January 31, 2025 • 44 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Donald Trump walked into the White House Press Briefing Room
to hold a press conference on the horrific plane crash
that happened, and it was a sad moment, but also
a moment where the President said, we must do better
when it comes to hiring. He's taking a lot of
criticism because he was asked questions about dei hiring practices
(00:21):
and the government that had put together many people in
many different departments and agencies, including the FAA, not choosing
the best among us, but choosing those based on diversity, equity,
and inclusion.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Now the President is taking heat for his answers.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I want you to hear from him at this press
conference so you know exactly what he really said and
not what the media is reporting. They are taking him
out of context. Here's the President in his own words.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Mister Reid, welcome, Thank you very much. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
I'd like to request a moment of silence or the
victims and their families please.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
I speak to you this morning in an hour of
anguish for a nation. Just before nine pm last night,
in an American Airlines Regional jet carrying sixty passengers and
four crew collided with an Army black Hawk helicopter carrying
three military service members over the Potomac River in Washington,
(01:51):
DC while on final approach to Rega National Airport. Both
aircraft crashed instantly and were immediately submerged into the icy
waters of the Potomac.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Real tragedy.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
The massive search and rescue mission was underway throughout the night,
leveraging every asset at our disposal. And I have to
say the local state, federal military, including the United States
Coast Guard in particular, they've done a phenomenal job so quick,
so fast. It was mobilized immediately. The work has now
(02:28):
shifted to a recovery mission.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Sadly, there are no survivors.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation's
capital and in our nation's history, and a tragedy of
terrible proportions. As one nation, we grieve for every precious
soul that has been taken from us so suddenly, and
we are a country.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Of really we are in mourning. This is really shaken
a lot.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Of people, well, including people very sadly from other nations
who are on the flood for the family members back
in Wichita, Kansas, here in Washington to sea and throughout
the United States, and in Russia we have a Russia
contingents of very talented people. Unfortunately, we're on that plane,
very very sorry about that. Whose loved ones were board
(03:23):
the passenger jet. We can only begin to imagine the
agony that you're all feeling. Nothing worse on behalf of
the first Lady, myself and three hundred and forty million Americans.
Our hearts are shattered alongside yours, and our prayers are
with you now and in the days to come.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
We'll be working very, very diligently. In the days to come.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
We're here for you to wipe away the tears and
to offer you our devotion, our love, and our support.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
There's great support.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
In moments like this, The differences between Americans fade to
nothing compared to the bonds of affection and loyalty that
unite us all, both as Americans and even as nations.
We are one family, and today we are all heartbroken.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
We're all searching for answers.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
That icy Potomac was a cold, cold night, cold water.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
We're all overcome with.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
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. We do not know what led to
this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas,
and I think we'll probably state those opinions now, because
(04:44):
over the years I've watched as things like this happen
and they say, well, we're always investigating, and then the
investigation three years later they announce it.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
We think we have some pretty good ideas.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
But we'll find out how this disaster occurred and will
ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. The FAA
and the NTSB and the US military will be carrying
out a systematic and comprehensive investigation. Our new Secretary of Transportation,
Sean Duffy his second day on the job when that happened.
(05:18):
It's a rough one. We'll be working tirelessly. He's a
great gentleman. The whole group is these are great people,
and they are working tirelessly to figure out exactly what happened.
We will state certain opinions, however, I'm also immediately appointing
an acting Commissioner to the FAA, Christopher Rochelieu, a twenty
(05:41):
two year veteran of the agency. Highly respected Christopher, thank
you very much, appreciate it. 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.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Remember that only.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
The highest aptitude have to be the highest intellect and
psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
That was not so prior to getting there.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
When I arrived in twenty sixteen. I made that change
very early on because I always felt this was a
job 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
(06:39):
to lower than ever before.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I put safety first.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, and they
put politics at a level that nobody's ever seen.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Because this was the lowest level.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
That policy was horrible and their politics was even worse.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
So, as you know, last week, long.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Before the crash, I signed an executive order restoring our
highest standards for air traffic controllers and other important jobs
throughout the country.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
So it was very interesting.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
About a week ago, almost upon entering office, I signed
something last week that was an executive order, very powerful
and restoring the highest standards of air traffic controllers and others.
By the way, then my administration will set the highest
possible bar for aviation safety. We have to have our
(07:37):
smartest people. It doesn't matter what they look like, how
they speak, who they are matters intellect, talent, the word talent.
Have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses. It can't have
regular people doing that job. They won't be able to
do it, but will restore faith in American air traveler.
(07:58):
Have more to say about that. You 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.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Let's just pause there and think about that. The President
didn't just say this. He brought receipts. He brought receipts
of actual articles where the fa is saying we are
not hiring the best. It's not what we do here.
We are hiring people with severe mental issues or disabilities
(08:44):
as part of our DEI hiring practices and PEP. We
are like, well you can't say that, why not? That's
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two Patriot. Now, we don't exactly know who's fault it
(10:37):
is yet on this. It could be multiple, It could
be accidents happen, there's human air involved. But the president's
also making it clear we need to go back to
having the best in the brightest, regardless of race, regardless
of sexual orientation, and up on the website as we
as this crash happen, there were job postings.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
And there were these orders from these government agents.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
He's on DEI and the President brought receipts of articles
talking about this, and I want you to hear again.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Here's what he said to point out that various articles
that appeared prior to my entering office.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
And here's one.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
The FAA's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with
severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
That is amazing.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
And then it says FAA says people with severe disabilities
a most underrepresented segment of the workforce, and they.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Want them in and they want them they can be
air traffic controllers. I don't think so. This was.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
In January fourteenth, so that was a week before I
entered office. They put a big push to put diversity
into the FAA's program. Then another article the Federal Aviation Administration,
This was before I got to office. Recently, second term,
(12:06):
the FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities,
psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a
diversity and inclusion hiring initiatives spelled out on the agency's website.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Can you imagine, just so you know, this was up
on the websites for hiring when this plane crash happened.
And that's the reason why Donald Trump's coming in and saying,
if you want to know what you've been paying for,
if you want to know what you're getting, this is
what you're getting. This is what you've been paying for,
(12:43):
This is everything you've been there. I mean, this is
it like this is this is the government for the
last four years actively looking for people that are having
mental health issues to be in charge those that are
with all of these types of issues. And then they're
proud of it, and they're like, oh, yeah, this is great,
(13:06):
this is absolutely great. Come on down be an air
traffic controller. Now, I want to be clear, we don't
exactly know what happened yet, but what he's saying is
it wouldn't be shocking or surprising if this played into it,
and if this did pay into it, play into it,
(13:28):
then there should, I think, be hell to pay. And
he said, as he described it, I don't think so.
Now when he says I don't think so, what does
he mean. What he means is not under my watch
for the next four years, we're going to hire the brightest,
We're going to hire the best. We are not going
(13:49):
to hire DEI hires and put people's lives at risk.
Potentially while flying to fill a stupid quota. That is
something we will not do. And the President saying it
to the American people because he's like, if you want
to know why I'm making changes, and the media is
(14:09):
going to lie to you, this is why.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Here are the receipts, here's the job postings.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Here are the articles written just a week before I
took office on the fourteenth.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
These are people that are I mean, actually their lives
are shortened because of the stress that they have. 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
(14:40):
and you need a very special talent and a very
special genius to be able to do it. Targeted disabilities
are those disabilities that the federal government, as a matter
of policy, has identified for special emphasis and recruitment and hiring.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
The FAA's website states.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy,
severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
All qualify for the position of.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
A controller of aeroplanes pouring into our country, pouring into.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
A little spot, a little dot on the map, a
little runway.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
The initiative is part of the faas Diversity and.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Inclusion Hiring Plan. Think of that.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
The initiative is part of the FAA's Diversity and Inclusion
Hiring Plan, which says diversity is integral to achieving FAA's
mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I don't think so. I don't think so. I think
it's just the opposite.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
The FAA website shows that the agency's guidance and diversity
hiring were last updated on March twenty third of twenty two.
