After a lethal crash between a civilian jet and a army helicopter, officers are scrambling to determine what prompted the deaths of as many as 67 individuals.
Donald Trump, nevertheless, isn’t ready for proof: The president on Thursday blamed former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a Democrat, and variety, fairness, and inclusion applications on the Federal Aviation Administration.
He later conceded he has no proof of a concrete connection between DEI initiatives and the incident. Requested why he blamed Democrats and their insurance policies, Trump replied: “As a result of I’ve frequent sense, and sadly lots of people don’t.”
Regardless of Trump’s try to right away politicize the tragedy, the reason for the crash — and what might need been carried out to forestall it or future tragedies — stays unknown. Hopefully, additional investigations will yield solutions, however that can take time.
However even earlier than the crash, there have been greater questions concerning the security of air journey and the federal government’s function in defending it — each at DCA (the DC-area airport the place the American Airways flight was speculated to land) and across the nation.
The protection issues across the DC airspace and FAA staffing
DCA is centered in a congested airspace the place each business and army flights function. The airport can be residence to America’s busiest runway.
Final yr, Congress voted to extend the variety of every day flights taking off from DCA towards the warnings of some lawmakers and aviation trade leaders.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) famous final Could that there had been a near-miss incident the place two planes virtually crashed on the runway. “Increasingly planes on this busiest runway in america is simply going to extend the possibility of a major incident,” he mentioned.
Except for the issues about regulating congestion at DCA particularly, airways have additionally been elevating the alarm a couple of essential scarcity of FAA air visitors controllers nationwide. That scarcity dates again at the very least to the early levels of the Covid-19 pandemic, when there have been massive staffing cuts resulting from a discount in journey, and coaching applications for brand new controllers have been placed on maintain. Although hiring has picked up within the final yr, the FAA was nonetheless coping with a scarcity of about 3,000 licensed controllers as of final Could, together with at DCA.
That is partly resulting from power underfunding, which has additionally prevented the company from updating growing older amenities and technological techniques. In fiscal yr 2024, the FAA’s finances was $19.8 billion, an virtually 7 p.c enhance over the earlier yr in recognition of its staffing challenges.
In response to the New York Instances, DCA staffing was under regular ranges when Wednesday’s crash occurred and just one controller was out there to deal with duties that sometimes would have been divided between two — radioing pilots flying planes and people flying helicopters.
Nonetheless, we received’t know for sure whether or not both of those components contributed to the crash till investigators totally look at the airplane’s black field and assessment recordings of air visitors management communications. It’s not clear whether or not the helicopter, which was getting used for annual coaching on night time flying, was flying on the right altitude or assigned flight path when it crashed into the airplane.
In brief, it’s too quickly for anybody, together with the president, to know what precisely prompted this crash and what we must always study from it to make our skies safer.
