FURIOUS Donald Trump blamed the deadly American Airlines crash on diversity and hapless officials as he addressed a grieving nation.
The president confirmed all 67 people had died after a jet and an Army helicopter collided midair and then plunged into the Potomac River in Washington DC on Wednesday night.
Hundreds of emergency workers continue to work tirelessly to recover bodies and the wreckage from the water as investigations begin into the cause of the tragedy.
In a solemn press briefing from The White House on Thursday, Trump held a moment of silence for the victims and their families .
He then gravely reported that all 64 on board the plane arriving from Kansas and the three in the Black Hawk were killed.
The newly-inaugurated leader said the disaster – now America’s deadliest in 24 years – is an “hour of anguish for our nation” and “a tragedy of terrible proportions”.
He said: “This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital and in our nation’s history, and a tragedy of terrible proportions.
It comes as…
- All 64 passengers are feared dead with at least 28 bodies pulled from river
- CCTV captures moment of the crash
- Chilling audio reveals the final moments of flight
- World champion figure skaters confirmed to be on board
- Figure skater shared final picture from inside the plane before takeoff
- Husband reveals wife’s final text from doomed jet
- Rescue efforts hindered by freezing & dark conditions with 12 hours before severe weather comes
- American Airlines CEO blames Black Hawk pilots
- Trump blames Obama and Biden’s diversity polices at FAA for crash
- American Airlines pilots and crew named
“As one nation we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly.
“This has really shaken a lot of people, including people very sadly, from other nations.”
After appearing to read from a prepared speech, Trump then turned to blasting his predecessors and other officials.
He hit out at the Federal Aviation Administration, criticizing what he said are rules on who can work in air traffic control and government diversity efforts.
He said: “The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website.
“We have to have our smartest people… They have to be naturally talented geniuses.”
The president has made eradicating diversity initiatives one of his priorities as he begins his second administration.
Trump also claimed Barack Obama and Joe Biden weakened safety regulations and said former presidents were responsible for the agency’s alleged bad hiring.
Trump insisted authorities will find out what caused the disaster and ensure nothing like it ever happens again.
He added: “We do not know what led to this crash but we have some very strong opinions and ideas.”
Trump speculated that the plane was “doing everything right” and that a “confluence of bad decisions” caused the crash.
He said: “For some reason, we had a helicopter that was at the same height and going at an angle that was unbelievably bad.”
Flight 5342 was descending to land on runway 33 at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport when the tragedy happened.
The flight was being run by the American Eagle airline – a subsidiary of American Airlines.
The control tower was short staffed at the time of the crash just before 9pm on Wednesday night, a preliminary FAA report found.
One controller was handling helicopters and also instructing planes – those jobs typically are assigned to two staffers, the New York Times reports.
Most US airport control towers have staff shortages – with Reagan being short by one-third of its desired level.
At least 27 bodies have been recovered from the plane, and one from the helicopter.
Any black boxes are yet to be recovered from the river, the National Transportation Safety Board said at a press conference.
The federal crash investigators said they would leave “no stone unturned” and hoped to have a preliminary report done in 30 days time.
NTSB member Todd Inman said it appeared said the crash was a “quick, rapid impact” and said no slides or chutes had been deployed.
Inman also said the helicopter appeared to be transferring between zones in DC where choppers are allowed to fly when the crash happened.
A recovery center has been set up to receive victims’ bodies as rescue crews grapple with the water and chilly temperatures to search for remains.
The twin-engine Bombardier CRJ700 plane was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members when it collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter shortly before 9pm on Wednesday.
Horror CCTV from the Kennedy Center showed the moment the aircraft burst into flames after crashing in the air with the chopper.
President Trump addresses a mourning nation
By Georgie English, Foreign News Reporter
PRESIDENT Donald Trump started his White House address to the nation with a moments silence to honor those who died in the American Airlines crash.
Trump labelled the aviation accident a “real tragedy” as he said America is now going through an “hour or anguish”.
Following on from comments from officials at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport earlier today, Trump said he believes there are no survivors.
“This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital and in our nation’s history, and a tragedy of terrible proportions,” the new president added.
“As one nation we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly.”
Trump then started to hit out at the two former leaders of the US and his Democratic rivals Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
He said: “I put safety first. Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first.”
Trump vowed to restore “the highest standard of air traffic” and said the US will only hire the “smartest and the brightest” going forwards.
He went on to blast the Federal Aviation Administration’s rules on who can work in air traffic control and government diversity efforts.
A reporter then asked if he was blaming part of the crash on diversity hires with Trump replying by saying he is just using “common sense”.
Speaking on the crash directly, Trump claimed the plane’s pilot did “everything right” and followed a route taken by pilots for decades.
He appeared to place some of the blame on the military helicopter saying it was going at an angle that was “unbelievably bad”.
