Sevan Sinton
News Editor
Wednesday, Jan. 29 saw 64 passengers and crew aboard American Eagle Flight 5342 lose their lives after a midair collision with an Army helicopter, which was carrying three soldiers on a training flight above the Potomac River.
One day later, President Donald J. Trump issued a memo titled “Immediate Assessment of Aviation Safety,” which aims to force the Federal Aviation Administration to “assess damage that had been done” by former President Joe Biden’s “DEI and woke policies.”
The president even threw jabs at former President Barack Obama and the Biden administration for “putting policy first” before safety.
“FAA diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities,” President Trump stated in a briefing. “And they want them in, and they want them. They can be air traffic controllers. I don’t think so.”
Despite Trump’s comments, no evidence has been found that diversity, equity, and inclusion were the cause of the crash. Investigators found that short-staffing within the control tower may have been the cause. At the time of the crash, one controller was managing both helicopters and airplanes from the airport, a job that usually is done by two or more people.
The crash came one week after Trump signed executive orders to slash funding for DEI programs within the federal government, an ongoing Republican effort that Trump spearheaded prior to the 2024 presidential election.
“Despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying,” wrote Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on X. “Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.”