Donald Trump has said that the military Black Hawk helicopter that was in a catastrophic collision with an American Airlines jet in Washington DC was “flying too high, by a lot”, as investigators continued to piece together the reasons for the disaster.
The claim from the president came amid questions about the angle the helicopter was flying at, as well as whether the air traffic control tower was understaffed.
All 64 people on the passenger plane, along with the three people in the army helicopter, died on Wednesday night after the two aircraft collided in midair close to the Reagan National airport. The bodies of more than 40 people had been recovered from the icy Potomac River, where the wreckage now lies.
Investigators are analyzing the black box voice and data recorders from the plane while they continue to search for those items from the helicopter.
On Friday morning, federal authorities restricted helicopter flights near the airport indefinitely, Reuters, the Associated Press and CNN reported, citing briefings from unnamed officials at the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA).
There have been claims that the staffing levels in the air traffic control tower, and the congested skies around the capital, played a role in the crash.
In a highly unusual and subjective move, especially at these early stages of a painstaking official accident investigation, the US president weighed in on social media, not just to repeat his statement about the helicopter’s altitude that he made on Thursday, but with his own comments. Trump alleged that the helicopter was flying above the required height limit in the clear night sky on Wednesday, as the commercial jet was on final approach to land at Reagan.
ABC News aired claims that the Black Hawk was flying at 400ft, when it should have been at 200ft.
“The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???”
At the White House press briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt backed up the president, saying he simply stated that “the helicopter was flying higher than it should have been, which is one of the reasons that led to this collision. And the other reasons for that are still being investigated.”
In the wake of the disaster, Trump has also implied, without any evidence, that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in aviation administration and air traffic control under previous Democratic administrations contributed to the crash.
“It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are,” Trump said on Thursday about air traffic controllers. “They have to be talented, naturally talented. Geniuses. Can’t have regular people doing their job.”
The president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, Nick Daniels, said he stood behind “every highly skilled, highly trained air traffic controller that is out there”.
In an interview with CBS News, Daniels outlined the many tests and trainings required for the job, and said: “It doesn’t matter their race, color, religion , you can know you are in the best hands that take that responsibility very seriously every day.”
Daniels added of the president’s remarks: “I couldn’t tell you exactly what he was talking about, because the quality of air traffic controllers out there is outstanding.”
Investigators have pointed out that the causes of the crash and any potential lessons from it are still to be determined. Previously, reports abounded from anonymous sources in government that double the number of air traffic controllers should have been dealing with guiding aircraft that night.
Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, told ABC’s Good Morning America that “we don’t have determination” yet as to if staffing levels contributed to the crash.
“The only conclusion I know is we met with several hundred family members who lost their loved ones in the Potomac. We don’t need that to happen any more,” he said, choking up as he spoke on air.
Illinois congressman Jesús García, a Democrat who sits on the House subcommittee on aviation, accused Trump in an interview with CNN of “exploiting disaster to continue to spread racist lies and divisiveness across the country, simply to score political points with his base.”
He added: “We don’t know what occurred and whether it was human error that caused this flight or other factors.”
Maryland’s governor Wes Moore, also a Democrat, also criticized Trump’s remarks, including the comment Trump made when asked by the media whether he would visit the site of the crash. The president said: “You want me to go swimming?”
Moore said: “When this country needed comfort, we got chaos. When this country needed healing, we got hatred.”
An initial FAA report obtained by US media organisations said staffing levels were “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic” before a military helicopter collided with a passenger jet in the heart of Washington DC.
According to the report, the separate roles of coordinating helicopter traffic and arriving and departing planes had been combined when the collision happened, the Associated Press reported. But it further reported a source saying staffing was normal. The Washington Post said two people were handling the jobs of four inside the control tower.
The helicopter and the passenger plane had been flying in a “standard flight pattern” on a clear night before the crash, the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, said.
The US army had an increase in very serious aviation incidents during the last fiscal year, with 15 flight and two ground incidents that resulted in deaths of service members, destruction of aircraft or more than $2.5m in damage to the airframe, the Associated Press reported.
