The president put out a vague post on social media about how the collision “should have been prevented” while officials investigate the cause and search for survivors.
President Donald Trump is confronting the first true domestic crisis of his second administration in typical fashion: with a disorientated, bewildered post on his social media platform Truth Social. “Why did the control tower not tell the helicopter what to do, instead of asking if they saw the plane,” he wrote. “This is a bad situation that should have been prevented. Not good!!!”
The tragic collision of an American Airlines regional jet and a Black Hawk helicopter near DC’s Reagan National Airport is an early test for both Trump and his two new Cabinet members: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The plane, carrying 60 passengers and four crew members from Wichita, Kansas, had been allowed to land in Reagan when it collided with an Army training plane about 8:50 p.m. No survivors have been found in the wreckage, even after hundreds of first responders searched the Potomac River overnight.
Investigators and lawmakers will now consider questions about how the crash happened. Like most aviation accidents, this one likely involved a combination of human error, safety failures and other systemic, long-term factors. Initial speculation has centered on the behavior of the helicopter pilot, who was in contact with air traffic controllers just before the crash. Controllers asked the pilot if he saw the plane and directed him to pass behind it, Reuters reported.
Investigators will now consider questions such as whether the helicopter was flying at the correct altitude and whether its pilot actually saw the plane — questions that Trump raised Thursday morning. “The helicopter was heading directly toward the airplane for a long period of time,” he wrote on Truth Social. “It’s a clear night, the plane’s lights were flashing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn around.” Duffy, who was just appointed to his post on Tuesday, echoed Trump’s comments during a press conference on Thursday, saying the crash was “absolutely” preventable. But he also stressed there was no breakdown in communications between the helicopter, plane and air traffic controllers.
Other factors may have played a role as well. The airspace around Reagan Airport is among the most congested in the country, with commercial and military aircraft regularly flying similar paths. Several D.C.-area lawmakers opposed a 2024 measure to add more long-haul flights at the airport, citing concerns about safety and congestion. But that measure still passed as part of a larger bipartisan package of airline and air safety legislation that former President Joe Biden signed into law last May. D.C. Washington, D.C.’s WUSA9 reported Thursday that the Wichita flight was not added as a result of that law.
Trump, of course, has historically tried to blame his political opponents for high-profile crises whenever possible, even when that criticism has no factual basis. He spent much of the past month condemning California Governor Gavin Newsom for the Los Angeles wildfires, falsely claiming the state had diverted water for environmental reasons. He also tried to blame Biden for the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina last year, spreading misinformation and just last week telling local officials that Biden “did a bad job.”
Meanwhile, a GOP lawmaker brought up an even more peculiar culprit for the crash: the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity program — a chief scaremonger of both the far-right and the Trump administration. “Did DEI play any role in this kind of thing?” Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee asked on Fox News Thursday morning. “I think you should look at this with your eyes wide open.” Ogle’s comments echo those of other conservatives during last year’s string of mechanical failures at Boeing