But confirmed investigations are ongoing.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said it remains unclear “why the military aircraft came into the flight path of the American Airlines plane”.
He added the pilots on the doomed flight were “experienced”, stressing: “I know that the captain had … almost six years with PSA (Airlines), and the first officer almost two years.”
Trump’s new Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, also spoke at the press briefing and said Wednesday was a clear night and both aircraft were following standard flight paths.
He said the fuselage of the plane was found in three different parts in waist-deep water, and that the helicopter wreckage has been located.
President Trump earlier questioned how the smash happened on a “clear night” and said the crash “should have been prevented”.
He wrote on Truth Social: “The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport.
“The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time.
“It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn.
“Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane.
“This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”
More than 300 emergency workers are at the scene, with the airport’s fire chief saying the operation will last “many hours”.
Two world champion Russian figure skaters were among the passengers on board the plane.
Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who were married, won the world championship in pairs figure skating in 1994.
Jinna Han and her mother Jin Han and Spencer Lane and his mother Christine Lane have also been named as passengers on the plane.
US Figure Skating confirmed several members of its skating community were on board.
A dad said his daughter’s best friend was on the way back from an ice skating competition.
It is understood the contest took place in Wichita, Kansas – which is where the plane was coming from.
In an initial press conference just hours after Washington DC’s mayor Muriel Bowser said firefighters are working “diligently” in the cold.
The capital’s emergency chief John Donnelly added: “There is wind. There are pieces of ice in the water.
“And because there is not a lot of light, you are out there searching every square inch of space.
“These are very tough conditions for [rescuers] to dive in.”
American Eagle Flight 5342 from Kansas was approaching Runway 33 at Ronald Reagan National Airport when it collided with the Sikorsky H-60 chopper.
The helicopter had only been in the air for around 10 minutes when it crashed after taking off from Fort Beaver in Virginia.
Flight tracking data appears to show the plane was at an approximate altitude of 300ft when it crashed.
Chilling audio from air traffic control has revealed the final communications between the aircraft and air traffic control.
Minutes before landing, air traffic controllers asked the incoming plane if it could land on a shorter runway at Reagan National.
The pilots said they could and controllers cleared the jet to land on Runway 33.
Flight tracking sites showing the jet adjusted its approach.
Less than 30 seconds before the crash, one controller asked the helicopter if it could see the plane.
The controller made another call to the chopper just moments later, saying: “PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ.”
How common are domestic flights in the US?
by Georgie English, Foreign News Reporter
EVERY single day the Federal Aviation Administration oversees 45,000 flights with almost three million passengers on board.
This covers a huge 29 million square miles of airspace from all over the US.
At peak times there can even be up to 5,400 aircraft in the sky at any moment – creating a mammoth task for aviation experts and air traffic controllers to maintain safety amongst all of them.
This means that any wrong call or misstep from either flight crew or controllers can result in a fatal tragedy.
A shortage of air traffic controllers in the past has caused delayed flights and raised a number of safety concerns.
Washington DC’s airspace in particular is extremely busy at peak times.
There have been several near-miss incidents at Reagan National Airport in recent years including a near-collision in May 2024 between an American Airlines jet and a small plane.
A similar catastrophe almost occurred a month earlier between a Southwest and JetBlue flight.
Reagan National also features a much shorter runway than many others with over 90 per cent of outgoing and in-going flights using the main one.
This makes it the busiest single runway in the US with over 800 takeoffs and landings each day – or one every minute for much of the day.
But seconds later, the plane and helicopter crashed.
Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas said: “When one person dies it’s a tragedy, but when many, many, many people die it’s an unbearable sorrow.”
A husband told how he received a tragic final text from his wife 20 minutes before the crash saying they were landing.
Hamaad Raza told WUSA: “I’m just praying that someone is pulling her out of the river right now. That’s all I can pray for.”
The airport is set to remain closed until at least 11am.
American Airlines chief Robert Isom expressed his “deep sorrow” over the crash and said it is a “difficult day”.
He added: “Are efforts now are focussed on entirely on the needs our passengers, crew members, partners, first responders – along with their families and loved ones.”
In a statement, DC Police said: “At 8:53pm, multiple calls were received for an aircraft crash above the Potomac River.
“DC Fire and EMS, the Metropolitan Police Department and multiple partner agencies are currently coordinating a search and rescue operation in the Potomac River.
“There is no confirmed information on casualties at this time. “
The airport said in a post to X: “All takeoffs and landings have been halted at DCA. Emergency personnel are responding to an aircraft incident on the airfield. The terminal remains open. Will update.”
US army officials and the defence department have also begun an investigation into the crash.
There has not been a fatal US passenger aircraft accident since February 2009, but a series of near-miss incidents in recent years have raised serious safety concerns.
