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e e e e e e e e e e e e e I 1 2 three four five six seven eight n 10 test test test sorry corre like the one from last night yeah hor sorry out e official about the updates they were remember his transport secretary only been in fews this crash happen he was on the scene at naal airport last night several hours at the fa headquarters here in Washington.
We here in the announced areum to this arep officials to join. We just saw the secretary the white grounds earlier today. Obviously, we heard an update from him given it was a blackhawk that had members of the usary CED withes claim earlier that these were experienced pilots who had a ofone on that and also from the transp secretary himself.
PO on the status of this invation ises making so quickly when the investigation was not under at that have inform that is not Ava to the of us answer that is yes. So there will be a lot of questions, a lot of questions about of this why a training mission was taking place so close to end of Runway.
Whether to conduct train mission in that exact location with the new secretary of defense here as well will there be changes going forward in the way that these training misss are planned and conducted. Good, there is no confirmed fa administrator at this moment and so that's one of the questions that we'll be asking in thisly fa over the so many questions coming up airport being added there every year or two.
Are there too many flights there? Uh, what's the situation with air traic control Staffing that need to be addressed? A traffic control training, all of these questions are going to come up and uh so you know the president will be here, the Secretary of Transportation will be here after just being Tuesday glad.
So they're just getting to know the lay of the land. They're still trying to figure out their way around these agenes natural disasters and he was really there as cons talking to people who lost their homes or their homes damaged saying that he was with the people of North Carolina and also the people of California.
Now once again into his cons also T hex the newly installed defense secretary put out a video statement this morning. Uh, he talked about it as well because there was this Army uh helicopter involved. He said that the crew was fairly experienced and um that they were on a required annual night Ev evaluation and they did have night goggles.
Investigation is being conducted uh to understand uh whether the aircraft was in the right quarter at the right altitude at the e e Al hey yeah e e I'm sorry stre because for okay call me I'll call no spe CL you St sh for Che War that's a two minute warning to the president.
I will yeah I will say that you in AAS else they might be arguing about disagree. You saw this out in California with the wildes even there were dramatic disagreements why was unavailable. You still saw and MERS of Congress opping jurisdictions in what we call the DM DC Maryland and Virginia DC government Virginia Maryland they were all involved in search res efforts recovery efforts and and working together.
You had uh senators from you know Republican senators from Kansas at at the same press conference as Democratic senators from Virginia. Um and so coming together around this and and you know we're expecting president Trump to come into this room and deliver a message to the American people as the President of the United States.
So we are by others the Secretary of Defense has has arrived here at the White House as well. Back to you Tony. Mr. President, welcome. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'd like to request a moment of silence for the victims and their families please. Thank you very much.
I speak to you this morning in an hour of Anguish for a nation. Just before 900 p.m. last night, an American Airlines Regional Jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew collided with an army Blackhawk helicopter carrying three military service members over the pomac river in Washington DC while on Final Approach to rean National Airport.
Both aircraft crashed instantly and were immediately submerged into the icy waters of the pomac. Real tragedy, 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 uh including the United States ghost guard in particular they've done a phenomenal job so quick so fast.
It was it was mobilized immediately. The work has now shifted to a recovery Mission. Sadly, there are no survivors. 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 uh we are a country of really we are in mourning. This is really shaking a lot of people including people very sadly from other nations who were on the flight for the family members back in Witchita Kansas here in Washington DC and throughout the United States and in Russia.
We have a Russia contingent very talented people unfortunately we're on that plane very very very sorry about that whose loved ones were Bard the passenger jet. We can only begin to imagine the agony that you all feeling nothing worse on behalf of the first lady myself and 340 million Americans our hearts are shattered alongside yours and our prayers are with you now and in the days to come.
We'll be working very very diligently in the days to come we're here for you to wipe away the tears and to offer you our devotion our love and our support is great report 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. We're all searching for answers that icy icy pomac that was a cold cold night cold water were all overcome with the grief for many who have so tragically perished will no longer be with us.
Together we take solace in the knowledge that their Journey ended not in the cold Waters of the pomac 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 over the years I've watched as things like this happen and they say well we're always investigating and then the investigation 3 years later they announce it.
We think we have some pretty good ideas but we'll find out how this disaster occurred and we'll 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 it's uh that's a rough one will be working tirelessly he's a great gentleman 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 roselo a 22-year veteran of the agency highly respected uh 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. You remember that only the highest aptitude have to be the highest intellect and psychologically Superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers uh that was not so prior to getting there when I arrived in 2016.
I met made that change very early on because I always felt this was a job that and other jobs too but this was a job that had to be superior intelligence and uh we didn't really have that and we had it and then when I left office and Biden took over he changed them back to lower than ever before.
