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Donald Trump blamed democrats and diversity, equity and inclusion policies for a collision between a commercial jet and a military helicopter that killed 67 people just outside Washington.
Without quoting evidence, the president said that his assessment of “common sense” was that the accident on Wednesday evening was caused by Lax security standards following Dei policies introduced by his predecessors.
“There are no survivors”, Asset told journalists on Thursday when he went to the podium in the White House press room for the first time in his second presidency.
The regional flight of American Airlines, which was operated by its subsidiary PSA Airlines, was from Wichita, Kansas. The Jet Bombardier CRJ700 was approaching Washington Reagan National Airport when he collided with a Black Hawk Black Hawk helicopter, Sikorsky H-60, Diving in the Potomac river.
The fuselage of the commercial jet was found in three parts in the water. The American flight had 60 passengers and four crew members on board, while three soldiers were in Black Hawk.
The National Transportation Safety Board said he would have a preliminary report in 30 days. Jennifer Homendy, the president of the agency, said that the flight data recorders of the two planes had not yet been recovered.
Asked about Trump’s speculation about the cause of the accident, Mumendy said: “We do not know enough facts to be able to reign in or get out of human mechanical factors.”
Trump, who was flanked by his vice-president and his newly sworn in the defense and transport secretaries, began his remarks with a call to unity in “a moment of anxiety”, when “the differences Between the Americans come to nothing. ”
But he quickly embarked on a political attack against DemocratsSaying that former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden had reduced the standards for whom was authorized to qualify to be an air traffic controller.
“I first put security, Obama, Biden and the Democrats put politics first. . . And their policy was even worse. »»
He said that “for an air traffic controller, we want the most brilliant, the most intelligent, the most sharp. We want someone who is psychologically superior “, adding that” I don’t think “that people with” serious disabilities “should be air controllers.
After seeming the air traffic controllers of the accident, he then turned his attention to the Black Hawk crew.
“You had a pilot problem from the point of view of the helicopter because it was visual. It was a very clear night. . . American Airlines’ plane had flamboyant lights, “said Trump.
“I have helicopters. You can stop a helicopter very quickly. He had the ability to go up or down, had the capacity to turn, and the turn he was making was not the right one, “he added.
US defense officials said the Black Hawk was controlled by an experienced crew on routine training.
Trump said the investigators were trying to determine if the troops used night vision equipment, which “could change your point of view” of the cockpit. A defense official said that the army could not confirm whether the crew wore the night vision glasses.
Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said that the three helicopter soldiers “were on an annual routine flight on a standard corridor for a continuity of the government mission.” The troops included a young pilot, a staff sergeant and two chief adjutants.
“Tragically, last night, an error was made. . . There was a kind of elevation problem on which we immediately started investigating in the DOD and the army, “he said, adding that what happened was” absolutely unacceptable “.
The aviation expert of the American army, John Koziol, said that given the experience of the driving crew, “that should not have been a problem knowing exactly where they were”.
He called the corridor “relatively easy to fly” and said that the helicopter route had been traveled daily by the army and other government planes.
Earlier Thursday, officials said that the speakers had recovered 28 bodies from the American flight and a black hawk body so far.
Trump said Russian citizens were on board the flight and that the United States would facilitate the repatriation of their bodies. There has not been a direct air trip between the United States and Russia since the large-scale invasion of Moscow Ukraine.
Grave aviation accidents are rare in the United States. The latest major accident involving an American commercial plane took place in 2009, when 49 people were killed aboard an air flight of Colgan who crashed into a house near Buffalo, New York.
Trump urged people to continue to fly.
