Brilliant people must sit in these positions, Trump said at the White House and emphasized that competence must be the most important thing when air traffic controllers are hired.
I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put politics first.
Trump was clear that the accident should be investigated, but hinted that the blame lay with former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, as well as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Not "normal level"
The President describes it as indirectly causing the accident by prioritizing diversity and inclusion in recruitment. The argument was immediately questioned in the media: Official statistics show that 78 percent of air traffic controllers at American airports are men and 71 percent are white, reports Axios.
Media researcher Bengt Johansson calls Trump's outburst empathetic.
It's always important for him to be a winner, so that no blame falls on him, says Johansson to TT.
The work is ongoing to salvage the wreckage from the Potomac River. The domestic plane took off in Kansas on Wednesday and was on its way to land at the centrally located Ronald Reagan Airport when its path was crossed by the helicopter.
According to a preliminary report from the FAA, the staffing in the air traffic control tower was not "at a normal level" at the time of the crash, reports The New York Times.
The plane's two black boxes, which record sound from the cockpit and flight data, have been salvaged and will be analyzed. The Defense Department is conducting its own investigation of the crash. According to the new US Defense Minister Pete Hegseth, the crew was "quite experienced" and took the necessary measures for night flying.
Open churches
So far, 28 bodies have been salvaged. Several churches in the area near the crash site are staying open for shocked and grieving relatives.
Among the dead are two Chinese citizens, according to state Chinese media. On board were also American figure skaters on their way home from a camp held in connection with the American Championships in Wichita, Kansas. Also, former Russian figure skating stars Evgeniya Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on the plane, according to state Russian media.
The plane crash is the worst in the US since November 2001, when an American Airlines plane crashed shortly after taking off from JFK Airport in New York. Then, all 260 on board and five people on the ground were killed.
