The air traffic control tower at Reagan National Airport was not at its normal level at the time of the collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet on Tuesday. It is not clear if this impacted the circumstances leading to the crash.
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The air traffic control tower at Reagan National Airport was not at its normal level at the time of the collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet on Tuesday. It is not clear if this impacted the circumstances leading to the crash.
The New York Times reported that, according to a preliminary FAA safety report, staffing levels at the Reagan National Airport (DCA) control tower were not at their normal level “for the time of day and volume of traffic.” It appears that a single controller was performing the job of two controllers.
The Times report states:
The controller who was handling helicopters in the airport’s vicinity Wednesday night was also instructing planes that were landing and departing from its runways. Those jobs typically are assigned to two controllers, rather than one.
This increases the workload for the air traffic controller and can complicate the job. One reason is that the controllers can use different radio frequencies to communicate with pilots flying planes and pilots flying helicopters. While the controller is communicating with pilots of the helicopter and the jet, the two sets of pilots may not be able to hear each other.
The Times reported that the DCA tower has been understaffed for years. A report from 2023 indicates that the staffing level was approximately one-third lower than recommended.
NBC’s Tom Elliott reported that a control tower boss let one of the controllers leave the tower early the night of the crash. As a result, there was only one supervisor Wednesday night handling both helicopter and plane traffic. Normally, you had one dedicated to helicopters and one dedicated to planes.”
In an audio recording of radio traffic between a controller and the Black Hawk (PAT-25) published on X late Tuesday night, the controller asked the helicopter (PAT-25) if they had the airliner (CRJ) in sight. Moments later, the controller seems to instruct PAT-25 to pass behind the CRJ). The exchange occurs in the opening seconds of this audio. About 30 seconds later, an unknown pilot asks “Tower, did you see that?”
It is unclear if the American Airlines pilot ever heard the conversation as he turned onto runway 33 at DCA.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump blasted former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and former President Joe Biden for DEI hiring practices. Trump said Buttigieg ran the department “right into the ground with his diversity.”
During a press conference, the media challenged Trump’s claims, asking, “Are you saying the crash was somehow caused as the result of diversity hiring?” The president responded:
It just could have been. We have a high standard. We’ve had a much higher standard than anybody else. And there are things where you have to go by brainpower. You have to go by psychological quality, and psychological quality is a very important element of it. These are various, very powerful tests that we put to use. And they were terminated by Biden. And Biden went by a standard that seeks the exact opposite. So we don’t know. But we do know that you had two planes at the same level. You had a helicopter and a plane. That shouldn’t have happened. And, we’ll see. We’re going to look into that, and we’re going to see. But certainly for an air traffic controller, we want the brightest, the smartest, the sharpest. We want somebody that’s psychologically superior. And that’s what we’re going to have.
The reporter followed up, asking how he could conclude that diversity had something to do with the crash. He replied:
Because I have common sense. OK? And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t. We want brilliant people doing this. This is a major chess game at the highest level. When you have 60 planes coming in during a short period of time, and they’re all coming in different directions, and you’re dealing with very high-level computer, computer work and very complex computers.
The president went on to assure the American public that flying is safe. “Flying is very safe,” the president said. “We have the safest flying anywhere in the world, and we’ll keep it that way.”
Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday morning talk show. He also serves as president of Blue Wonder Gun Care Products.
