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CNN International: American Airlines Flight Collides Midair With Army Helicopter; No Survivors In Midair Collision Near Reagan National Airport; President Trump Gives Briefing After Midair Collision. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired January 30, 2025 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
RAHEL SOLOMON, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello, and welcome to our viewers from around the world. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York, and this is CNN Newsroom.
I'm going to get straight to multiple breaking news stories we are following this hour. We want to begin in Washington, D.C., where any minute now we expect to hear from President Donald Trump on the air disaster that occurred last night. An American Airlines passenger jet and a U.S. military helicopter colliding in midair. This happened near Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C. The airport is expected to reopen this hour, and the first flights are scheduled to resume.
You're looking now at live pictures of the Potomac River. That's where both aircrafts fell after the collision. There were 64 people on the plane, three soldiers on the military aircraft. We heard earlier from the Washington, D.C. mayor and other officials who say that, tragically, there are believed to be no survivors.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN A. DONNELLY, CHIEF, WASHINGTON, D.C. FIRE & EMS DEPARTMENT: We don't believe there are any survivors from this accident, and we have recovered 27 people from the plane and one from the helicopter. The District Office of the Medical Examiner has lead on reuniting these bodies and these people with their loved ones, and we will continue to work to find all the bodies and collect them and reunite them with their loved ones.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: The flight 5342 was just moments away from landing when it collided with the helicopter, and you can hear the audible sounds of shock in the background of the air traffic control audio. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: PAT 2-5 do you have the CRJ in sight? PAT 2-5 pass
behind the CRJ.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know if you caught earlier what happened, but there was a collision on the approaching 3-3.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Now, a security camera caught the moment of impact. The plane was arriving from Wichita, Kansas, and collided with the Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River. Earlier, Wichita's mayor called on the community to come together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LILY WU, WICHITA, KANSAS MAYOR: We have been told that there are no survivors. We mourn with all those who have been impacted. This is a terrible tragedy that will unite those in Washington, D.C., and Wichita, Kansas, forever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: All right. Let's bring in Richard Quest, an aviation expert and also anchor of "Quest Means Business." Richard, appreciate you being here right now. Obviously, these events are rare, but when they happen, they're tragic, as we just saw from the mayor of Wichita there. Give me your sense of first observations and reactions based on the air traffic control, sound, the video. What are your thoughts?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: It's sad to say, but I don't think it's going to be that difficult to get to the bottom of what went wrong here. You're talking about extremely crowded airspace at Washington National Reagan, National DCA, as it's coded, between the civilian aircraft, the private aviation, commercial aviation and military flights that go up and down the Potomac. One of the noticeable parts about Reagan National is you do see these helicopters going up and down the Potomac, sometimes landing at National, often going out to Joint Base Andrews, the Pentagon, or any of the other military bases that are in the Virginia and Maryland area.
Now, the issue here is going to focus on the Canadair, the American Eagle, was asked very late in the approach, can they change runways from runway one to runway 33? Runway one goes that way. Runway 33 goes that way. But essentially, the plane is coming in the same direction. It was just going to have to go round and then land that way. Unfortunately, as you can see from what happened, the helicopter was in the vicinity of where the aircraft was going.
[11:05:00]
Now, when air traffic control asked, can you see the CRJ, and the pilot says, yes, we don't know that he actually was talking about the same plane, because nearby there was another aircraft taking off. And the shortness of time, Rahel, between the questions, answers and impact very much suggests that's where the confusion was. The helicopter pilot simply had no idea that the CRJ was there. He was probably looking at another aircraft and that tied up. Now, how all that happened, will be the stuff of the investigation. But, it's not going to take very long to get to the bottom of what happened here.
SOLOMON: And just for our audience watching some of this video, what it appears to be is planes actually landing now back at that airport. So, presumably the airport has been reopened. Of course, we'll wait for confirmation --
QUEST: Yeah.
SOLOMON: -- from our team on the ground.
But, Richard, let me ask, I mean, as you rightly discuss how crowded it is, sort of, and what we know about the communication that was happening from air traffic control, I think the question a lot of people might have is, but aren't there systems, whether it be technology, whether it be process, whether it be procedure, to still avoid this type of thing from happening?