They wanted to make it even more so. And then
I came in and I assume maybe this.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Is the reason.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
The FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buddhachek, a
real winner.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
That's the guy. He's a real winner.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Do you know how badly everything's run since he's run
this Department of Transportation.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
He's a disaster.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
He was a disaster as a mayor, he ran his
city into the ground, and he's a disaster now. He's
just got a good line of both the Department of Transportation,
his government agency charged with regulating civil aviation, well, he
runs it forty five thousand people, and he's run it
right into the ground with his diversity.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
You notice here and Donald Trump said what he said
a moment ago. People die when you put these policies
into serious positions where there is safety or national security involved.
That's why the President said it the way that he
said it. That's why he came out the way that
(16:59):
he came out out to say, let's have a press
conference and let's talk it out.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That's why I came out and brought receipts.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
One of the things that this administration's doing in his
second term that's so much better than him in the
first term is bringing the receipts. He's bringing the receipts
to the room and saying, here it is, this is
what they did, this is what they wrote about, this
is how they described it, this is when they started
(17:26):
implementing it. They ran it into the ground. And he's
not doing it to grandstand. He's doing it to say,
while I am making significant changes, you need to understand why,
because the media is going to lie to you about it.
The media is going to tell you that these changes
(17:48):
are just terrible, and go through this list and they're
going to fearmonger you and you need to understand that
while I'm making these changes, this is to keep you safe.
This is to protect you and your family. I have
no doubt that last night on that plane, there were
a lot of different races, a lot of different voters.
There were people that Republican, there are people that are Democrats,
(18:10):
people that are in the middle, there are people that
were registered to vote, not registered vote, people from all
over the world.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
We know that.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
All of them deserve to have competent people in and
around them. Now, it may come back that this was
human error in a mistake, a tragic mistake that could
absolutely happen, but there also could be part of this
that is in fact the DEI.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
We don't know yet.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
But what we do know is there are people that
deserve to lose their jobs within the FAA, within these
sectors because they were not the best people hired for
the job.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
They were a quota.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
And in serious jobs like this, you cannot have average
people doing the jobs. You need the best, and you
need the brightest. I want you to hear my conversation
center Ted Cruz and I had about well, this tragedy
that happened in Washington when all this was unfolding, with
this helicopter and airplane colliding.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Listen carefully to his words.
Speaker 5 (19:09):
Well, it was truly a tragic and horrific accident, and
it cost the lives of sixty seven souls. The commercial
airliner from American Airlines, flying from Wichita, Kansas to Washington
d C. Reagan Airport had sixty passengers on it and
four crew members. And then an Army black Hawk helicopter
(19:29):
had three soldiers on it, bringing the total death toll
to sixty seven. The two collided just before nine pm
on Wednesday night. They collided as the American Airlines airliner
was landing at d C. Reagan Airport. And I'll tell
(19:52):
you today, so you and I are recording this Thursday night. Today,
I spent a lot of the day dealing with the
aftermath of this. As you know, I'm the chairman of
the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. It has
jurisdiction over all of aviation, and so today I hosted
briefings from the FAA and the NTSB, the National Traffic
(20:15):
Safety Board, and were heard from. They were bipartisan briefings.
I had senators both Republicans and Democrats, that participated, and
we got we got briefings the NTSB, which is, as
(20:36):
I said, the National Transportation Safety Board does investigations whenever
there's a serious accident, whenever there's an accident, an aviation accident,
whenever there's a rail accident, they do investigations, and so
we heard from them. Now as of Thursday, the NTSB
had over a dozen investigators on the ground. And listen,
(20:59):
in the wake of an accident, you've got to actually
see what happened. You've got to investigate and discover the facts,
discover the evidence. In this instance, we know that the
American Airlines flight was coming in. It was initially on
Runway one at Reagan Airport, and then the air traffic
controllers moved it to runway thirty three, So they shifted
(21:20):
the runway right at the very end, and the American
Airlines pilots changed their descent to land on runway thirty three. Now, simultaneously,
there was an Army black Hawk helicopter that was traveling.
There are multiple helicopter routes that go in and around
Reagan Airport, and that Army helicopter was on Route one
(21:42):
and then it was shifting from Route one to Root four,
and the air traffic controllers were in contact obviously with
the pilots of the American Airlines flight and also the
pilots of the helicopter, and after telling the American Airlines
yet to land on Runway thirty three, the air traffic
(22:04):
controller tells the black Hawk pilots to visually confirm and
have in line of sight the incoming plane, and the
black Hawk helicopter pilots confirmed that yes, they have the
plane in sight, and they also instruct the black Hawk
pilots to come behind the plane that is landing. What
(22:28):
in fact happens, or what appears to have happened, is
the black Hawk helicopter came in front of the plane
that was landing. The two collided midair and exploded midair.
Now at this point it appears everyone involved died. Both
the plane and the black Hawk helicopter sunk into the
(22:48):
Potomac River. They were both in relatively shallow water, about
seven to eight feet of water where they had sunk.
As of Thursday, the black box the flight recorder had
been recovered from the airplane and they are in the
(23:09):
process of recovering the black box, the audio transcript recorder
for the Blackhawk helicopter. So both of those will be
recovered and they're trying to piece together what happened. What
do we know. We know that somebody were multiple somebodies
made a catastrophic mistake, a catastrophic mistake that led to
(23:31):
a massive loss of life. At this point, and look,
there are lots of people who are giving all sorts
of theories, who are jumping on all sorts of possibilities.
In my view, we shouldn't speculate. We shouldn't we shouldn't
get ahead of the evidence.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
We need to.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
Understand exactly what caused this accident, Whether it was an
error on the part of the army pilot, whether it
was conceivably an error on the part of the commercial
airliner pilot, whether it was an error on the part
of the air traffic controller, or some combination of multiplayers
in that regard. We don't know right now. What we
(24:08):
do know is two aircraft were in the same place
at the same time. Now, as we were having the
briefing from the NTSB and the FAA that they told
us several things. Number One that had the helicopter stayed
on Route four, it would have been well out of
(24:30):
the way of the landing path of the airline, and
it would have been in a lower altitude than where
the helicopter and the jet collided. We don't know what
happened exactly. One of the things the NTSB is going
to do in this investigation is they're going to listen
to the black box recordings of both aircraft and they're
(24:51):
going to retrace the path, the exact path of both
aircraft to discover was one of them where it was
not supposed to be? Were both of them where they
were not supposed to be? At this point, we don't
have a clear answer to that, and it's easy I
would say, don't trust twitter, don't trust every theory. Look,
they looked at one theory and actually something I asked
(25:12):
the NTSB, I said, when the air traffic controller asked
the black Hawk pilots, do you have visual confirmation to
the aircraft? And the black Hawk pilots confirmed that, do
we have evidence that they were looking at a different airplane?
You could certainly this strikes me as a reasonable inference
that the the helicopter pilot looks and says, yes, I
see the plane and perhaps didn't realize it was a
(25:34):
different plane. That was landing, because presumably if they saw
the plane that led to the collision, they would not
have stayed in the path of the plane, but they
would have would have piloted elsewhere. So NTSB and FAA
told me right now we don't know, so that's not confirmed.
