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All kinds of horrors are washing up on the banks of the Potomac this morning after a devastating mid-air collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington DC. At around 21:00 ET an American Airlines flight had a mid-air collision with a Black Hawk military helicopter, with each craft bursting into flame and plummeting into the Potomac River. There are not expected to be any survivors.
American Airlines flight 5342, a Bombardier CRJ701ER airliner, was arriving from Wichita, Kansas with 60 passengers and four crew members, and the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk Helicopter of the U.S. Army that collided with it had three crew on board. As of writing 19 bodies have already been recovered from the water, and more deaths are expected to be confirmed as the debris is retrieved.
The cause of the collision is unknown, but since 2023 the Washington airport saw several near misses. Plans were already in place to install new tech to warn air traffic control of potential collisions and a hiring spree was underway to lighten the workload on fatigued federal staff working extended shifts.
At times of national disaster and tragedy a nation looks to its leader for answers, inspiration, and guidance. But, well, we have Donald Trump, so what we’re getting is his usual incoherent blather. Over on Truth Social Trump was less concerned with mourning the lives lost and instead decided to play armchair helicopter pilot:
Thanks, Don — the world can sleep a little better tonight knowing that if you were behind the controls of the Black Hawk the collision would definitely have been averted. If only the pilot had known that the craft could “go up or down, or turn.” In a way, the real tragedy is that your apparent expertise in piloting military helicopters isn’t used more often. But hey, at least we’re in agreement about one thing, this really is “a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented.”
So, whose job is that? Oh right, the people targeted by Trump with an executive order freezing the hiring of new air traffic controllers. Awkward.
Let’s be clear here. Trump has been back in office for mere days and it’s not reasonable to blame him directly for this accident, which is likely the consequence of years of funding cutbacks, fatigue, and just plain bad luck. But, with Trump and Elon Musk’s plan to strip the federal government back to a skeleton, this is the kind of news you should expect to wake up to more often.
The Trump administration’s plans to drastically scale back federal services will mean fewer people working longer shifts monitoring airspace, raising your chances of pointlessly dying in an accident just like this one. Rinse and repeat for bridge collapses, dam failures, tunnel collapses, and any other major infrastructure under the federal government’s purview.
So yes, Mr. President, “NOT GOOD!!!” indeed. Perhaps a fiery explosion on your doorstep that seems to be a consequence of overstretched and exhausted federal workers might be a little wake-up call that taking an axe to the safety apparatus designed to prevent stuff like this happening isn’t a great idea.