Summary

An American Airlines jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided midair near Reagan National Airport, killing at least 18 people.

Trump initially expressed condolences but later questioned why the air traffic control tower or helicopter pilot didn’t prevent the crash.

The FAA identified the plane as a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700.

A Kennedy Center webcam captured the collision, and investigations are ongoing.

CNN’s Pete Muntean called the incident stunning, noting its proximity to a military base.

  • Veedem@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    66
    ·
    2 months ago

    The questions he’s asking aren’t wrong to ask. The real problem, IMO, is that he’s the president and can’t simply post those questions publicly. He’s an idiot, though, so this is what we get.

    But seriously, he also asks why the Black Hawk pilot didn’t do ANYTHING to avoid a known flight path and I’ve asked the same thing.

    • Bronzebeard@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      53
      ·
      2 months ago

      This is the kind of stuff the “deregulate everything” crowd never seems to think about.

      This dumbass is in the process of removing all enforcement of agency regulations and then this prime example of why we have rules in the first place appears

    • cogman@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      2 months ago

      Why was the army running a night flight training mission in DC?

      Such a crowded airspace and I’m sure the military didn’t coordinate their flight plans with the local air traffic control.

      • Veedem@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        2 months ago

        It’s a valid question, but I just watched a press conference where somebody explained that these aren’t rookie pilots but pilots looking to log the proper amount of flight hours.

      • ramble81@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        2 months ago

        Sadly the conspiracy theorist in me asks “who was on that plane that had a hit out out against them?” Latest was saying there were Russian figure skaters on board.

        I hate that my mind goes there but with this freaking administration, anything is possible.

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      2 months ago

      Well, he’s gone out of his way to sow chaos in every area of government including transportation. I would not be surprised if his actions did lead in some way to this tragedy.

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      23
      ·
      2 months ago

      If Biden was firing every government worker he could and then such a rare event happened, involving a military helicopter in DC, it would be fair to blame him. Not when it’s trump tho! /s

  • Alenalda@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    He’s already had a hand in the deaths of over 100000 1000000 Americans why would he care about 60 more?

  • friend_of_satan@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    2 months ago

    This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented.

    Too true, Donald, too true. I’ve been saying that a lot lately.

  • Absaroka@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    2 months ago

    It’s amazing how he always seems to have “the answer” AFTER something bad happens. But never the foresight to make changes before tragedy strikes.

  • alexc@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    2 months ago

    Is it just possible they got rid of a highly trained and competent trans pilot and replaced them with Private Cousinfucker from Dumbfuckistan?

  • kikutwo@lemmy.world
    cake
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    2 months ago

    Maybe don’t have training flights at night into one of the most congested airports in the country?

    • HorreC@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      I dont know how often they run there but I wouldnt be surprised if the cheeto said he wanted all kinds of mil practice in the area after he couldnt have a huge mil parade where he waived at them in the last term, but this is just me jumping to conclusions.

    • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      As this is a route flown to transport VIPs, eventually you HAVE to train pilots on it, at night, during congestion. These would have been highly experienced pilots who would’ve flown the route previously. They knew what they were doing.

      People make mistakes.

      That’s why aviation relies on the Swiss cheese model. Unfortunately there was only one needed point of failure here, it seems.

  • HeyJoe@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    2 months ago

    I saw some of the press conference with the people investigating (it was on the news while getting ready for work) and one of the questions asked to them was this statement made by our glorious leader and I laughed. I laughed because it’s absolutely the complete opposite of how to handle this type of situation. As someone from his background, you would think he knows never to make any statements about anything until you have the clear picture first. What he did will just cause more headaches for people actually doing their jobs now and feel bad they even have to deal with Mr. Wildcard, creating more havoc for them than they need.

    I don’t work in public facing affairs, but even internally it’s known you don’t make any statements to anyone outside your department regarding serious issues because every word can be taken the wrong way unless worded properly. If it’s something serious, you consult as a team, and someone approves the statement sent out.

  • gimmelemmy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    2 months ago

    I mean, we all know already that the control tower DID tell the helicopter what to do. How come HE doesn’t know that?