That's that's a theory people are saying online it is
(25:55):
a plausible theory, but we don't have confirmation of.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
That right now.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
There's also discussion about the equipment. So the Blackhawk helicopter
had a transponder, so it was appearing on radar. It
did not have technology called ADSB, which is technology that
pings the location of an aircraft and it does so
(26:22):
using GPS rather than radar, and ADSB is more accurate
and more reliable then simply a transponder that is pinging
on radar. Now, under the FAA rules, military aircraft and
federal law enforcement an aircraft are exempted from the requirement
(26:42):
that they have ADSB technology. And I will tell you
as we were talking with the FAA, as we were
talking with the NTSB, what they told us, at least
initially is that had the Blackhawk had a they said,
it would have not have altered the ability of air
(27:03):
Traffic Control and the American Airlines pilot to see the helicopter.
I don't know. I will confess I don't know the
technical answers to that to this precisely, which is why
the investigation needs to proceed. I expect to get an
answer on that, but we don't know the answer to
that exactly. I will say, also, Ben, I think a
(27:26):
very reasonable question that a number of senators were asking
is why exactly are there so many helicopter flight paths
immediately in the vicinity of such a busy airport as
D C. Reagan Airport? Is that a sound policy decision
to have helicopters traveling that close. Now, I don't know
(27:50):
if that's the cause of it, By the way, we will.
What we do know is the two should not have collided,
and so somebody screwed up, and well we'll figure out
who and how and why.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
And look, Washington.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
I talked to IT pilot today and he said, Washington's
just different, and Reagan's just different. There's a lot more
helicopters there, there's a lot more airspace there that's different
than other parts. It's a lot more intense, there's a
lot more rules especially after nine to eleven, and so
you got to look at all those things. It goes
back to what you're saying, it's just different. Private airplanes,
(28:22):
for example, aren't going into Reagan. You go into DoLS
for that exact reason, because you're protecting and so there
are so many X factors. Is one pilot to today,
there's so many questions to ask. This is not as
simple yes or no or point a finger, because there's
so many X factors when you fly.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
To DCA Well, and I'll say the briefing that I
hosted with NTSB and the FAA, so I was on it.
Obviously Maria Cantwell, who is the ranking member, the senior
Democrat on the Commerce Committee, she was on it. We
also had both of the Kansas Senators, Jerry Moran and
Roger Marshall. They both participated, and obviously the flight came
from Wichitas, so the can the senators are particularly engaged.
(29:03):
And then we had Tammy Duckworth and Jerry Moran and
Tammy Duckworth are the chairman and ranking member, respectively of
the Aviation Subcommittee of the Commerce Committee, so they're both
particularly engaged in aviation issues, which is why I invited
both of them to participate. So Tammy Duckworth was in
the military. She was a helicopter pilot, and she's in
a wheelchair. She was very badly wounded in a combat injury.
(29:28):
But she is an experienced helicopter pilot. And I will
tell you in the briefing, I commented, I said, Tammy,
it's really helpful to have an experienced helicopter pilot as
part of this discussion, because she was literally she had
the maps out of the flight path and she's looking at, okay,
where runway thirty three is and where helicopter Root four is.
And Tammy was saying in the course of the discussion, look,
(29:49):
if the helicopter stayed on helicopter Root four, it should
not have been anywhere close to the landing pattern for
runway thirty three. That was an insight. Look, I'm not
a helicopter pilot. I don't have the insight to look
at those maps and determine that. I thought that was
a very interesting insight from her. I'll tell you something else.
She said that I didn't know that was interesting. It's
(30:11):
been widely reported the Army Black helicopter was on a
training mission. What she said is the Army routinely codes
virtually every flight as a training mission. And she said
the reason they do that is Army pilots are required
to have a certain number of hours to keep their certification,
and so every flight they do as a training mission
(30:32):
to maintain those hours. So what she said is it
doesn't necessarily convey what the purpose of that flight was
that it is being called a training mission. I have
to admit I would not have known that had she
not said that, And I think all of us we
were like, oh, that's interesting.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, because when you listen, especially if you're just watching
the news, and they're like, why would you have this
training flight this time and night? Yeah, right there in
this airspace. Surely there's somewhere else you could go and TrAAin.
That is a lot less ingested than DCA and all
the regulations that you have and this bravo space around
the Washington d C at the highest level, go somewhere
(31:09):
else and be safer. But the way that you just
described it from her, well, this actually makes sense. They
could be doing real work and they categorize it as
a train mission.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
So look, I think in the days that go forward,
we're going to find out what the precise mission was.
My understanding is the pilots for the American Airlines flight
were quite experienced. They had a very significant number of
hours of flight, so they were very experienced. At this point,
I don't have a clear picture of what the experience
level was for the Army pilots. I'm confident we will
(31:41):
find out more about that, and I'm confident we will
have discussions on policy questions. One discussion I'm sure we
will have is whether the exemptions of the FAA rules
for military aircraft and federal law enforcement aircraft from having
the ADSB technology, whether that is a good decision or not.
(32:01):
My understanding is one of the reasons for that exemption
is the military and law enforcement sometimes doesn't want to
be tracked. They don't want their location evident, and there
may be reasons for both military and law enforcement context
why you want the ability not to be tracked in
real time. I think that's a discussion we're going to
have to have, and as I sit here today, I
(32:25):
don't know whether that if the Blackhawk had that technology,
whether it would have made a material difference preventing this accident.
I think that's a reasonable question to ask. Secondly, I
think we're going to get some real questions about, Okay,
how many helicopter flights are there in and around Reagan Airport?
(32:45):
Do we need all of those flights? Is there an
unnecessary and unreasonable risk. I don't know the answer to that.
There may be some compelling reason why you need to
have that. I certainly think you ought to give the
military a chance to explain it. But I think given
this horrific collision and the lives that are lost, we're
gonna have to have a very serious conversation about what
(33:09):
caused this accident and what steps can be taken to
prevent this from happening in the future.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Well, let's talk about the government aspect of this as well,
because there's people that have been asking is there full staffing?
Are we understaffed? Are there enough people in the towers?
Are there enough qualified people in the towers? Has that
even become part of the conversation yet?
Speaker 5 (33:30):
On the hill it's certainly part of the conversation. I
would say at this point, we don't know.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
So.
Speaker 5 (33:35):
I've seen reports that the air traffic controller was assigned
to multiple responsibilities. It's not clear what the facts are
on that, and one of the dangers coming out of
a catastrophic accident is there's a fog of war. There's
people here, a snip at this and the other, and
they repeat it. And I'm a big believer, I will
say the NTSB, I've grown to really respect the work
(33:57):
they do. They investigate when you have a catastrophic accident,
They investigate based on the facts, based on evidence, and
they do a good job of not jumping to conclusions,
trying to figure out, okay, exactly what happened. So last
Airlines when you had the door plug blowoff, and TSB
did a very thorough investigation there and presented their conclusions.
And so today we heard from them, but it was
(34:21):
barely twelve hours into the investigation, so they didn't know
a whole lot yet. And I do think and they
will reach a conclusion expeditiously. These guys are serious and
technical and they try to follow the facts, and that
investigation is important. Once we know the facts of what
(34:41):
caused the accident, then we can say, all right, what
steps can be taken to minimize these risks going forward.
But I do think one of the things I'm merging
my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats. Is is don't get
ahead of ourselves. And by the way, I'll tell you
just a personal aspect to this. So last night, Wednesday night,
(35:06):
I was having dinner in Washington, d C. I was
having dinner with Mike Waltz. Mike Waltz is President Trump's
national security advisor. And so most nights when I'm in Washington,
d C. I have working dinners. I have dinners with colleagues,
with other senators or House members, I have dinners with
Cabinet members. Sometimes I have dinners with subject matter experts.
(35:26):
So last night I was having dinner with Mike Waltz,
the Trump's national security advisor, and we were talking foreign policy.