I put Safety First Obama Biden and the Democrats put policy first and they put uh politics at a level that nobody's ever seen because this was the lowest level their policy was horrible and their politics was even worse. So as you know last week long before the crash I signed an executive order restoring our highest standards for air traffic controllers and other important jobs throughout the country.
So it was very interesting about a week ago almost upon entering office I signed something last week that uh was an executive order very powerful on restoring the higher 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 smartest people it doesn't matter what they look like how they speak who they are it matters intellect Talent the word talent they have to be talented naturally talented geniuses you can't have regular people doing that job they won't be able to do it but we'll restore Faith in American Air Travel.
I'll have more to say about that. I do want to point out that uh various articles uh 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 uh that is amazing and then it says FAA says people with severe disabilities are most underrepresented segment of the workforce and they want them in and they want them they can be air traffic controllers I don't think so.
This was uh in January 14th so that was uh a week before I entered office they put a big push to put uh diversity into the faa's program. Then another article the Federal Aviation Administration this was before I got to office recently second term 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.
Can you imagine these are people that are I mean actually their lives are shortened because of the stress that they have uh brilliant people have to be in those positions and their lives are actually shortened very substantially shortened because of the stress where you have many many planes coming into one Target and uh 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 in Recruitment and hiring. The faa's website States they include hearing Vision missing extremities partial paralysis complete paralysis epilepsy severe intellectual disability psychiatric disability and dwarfism all qualify for the position of a controller of airplanes pouring into our country pouring into a little spot a little dot on the map little Runway.
The initiative is part of the faa's diversity and inclusion hiring plan think of that 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. I don't think so I don't think so I think it's just the opposite.
The FAA website shows that the agency's guidance on diversity hiring were last updated on March 23rd of 22 they wanted to make it even more so and then I came in and I assume maybe this is the reason the FAA which is overseen by secretary Pete budich a real winner that's guy's a real winner do you know how badly everything's run since he's run the Department of Transportation he's a disaster.
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 the Department of Transportation his government agency charged with regulating civil aviation well he runs it 45,000 people and he's run it right into the ground with his diversity.
So I had to say that uh it's terrible then it's a group within the FAA another story determined that the workforce was too white that they had concerted efforts to get the Administration to change that and to change it immediately. This was in the Obama Administration just prior to my getting there and we took care of African-Americans Hispanic Americans we took care of everybody at levels that nobody's ever seen before it's one of the reasons I won.
But they actually came out with a directive too white and uh we want the people that are competent but now we mourn and we pray and would like to ask all of Americans to join me in a moment of silence as we ask God to watch over those who have lost their lives and bring Comfort to the loved ones and uh I just want to say God bless everyone in this room.
This has been a uh a terrible uh very short period of time we'll get to the bottom of it so we all saw the same thing we've seen it many times. I've had the uh honor of hearing tapes tapes are scary very scary tapes uh you had a airliner coming in American Airlines he was doing everything right he was on track he was the same track as everybody else they came in.
It's probably the same track as they've had for 25 years or more he's coming in the path and for some reason he had a helicopter that was at the same height obviously when they hit but pretty much the same height and going at an angle that was unbelievably bad when the air traffic controller said do you see you know he was talking about do you see him but there was very little time left when that was stated.
And then also he said follow a in and then almost immediately after that you know seconds after that there was the crash that took place. Well you follow him in that means like everything's fine follow him in uh you had a pilot problem from the standpoint of the helicopter.
I mean because it was visual it was a very clear night it was cold but clear and clear as you could be uh the American Airlines plane had lights blazing they had all their Landing lights on I could see it from the Kennedy Center tape we had a tape up on the Kennedy Center that seems to be the thus far I'm sure we'll see other tapes because it's such a an area where there a lot of cameras a lot of cameras looking up into into the air into space.
So we'll probably see many other shots of it before too much time goes by but we had a uh a situation where you had a helicopter that had the ability to stop. I have helicopters you can stop a helicopter very quickly it had the ability to go up or down it had the ability to turn uh and the turn it made was not the correct turn obviously.
Um and uh it did somewhat the opposite of what it was told. We don't know that that would have been the difference because the timing was so tight it was so it was so little there was so little time to think but what you did have is you had Vision U the helicopter had vision of the plane because you had vision of it all the way perfect vision of it all the way from at Kennedy Center where the tape was taken and for some reason there weren't adjustments made.
Again you could have slowed down the helicopter substantially you could have stopped the helicopter you could have gone up you could have gone down you could have gone straight up straight down you could have turned you could have done a million different Maneuvers for some reason it just kept going and then made a slight turn at the very end and it was by that time it was too late.
