An American Airlines passenger jet collided in midair with a Black Hawk helicopter over Washington, D.C., at roughly 9 p.m. on Thursday night, sending both aircraft into the Potomac River. The jet reportedly had 64 people on board and the helicopter carried three military personnel. Authorities believe all 67 people died, among them a number of prominent American and Russian figure skaters who were returning from Wichita, Kansas.
Aviation experts tell Salon that while there is little concrete information yet about this specific crash, politicians like President Trump should not seek to exploit, and the fact that it happened points to deeper problems in U.S. aviation. According to an internal report reviewed by The New York Times, staffing at the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport was “not normal” during the fatal crash.
“Various things could factor into this, but we also know that there are human beings flying these things and they can make mistakes,” Mike Boyd, aviation consultant and president of Boyd Group International, told Salon. “We've been told that both [aircraft] were apparently at the right place at the right time, [but] we also know that that's not accurate.” Boyd said federal investigators will have to solve the mystery.
Federal aviation has “gotten away with bad management” under both Republican and Democratic administrations, Boyd said. “The last FAA administrator took the job for five years and then quit after a year and a half,” he continued, a reference to Michael Whitaker, who was appointed by President Joe Biden. Whitaker resigned last week after Elon Musk, one of President Trump's closest advisers, publicly called on him to quit, reportedly because the FAA had imposed fines on SpaceX, Musk's company.
“We've got to get people in there that know what they're doing,” Boyd said. “Until we do — and this will be the big litmus test for the Trump administration — what are you going to do to change things, other than just have meetings?”.
"As an air safety investigator, I am embarrassed that the president of the United States would go on television less than 24 hours after the accident and assign blame without any evidence."
Experts also said the public must be patient enough to allow investigators to do their work. “The investigation just started in earnest this morning,” aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse told Salon. “Once the search and recovery efforts wrap up, the investigation will really become heavy. All we know is that we had a commercial airline on approach into Reagan National; we had an Army Black Hawk helicopter flying in the same airspace; and, unfortunately, they were involved in a midair collision and 67 people were fatally injured.”
Brickhouse observed that the investigators who probe air disasters have been taught to “keep all options on the table until evidence suggests otherwise,” meaning that it will likely not be possible to identify the causes of this specific crash for several weeks.
His observation was echoed by Air Traffic Control Association president and CEO Carey Fagan. “We respect the role of the National Transportation Safety Board and its tireless advocacy for safety, which we share,” Fagan told Salon. “The work the NTSB will do to investigate this accident will be central and crucial as we learn why this occurred and as we work collaboratively as an aviation industry to move forward in the relentless pursuit of improving safety.”
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In social media posts, Trump has suggested that the disaster may have been caused by diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI policies, although there is no evidence so far linking DEI to the tragic collision.
“I am embarrassed that the president of the United States would go on television less than 24 hours after the accident and assign blame without any evidence,” Brickhouse said. “As air safety investigators, we are trained to focus on data and evidence, and the NTSB and the FAA are literally just starting their investigation. It is way too early to assign blame and accidents should never be made political. We just lost 67 people, and it's important that we let the investigators do their jobs and figure out what happened. There's a time and a place for politics; today is not it.”
Boyd also said that he did not feel it was appropriate to blame DEI, while also arguing that unqualified people are being put into important positions, regardless of the underlying reasons.
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“We don't have as good as we could have," he said. "Some administrations have put people less than the most qualified in that job,” Boyd said. “I don't know if they're responsible for the plane crash, but they certainly are responsible for less than the most qualified people sitting in air traffic control positions.”
Boyd emphasized that despite this traumatic disaster occurring above the nation's capital, the public should still have faith in the safety of aviation.
“Let's be real clear. and you're going to hear this from a thousand different sources: It is safe to fly," he said. "We put well over half a billion people on airplanes every year. We have got to recognize that as long as we have humans flying things, mistakes will be made. Air travel is probably the safest way you can go today, but occasionally things will happen.”
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