We're talking the Middle East. We were talking Israel and
Iran and China and all of the foreign policy challenges
facing this country. And I will tell you right at
the end of the dinner, we actually were just wrapping
up when Mike got a call and said, oh wow, okay,
(35:46):
there's been a collision between a jet and helicopter at
d C. Reagan Airport. So Mike left to go back
to the White House to deal with it. And as
I was walking out, I'll tell you been a particularly
personal aspect. So last night Heidi was flying into d
C and she was flying into Reagan.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (36:06):
And she was due to land about thirty minutes after
this accident happened. And so I'll say, my body man,
who's a great kid, is with me frequently came up.
I'll give him credit what he said to me walking
up as he said, Heidi's okay, but there's been an
accident at d C Reagan and a commercial jettis hit helicopter.
(36:28):
I was very glad he started with Heidie's okay because
I got to say.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
And so what happened.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
Her flight was diverted from Reagan and it landed in
BWI for beer.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
They don't know.
Speaker 5 (36:37):
BWO's Baltimore, Baltimore, Washington, and it's about forty five minutes away.
There are three airports that serve DC Washington. Reagan is
the closest to d C Washington. Dulles's in Northern Virginia
a little further out, and then BWI Baltimore, Washington is
like I said, forty five minutes to an hour out.
So she was diverted and so when she landed, it
(36:59):
was interesting. Texted her immediately said hey, are you okay.
I got no answer because she was still in the
air And then when she landed, I called her immediately,
and as she was getting off the plane, she said,
what happened. I don't understand. Why do we get sent
to BWI? So they didn't tell the passengers why they
were diverted, And so I told her what had happened,
and she was and I look, I understand, you don't
(37:20):
want to tell passengers on an airplane. Hey, there was
just a plane crash that freaks people out. But I
told her and then she came home. But I got
ad met. It freaked me out a little bit that
my wife was within twenty thirty minutes of where there
was a fatal plane crash at that airport, and you
and I both landed at DCA hundreds of hundreds of
(37:43):
thousands of times, And.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
So it's.
Speaker 5 (37:48):
I got to say.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
I did.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
I was.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
I said a long prayer and was like, God, thank
you for sparing Heidi. And when she got to our apartment,
I gave her a very long hug. And it's uh.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
And I am.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
Grieving for the sixty seven families who are mourning the
loss of their loved ones. It's horrific and and and
we're certainly grieving them, and we're grateful for all the
first responders and everyone who's been really heroic, uh try
to deal with this, this this catastrophe since it happened.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Well, I also want to just highlight the response was incredible.
And I'm sure you've got some of that briefing that
came about this. You know, there's always criticism of we
could do things better, but the on the ground first responders'
response truly seemed unbelievable. How quick they were responding, how
(38:40):
fast there was so many people there to help. You
were hoping for good news that they were going to
be survivors. We now know that the tragic loss of
life and were what the reality was. But even in
the recovery, it was all hands on deck and it
made me proud to be an American. I mean, it
was it was truly incredible to watch it in real
time on Yeah.
Speaker 5 (39:01):
I talked early this morning to Robert Isam, who's the
CEO of American Airlines. He flew to DC. He was
on the ground. Obviously, they were dealing with sixty passengers
and four crew members who were killed, and they were
dealing with trying to provide help and support to the families,
and I talked to him. I also talked to Sean Duffy,
is the Secretary of Transportation. You know, Seawan was confirmed
(39:23):
the day earlier, like it literally this was his first
day on the job. Yeah, and Shawn is a good
man and a serious man, and he's been diving in
and trying to deal with it. But this is a
heck of a welcome to be Secretary of Transportation. We've
got a major airplane accident on day one and he's
dealing with it and look the resources to investigate to
(39:48):
try to determine exactly what happened. The NTSB in particular,
they're very good at this, and we're trying to track down.
Obviously there was a massive mistake, but we need to
figure out who made it and why and and and
how could it have been prevented so that we can
learn lessons and and try to stop this from happening again.
(40:09):
I will say this though, also as just to comfort everyone.
As horrific as this is, it is worth remembering that
air travel is is hands down the safest mode of transport.
It and your odds uh of being killed driving to
the airport are still higher than they are being killed
(40:30):
flying on a commercial airline, so they're not zero and
and and in some ways it is amazing given the
flights that occur all over this country in so many places,
that that that that it has been a long time
since we've had a mass fatality accident in the United States,
given how complicated flying is. And in some ways that's remarkable.
(40:51):
But nonetheless, this tragedy, we should do everything we can
to press for for zero fatal and so we're going
to learn lessons from this and try to try to
prevent it from happening again.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
You mentioned something and just you talk about perspective, it
was it's amazing just how fast things can change. Because
Sean Duffy, who you know well, and his wife Rachel,
they have a large family, and he was welcomed just
minutes before at his office and his family was there,
(41:26):
and he walked up to walk into the office where
he's going to serve the American people. And he went
into that office and then I'm sure afterwards was immediately
rushed out because of what happened. And I sent a
note to is what Rachel last night. I just said,
you know, I'm so proud and I'm so sorry that
the first night that this is what you're having to
deal with the best that I know, God has put
y'all there for times like this to lead into comfort,
(41:49):
and I do think the American people shoul understand they're
incredible leaders that we have just gained who are going.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
To do an amazing job in times like these. Sean
is one of those.
Speaker 5 (41:59):
Yeah, and look, I'm grateful that he was on board
and confirmed and was able to be doing his job
on the day this accident. Also Pete Hegseth, who was
just confirmed as Secretary of Defense. Listen, this is a
crisis involving the loss of life for three soldiers as
well and the question of who was at fault. There's
at least some real question whether the military pilots have
(42:25):
committed some serious error. We don't know for sure, but
that you look at Pete Hegseith, you're just confirmed as
Defense secretary. This is a serious challenge to deal with
in his first couple of days as well, and I'm
grateful both of them were confirmed on the job because
you need strong leadership to deal with with with the
crisis of this magnitude I was.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Going to ask you my next question quickly was going
to be the follow up on the military side. We
talked so much about you know, transportation, the airlines and
the CEO and et cetera. But let's talk about the
military side. There was loss of life there as well.
What do we know from that perspective.
Speaker 5 (43:01):
We know three soldiers were aboard the black Hawk and
they were all killed. We don't know the details now
of who made the mistake. Obviously somebody did because this
should not have happened, But we don't know where the
mistake was, and it's where the investigation, like NTSB will
retrace the exact path of each airline, each aircraft and
(43:26):
figure out, okay, who was not where they were supposed
to be, who was in the wrong place? Was there
a miscommunication? Look as you review the transcripts, you know
FA and NTSB told us, at least initially reviewing the
transcript it appeared like when the air traffic controller said, okay,
do you have visual confirmation of the airline and the
helicopter pilot said yes. What we were told in the
(43:49):
briefing is ordinarily the air traffic controller would move on
say okay, you guys are taken care of onto the
next flight. So that was their initial take. Is that
exchange a here to be a fairly typical exchange back
and forth of navigating multiple aircraft in close proximity. Nevertheless,
(44:11):
we'll find out as we examine, was there just one
individual who made an error? Were there multiple individuals? Was
what was the cause of this? And that I'm confident.
I've told the other members of the Commerce Committee. As
NTSB reaches conclusions, i'll have another briefing where we sit
down with them and can ask them, ask them hard
(44:33):
questions and understand, Okay, what really caused this and how
do we prevent it from happening again.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
We're going to cover it all every day for you.
Make sure you hit that subscribe auto download button and
I'll see you back here tomorrow on the program.
