(ThyBlackMan.com) The icy waters of the Potomac River claimed the lives of 67 people who died after an American Airlines jet collided with an Army helicopter just a few yards from Reagan National Airport on Jan. 29.
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Fire Chief John Donnelly mobilized search and rescue assets from the District, Maryland and Virginia. They worked all night, looking for crash victims to rescue. But the mission soon turned into a recovery effort after they determined none of the passengers on the plane; nor the soldiers aboard the Black Hawk helicopter had survived the crash that scattered debris in the river. Officials are still determining the cause of the crash.
The icy waters of the Potomac River claimed the lives of 67 people who died after an American Airlines jet collided with an Army helicopter just a few yards from Reagan National Airport on Jan. 29.
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Fire Chief John Donnelly mobilized search and rescue assets from the District, Maryland and Virginia. They worked all night, looking for crash victims to rescue. But the mission soon turned into a recovery effort after they determined none of the passengers on the plane; nor the soldiers aboard the Black Hawk helicopter had survived the crash that scattered debris in the river. Officials are still determining the cause of the crash.
Pushed for clarity on what he meant by DEI as a possible cause, Trump responded, “It just could have been. We have a high standard. We have a much higher standard than anybody else.”
Trump’s comments came during a White House press conference during which he offered no evidence for his claim, which received much pushback from members of Congress and aviation experts. Yet, Trump pushed even harder when he was told that DEI policies existed when he was in office.
“I changed the Obama policy, and we had a very good policy and then Biden came in and he changed it. And then when I came in two days, three days ago, I said, a new order, bringing it to the highest level of intelligence,” Trump said.
Biden administration’s former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg responded that Trump’s comments were “despicable.”
Buttigieg said, “As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch. President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the president to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.”
Trump’s comments were condemned by Senator Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Democrat Hakeem Jefferies who accused Trump of sparking a political “street fight.”
Schumer said on the floor of the Senate, “It is one thing for pundits to spew off conspiracies. It’s another for the president of the United States to throw out idle speculation as bodies are being recovered and families are still being notified.”
In the weeks since he was sworn in Trump has signed more than 40 executive orders to abolish DEI programs, deport undocumented immigrants born in the U.S. and to dispatch Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to arrest violators – even in churches and schools.
But to use DEI as an excuse for the National Airport crash is a new low, said democratic lawmakers and civil rights groups.
“It is outrageous that the president is rolling back critical diversity, equity and inclusion programs,” said NAACP President Derrick Johnson, “DEI programs help ensure that everyone can prosper. It’s clear that President Trump does not value equal opportunity.
“This is all part of a calculated strategy to redefine the role of government, privatize essential public services, and further discrimination…Elections have consequences and it’s clear that this election has put a target on Black America’s back.”
The death of the 60 passengers, four crew members and three people on a training mission on board the Army helicopter is now being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, which is located near the Reagan National Airport.
The mid-air collision is the first fatal incident at the airport since an Air Florida jet crashed into the Potomac in January of 1982. In that crash, 74 passengers died attempting to land at the airport across the river from the U.S. Capitol. A November 2001 crash of an American Airlines jet leaving John F. Kennedy International Airport killed all 260 people on board and five people on the ground.
Vice President JD Vance as well as Trump’s secretaries of defense and transportation also spent more time condemning DEI than offering sympathy to the families mourning those killed in Wednesday’s crash. But Jennifer L. Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said their investigation will only focus on factors pertaining to “the human, the machine and the environment.”
J. Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said during a press conference at Reagan National Airport that their panel will focus on the facts.
“We will not be determining the probable cause of the accident while we are here on [the] scene,” Inman said; “nor will we speculate about what may have caused this accident.”
Written by Hamil R. Harris
Official website; https://x.com/hamilharris
