Since the inauguration of President Trump on January 20, there have been multiple plane crashes and air safety concerns. The first of which involved a collision between American Airlines Flight 5342 and an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Washington D.C.’s Ronald Reagan National Airport on January 29 that resulted in the loss of 67 lives. The tragedy is fresh in the minds of all Americans, and an explanation for why such an incident could even happen in such a protected air space is still being fully developed. While the exact details are still being worked out, it is believed that the Black Hawk helicopter was flying above the 200-foot limit assigned to its route, with data showing the Black Hawk to have been at an altitude of around 300 feet at the time of the crash. It is now known that the helicopter had turned off its automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast, which broadcasts one’s location, altitude, and ground speed and displays the position of other aircraft.
While experts continue to sift through evidence to reveal the truth of what led to the crash, President Trump decided to voice his speculation regarding the catalyst for this incident: DEI policies. Trump has been vocal about his disapproval of programs that foster diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, signing an executive order entitled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” the day that he was inaugurated. Trump shared with reporters his disdain for how he believes these programs have harmed the Federal Aviation Administration, without basis for claimingthat the FAA was “actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities and psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under diversity and inclusion hiring initiatives.”
When asked if he was getting ahead of the investigation by propagating such unsubstantiated claims, President Trump said, “I have common sense, OK?”
Nicole Suissa, the former fiance of the captain of the American Airlines plane involved in the D.C. crash, Jonathon Campus, addressed how these claims have affected her grieving process, saying, “What really irked me to no end was it was, the next day they published Jonathan’s name and Jonathan’s very Puerto Rican-looking face, all I could hear in the back of my head was all these people, all these DEI fear-mongering people going, ‘You see, I knew he’d be Hispanic,’ and I lost my mind.”
In addition to the crash in D.C., on January 31, a medical jet crashed in Northeast Philadelphia, sadly leaving 7 dead and injuring 24 people. Those killed in the incident were six people on a medical jet, consisting of a child patient, Valentina Guzmán Murillo, her mother, Lizeth Murillo Osuna, and four crew members. The other fatality was a man in his vehicle on the ground at the time of the crash, Steven Dreuitt. Four homes were destroyed in the crash, and at least 17 were damaged because of it.
After these two tragedies, fear of air travel was heightened even further with the announcement that the NOTAM (‘Notice to Air Missions’) system, responsible for providing pilots with air safety notifications, went down for a short period.
Sean Duffy, the Secretary of Transportation, said, “The primary NOTAM system is experiencing a temporary outage, but there is currently no impact to the National Airspace System because a backup system is in place.”
In the wake of these tragedies and uncertainty, Elon Musk took to X to discuss his own ambitions with regard to aviation safety and what he intends to implement, saying on X, “With the support of President @realDonaldTrump, the @DOGE team will aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system.”
Elon Musk, who leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, has been criticized heavily recently for interfering with other departments in the name of minimizing extraneous expenditures. Many Republicans praise Musk, believing that these are necessary steps to limiting governmental waste. Democrats criticize Musk and his DOGE associates for preventing representatives from accessing their agencies and the conflict of interest apparent in his interactions with the FAA, with Senator Maria Cantwell noting how it is a “conflict of interest for someone whose company is regulated by the federal government to be involved in anything that affects his personal financial interest, his company or his competitors.” Whatever political affiliation one may espouse, it stands irrefutable that aviation safety must be heavily prioritized while continuing to hold Elon Musk and other Trump appointees under strict scrutiny.
It is unclear why these aviation disasters occurred in such quick succession and why they happened so soon after Trump was sworn in. Some have speculated that the crashes were due in some part to Trump’s decision to remove aviation officials from the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard, and the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, but it seems unlikely that this could have been the case due to the timeline of events and the recency of the executive orders. Given the level and scope of these air-related disasters, it is imperative that President Trump works in tandem with agencies to discover their true root causes instead of using these incidents as opportunities to disseminate misleading, crackpot theories about the scourge of DEI and Democratic policies.
Student of Political Science, fan of Severance, lover of the Slushynoobz
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