Donald Trump walked into the White House Press Briefing Room
to hold a press conference on the horrific plane crash
that happened, and it was a sad moment, but also
a moment where the President said, we must do better
when it comes to hiring. He's taking a lot of
criticism because he was asked questions about dei hiring practices
(00:21):
and the government that had put together many people in
many different departments and agencies, including the FAA, not choosing
the best among us, but choosing those based on diversity, equity,
and inclusion.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Now the President is taking heat for his answers.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I want you to hear from him at this press
conference so you know exactly what he really said and
not what the media is reporting. They are taking him
out of context. Here's the President in his own words.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Mister Reid, welcome, Thank you very much. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
I'd like to request a moment of silence or the
victims and their families please.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
I speak to you this morning in an hour of
anguish for a nation. Just before nine pm last night,
in an American Airlines Regional jet carrying sixty passengers and
four crew collided with an Army black Hawk helicopter carrying
three military service members over the Potomac River in Washington,
(01:51):
DC while on final approach to Rega National Airport. Both
aircraft crashed instantly and were immediately submerged into the icy
waters of the Potomac.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Real tragedy.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
The massive search and rescue mission was underway throughout the night,
leveraging every asset at our disposal. And I have to
say the local state, federal military, including the United States
Coast Guard in particular, they've done a phenomenal job so quick,
so fast. It was mobilized immediately. The work has now
(02:28):
shifted to a recovery mission.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Sadly, there are no survivors.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation's
capital and in our nation's history, and a tragedy of
terrible proportions. As one nation, we grieve for every precious
soul that has been taken from us so suddenly, and
we are a country.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Of really we are in mourning. This is really shaken
a lot.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Of people, well, including people very sadly from other nations
who are on the flood for the family members back
in Wichita, Kansas, here in Washington to sea and throughout
the United States, and in Russia we have a Russia
contingents of very talented people. Unfortunately, we're on that plane,
very very sorry about that. Whose loved ones were board
(03:23):
the passenger jet. We can only begin to imagine the
agony that you're all feeling. Nothing worse on behalf of
the first Lady, myself and three hundred and forty million Americans.
Our hearts are shattered alongside yours, and our prayers are
with you now and in the days to come.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
We'll be working very, very diligently. In the days to come.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
We're here for you to wipe away the tears and
to offer you our devotion, our love, and our support.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
There's great support.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
In moments like this, The differences between Americans fade to
nothing compared to the bonds of affection and loyalty that
unite us all, both as Americans and even as nations.
We are one family, and today we are all heartbroken.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
We're all searching for answers.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
That icy Potomac was a cold, cold night, cold water.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
We're all overcome with.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
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. We do not know what led to
this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas,
and I think we'll probably state those opinions now, because
(04:44):
over the years I've watched as things like this happen
and they say, well, we're always investigating, and then the
investigation three years later they announce it.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
We think we have some pretty good ideas.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
But we'll find out how this disaster occurred and will
ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. The FAA
and the NTSB and the US military will be carrying
out a systematic and comprehensive investigation. Our new Secretary of Transportation,
Sean Duffy his second day on the job when that happened.
(05:18):
It's a rough one. We'll be working tirelessly. He's a
great gentleman. The whole group is these are great people,
and they are working tirelessly to figure out exactly what happened.
We will state certain opinions, however, I'm also immediately appointing
an acting Commissioner to the FAA, Christopher Rochelieu, a twenty
(05:41):
two year veteran of the agency. Highly respected Christopher, thank
you very much, appreciate it. 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.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Remember that only.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
The highest aptitude have to be the highest intellect and
psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
That was not so prior to getting there.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
When I arrived in twenty sixteen. I made that change
very early on because I always felt this was a
job 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
(06:39):
to lower than ever before.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I put safety first.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, and they
put politics at a level that nobody's ever seen.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Because this was the lowest level.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
That policy was horrible and their politics was even worse.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
So, as you know, last week, long.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Before the crash, I signed an executive order restoring our
highest standards for air traffic controllers and other important jobs
throughout the country.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
So it was very interesting.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
About a week ago, almost upon entering office, I signed
something last week that was an executive order, very powerful
and restoring the highest standards of air traffic controllers and others.
By the way, then my administration will set the highest
possible bar for aviation safety. We have to have our
(07:37):
smartest people. It doesn't matter what they look like, how
they speak, who they are matters intellect, talent, the word talent.
Have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses. It can't have
regular people doing that job. They won't be able to
do it, but will restore faith in American air traveler.
(07:58):
Have more to say about that. You 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.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Let's just pause there and think about that. The President
didn't just say this. He brought receipts. He brought receipts
of actual articles where the fa is saying we are
not hiring the best. It's not what we do here.
We are hiring people with severe mental issues or disabilities
(08:44):
as part of our DEI hiring practices and PEP. We
are like, well you can't say that, why not? That's
what actually happened. That's exactly what happened. I want to
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Patriot Mobile dot com slash ferguson or nine seven to
two Patriot. Now, we don't exactly know who's fault it
(10:37):
is yet on this. It could be multiple, It could
be accidents happen, there's human air involved. But the president's
also making it clear we need to go back to
having the best in the brightest, regardless of race, regardless
of sexual orientation, and up on the website as we
as this crash happen, there were job postings.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
And there were these orders from these government agents.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
He's on DEI and the President brought receipts of articles
talking about this, and I want you to hear again.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Here's what he said to point out that various articles
that appeared prior to my entering office.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
And here's one.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
The FAA's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with
severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
That is amazing.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
And then it says FAA says people with severe disabilities
a most underrepresented segment of the workforce, and they.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Want them in and they want them they can be
air traffic controllers. I don't think so. This was.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
In January fourteenth, so that was a week before I
entered office. They put a big push to put diversity
into the FAA's program. Then another article the Federal Aviation Administration,
This was before I got to office. Recently, second term,
(12:06):
the FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities,
psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a
diversity and inclusion hiring initiatives spelled out on the agency's website.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Can you imagine, just so you know, this was up
on the websites for hiring when this plane crash happened.
And that's the reason why Donald Trump's coming in and saying,
if you want to know what you've been paying for,
if you want to know what you're getting, this is
what you're getting. This is what you've been paying for,
(12:43):
This is everything you've been there. I mean, this is
it like this is this is the government for the
last four years actively looking for people that are having
mental health issues to be in charge those that are
with all of these types of issues. And then they're
proud of it, and they're like, oh, yeah, this is great,
(13:06):
this is absolutely great. Come on down be an air
traffic controller. Now, I want to be clear, we don't
exactly know what happened yet, but what he's saying is
it wouldn't be shocking or surprising if this played into it,
and if this did pay into it, play into it,
(13:28):
then there should, I think, be hell to pay. And
he said, as he described it, I don't think so.
Now when he says I don't think so, what does
he mean. What he means is not under my watch
for the next four years, we're going to hire the brightest,
We're going to hire the best. We are not going
(13:49):
to hire DEI hires and put people's lives at risk.
Potentially while flying to fill a stupid quota. That is
something we will not do. And the President saying it
to the American people because he's like, if you want
to know why I'm making changes, and the media is
(14:09):
going to lie to you, this is why.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Here are the receipts, here's the job postings.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Here are the articles written just a week before I
took office on the fourteenth.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
These are people that are I mean, actually their lives
are shortened because of the stress that they have. 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
(14:40):
and you need a very special talent and a very
special genius to be able to do it. Targeted disabilities
are those disabilities that the federal government, as a matter
of policy, has identified for special emphasis and recruitment and hiring.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
The FAA's website states.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy,
severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
All qualify for the position of.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
A controller of aeroplanes pouring into our country, pouring into.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
A little spot, a little dot on the map, a
little runway.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
The initiative is part of the faas Diversity and.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Inclusion Hiring Plan. Think of that.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
The initiative is part of the FAA's Diversity and Inclusion
Hiring Plan, which says diversity is integral to achieving FAA's
mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I don't think so. I don't think so. I think
it's just the opposite.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
The FAA website shows that the agency's guidance and diversity
hiring were last updated on March twenty third of twenty two.