QUEST: Absolutely, and that's going to be the focus. But, in this case, remember, a lot of these systems, like TCAS, Traffic Collision Avoidance System, a lot of these systems are designed for when you're at altitude or there is good physical separation. By the time you're getting to the ground to come into land, these systems don't work as effectively, because by definition, there are lots of planes around you, and the thing will be going off every three or four seconds.
Now, I think what's going to come down to is, firstly, why was the helicopter where it was, knowing that this plane had changed its direction because of where it was going to land? Number two, the collision avoidance systems, which were in operation, why didn't they point it out? My gut feeling is they were all too close. It was all too late. It was all too fast. If you measure the time with this helicopter, from warning to impact, we're talking about seconds, collision systems are designed to operate at much longer time spans.
Finally, Rahel, there will -- Washington National, and I'll say this bluntly and openly, is an exceptionally safe airport, the parameters under which it has been operating with all this military, civilian, private aviation, decades, decades. So, the anomaly that we had last night will need to be understood, because there is nothing wrong with crowded airspace. I know some politicians in the U.S., in Washington have objected to more flights. But, the reality is, it's just that something has gone badly wrong, as the President admitted. Now, they'll just need to work out what and how and why.
SOLOMON: Yeah. It's an important point just about it.
QUEST: Oh yeah.
SOLOMON: It's still being a safe airport. I mean, even just this morning here at CNN, I mean, you hear the buzz of people who think I was just at that airport, and understandably are afraid.
QUEST: I had been through National. I mean, that's what most sort of old flyers still call it. Now, I've been through National a million times. It's a very tricky airport because, for example, one of the approaches involves an extremely, here we see it, some of the aircraft starting to fly again from National, you see that bridge behind, one of the approaches does involve a very late right turn over that bridge and it can be quite stomach churning for passengers, but it is well, well-practiced, documented, something badly wrong here --
SOLOMON: Yeah.
QUEST: -- that put that helicopter so close to that Canadair regional jet. And just, once again, you can see there just how close aviation is to all the major landmarks.
SOLOMON: Yeah.
QUEST: That's just about going to go over the monument, past the capital, all of those sort of things.
SOLOMON: Yeah.
QUEST: A perfect view of just how Reagan National fits into the nation's capital, and they two co-existed and have done for decades.
SOLOMON: Yeah, and yet this will be -- yesterday will be a day that we certainly all remember for years to come. Richard Quest, appreciate you. Thank you.
QUEST: Thank you.
A: All right. Stunned and shaken witnesses say that they heard a loud bang when the collision happened. One man was driving near Reagan National Airport at the time, and describes what he saw. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARI SCHULMAN, WITNESSED MIDAIR COLLISION: I looked back again just to see if I could maybe see it land. And this was three seconds later, and at that point it was banked all the way to the right, I would say maybe past the right, past 90 degrees. I could see the underside of it. It was lit up a very bright yellow, and there was a stream of sparks underneath it. It looked like a Roman candle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: All right. We are now joined by CNN Aviation Analyst Peter Goelz. He is the former Managing Director of the National Transportation Safety Board. Peter, great to have you today, certainly under sad circumstances.
[11:10:00]
Let me start with the air traffic control audio and play that for you. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: PAT 2-5 do you have the CRJ in sight? PAT 2-5 pass behind the CRJ.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pat-25 has aircraft in sight, request visual separation.
(SILENCE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Your thoughts and reaction after hearing what appears to be the moments just before the collision. And I should say that if you had played it out a few more seconds, you would have heard a really audible gasp from inside of air traffic control, chilling here, but your thoughts of what you just heard.
PETER GOELZ, FORMER NTSB MANAGING DIRECTOR, & CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, I think the controllers were doing their job. The PSA plane was on very short final, and during that procedure, the flying pilot has got his eyes focused solely on the runway. The non-flying pilot, the co-pilot, is handling the flaps, handling communications, handling -- looking at the dials to make sure that they are lined up and that everything is copasetic. Neither one of them are doing see and avoid in the last 250 feet. They are landing the plane. The see and avoid responsibilities rested clearly with the Black Hawk.
