By David Shepardson and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump implied without evidence federal diversity efforts were at fault on Thursday after a regional jet crashed into a U.S. Army helicopter at a Washington airport, killing 67 people in the deadliest U.S. air disaster in more than 20 years.
The investigation into the crash in the nation’s capital has just begun and it was not yet clear why the American Airlines Bombardier carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided with the Army Black Hawk helicopter as it prepared to land at Reagan Washington National Airport.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said both aircraft had been flying standard flight patterns and there had been no breakdown in communication.
Radio communications show that air traffic controllers alerted the helicopter about the approach jet and ordered it to change course. There is no evidence that efforts to make the federal workforce more diverse have compromised air safety.
At a White House news conference, Trump criticized the helicopter pilots and said he did not know for sure whether the air traffic controllers involved were to blame.
“We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas,” he said.
Airspace is frequently crowded in the U.S. capital region, home to three commercial airports and several major military facilities, and officials have raised concerns about busy runways at Reagan National Airport, just across the river from Washington. There have been several near-miss incidents that have sparked alarm, including a near-collision in May 2024.
A shortage of air traffic controllers in the United States in recent years has spurred safety concerns.
Trump accused his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden of lowering hiring standards and suggested the Federal Aviation Administration’s diversity push could have weakened its capabilities.
Asked if the crash was caused by diversity hiring, he said: “It just could have been.” The administration has not provided any proof to back these assertions.
Trump has moved quickly to quash federal diversity initiatives since taking office on Jan. 20, drawing criticism from rights advocates who fear he is rolling back progress the United States has made to overcome its history of discrimination.
Trump read from what he described as an FAA document stating that physical and mental disabilities would not on their own disqualify applicants a controller’s position. That document was released in 2013 and remained online through Trump’s initial 2017-2021 White House term, according to aides to Biden’s transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg.
Buttigieg responded to Trump on X, calling his remarks despicable. “As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying.”
CRASH CAUSE UNCLEAR
Trump’s remarks contrasted sharply with those of other officials, who said there was no immediate indication why the crash took place.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said the pilot of the American Eagle Flight 5342 had about six years of flying experience. The Bombardier CRJ-700 jet was operated by PSA Airlines, a regional subsidiary. It carried 60 passengers and four crew members.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the helicopter was flown by a “fairly experienced crew” of three soldiers who were wearing night-vision goggles on an annual proficiency training flight. Officials said they were grounding other flights from the Army unit involved in the crash and would reevaluate training exercises in the region.
Passengers on the flight included ice skaters, family and coaches returning from a training camp in Wichita, Kansas, including Russian-born former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.
Air traffic control recordings appear to capture the final attempted communications with the helicopter, call sign PAT25, before it collided with the jet.
“PAT25, do you have a CRJ in sight? PAT25, pass behind the CRJ,” an air traffic controller says at 8:47 p.m. (0147 GMT) on Wednesday, according to a recording on liveatc.net.
‘A FIREBALL’
Seconds later, another aircraft calls in to air traffic control, saying, “Tower, did you see that?” – apparently referring to the crash. An air traffic controller then redirects planes heading to runway 33 to go around.
“I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven’t seen anything since they hit the river,” an air traffic controller says.
Webcam video of the crash showed the collision and an explosion lighting up the night sky.
The skaters on board were returning from a training camp in Wichita, governing body U.S. Figure Skating said.
“Skating is a very close-knit and tight community,” said a tearful Doug Zeghibe of the Skating Club of Boston, where Shishkova and Naumov coached. Two teenaged skaters affiliated with the club and their mothers were also aboard the plane, he told reporters. “We have lost family,” he said.
Russia’s Mash news outlet published a list of 13 skaters, many of them the children of Russian emigres to the U.S., who it said were believed to have been on the plane.
The Kremlin offered condolences to the families of Russians killed.
The crash is not the first time U.S. skaters have been struck by an air tragedy. All 18 members of the U.S. national team, along with family members and coaches, were killed in February 1961 when a flight operated by Belgian airline Sabena crashed outside Brussels, killing all 72 people aboard.
Washington DC fire chief Donnelly said conditions were cold and windy, making the operation “extremely rough” for the 300 responders on the scene.
CBS News reported that a dive team had recovered one of the two data recorders, the so-called black boxes, from the plane.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin told Reuters that the bodies of most of those involved in the collision had been recovered. “Everything was routine up to the point of the accident,” he said. “Something went wrong.”
It was the deadliest U.S. air disaster since November 2001, when an American Airlines jet crashed after departing from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, killing all 260 people on board and five people on the ground.
Reagan National’s main runway is the busiest in the United States, with over 800 daily takeoffs and landings. The National Transportation Safety Board has investigated nine accidents or incidents at the airport this century, including two that were fatal, records show.
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 crashed American Airlines flight 77 on Sept. 11, 2001.
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said he had long been concerned about the busy airspace, where civilian and military aircraft must navigate the unique security concerns of the U.S. capital.
“I’ve been praying that there wouldn’t be something like last night but kind of dreading in my heart that there would be,” he told reporters.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Trevor Hunnicutt, Bo Erickson, Jeff Mason, Gabriella Borter, Jamie Freed, Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart, Susan Heavey, Kanishka Singh, Jasper Ward, Rami Ayyub and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Joseph Ax in New York; Rich McKay in Atlanta; Brad Brooks in Colorado; Joe Brock and Costas Pitas in Los Angeles; Writing by Andy Sullivan, Brad Brooks and Timothy Heritage; Editing by Scott Malone and Nick Zieminski)