They wanted to make it even more so. And then
I came in and I assume maybe this.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Is the reason.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
The FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buddhachek, a
real winner.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
That's the guy. He's a real winner.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Do you know how badly everything's run since he's run
this Department of Transportation.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
He's a disaster.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
He was a disaster as a mayor, he ran his
city into the ground, and he's a disaster now. He's
just got a good line of both the Department of Transportation,
his government agency charged with regulating civil aviation, well, he
runs it forty five thousand people, and he's run it
right into the ground with his diversity.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
You notice here and Donald Trump said what he said
a moment ago. People die when you put these policies
into serious positions where there is safety or national security involved.
That's why the President said it the way that he
said it. That's why he came out the way that
(16:59):
he came out out to say, let's have a press
conference and let's talk it out.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
That's why I came out and brought receipts.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
One of the things that this administration's doing in his
second term that's so much better than him in the
first term is bringing the receipts. He's bringing the receipts
to the room and saying, here it is, this is
what they did, this is what they wrote about, this
is how they described it, this is when they started
(17:26):
implementing it. They ran it into the ground. And he's
not doing it to grandstand. He's doing it to say,
while I am making significant changes, you need to understand why,
because the media is going to lie to you about it.
The media is going to tell you that these changes
(17:48):
are just terrible, and go through this list and they're
going to fearmonger you and you need to understand that
while I'm making these changes, this is to keep you safe.
This is to protect you and your family. I have
no doubt that last night on that plane, there were
a lot of different races, a lot of different voters.
There were people that Republican, there are people that are Democrats,
(18:10):
people that are in the middle, there are people that
were registered to vote, not registered vote, people from all
over the world.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
We know that.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
All of them deserve to have competent people in and
around them. Now, it may come back that this was
human error in a mistake, a tragic mistake that could
absolutely happen, but there also could be part of this
that is in fact the DEI.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
We don't know yet.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
But what we do know is there are people that
deserve to lose their jobs within the FAA, within these
sectors because they were not the best people hired for
the job.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
They were a quota.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
And in serious jobs like this, you cannot have average
people doing the jobs. You need the best, and you
need the brightest. I want you to hear my conversation
center Ted Cruz and I had about well, this tragedy
that happened in Washington when all this was unfolding, with
this helicopter and airplane colliding.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Listen carefully to his words.
Speaker 5 (19:09):
Well, it was truly a tragic and horrific accident, and
it cost the lives of sixty seven souls. The commercial
airliner from American Airlines, flying from Wichita, Kansas to Washington
d C. Reagan Airport had sixty passengers on it and
four crew members. And then an Army black Hawk helicopter
(19:29):
had three soldiers on it, bringing the total death toll
to sixty seven. The two collided just before nine pm
on Wednesday night. They collided as the American Airlines airliner
was landing at d C. Reagan Airport. And I'll tell
(19:52):
you today, so you and I are recording this Thursday night. Today,
I spent a lot of the day dealing with the
aftermath of this. As you know, I'm the chairman of
the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. It has
jurisdiction over all of aviation, and so today I hosted
briefings from the FAA and the NTSB, the National Traffic
(20:15):
Safety Board, and were heard from. They were bipartisan briefings.
I had senators both Republicans and Democrats, that participated, and
we got we got briefings the NTSB, which is, as
(20:36):
I said, the National Transportation Safety Board does investigations whenever
there's a serious accident, whenever there's an accident, an aviation accident,
whenever there's a rail accident, they do investigations, and so
we heard from them. Now as of Thursday, the NTSB
had over a dozen investigators on the ground. And listen,
(20:59):
in the wake of an accident, you've got to actually
see what happened. You've got to investigate and discover the facts,
discover the evidence. In this instance, we know that the
American Airlines flight was coming in. It was initially on
Runway one at Reagan Airport, and then the air traffic
controllers moved it to runway thirty three, So they shifted
(21:20):
the runway right at the very end, and the American
Airlines pilots changed their descent to land on runway thirty three. Now, simultaneously,
there was an Army black Hawk helicopter that was traveling.
There are multiple helicopter routes that go in and around
Reagan Airport, and that Army helicopter was on Route one
(21:42):
and then it was shifting from Route one to Root four,
and the air traffic controllers were in contact obviously with
the pilots of the American Airlines flight and also the
pilots of the helicopter, and after telling the American Airlines
yet to land on Runway thirty three, the air traffic
(22:04):
controller tells the black Hawk pilots to visually confirm and
have in line of sight the incoming plane, and the
black Hawk helicopter pilots confirmed that yes, they have the
plane in sight, and they also instruct the black Hawk
pilots to come behind the plane that is landing. What
(22:28):
in fact happens, or what appears to have happened, is
the black Hawk helicopter came in front of the plane
that was landing. The two collided midair and exploded midair.
Now at this point it appears everyone involved died. Both
the plane and the black Hawk helicopter sunk into the
(22:48):
Potomac River. They were both in relatively shallow water, about
seven to eight feet of water where they had sunk.
As of Thursday, the black box the flight recorder had
been recovered from the airplane and they are in the
(23:09):
process of recovering the black box, the audio transcript recorder
for the Blackhawk helicopter. So both of those will be
recovered and they're trying to piece together what happened. What
do we know. We know that somebody were multiple somebodies
made a catastrophic mistake, a catastrophic mistake that led to
(23:31):
a massive loss of life. At this point, and look,
there are lots of people who are giving all sorts
of theories, who are jumping on all sorts of possibilities.
In my view, we shouldn't speculate. We shouldn't we shouldn't
get ahead of the evidence.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
We need to.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
Understand exactly what caused this accident, Whether it was an
error on the part of the army pilot, whether it
was conceivably an error on the part of the commercial
airliner pilot, whether it was an error on the part
of the air traffic controller, or some combination of multiplayers
in that regard. We don't know right now. What we
(24:08):
do know is two aircraft were in the same place
at the same time. Now, as we were having the
briefing from the NTSB and the FAA that they told
us several things. Number One that had the helicopter stayed
on Route four, it would have been well out of
(24:30):
the way of the landing path of the airline, and
it would have been in a lower altitude than where
the helicopter and the jet collided. We don't know what
happened exactly. One of the things the NTSB is going
to do in this investigation is they're going to listen
to the black box recordings of both aircraft and they're
(24:51):
going to retrace the path, the exact path of both
aircraft to discover was one of them where it was
not supposed to be? Were both of them where they
were not supposed to be? At this point, we don't
have a clear answer to that, and it's easy I
would say, don't trust twitter, don't trust every theory. Look,
they looked at one theory and actually something I asked
(25:12):
the NTSB, I said, when the air traffic controller asked
the black Hawk pilots, do you have visual confirmation to
the aircraft? And the black Hawk pilots confirmed that, do
we have evidence that they were looking at a different airplane?
You could certainly this strikes me as a reasonable inference
that the the helicopter pilot looks and says, yes, I
see the plane and perhaps didn't realize it was a
(25:34):
different plane. That was landing, because presumably if they saw
the plane that led to the collision, they would not
have stayed in the path of the plane, but they
would have would have piloted elsewhere. So NTSB and FAA
told me right now we don't know, so that's not confirmed.