SOLOMON: OK. So, does that give you any sense of where the investigation might focus? Does it focus then on, or at least begin its focus on the Black Hawk?
GOELZ: Well, it will -- on the -- the limited part of the investigation will focus on the Black Hawk primarily, but the broader investigation will say, what really is the importance of having this corridor, this low-level helicopter corridor, in such crowded airspace? Is it absolutely essential?
SOLOMON: Let me ask, Peter, I mean --
GOELZ: And the answer is, it's not.
SOLOMON: OK. And --
GOELZ: They can corner inland and keep it away from the approach pattern of DCA. But, it's a beautiful flight up to Potomac. I've taken it on a military helicopter.
SOLOMON: Yeah. Peter, let me just state the obvious for a moment. Obviously, you have these two aircrafts at the same place, at the same time. Clearly, something went horribly wrong. But, it's the, what went wrong? That's the question for the NTSB, which is leading the investigation. Walk -- excuse me, walk me through the investigation and the investigative process. Walk me through what happens first? What happens next? What happens now?
GOELZ: Well, right now, they're still doing victim recovery, but they will be searching for the commercial aircraft's black boxes. There were two of them, the voice recorder and the technical recorder. I'm not sure the voice recorder will give the investigators too much, because I think this was such a sudden shocking event that the flight crew had no idea that this was occurring. They'll also go after the data recorder of the Black Hawk and see what they were doing. Were they following procedures? Were they keeping within their flight plan? Unfortunately, the Black Hawk is unlikely to have a voice recorder. So, they'll only have a data recorder. But, that's where the investigation will start.
They will -- and they will proceed from there to looking at the flight plan, looking at the flight history of the crew of the Black Hawk. Were they good -- when did they fly? Were they fatigued? Was there -- was this the first, the second, the only mission of the day? They will start looking into the human factors and then they will have a preliminary report issued within a few weeks.
SOLOMON: And we do know that Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has said at least about the soldiers who were on board. They were a fairly experienced crew. They were doing an annual required night evaluation. They did have night vision goggles.
Peter, before I let you go, I mean, a lot of people, myself included, you hear the story, you follow the story, and you wonder, what were the systems on board? I mean, certainly there are systems on board, certainly on the passenger jet side, to prevent this from happening. Can you explain to us whether it be the technology side of it, or the process and procedure side of it, how this should have been avoided?
GOELZ: Yeah, sure. I mean, as Richard pointed out, the principal avoidance system is TCAS, but that system is designed to work at altitude.
[11:15:00]
When you get below 1,000 feet, it transitions off because there are so many aircrafts in the airport environment and the system simply would be overloaded. It would cause more problems than they would solve. So, in these last 500 to 750 feet of landing, it really is see and avoid. And the flight crew of the PSA plane, they were focused on landing. It's really the responsibility of the Black Hawk to see and avoid.
SOLOMON: Peter Goelz, we appreciate you being with us. Please stand by. We're going to have much more to discuss later in the show. As I said, of course, we are also waiting to hear from President Trump. He is scheduled to speak any moment now.
We're going to take a quick break, but stay with us. We'll be right back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ROGER MARSHALL (R-KS): When one person dies, it's a tragedy, but when many, many, many people die, it's an unbearable sorrow. I want the folks back home to just know that we care, that we love them, and that this is a time when we'll have to join arms together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. And we are standing by for remarks from President Trump about the midair collision near Reagan National Airport.
Let's bring in now in CNN National Security Correspondent Natasha Bertrand, who joins us from the Pentagon. Natasha, good to have you. We heard Secretary Hegseth say that the crew on board, the military aircraft that they were fairly experienced. Talk to us a little bit more about what you know about the Black Hawk aircraft and what you're hearing and also the soldiers on board.
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, according to U.S. officials, there were three U.S. Army soldiers on board this Black Hawk, which came out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia. That's where the unit is based. And this was a routine training mission, a mission that happens extremely regularly, something that these pilots would have been accustomed to flying many, many times before, particularly these pilots and this crew, because they were, according to Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, fairly experienced, according to a U.S. army official as well. There were no particularly junior pilots or crew on this particular aircraft. And so, the question now becomes, what exactly went wrong here?
