Thursday morning, President Donald Trump seemed to blame for a Midair collision that killed 67 people on the previous administration’s approach to renting aviation staff. But experts and investigators involved in the accident, who also involved a military helicopter, say over the next few weeks investigators about every element of the accident and the moments leading there will determine the causes.
“You have to give us time,” Jennifer Homendy, the chairman of the National Transport Safety Council, said at a press conference on Thursday. The NTSB is an independent US federal watchdog agency leading the investigation into the accident. “We have data, we have significant amounts of information,” she said. “We need to verify information.”
“We will analyze the facts”
On Wednesday night, US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk Helicopter collided with the tail of a Bombardier CRJ-700-Jet coming in for landing at Washington, DC’s Ronald Reagan National Airport. Officials say no one aboard the military helicopter or the commercial aircraft, operating by local airline PSA Airlines on behalf of American Airlines, survived the accident. It is the deadliest US commercial airline in 16 years.
In a White House briefing Thursday morning, Trump pointed to a program that also existed through his first administration aimed at expanding the talent pool for the US Federal Aviation Administration to individuals with disabilities. There was no evidence, he admitted that the accident was linked to the FAA’s efforts to improve diversity in his workforce. But he made the connection “because I have common sense and unfortunately not people.”
Later on Thursday, the White House released a statement in which the Biden Administration’s “rejection of merit-based rent” at the FAA criticized in favor of a rental program that encouraged diversity. Trump also ordered the FAA and the US Secretary of Transport to review all the FAA’s rental and safety protocol changes made during the four years of the Biden Administration, “and to take the corrective steps as needed to to achieve uncompromising aviation safety, “which may include fire.
But experts and investigators believe that a thorough and unbiased approach will be critical to determine exactly why and how the collision occurred.
In a press briefing, J. Todd Inman, the NTSB board member, said at least seven different working groups would focus on different elements of the flights, consisting of federal investigators as well as representatives of the military, aircraft manufacturers and organizations representing aviation staff.
An operational group will investigate the history of the accident and the crew concerned. Another group focuses on the body of the aircraft and examines the wreckage and accident scenes to determine which course the aircraft traveled before the collision, including the height. Another will zoom in on the engines involved. Others will investigate on board hydraulic, electric and pneumatic systems, as well as flight control instruments. A group will look specifically at the role of air traffic control, with surveys and Sensordata to determine how professionals at the National Airport responded to the incident. Another will investigate the reactions of first respondents, and another will examine the helicopter in particular. A “human performance” group will be embedded with several of the organizations, focusing on what roll addeness, workload, medication, equipment and training may have played in the collision.