Uh they shouldn't have been at the same height because if it was at the same height you could have gone under it or over it and nobody realized or they didn't say that it's at the same height at the same height would it would still wouldn't have been great but you would have missed it by quite a bit could have been a th000 feet higher it could have been 200 feet lower but it was exactly at the same height and somebody should have been able to point that out.
So all of this is going to be studied but it just seems to me from a couple of words that I like to use the words Common Sense uh some really bad things happened and some things happened that shouldn't have happened. So you had a helicopter going in identical Direction you had a helicopter that was at the exact same height as somebody going in essentially the opposite direction.
You had a plane that was following a track which is a track that every other plane followed and I I don't imagine I know I've heard today that they might have been following the preceding plane which was pretty close but not that close uh the preceding plane but you wouldn't have even been able to see that because of the direction that the helicopter was coming in at.
So you had a uh Confluence of of bad decisions that were made and uh you have people that lost their lives violently lost their lives. Uh we're going to take a few questions I'd like to ask our new secretary of transportation to say a few words Sean Duffy great gentleman just started it's uh not your fault and I know you agree with me very strongly on intellect and uh even psychological well-being of of the air traffic control it's such an important position and I think I can emphasize stronger.
I changed it when I first ran in 2016 I changed it we had the highest standard that you could have and then they changed it back that was Biden to a standard you just I read it to you that was from one of your papers one of the people in this room actually wrote that and then I changed it back a few days ago and uh unfortunately uh that was we'll see.
Uh we don't know that necessarily it's even the controller's fault but one thing we do know there was a lot of vision and people should have been able to see that you know at what point do you stop at what point you say wow that plane's getting a little bit close.
So this is a tragedy that uh should not have happened. Please thank you Mr President and I would just uh note uh the president's leadership uh has been remarkable during this crisis.
Uh we have had a hole of government response local state federal and when you see that kind of uh cooperation it begins with leadership in this body so thank you for that Mr President you make our jobs a lot easier.
Um you made an important point that when we deal with safety we can only accept the best and the brightest in positions of safety that impact uh the lives of our loved ones our family members and I think you make a really important point on that Mr President that is the motto of your presidency the best and the brightest the most intelligent coming into these spaces.
Uh I want to take a moment and extend uh my condolences uh to the families of the loved ones. Um we commit to them that we are going to get to the bottom of this investigation not in three years not in four years but as quickly as possible with the NTSB who is here today as well as the FAA.
Um what happened yesterday shouldn't have happened it should not have happened and when Americans take off in airplanes they should expect to land at their destination that didn't happen yesterday that's unacceptable and so we will not accept excuses we will not accept um passing the buck.
We are going to take responsibility um at the Department of Transportation and the FAA to make sure we have the reforms that have been dictated by President Trump in place to make sure that these mistakes do not happen again and again I want to thank you for your leadership Mr President um and uh I appreciate the uh the confidence you placed in me.
Thank you Pete would you like to say something? Well thank you Mr President uh again I want to Echo what the transportation secretary said about about your leadership from the moment we found out about this we were in contact with the white house trying to determine exactly what happened.
Uh I would Echo it as well no excuses we're going to get to the bottom of this. Uh we first and foremost from the defense department want to pass our condolences to the 64 souls and their families that were affected by this um never should happen and certainly the three service members the three soldiers uh a young Captain staff sergeant and cw2 chief War officer onor routine annual retraining of night flights on a standard Corridor for a continuity of government Mission.
Uh the military does dangerous things it does routine things on the regular basis tragically last night uh a mistake was made and I think the president is right uh there was an some some sort of an elevation issue uh that we have immediately begun investigating at the dod and army level.
Army CID is on the ground investigating uh top tier Aviation assets inside the dod are investigating sir to get to the bottom of it so that it does not happen again because it's absolutely unacceptable but I want to Echo what uh the SEC the transportation secretary and you Mr President said because it pertains to the dod as well.
We will have the best and brightest in every position possible as you said in your inaugural it is colorblind and merit-based the best leaders possible whether it's flying Black Hawks and flying airplanes leading platoon or in government.
Uh the era of Dei uh is gone at the defense department and we need the best and brightest whether it's in our air traffic control or whether it's in our generals or whether it's throughout government so thank you for your leadership and courage on that sir and we'll stand by you on thank you very much JD please.
Well thank you Mr President for your leadership I just want to reemphasize something the president said and and you've heard from the Secretary of Transportation and of Defense there really was a hole of government response.
We were all on the phone we were all communicating yesterday trying to get to the bottom of this immediately but also try to communicate with the American people about what happened.