These routes that are used by these helicopters, they have been used for decades, these low kind of flying routes around the airport for exactly this reason, for training missions, to pick up and drop off senior U.S. government officials, including senior Army officials. They take off and they land from right here at the Pentagon pretty regularly. And so, the question is, was this pure pilot error, or was something wrong with the aircraft itself?
This is all going to be part of the investigation here, because we know that the Secretary of Transportation said earlier today that this was a standard pattern that this helicopter was on. Secretary of Defense Hegseth said that is going to be investigated further, whether they deviated from that pattern at all, whether they were at the appropriate altitude.
[11:20:00]
But, for now, nothing egregious is really standing out. And so, that's what's making this a little bit more difficult.
Now, we don't know yet the identities of these three U.S. Army soldiers that were on board this helicopter. That is currently being worked on in terms of notifying the next of kin. But, we do know that they included one officer, one warrant officer, which is typically a specialist in that particular field, in this case, in aviation, as well as a crew chief, kind of someone who sits in the background in the back of the aircraft and makes sure that everything is operating safely.
So, questions, of course, still being worked out here at the Pentagon. They are cooperating with the NTSB, with the FAA, to figure out what exactly happened here, Rahel. But, again, it's hard to overstate just how routine everything seemed to be.
SOLOMON: Which is why there are so many questions. Natasha Bertrand live for us there at the Pentagon. Natasha, thank you.
I'm also joined now by Cedric Leighton, a CNN Military Analyst and retired Air Force Colonel. Colonel Leighton, always good to have you. Thank you for being here. Let me just preface this by saying that we are expecting President Trump to really speak any moment now. We've already got the two-minute warning. So, we may have to actually -- Colonel, if you might just stand by. Let's listen to the President together, and we'll talk on the other side. Thank you.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 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 our nation. Just before 09:00 p.m. last night, an American Airlines regional jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter carrying three military service members over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., while on final approach to Reagan National Airport. Both aircraft crashed instantly and were immediately submerged into the icy waters of the Potomac. 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, 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 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 we are a country of -- really, we are in mourning. This has really shaken a lot of people, including people very sadly, from other nations, who were on the flight, for the family members back in Wichita, Kansas, here in Washington, D.C., and throughout the United States and in Russia. We have a Russia contingent of very talented people, unfortunately, who were on that plane, very, very, very sorry about that. Whose loved ones were board 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 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, this great support. 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 Potomac, was it cold, cold night, cold water. We're all overcome with the grief for many who have so tragically perished who 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 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.
[11:25:00]
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 U.S. 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 happens. It's a rough one. We'll be working tirelessly. He is 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 Rocheleau, a 22-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. You remember that. Only the highest aptitude, they have to be the highest intellect, and psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers. That was not so prior to getting there.
When I arrived in 2016, I 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 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 politics at a level that nobody has 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 was an executive order, a very powerful one, 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 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 various articles that appeared prior to my entering office, and here is one, the FAA's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. 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 January 14th. So, that was a week before I entered office. They put a big push to put diversity into the FAA 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. 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 you need a very special talent and a very special genius to be able to do it.
[11:30:00]
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, a 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 2022. They wanted to make it even more so. And then I came in, and I assume maybe this is the reason. The FAA, which was overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a real winner. That guy is a real winner. Do you know how badly everything was run since he has s run the Department of Transportation? He is a disaster. He was a disaster as a mayor. He read his city into the ground, and he is a disaster. Now, he has s just got a good line of bullshit, the Department of Transportation. His government agency charged with regulating civil aviation. Well, he runs it, 45,000 people, and he has run it right into the ground with his diversity. So, I had to say that 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 has ever seen before. It's one of the reasons I won, but they actually came out with a directive, too white, and we want the people that are competent. But, now we mourn and we pray, and would like to ask all 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 I just want to say, God bless everyone in this room. This has been a terrible, 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 honor of hearing tapes. Tapes are scary, very scary tapes. You had an airliner coming in, American Airlines. He was doing everything right. He was on track. He was the same track as everybody else that came in. It's probably the same track as they've had for 25 years or more. He is 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, he is talking about, do you see him? But, there was very little time left when that was stated. And then also he said, follow him in. And then almost immediately after that, seconds after that, there was the crash that took place. Well, you follow him in. That means like everything is fine. Follow him in.