That's that's a theory people are saying online it is
(25:55):
a plausible theory, but we don't have confirmation of.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
That right now.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
There's also discussion about the equipment. So the Blackhawk helicopter
had a transponder, so it was appearing on radar. It
did not have technology called ADSB, which is technology that
pings the location of an aircraft and it does so
(26:22):
using GPS rather than radar, and ADSB is more accurate
and more reliable then simply a transponder that is pinging
on radar. Now, under the FAA rules, military aircraft and
federal law enforcement an aircraft are exempted from the requirement
(26:42):
that they have ADSB technology. And I will tell you
as we were talking with the FAA, as we were
talking with the NTSB, what they told us, at least
initially is that had the Blackhawk had a they said,
it would have not have altered the ability of air
(27:03):
Traffic Control and the American Airlines pilot to see the helicopter.
I don't know. I will confess I don't know the
technical answers to that to this precisely, which is why
the investigation needs to proceed. I expect to get an
answer on that, but we don't know the answer to
that exactly. I will say, also, Ben, I think a
(27:26):
very reasonable question that a number of senators were asking
is why exactly are there so many helicopter flight paths
immediately in the vicinity of such a busy airport as
D C. Reagan Airport? Is that a sound policy decision
to have helicopters traveling that close. Now, I don't know
(27:50):
if that's the cause of it, By the way, we will.
What we do know is the two should not have collided,
and so somebody screwed up, and well we'll figure out
who and how and why.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
And look, Washington.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
I talked to IT pilot today and he said, Washington's
just different, and Reagan's just different. There's a lot more
helicopters there, there's a lot more airspace there that's different
than other parts. It's a lot more intense, there's a
lot more rules especially after nine to eleven, and so
you got to look at all those things. It goes
back to what you're saying, it's just different. Private airplanes,
(28:22):
for example, aren't going into Reagan. You go into DoLS
for that exact reason, because you're protecting and so there
are so many X factors. Is one pilot to today,
there's so many questions to ask. This is not as
simple yes or no or point a finger, because there's
so many X factors when you fly.
Speaker 5 (28:39):
To DCA Well, and I'll say the briefing that I
hosted with NTSB and the FAA, so I was on it.
Obviously Maria Cantwell, who is the ranking member, the senior
Democrat on the Commerce Committee, she was on it. We
also had both of the Kansas Senators, Jerry Moran and
Roger Marshall. They both participated, and obviously the flight came
from Wichitas, so the can the senators are particularly engaged.
(29:03):
And then we had Tammy Duckworth and Jerry Moran and
Tammy Duckworth are the chairman and ranking member, respectively of
the Aviation Subcommittee of the Commerce Committee, so they're both
particularly engaged in aviation issues, which is why I invited
both of them to participate. So Tammy Duckworth was in
the military. She was a helicopter pilot, and she's in
a wheelchair. She was very badly wounded in a combat injury.
(29:28):
But she is an experienced helicopter pilot. And I will
tell you in the briefing, I commented, I said, Tammy,
it's really helpful to have an experienced helicopter pilot as
part of this discussion, because she was literally she had
the maps out of the flight path and she's looking at, okay,
where runway thirty three is and where helicopter Root four is.
And Tammy was saying in the course of the discussion, look,
(29:49):
if the helicopter stayed on helicopter Root four, it should
not have been anywhere close to the landing pattern for
runway thirty three. That was an insight. Look, I'm not
a helicopter pilot. I don't have the insight to look
at those maps and determine that. I thought that was
a very interesting insight from her. I'll tell you something else.
She said that I didn't know that was interesting. It's
(30:11):
been widely reported the Army Black helicopter was on a
training mission. What she said is the Army routinely codes
virtually every flight as a training mission. And she said
the reason they do that is Army pilots are required
to have a certain number of hours to keep their certification,
and so every flight they do as a training mission
(30:32):
to maintain those hours. So what she said is it
doesn't necessarily convey what the purpose of that flight was
that it is being called a training mission. I have
to admit I would not have known that had she
not said that, And I think all of us we
were like, oh, that's interesting.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, because when you listen, especially if you're just watching
the news, and they're like, why would you have this
training flight this time and night? Yeah, right there in
this airspace. Surely there's somewhere else you could go and TrAAin.
That is a lot less ingested than DCA and all
the regulations that you have and this bravo space around
the Washington d C at the highest level, go somewhere
(31:09):
else and be safer. But the way that you just
described it from her, well, this actually makes sense. They
could be doing real work and they categorize it as
a train mission.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
So look, I think in the days that go forward,
we're going to find out what the precise mission was.
My understanding is the pilots for the American Airlines flight
were quite experienced. They had a very significant number of
hours of flight, so they were very experienced. At this point,
I don't have a clear picture of what the experience
level was for the Army pilots. I'm confident we will
(31:41):
find out more about that, and I'm confident we will
have discussions on policy questions. One discussion I'm sure we
will have is whether the exemptions of the FAA rules
for military aircraft and federal law enforcement aircraft from having
the ADSB technology, whether that is a good decision or not.
(32:01):
My understanding is one of the reasons for that exemption
is the military and law enforcement sometimes doesn't want to
be tracked. They don't want their location evident, and there
may be reasons for both military and law enforcement context
why you want the ability not to be tracked in
real time. I think that's a discussion we're going to
have to have, and as I sit here today, I
(32:25):
don't know whether that if the Blackhawk had that technology,
whether it would have made a material difference preventing this accident.
I think that's a reasonable question to ask. Secondly, I
think we're going to get some real questions about, Okay,
how many helicopter flights are there in and around Reagan Airport?
(32:45):
Do we need all of those flights? Is there an
unnecessary and unreasonable risk. I don't know the answer to that.
There may be some compelling reason why you need to
have that. I certainly think you ought to give the
military a chance to explain it. But I think given
this horrific collision and the lives that are lost, we're
gonna have to have a very serious conversation about what
(33:09):
caused this accident and what steps can be taken to
prevent this from happening in the future.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Well, let's talk about the government aspect of this as well,
because there's people that have been asking is there full staffing?
Are we understaffed? Are there enough people in the towers?
Are there enough qualified people in the towers? Has that
even become part of the conversation yet?
Speaker 5 (33:30):
On the hill it's certainly part of the conversation. I
would say at this point, we don't know.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
So.
Speaker 5 (33:35):
I've seen reports that the air traffic controller was assigned
to multiple responsibilities. It's not clear what the facts are
on that, and one of the dangers coming out of
a catastrophic accident is there's a fog of war. There's
people here, a snip at this and the other, and
they repeat it. And I'm a big believer, I will
say the NTSB, I've grown to really respect the work
(33:57):
they do. They investigate when you have a catastrophic accident,
They investigate based on the facts, based on evidence, and
they do a good job of not jumping to conclusions,
trying to figure out, okay, exactly what happened. So last
Airlines when you had the door plug blowoff, and TSB
did a very thorough investigation there and presented their conclusions.
And so today we heard from them, but it was
(34:21):
barely twelve hours into the investigation, so they didn't know
a whole lot yet. And I do think and they
will reach a conclusion expeditiously. These guys are serious and
technical and they try to follow the facts, and that
investigation is important. Once we know the facts of what
(34:41):
caused the accident, then we can say, all right, what
steps can be taken to minimize these risks going forward.
But I do think one of the things I'm merging
my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats. Is is don't get
ahead of ourselves. And by the way, I'll tell you
just a personal aspect to this. So last night, Wednesday night,
(35:06):
I was having dinner in Washington, d C. I was
having dinner with Mike Waltz. Mike Waltz is President Trump's
national security advisor. And so most nights when I'm in Washington,
d C. I have working dinners. I have dinners with colleagues,
with other senators or House members, I have dinners with
Cabinet members. Sometimes I have dinners with subject matter experts.
