President Donald Trump has unleashed a plane crash outburst on the head of air traffic control, branding it “a disaster” despite there being no indication yet as to the cause. The finger appeared to be ponted at air traffic controllers for the horrific mid-air collision between a passenger plane and a US Army helicopter that resulted in 67 fatalities.
In a distasteful move, Trump politicised the catastrophe by slamming Barack Obama’s administration over the calibre of individuals hired to ensure planes land and take off safely, reports the Mirror. He then emphasised the need for air traffic controllers to possess “superior intelligence”, criticising the Biden administration for allegedly lowering standards.
During a press briefing from the White House, he stated: “We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system. I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary. You remember that. Only the highest aptitude. They have to be the highest intellect, and psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers. That was not so prior to getting there.
“When I arrived in 2016, I made that change very early on, because I always felt this was a job that, and other jobs too, but this was a job that had to be superior intelligence, and we didn’t really have that. And we had it. And then when I left office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before.”
He criticised the previous administration’s approach, saying, “Their policy was horrible,” and added, “and their politics was even worse”. Trump also seemed to attribute the crash to a “diversity push” at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), as he speculated: “I do want to point out that various articles that appeared prior to my entering office. And here’s one, the FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing.”
In a recent statement, the President expressed his concerns about diversity initiatives, sayng: “And then it says FAA says people with severe disabilities are most underrepresented segment of the workforce said they want them in, and they want them, they can be air traffic controllers. I don’t think so. This was January 14, so that was a week before I entered office. They put a big push to put diversity into the FAA’s programme.
“Brilliant people have to be in those positions, and their lives are actually shortened, very substantially shortened because of the stress where you have many, many planes coming into one target, and you need a very special talent and a very special genius to be able to do it.”
Trump also targeted former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, calling him “a disaster” and attributing the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA)’s diversity goals to his influence. Despite the recent crash, there is no evidence to suggest air traffic controllers were responsible.
Trump confirmed the tragic outcome for those aboard the American Airlines flight and the helicopter, stating, “Sadly, there are no survivors.”
In an address to the nation during what he described as an “hour of anguish,” he called for a moment of silence. He pledged to work “very diligently in the days to come” and offered support to those affected by the tragedy. “We are one family, and today we are all heartbroken. We’re all searching for answers.
In his remarks, Trump expressed collective grief for the lives lost, saying, “We’re all overcome with the grief for many who have so tragically perished will no longer be with us together. We take solace in the knowledge that their journey ended not in the cold waters of the Potomac, but in the warm embrace of a loving God.”
After venting frustrations about air traffic control protocols, he turned his focus to the flight path of a US Army helicopter. “We had a situation where we had a helicopter that had an ability to stop,” he pointed out. “You could have slowed down the helicopter, you could have stopped the helicopter, or gone up or down. For some reason, it just kept going.”
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