You had a pilot problem from the standpoint of the helicopter. I mean, because it was visual. It was very clear night. It was cold, but clear and clear as you could be. 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 primary thus far. I'm sure we'll see other tapes, because it's such an area where there are lot of cameras, a lot of cameras looking up 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 situation where you had a helicopter that had the ability to stop.
[11:35:00]
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, and the turn it made was not the correct turn, obviously, and 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 little -- there was so little time to think. But, what you did have is you had vision. 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. 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 still wouldn't have been great, but you would have missed it by quite a bit. It could have been 1,000 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. 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 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, 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 confluence of bad decisions that were made, and you have people that lost their lives, violently lost their lives.
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, a great gentleman, just started. It's not your fault, and I know you agree with me very strongly on intellect and even psychological well-being of the air traffic controller. It's such an important position, and I think I can't 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 unfortunately, that was -- we'll see.
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, at what point do you stop? At what point you say, wow, that plane is getting a little bit close? So, this is a tragedy that should not have happened.
Please, sir.
SEAN DUFFY, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Thank you, Mr. President, and I would just note, the President's leadership has been remarkable during this crisis. We have had a whole of government response, local, state, federal, and when you see that kind of cooperation, it begins with the leadership in this body. So, thank you for that, Mr. President. You make our jobs a lot easier.
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 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.
I want to take a moment and extend my condolences to the families of the loved ones. 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. 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.
[11:40:00]
That didn't happen yesterday. That's not acceptable. And so, we will not accept excuses. We will not accept passing the buck. We are going to take responsibility 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 --
TRUMP: Thank you.
DUFFY: -- and I appreciate the confidence you placed in us. Thank you,
TRUMP: Pete, would you like to say something?
PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, thank you, Mr. President. Again, I want to echo what the Transportation Secretary said 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. I would echo as well. No excuses. We're going to get to the bottom of this. First and foremost, from the Defense Department, I want to pass our condolences to the 64 souls and their families that were affected by this. It never should happen. And certainly, the three service members, the three soldiers, a young captain, a staff sergeant and CW2, Chief Warrant Officer.
Routine annual retraining of night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity of government mission. The military does dangerous things. It does routine things on a regular basis. Tragically, last night, a mistake was made, and I think the President is right. There was some sort of an elevation issue that we have immediately begun investigating at the DoD and army level. Army CID is on the ground investigating, 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 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 color blind and merit-based, the best leaders possible, whether it's flying Black Hawks, flying airplanes, leading platoons or in government. The era of DEI 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 it. Thank you.
TRUMP: Thank you very much. J.D. please. J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership. I just want to reemphasize something the President said, and you heard from the Secretary of Transportation and of Defense. There really was a whole 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.
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 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, D.C., is we want to hire the best people, because we want the best people at 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.
TRUMP: Thank you.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, on DEI and the claims that you've made, are you saying this crash was somehow caused and n the result of diversity hiring, and what evidence have you seen to support these claims?
TRUMP: 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 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 the exact opposite.
So, we don't know. But, we do know that you had two planes at the same level. You had a 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, 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. Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President --
TRUMP: Yeah. Please go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, you mentioned at the top of the briefing that there were several Russian nationals on the flight.
TRUMP: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will the U.S. government be willing to facilitate the transfer of their remains considering --
[11:45:00]
TRUMP: Yes, we will.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- the fact there is no direct air travel between the two countries?
TRUMP: We've already been in contact with Russia, and the answer is yes. We will facilitate. Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Please go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. President. 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 of the Congo because he wants to bring peace and stability, the situation is really bad right now. I want to hear from this President if you have any plan in the future to bring peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
TRUMP: Well, you heard from me a 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.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We didn't yet know the names of the 67 people who we were killed, and you are blaming Democrats and DEI policies and air traffic control and seemingly the member of the U.S. military who is flying that Black Hawk helicopter. Don't you think you're getting ahead of the investigation right now?
