Trump links Washington’s destruction by hiring diversity

• Trump strikes FAA’s diversity efforts, blames them for air crash.
• He accuses Biden of reducing FAA recruitment standards for auditors.
• The President disassembles the diversity programs from taking up duties.

Washington: President Donald Trump has proposed, without providing evidence, that federal diversity efforts may have played a role in a fatal plane crash on Thursday. A regional jet aircraft collided with a US Army helicopter at a Washington airport, killing 67 people in the most deadly US air disaster in more than two decades.

A survey of crash in the capital of the nation has just begun and it was not yet clear why the US airlines Bombardier carrying 60 passengers and four crew members clashed with the Black Hawk Army helicopter as it prepared to land at Reagan Washington National Airport.

US Secretary of Transport Sean Duffy said both aircraft had thrown standard flight standards and there was no communication distribution.

Radio communications show that air traffic controllers warned the helicopter of the nearest jet aircraft and ordered to change the course. There is no evidence that efforts to make the federal workforce more different have jeopardized air safety.

At a White House press conference, Trump criticized the helicopter pilots and said he did not know for sure if the air traffic auditors involved were accused.

“We don’t know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas,” he said.

The airspace is often full of the US capital, which hosts three trade airports and several large military facilities and officials have raised concerns about the busy corridors at Reagan National Airport, just opposite the Washington River. There have been many incidents close to the alarm that have been alarm, including an almost welding in May 2024.

The lack of air traffic auditors in the United States in recent years has raised security concerns.

Trump accused Joe Biden’s democratic predecessor of reducing recruitment standards and suggested that the push of the diversity of the federal aviation could weaken his abilities.

Asked if the crash was caused by the intake of diversity, he said, “It could be.” The administration has provided no evidence to support these claims.

Trump has quickly moved to cancel federal diversity initiatives from taking over the duties on January 20, drawing criticism from supporters of rights who fear that it overturns the progress made by the United States to overcome the history of discrimination.

Trump was read by what he described as a FAA document declaring that physical and mental disabilities could not exclude applicants for the position of a controller. This document was released in 2013 and remained on the internet through the original term of the White House 2017-2021 of Trump, according to Biden Transport Secretary Pete buttigieg.

Buttigieg responded to Trump on X, calling his depressed observations. “As families mourn, Trump must lead, not lies.”

Crash causes unclear

Trump’s observations are abruptly contrasting with those other officials, who said there was no immediate indication of why the crash was made.

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the pilot of the US flight Eagle Flight 5342 had about six years of volatile experience. The Jet Bombardier CRJ-700 was operating by PSA Airlines, a regional subsidiary. He carried 60 passengers and four crew members.

Defense Minister Pete Hegseth said the helicopter was thrown by a “fairly experienced crew” of three soldiers wearing night vision glasses on an annual proficiency training flight. Officials have said that other flights from the army unit that participated in the crash and would reassess training exercises in the area.

Flight passengers included ice, family and coaches who returned from a Wichita training camp, Kansas, including former World Champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.

Air traffic control records seem to record the final attempts to communicate with the helicopter, Sign Sign PAT25, before colliding with the jet.

“Pat25. Do you have a CRJ in the look? PAT25, go behind the CRJ,” says one air traffic controller at 8:47 pm (0147 GMT) on Wednesday, according to subscribing to liveatc.net.

‘A fire’

Seconds later, another aircraft calls for air traffic control, saying, “Tower, did you see that?” – Obviously referring to the crash. An air traffic controller then redirects the airplanes heading towards the corridor 33 to go around.

“As soon as I saw a fire and then it was just left, I haven’t seen anything since they hit the river,” says one air traffic controller.

The Webcam video of the crash showed the conflict and an explosion that illuminates the night sky.

The skaters on the boat returned from a Wichita training camp governing the US House.

“Slot is a very narrow and tight community,” said a Doug ZegHibe tear of the Boston Skating Club, where Shishkova and Naumov are training. Two adolescents who were connected to the club and their mothers were also on the plane, he told reporters. “We have lost the family,” he said.

Russia’s Mash News Outlet published a list of 13 skaters, many of which the children of Russian émigrés in the US, who said they were believed to be on the plane.

The Kremlin offered condolences to the Russian families who were killed.

The crash is not the first time American skaters have been hit by an air tragedy. All 18 members of the US National Team, along with family members and coaches, were killed in February 1961, when a flight operated by the Belgian airline Sabena crashed outside Brussels, killing all 72 people on the ship.

Washington DC fire leader Donnelly said the conditions were cold and stormy, making the “extremely rough” function for the 300 correspondents on stage.

New CBS They reported that a diving group had recovered one of the two data recorders, the so -called black boxes, from the plane.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said Reuters that the bodies of most of those involved in the conflict had been recovered. “Everything was routine to the point of the accident,” he said. “Something went wrong.”

It was the most deadly US air disaster since November 2001, when a Jet American Airlines crashed after departing from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, killing all 260 people on board and five people on the ground.

The main corridor of Reagan National is the busiest in the United States, with over 800 daily take -off and landing. The National Transport Security Council has investigated nine accidents or incidents at the airport this century, including two fatalities, show records.

The airport is only two miles from the White House and half a mile from the Pentagon, where 189 people died when Al Qaeda hijackers crushed the American Airlines flight on September 11, 2001.

US Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said he had long been worried about the busy airspace, where civilian and military aircraft have to navigate the only concerns about the security of the American capital.

“I have prayed that there would be nothing like last night, but somehow scared in my heart it would be,” he told reporters.