Addressing the plane-helicopter collision at Reagan Wahington National Airport, US President, Donald Trump blamed a “confluence of bad decisions” for the accident. “One thing we do know, there was a lot of vision, and people should have been able to see that,” he stated.
He added, “You know, at what point do you stop at? What do you say, well, that plane’s getting a little bit close?” Trump continued.
“We had a situation where you had a helicopter that had the ability to stop… You can stop a helicopter very quickly. It had the ability to go up or down, it had the ability to turn. And the turn it made was not the correct turn, obviously, and did somewhat the opposite of what it was told.
“They shouldn’t have been at the same height, because if it was at the same height, you could have gone under it or over it, and nobody realized, or they didn’t say, that it’s at the same height…It could have been 1000 feet higher, it could have been 200 feet lower, but it was exactly at the same height and somebody should have been able to point that out.”
Donald Trump
Trump’s remarks came after the midair collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter last night in the Washington, DC, area.
According to officials, emergency authorities have switched to a “recovery effort” and have found 28 bodies so far.
The aircraft, flying from Wichita, Kansas, was carrying 64 people, while three soldiers were aboard the helicopter.
Several members of the figure skating community were aboard the jet, returning from a developmental camp in Wichita, US Figure Skating said.
The Skating Club of Boston named six victims, including Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, the 1994 world champs in pairs.
Experts say both the pilots aboard American Airlines Flight 5342 and the military pilots in the Black Hawk would have been used to navigating the complex airspace, and the head of the nation’s air traffic controllers union said it’s too soon to speculate on a cause.
Starting his remarks, Trump requested a moment of silence for the victims and their families.
Trump provided a description of the incident, noting that there are no survivors and the work has now shifted to a recovery mission. He described it as “a tragedy of terrible proportions” that has “really shaken a lot of people.”
Trump admitted that the cause of the crash was yet unknown “but we have some very strong opinions and ideas.”
“We have some pretty good ideas … we’ll find out how this disaster occurred and we’ll ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.
“The FAA and the NTSB and the US military will be carrying out a systematic and comprehensive investigation. We’ll restore faith in American air travel.”
Donald Trump
Defense Secretary Says Helicopter Crew Was ‘Fairly Experienced’
In a video address prior to Trump’s address, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the Army helicopter crew involved in the plane-helicopter collision was “fairly experienced.”
Describing the flight as an “annual proficiency training flight,” Hegseth said, “It was a fairly experienced crew that was doing a required annual night evaluation. They did have night vision goggles.”
He added that the collision is being reviewed by an “investigative team from our aviation safety center.”
“We anticipate the investigation will quickly be able to determine whether the aircraft was in the corridor and at the right altitude at the time of the incident.”
Pete Hegseth
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