Trump steamrolls every principle of aviation safety in wild news conference

(CNN) — There is a good reason why American commercial airliners have safely flown billions of miles since the last major tragedy.

Every incident, near miss or accident is minutely investigated, without rushed conclusions, political bias or uninformed speculation. The result is an industry based on multiple layers of redundancy, faithfully followed safety protocols, pilot checklists and codes of practice that have made the unnatural business of humans taking to the skies safer than climbing into a car.

President Donald Trump on Thursday ignored all those principles when addressing the disaster in Washington’s crowded skies the night before, in one of the most staggering spectacles in the White House briefing room since his last term.

In his first national crisis since reassuming the presidency, he put his political goals and need for adulation above the need to find untainted answers about the catastrophe and over the indescribable pain of victims’ families.

Trump’s approach highlighted his determination to break the mold of every other modern president and to prioritize what he called “common sense” over traditional expertise in government — to now include air accident investigations. But his appearance also underscored a fundamental question raised by his second term: whether his impulse to be a disrupter may sometimes be counterproductive and even jeopardize the well-being of Americans.

After reading a written statement bemoaning the loss of more than 60 passengers on the American Airlines jet and the three personnel on an Army helicopter, Trump switched from calling for national unity to stirring division.

“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,” Trump said, in a moving statement that spoke to his potential as a healer at times of national stress.

Trump blames, Obama, Biden and Buttigieg

But moments later, he switched from the time-honored presidential role of offering consolation and comfort to dishing out partisanship and speculation.

“I put safety first. Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen, because this was the lowest level,” Trump said.

With bodies still being pulled from the Potomac, Trump blamed diversity hiring in the air traffic control industry for the crash and said it was due to former President Joe Biden’s policies. He profanely slandered the last administration’s transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg — a potential future Democratic presidential candidate.

“We have to have our smartest people. It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are,” Trump said. “It matters — intellect, talent. The word ‘talent’ — you have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses.” And referring to air traffic controllers, he said: “You can’t have regular people doing that job.”

Trump did not provide evidence that diversity hiring practices had caused the crash. And as he often does, he offered a caveat that gives him plausible deniability that his allies can point to and accuse opponents and reporters who highlight his various outlandish claims of misinterpreting what he said. “It just could have been,” he said, openly admitting he couldn’t prove what he said.

“Certainly, for an air traffic controller, we want the brightest, the smartest, the sharpest. We want somebody that’s psychologically superior, and that’s what we’re going to have,” Trump said. In the context of his earlier remarks, his comment implied that only White males are suitable for keeping planes in the sky.

Investigations of Wednesday’s crash will examine every aspect of the accident, including the instructions given by controllers, the staffing in the Reagan National Airport control tower and at approach control, the actions of the pilots, the safety procedures in place and the potential complications of one of the busiest airspaces in the country. The spate of near misses and almost accidents — especially on airport runways in recent years and months — is spreading fear among the public.

There may also be a case for probing air traffic control hiring and retention practices. One of the reasons why Trump was elected last year was that his criticisms of diversity hiring practices resonated with some Americans.

Trump’s instinct to give a full and frank picture into what happened on Thursday could have been a breath of fresh air, had he stuck to the facts.

“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 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,” he said.

The president is right that limited information flow after disasters and technical reports issued years later often don’t give Americans the respect they deserve in making their own transportation decisions. And Biden’s inability to project authority did in recent years sometimes leave an impression that no one was in command.

But Trump’s performance only succeeded in establishing immediate and baseless conclusions as to what caused the crash, added layers of speculation that will hamper public understanding of the investigation’s conclusions and injected grieving family members immediately into the heat of a raging political controversy.

And by using the power of presidential rhetoric, he has also created a huge problem for official investigators who speak in public about the crash and may now have to issue statements that conflict with the commander in chief’s position — which could put their jobs and the integrity of the probe in danger.

Sidelining expertise

It was notable that Trump did not appear with experts at his news conference. Instead, he was joined by a succession of laymen with no in-depth experience of commercial or military aviation whose prime function seemed to be to shower praise on his leadership and to push his anti-diversity talking points.

“I would just note the president’s leadership has been remarkable during this crisis,” newly confirmed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. “We will not accept passing the buck,” he said, moments after Trump assigned full blame for the accident.

Former Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth, who just became Defense secretary, praised Trump for his “leadership and courage” and pledged that “we will have the best and brightest in every position possible. … It is colorblind and merit-based, the best leaders possible, whether it’s flying Black Hawks and flying airplanes.”

Like Trump, Hegseth left the impression that minorities and women may not be suitable for such positions. But he did not address the key issue known to all Washingtonians — the massive levels of military aircraft often flying to and from the Pentagon and other nearby military facilities that operate near Reagan National Airport’s runways.

Vice President JD Vance, also appearing at the briefing room podium, praised Trump’s “leadership” and made similar points about diversity hiring.

No one from the National Transportation Safety Board — normally the lead agency on such occasions — appeared to answer questions from reporters. This fit a pattern from his first term in which Trump preferred his own “common sense” over expertise — especially amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The most obvious instance of this trend was in April 2020 when the president, at the same podium, wondered aloud, to the horror of his medical experts, whether disinfectant “by injection inside or almost a cleaning” could be used to treat the lungs of coronavirus patients.

Alan Diehl, a former NTSB investigator, said that the agency had long been one of the most independent in the US government.

“We will see if that continues in the new administration,” Diehl told CNN’s Brianna Keilar. “The NTSB has stood proudly and tall and called it as they saw it and that is what Congress intended.”

Trump ended his briefing by assuring the public it’s safe to fly. Though anyone watching and listening to the previous half hour might wonder.

“From the time I came in, we started going out and getting the best people because I said, ‘It’s not appropriate, what they’re doing. I think it’s a tremendous mistake,’” he said.

“You know, they like to do things and they like to take them too far, and this is sometimes what ends up happening. Now, with that, I’m not blaming the controller, I’m saying there are things that you could question, like the height of the helicopter, the height of the plane, being at the same level and going in opposite directions. It’s not a positive.”

“But no, flying is very safe. We have the safest flying anywhere in the world and we’ll keep it that way.”

The-CNN-Wire
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