TRUMP: No. I don't think so at all. I don't think -- the names of the people, you mean the names of the people that are on the plane? You think that's going to make a difference? 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, in coordination with American Airlines. We're in coordination very strongly, obviously, with the military, but I think that's not a very smart question. I'm surprised coming from you.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
TRUMP: Please. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, President Trump. Thank you for being here. Based on your analysis so far, do you have a sense of who was 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 D.C.?
TRUMP: Well, I've given you the analysis, and the analysis was -- it was based on vision. You had a lot of people that saw what was happening. You had some people that knew what was happening. There were as some warnings, but the warnings were given very, very late. Those warnings were given very late. It was almost as they were given a few seconds later, there was a crash. It should have been brought up earlier. But, the people -- and the helicopter should have seen where they were going. I can't imagine people with 2020 vision not seeing what's happening up there.
Again, they shouldn't have been at the same height. You're going with -- in reverse directions or sideway directions. Obviously, you want to be at different heights. I see it all the time when I'm flying. You have planes going in the opposite. They're always lower. We're higher or the -- so, if somehow there is a screw up, there is not going to be a tragedy. It will be close. But, there is never going to be a tragedy if you're at a different elevation. For whatever reason, they were at the same elevation. And also from the American Airlines Center, he is 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 see and taken that helicopter at a play, and they should have been at a different height.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, sir. You mentioned the Russians that were on board that plane. What other nationalities were on board?
TRUMP: There were a couple of others. We're going to be announcing it in about an hour. We have some very specific information. We're calling the countries. We've spoken to most of them, but there were some other countries represented.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, have you spoken to President Putin?
TRUMP: I have not, no, not about this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, a question from me. You've already issued an executive order. You say we'll restore our aviation safety.
TRUMP: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This crash happened after that. Was the executive order successful, and what more do you change when people say?
TRUMP: Well, we issued it three days ago, and we were -- we're in the process of making those changes. This is 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.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Yeah. Please. Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Thank you. We see like everyday life that's very often the diversity hires cause sometimes issues, as you just mentioned. So, what plan do you have? Are we going to see some fire? Are you going to fire some of those diversity hire in the federal government? What plan do you have?
TRUMP: I would say the answer is yes, if we find that people aren't mentally competent. You see the language. The language is put out by them. And if you see that, I'm not going to bore you by reading it again. But, these are not people that should be doing this particular job. They'd be very good for certain jobs, but not people that should be doing this particular job.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, you've today blamed the diversity element, but then told us that you weren't sure that the controllers made any mistakes. You then said perhaps the helicopter pilots were the ones --
[11:50:00]
TRUMP: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- who made the mistake.
TRUMP: It's all under investigation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand that. 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.
TRUMP: Because I have common sense, OK? And unfortunately, a lot of people don't. 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 in different directions, and you're dealing with very high level computer -- computer work and very complex computers.
And one of the other things I will tell you is that the 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, 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 controllers, 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 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. PETER ALEXANDER, NBC NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I want to ask you
about the ice skaters in a moment, because the U.S. ice skating committee was affected. But first, if I can, the cited FAA tax that you read is real, but the implication that this policy is newer, that it stems from efforts that began under President Biden or the Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, is demonstrably false. It's been on the FAA website.
TRUMP: Who said it? You?
ALEXANDER: No. It's on the website. The FAA's website.
TRUMP: Hold on. Hold on.
ALEXANDER: It was there in 2013. It was there for the entirety --
TRUMP: What I read --
ALEXANDER: -- 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?
TRUMP: I did 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. OK.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Please. Quiet. Quiet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome back to the -- I'm sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You mentioned that a vision was the probably the problem that was at issue in this crash. There has been some reports that one of the pilots in the helicopter may have been using night vision equipment. Is there any indication?