Uh something the president said that I think Bears reemphasizing which is that when you don't have the best standards in who you're hiring it means on on the one hand you're not getting the best people in government but on the other hand it puts stresses on the people who are already there.
And I think that is a core part of what president Trump is going to bring and has already brought to Washington DC is we want to hire the best people because we want the best people that air traffic control and we want to make sure we have enough people at Air Traffic Control who are actually competent to do the job.
If you go back to just some of the headlines over the past 10 years you have many hundreds of people suing the government because they would like to be air traffic controllers but they were turned away because of the color of their skin that policy ends under Donald Trump's leadership because safety is the first priority of our aviation industry.
Thank you Mr President on Dei and the claims that you've made are you saying this crash was somehow caused and the result of diversity hiring and what evidence have you seen to support these claims? It just could have been we have a high standard we've had a higher much higher standard than anybody else and there are things where you have to go by brain power you have to go by psychological uh quality and psychological quality is a very important element of it.
These are various very powerful tests that we put to use and they were terminated by Biden and Biden went by a standard that's ex the exact opposite. So we don't know but we do know that you had two planes at the same level you had an helicopter and a plane that shouldn't have happened and we'll see we're going to look into that we're going to see but uh certainly for an air traffic controller we want the brightest the smartest the sharpest we want somebody that's psychologically uh Superior and that's what we're going to have.
Yeah please go ahead president you mentioned the there were several Russian Nationals on on the flight yes will the US government be willing to tr to to facilitate the transfer of their remains considering the fact there is no direct travel between the two countries already been in contact with Russia and the answer is yes we will facilitate.
Yes please go ahead thank you Mr President uh the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is getting worse even though President John Lorenzo has been mediating the conflict between Rwanda and the Democrat Republic of the K because he wants to bring peace and stability the situation is really bad right now.
I want to hear from Miss president if you have any plan in the future to bring peace in the democ question about Rwanda and it is a very serious problem I agree but I don't think it's appropriate right now to talk about it but it is a very serious problem even yet know the names of the 67 people who were killed and you are blaming Democrats and Dei policies and air traffic control and seemingly the member of the US military who was flying that Blackhawk helicopter don't you think you're getting ahead of the investigation right now?
No I don't think so at all I don't think with the names of the people you mean the names of of the people that are on the plane uh you think that's going to make a difference they are they are a group of people that have lost their lives if you want a list of the names we can give you that we'll be giving that very soon with in coordination with American Airlines we're in coordination very strongly obviously with the military but I I think that's not a very smart question I'm surprised coming from you you BL.
Uh please please thank you president Trump thank you for being here based on your analysis so far do you have a sense of who is at fault if it was the plane the helicopter air traffic control and can you assure people that it is safe to fly in and out of DC?
Well I've given you the analysis and the analysis was uh it was based on Vision uh you had a lot of people that saw what was happening you had some people that knew what was happening uh there was some warnings but the warnings were given very very late you know those warnings were given very late it was almost as they were given a few seconds later there was the crash.
Uh it should have been brought up earlier uh but the people in the helicopter should have seen where they we're going. I I can't imagine people with uh 2020 Vision not seeing you know what's happening up there.
Uh again they shouldn't have been at the same height if you're going with in Reverse directions or sideway directions uh obviously you want to be at different heights. I see it all the time when I'm flying I you have planes going in the opposite that they're always lower we're higher or the so if somehow there's a screw up there's not going to be a tragedy it'll be close but you know there's never going to be a tragedy if you're at a different elevation.
For whatever reason they were at the same elevation and also uh from the American Airlines Center he's along the track that every plane is along you say what was a helicopter doing in that track it's very sad but visually somebody should have been able to and taking that helicopter out of play and they should have been at a different height.
Thank you sir you mentioned uh the Russians that were on board that plane what other nationalities were on board that passenger there were a couple of others we going to be announcing it in about an hour we have some very specific information uh we're calling the countries we've spoken to most of them but there were some other countries represented.
Spoken to President Putin I have not no not about this on your exu order you've already issued an executive order you say we restore Aviation safety this crash happened after that uh was the executive order successful and what more need to change to keep people safe?
Well you know we issued it three days ago and we were were in the process of making those changes this is this is uh something that should have been done a long time ago actually my original order should have never been changed and I think maybe you wouldn't have had this problem.
Maybe yeah please yes thank you um we see like everyday life that very often the those diversity hirers cause sometimes issues as you just mentioned so uh what plan do you have are we going to see some fire are you going to fire some of those diversity higher in the federal government what's what's plan do you have?
