Donald Trump has linked a diversity drive at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) under previous governments to a deadly plane crash in Washington DC.
It comes as two black boxes – a cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder – from the aeroplane have also been recovered.
Sixty-seven people were killed when an American Airlines jet and a military helicopter collided mid-air on Wednesday night.
Speaking at the White House on Thursday, the new US president suggested the diversity efforts had made air travel less safe.
He said: “We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas.”
Read the latest on the crash in Washington
Later Sky’s US partner NBC News said staffing at Reagan Washington National Airport, where air traffic controllers were guiding the flights, was “not normal”, according to an initial FAA report.
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The tower normally has a controller who focuses specifically on helicopter traffic.
But at the time of Wednesday night’s crash, a source said, one controller was overseeing both plane and helicopter activity.
The FAA, which controls air traffic control as well as certification of personnel and aircraft, is currently without a permanent administrator. Its former boss Michael Whitaker stepped down on 20 January – the day of Mr Trump’s inauguration.
Mr Trump appointed an acting administrator, Chris Rocheleau, on Thursday in the wake of the crash.
Mr Whitaker had clashed with Mr Trump’s confidante Elon Musk over the SpaceX rocket launches during his tenure at the FAA.
Since starting as head of the administration in October 2023, he was also forced to respond to Boeing’s safety and quality problems, and worked to hire more air traffic controllers amid a shortage of staff.
At his briefing Mr Trump blamed former president Joe Biden for lowering standards for air traffic controllers.
“We have to have our smartest people,” he said. “They have to be naturally talented geniuses.”
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Mr Trump added: “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 initiative spelled out on the agency’s website.”
The American Association of People with Disabilities responded to these claims, saying in a statement on X: “FAA employees with disabilities did not cause [the] tragic plane crash.
“The investigation into the crash is still ongoing. It is extremely inappropriate for the president to use this tragedy to push an anti-diversity hiring agenda. Doing so makes all Americans less safe.”
Meanwhile, Mr Trump also criticised former president Barack Obama for putting “policy over safety” when it came to US aviation.
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“I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary,” Mr Trump said.
He said that after being sworn in last week, he signed an executive order which “restored the highest standards of air traffic controllers”.
Read more:
Washington DC plane crash: What we know so far
Air traffic control heard diverting planes moments after collision
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Mr Trump said: “When I left office and Biden took over he changed them [standards for those who work in aviation system] back to lower than ever before, I put safety first, Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen because this was the lowest level.”
At a later briefing he was asked if gender or race played a role. He answered: “It may have, I don’t know. Incompetence may have played a role.”
Meanwhile, transportation secretary Sean Duffy has said he is working on a plan to reform the FAA .
“I am in the process of developing an initial plan to fix the @FAANews. I hope to put it out very shortly,” he said on X.
Mr Trump’s nominee to lead the US Army, Daniel Driscoll, said at a Senate confirmation hearing that training exercises near an airport like the Washington National Airport may not be appropriate.
US correspondent
In two news conferences on Thursday morning, the pain and bewilderment were both palpable.
At the Washington airport where the American Eagle jet was due to land, officials were forced to say what no air crash investigator wants to – that rescue had turned to recovery.
There was a sense of bewilderment over how this could have happened, a pledge to find out what went wrong and most importantly to recover the bodies of all those who died.
Authorities said on Thursday that the rescue operation for passengers on board the jet and the Black Hawk helicopter shifted to a recovery one as they believe there are no survivors.
A total of 28 bodies, including 27 from the jet and one from the helicopter, have been recovered from the Potomac River.
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The American Airlines jet was carrying 60 passengers and four crew when it crashed with the military helicopter, carrying three soldiers, shortly before 9pm local time on Wednesday.
Flight 5342 was preparing to land on runway 33 at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport when it collided with the helicopter in one of the most tightly controlled airspaces in the world.
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Wednesday’s crash was the deadliest in the US since November 2001, when an American Airlines flight hit a residential area of Belle Harbor, New York, just after takeoff from Kennedy Airport, killing all 260 people aboard.
The last major fatal crash involving a US commercial airline occurred in 2009 near Buffalo, New York when 50 people were killed.
The Pentagon and US army are investigating Wednesday’s collision, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said on X.