TRUMP: I heard that. We don't know. We're going to know that pretty soon. 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 maybe a reason why you wouldn't actually see as well as on a clear night. You can see sometimes better without it.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, is it helpful to have your Secretary of Transportation confirmed, and does this intensify your interest in getting other nominees confirmed quickly? Is it helpful to have your Secretary of Transportation confirmed, or does this intensify your interest in getting other nominees confirmed quickly as well?
TRUMP: Well, sure. We want fast confirmations. And the Democrats, as you know, are doing everything they can to delay them. They've taken too long. We're struggling to get very good people that everybody knows are going to be confirmed, but we're struggling to get them out faster. We want them out faster. It's a good question, actually. We've been pushing Sean. Everyone knows Sean for a long time. He 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 votes. That was really good.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When are you planning to meet with the families? And second question, is it your impression that major training was done during that time --
TRUMP: The what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- the training that the helicopter was involved in? Is it anything you can tell us about?
TRUMP: 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.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: No. Go ahead, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President. You've been critical of the current regulations, and you've called for fake reforms at FAA. I'm curious, sir, what is your --
TRUMP: Well, I made the reforms.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- what is your message --
TRUMP: Three days ago I made the reforms.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir. What is your message then to the American public in the weeks and months ahead? Should they feel hesitant to fly, and if you could clarify perhaps something that the Defense Secretary said when he said that this helicopter was on a continuity of government mission?
TRUMP: I don't know what that refers to, but they were practicing. They were -- they do that. They call it practicing, and they were -- and that's something that should be done.
[11:55:00]
It's only continuity in the sense that we want to have very good people, and that has to be in continuity, and that's what they refer it to. But, it was basically practice, and it was a practice that worked out very, very badly. OK?
(CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On his -- this is first question. Should people be hesitant to fly right now?
TRUMP: No, not at all. I'd not hesitate to fly. This is something that -- it's been many years that something like this has happened, and the collision is just something that we don't expect ever to happen again. We are going to have the highest level people. We've already hired, some of the people that we'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 appropriate what they're doing. I think it's a tremendous mistake. 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, we're already hiring people. No. 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, everyone. Appreciate it.
(CROSSTALK)
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: All right. You have been watching President Trump address the tragic air collision yesterday with the death of 67 passengers, a U.S. aircraft carrier, a commercial aircraft carrier, along with a Black Hawk helicopter, and starting out with a moment of silence, then quickly casting dispersions against his predecessors and these policies that had been implemented, casting aspersions against President Obama and Biden's policies and air traffic control safety, saying they put politics first, and he instead, put safety first, without obviously having much information at all, in these early hours of an investigation here.
I want to go to our Richard Quest to get your thoughts on what we just heard from the President, again, seemingly blaming his predecessors and their policies, DEI namely, and at the end there, finally, after speaking for about half an hour, saying he is not blaming the air traffic controller,
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: I've spent 35 years covering air crashes of one sort or another, and the one thing I've always learned is you don't speculate. You put into the realms the possibilities. You discuss the potential likelihoods, and you help people understand what might or might not have been the reasons, but you don't speculate.
What the President just did was throw into the air the most extraordinary amount of basically speculation and nonsense. He is referring to these executive orders, which I had printed out as soon as he started speaking, and in particular, he is saying that the various DEI policies the FAA had, thereby saying that the FAA would recruit people with severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric issues, paralysis, etc., he is basically putting one and one together and saying, well, they may have been the air traffic controllers controlling that night, and that because the FAA had a DEI policy, a diversity policy, that there had been a lowering of standards.
Now, look, Bianna, there is absolutely zero justification for making that connection. None whatsoever. And he speculated rampantly and downright, not sure what one would say, about the idea that somehow, over the Biden years, there had been a reduction in standards to the point where air traffic controllers were not the best store competent in their jobs. There is no evidence of that. There is no evidence that DEI played any role in this. And in fact, there is no evidence whatsoever at the moment of whether it was the pilot of the helicopter, the pilot of the plane, or air traffic control.
And what the President of the United States just did was round and round and round and round, again and again and again, conflate them all together and throw in the smoke screen of DEI. I've never heard anything like it.
[12:00:00]