I would say the answer is yes if we find that people aren't uh mentally competent you you see the language the language is put out by them and uh if you see that uh I'm not going to bore you by reading it again but these are not people that be should be doing this particular job they'd be very good for certain jobs but not people that you'd be doing this particular job.
Mr President you have um today uh blamed the diversity elements but then told us that you weren't sure that the controllers made any mistake you then said perhaps the helicopter Pilots were the ones who uh made the mistake it's all under investigation.
I I understand that I'm that's why I'm trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash because I have common sense okay and unfortunately a lot of people don't.
Uh we want brilliant people doing this this is a major chess game at the highest level when you have 60 planes coming in during a short period of time and they're all coming at different directions and you're dealing with very high level computer uh computer work and very complex computers and one of the other things I will tell you is that the uh systems that were built I was going to rebuild the entire system and then we had an election that didn't turn out the way it should have but uh they didn't build the systems properly.
They spent a lot of money renovating a system spending much more money than they would have spent if they bought a new system for air traffic controlers meaning the computerized systems there are certain companies that do a very good job they didn't use those companies they used companies that should not have been doing it.
No I think I think this I think it's very important to understand that for some jobs and not only this but air traffic controllers they have to be at the highest level of Genius okay.
I want to ask you about the ice skaters in a moment because the US ice skating Community was affected but first if I can the cited FAA tax that you read is real but the implication that this policy is new or that it stems from efforts that began under President Biden or the transportation secretary Pete Budaj is demonstrably false.
It's been on the faa's website no I'm it's on the website the fa's website it was there in 2013 it was there for the entirety it was there for the entirety of your administration too so my question is why didn't you change the policy during your first Administration?
I change it I changed the Obama policy and we had a very good policy and then Biden came in and he changed it and then when I came in two days three days ago I signed a new order bringing it to the highest level of intelligence.
Okay on the please welcome back to sorry um you mentioned that a vision was the probably the problem that was an issue in this crash there's been some reports that the one of the pilots in the the in a helicopter may have been using night vision equipment is that any indic uh we don't know we're going to know that pretty soon uh it may change your view plan if you do have the night vision so it's very possible that could have happened that would be that would be maybe a reason why you wouldn't actually see as well as on a clear night you can see sometimes better without it.
A couple more Mr President is it helpful to have your Secretary of Transportation confirmed and does this intensify your interest in getting other nominees confirmed quickly turn go what is it helpful to have your Secretary of Transportation confirmed and does this intensify your interest in getting other nominees confirmed quickly as well?
Well sure we want fast confirmations and uh the Democrats as you know are doing everything they can to delay they've taken too long. Uh we're we're struggling to get very good people that everybody knows are going to be confirmed but we're struggling to get them out uh faster we want them out faster.
It's a good question actually uh we uh we've been pushing Shawn everyone knows Shawn for a long time we got many many Democrat votes but they want to take as long as they can they ask questions like some of the questions that Peter would ask that were totally irrelevant and not very good questions but they want to just keep it going they want to keep it going as long as possible.
I was very honored actually that you got so many Democrat V that was really good that was really good when I app to when I apply to meet with the families and second question is it your impression that M training that was done during that time the what the the training that the the helicopter was involved in is it anything you can tell us about that you don't know these are the things that will come up with the investigation you don't know but the helicopter obviously was in the wrong place at the wrong time and a tragedy occurred.
Please got a question about go ahead pleas thank you Mr President um you've been critical of the current regulations and you've called for big reforms at FAA um I'm curious sir what I made the reforms actually what is your message three days ago I made yes sir what is your message then to the American public in the weeks and months ahead should they feel hant uh to fly and uh if you could clarify perhaps something that the defense secretary said when he said that this helicopter was on a continuity of government Mission.
I don't know what that uh what that refers to but they were practicing they were they do that they call it practicing and they were uh and that's something that should be done it's only continuity in the sense that we want to have very good people and that has to be uh in continuity and that's what they refer to but it was uh basically practice and it was a practice that worked out very very badly.
Okay on his on his question the first question should people be hesitant to fly right now no I'm not at all I not hesitate to fly I this is something that it's been many years that something like this has happened and uh the Collision is just something that uh we don't expect ever to happen again.
We are going to have uh the highest level people we've already hired some of the people that you've already hired for that position long before we knew about this I mean long before from the time I came in we started going out and getting the best people because I said it's not it's not appropriate what they're doing.
I think it's a tremendous mistake you know uh 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 and the height of the plane being at the same level and going in opposite directions it's not a positive but uh no we're already hiring people.
No Sa flying is very safe we have the safest flying anywhere in the world and we'll keep it that way. Thank you all very much. Thank you very much sec.