Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images News / Getty Images
President Donald Trump held a press briefing on Thursday (January 30) following a tragic midair collision between an American Airlines plane and an Army helicopter. During the briefing, President Trump expressed condolences to the families affected by the incident and stated that authorities have strong opinions on the causes of the crash.
"This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation's capital, and in our nation's history and a tragedy of terrible proportions as one nation, we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly," Trump said.
After confirming that there were no survivors, Trump held a brief moment of silence.
Trump said that the crash has raised concerns about air traffic safety and the protocols in place to avoid such incidents. He blamed the previous administration and a "diversity push" within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
"I do want to point out that various articles that appeared prior to my entering office. And here's one, the FAA's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing. And then it says FAA says people with severe disabilities are most underrepresented segment of the workforce said 'they want them in, and they want them, they can be air traffic controllers. I don't think so. This was January 14, so that was a week before I entered office. They put a big push to put diversity into the FAA's program," Trump said.
"Brilliant people have to be in those positions, and their lives are actually shortened, very substantially shortened because of the stress where you have many, many planes coming into one target, and you need a very special talent and a very special genius to be able to do it," the president added.
President Trump assured the public that the government is committed to ensuring the safety of air travel and will take necessary actions based on the findings of the investigation.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also spoke and gave more information about the helicopter involved in the crash. He said the helicopter was carrying three servicemembers who were taking part in a "routine annual training of night flights." He noted that the helicopter was "on a standard corridor for a continuity of government mission."
"There was some … sort of an elevation issue that we have immediately begun investigating at the DOD and Army level," he said.
"No excuses. We're going to get to the bottom of this," Hegseth vowed.