(35:26):
So last night I was having dinner with Mike Waltz,
the Trump's national security advisor, and we were talking foreign policy.
We're talking the Middle East. We were talking Israel and
Iran and China and all of the foreign policy challenges
facing this country. And I will tell you right at
the end of the dinner, we actually were just wrapping
up when Mike got a call and said, oh wow, okay,
(35:46):
there's been a collision between a jet and helicopter at
d C. Reagan Airport. So Mike left to go back
to the White House to deal with it. And as
I was walking out, I'll tell you been a particularly
personal aspect. So last night Heidi was flying into d
C and she was flying into Reagan.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (36:06):
And she was due to land about thirty minutes after
this accident happened. And so I'll say, my body man,
who's a great kid, is with me frequently came up.
I'll give him credit what he said to me walking
up as he said, Heidi's okay, but there's been an
accident at d C Reagan and a commercial jettis hit helicopter.
(36:28):
I was very glad he started with Heidie's okay because
I got to say.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
And so what happened.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
Her flight was diverted from Reagan and it landed in
BWI for beer.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
They don't know.
Speaker 5 (36:37):
BWO's Baltimore, Baltimore, Washington, and it's about forty five minutes away.
There are three airports that serve DC Washington. Reagan is
the closest to d C Washington. Dulles's in Northern Virginia
a little further out, and then BWI Baltimore, Washington is
like I said, forty five minutes to an hour out.
So she was diverted and so when she landed, it
(36:59):
was interesting. Texted her immediately said hey, are you okay.
I got no answer because she was still in the
air And then when she landed, I called her immediately,
and as she was getting off the plane, she said,
what happened. I don't understand. Why do we get sent
to BWI? So they didn't tell the passengers why they
were diverted, And so I told her what had happened,
and she was and I look, I understand, you don't
(37:20):
want to tell passengers on an airplane. Hey, there was
just a plane crash that freaks people out. But I
told her and then she came home. But I got
ad met. It freaked me out a little bit that
my wife was within twenty thirty minutes of where there
was a fatal plane crash at that airport, and you
and I both landed at DCA hundreds of hundreds of
(37:43):
thousands of times, And.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
So it's.
Speaker 5 (37:48):
I got to say.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
I did.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
I was.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
I said a long prayer and was like, God, thank
you for sparing Heidi. And when she got to our apartment,
I gave her a very long hug. And it's uh.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
And I am.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
Grieving for the sixty seven families who are mourning the
loss of their loved ones. It's horrific and and and
we're certainly grieving them, and we're grateful for all the
first responders and everyone who's been really heroic, uh try
to deal with this, this this catastrophe since it happened.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Well, I also want to just highlight the response was incredible.
And I'm sure you've got some of that briefing that
came about this. You know, there's always criticism of we
could do things better, but the on the ground first responders'
response truly seemed unbelievable. How quick they were responding, how
(38:40):
fast there was so many people there to help. You
were hoping for good news that they were going to
be survivors. We now know that the tragic loss of
life and were what the reality was. But even in
the recovery, it was all hands on deck and it
made me proud to be an American. I mean, it
was it was truly incredible to watch it in real
time on Yeah.
Speaker 5 (39:01):
I talked early this morning to Robert Isam, who's the
CEO of American Airlines. He flew to DC. He was
on the ground. Obviously, they were dealing with sixty passengers
and four crew members who were killed, and they were
dealing with trying to provide help and support to the families,
and I talked to him. I also talked to Sean Duffy,
is the Secretary of Transportation. You know, Seawan was confirmed
(39:23):
the day earlier, like it literally this was his first
day on the job. Yeah, and Shawn is a good
man and a serious man, and he's been diving in
and trying to deal with it. But this is a
heck of a welcome to be Secretary of Transportation. We've
got a major airplane accident on day one and he's
dealing with it and look the resources to investigate to
(39:48):
try to determine exactly what happened. The NTSB in particular,
they're very good at this, and we're trying to track down.
Obviously there was a massive mistake, but we need to
figure out who made it and why and and and
how could it have been prevented so that we can
learn lessons and and try to stop this from happening again.
(40:09):
I will say this though, also as just to comfort everyone.
As horrific as this is, it is worth remembering that
air travel is is hands down the safest mode of transport.
It and your odds uh of being killed driving to
the airport are still higher than they are being killed
(40:30):
flying on a commercial airline, so they're not zero and
and and in some ways it is amazing given the
flights that occur all over this country in so many places,
that that that that it has been a long time
since we've had a mass fatality accident in the United States,
given how complicated flying is. And in some ways that's remarkable.
(40:51):
But nonetheless, this tragedy, we should do everything we can
to press for for zero fatal and so we're going
to learn lessons from this and try to try to
prevent it from happening again.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
You mentioned something and just you talk about perspective, it
was it's amazing just how fast things can change. Because
Sean Duffy, who you know well, and his wife Rachel,
they have a large family, and he was welcomed just
minutes before at his office and his family was there,
(41:26):
and he walked up to walk into the office where
he's going to serve the American people. And he went
into that office and then I'm sure afterwards was immediately
rushed out because of what happened. And I sent a
note to is what Rachel last night. I just said,
you know, I'm so proud and I'm so sorry that
the first night that this is what you're having to
deal with the best that I know, God has put
y'all there for times like this to lead into comfort,
(41:49):
and I do think the American people shoul understand they're
incredible leaders that we have just gained who are going.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
To do an amazing job in times like these. Sean
is one of those.
Speaker 5 (41:59):
Yeah, and look, I'm grateful that he was on board
and confirmed and was able to be doing his job
on the day this accident. Also Pete Hegseth, who was
just confirmed as Secretary of Defense. Listen, this is a
crisis involving the loss of life for three soldiers as
well and the question of who was at fault. There's
at least some real question whether the military pilots have
(42:25):
committed some serious error. We don't know for sure, but
that you look at Pete Hegseith, you're just confirmed as
Defense secretary. This is a serious challenge to deal with
in his first couple of days as well, and I'm
grateful both of them were confirmed on the job because
you need strong leadership to deal with with with the
crisis of this magnitude I was.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Going to ask you my next question quickly was going
to be the follow up on the military side. We
talked so much about you know, transportation, the airlines and
the CEO and et cetera. But let's talk about the
military side. There was loss of life there as well.
What do we know from that perspective.
Speaker 5 (43:01):
We know three soldiers were aboard the black Hawk and
they were all killed. We don't know the details now
of who made the mistake. Obviously somebody did because this
should not have happened, But we don't know where the
mistake was, and it's where the investigation, like NTSB will
retrace the exact path of each airline, each aircraft and
(43:26):
figure out, okay, who was not where they were supposed
to be, who was in the wrong place? Was there
a miscommunication? Look as you review the transcripts, you know
FA and NTSB told us, at least initially reviewing the
transcript it appeared like when the air traffic controller said, okay,
do you have visual confirmation of the airline and the
helicopter pilot said yes. What we were told in the
(43:49):
briefing is ordinarily the air traffic controller would move on
say okay, you guys are taken care of onto the
next flight. So that was their initial take. Is that
exchange a here to be a fairly typical exchange back
and forth of navigating multiple aircraft in close proximity. Nevertheless,
(44:11):
we'll find out as we examine, was there just one
individual who made an error? Were there multiple individuals? Was
what was the cause of this? And that I'm confident.
I've told the other members of the Commerce Committee. As
NTSB reaches conclusions, i'll have another briefing where we sit
down with them and can ask them, ask them hard
(44:33):
questions and understand, Okay, what really caused this and how
do we prevent it from happening again.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
We're going to cover it all every day for you.
Make sure you hit that subscribe auto download button and
I'll see you back here tomorrow on the program.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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