That’s One Theory, But…

On the evening of January 29^th, an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with American Airlines Flight 5342 while the plane was on approach for landing at Reagan National Airport. As a result of the collision, both the plane and the copter plunged into the Potomac River. All souls on both aircraft were lost.

On that Thursday evening after the crash, Donald Trump, ambled into the White House press room to face reporters and execute his solemn duty as consoler-in-chief. After a few on-task opening remarks, Trump pivoted sharply, and in his own idiosyncratic style, commenced the combative, unscripted, finger-pointing, scapegoating blame game madness that he has elevated to an art form.

He started by admitting, “We do not know what led to this crash,” but quickly added, “but we have some very strong opinions and ideas.”

He then speculated, absent evidence, that lowered standards of hiring (usually referred to as DEI) for air traffic controllers in the Federal Aviation Administration during the Joe Biden and Barack Obama presidencies may have been a factor in the disaster. Naturally, this speculative scenario conveniently omitted the fact that he served a four-year term between Presidents Obama and Biden.

Trump, his GOP congressional coterie, and Republicans in general have regularly attacked “Diversity, equity and inclusion” programs in the federal government. He and his team have made demagoguing and eliminating such programs a central priority during their first days in office, arguably, even more that lowering the price of eggs, and reinvigorating the economy that he sold as faltering during his campaign…saying he’d fix both on day 1.

He said DEI has divided Americans and weakened the country. Less than 24 hours after the first major US air disaster in more than a decade, coincidentally, on his watch, Trump, with his secretaries of transportation, and defense, and with the Vice President, all took shots at hammering this point, and all with zero evidence, that federal hiring practices had any connection to this crash.

When asked by a reporter how he could blame diversity programs for the crash when the investigation had just started, Trump responded: “Because I have common sense.”

However, at other moments, he acknowledged there was no confirmed cause, saying, “It’s all under investigation.”

Because he has common sense? More than a few people would enthusiastically debate that assertion. But not me. At least not here, not now. Instead, I submit an alternative contemplation for your consideration.

An interesting thing happened on January 20^th, nine days before the crash. Michael Whitaker, the leader of the Federal Aviation Administration stepped down, months after Elon Musk demanded that he quit. As of January 29^th, the FAA had no Senate-confirmed leader. Whitaker quit before Donald Trump took office. He had run the FAA for just a year, but said in December that he would step down as the new President was being sworn in.

Whitaker and Musk clashed over SpaceX. It was one thing when Musk was merely the richest man in the world, and the owner of SpaceX. But when he also became the leading voice behind the newly formed Department of Governmental Efficiency, aka DOGE, his personal influence on all things governmental, including the FAA expanded exponentially.

Last September, Whitaker proposed levying over $600,000 in fines for SpaceX. Musk responded by demanding his resignation and threatened to sue. Whitaker told a congressional committee fines are the only tool the agency has, that enable it to get compliance on safety matters.

Musk continued his attack via X, while campaigning with Trump. He accused Whitaker’s agency of harassment, posting “The FAA space division is harassing SpaceX about nonsense that doesn’t affect safety while giving a free pass to Boeing even after NASA concluded that their spacecraft was not safe enough to bring back the astronauts.”

Further, in response to an Australian YouTuber who posts about space and who has said the FAA “should not exist,” Musk accused Whitaker of standing in the way of his vision of putting human life on Mars.

Upon announcing in December that he would leave the agency, Whitaker wrote to FAA staff:

“The United States is the safest and most complex airspace in the world, and that is because of your commitment to the safety of the flying public.”

He called his time at the federal agency “the best and most challenging job of my career.”

The FAA was already wrestling with persistent shortages of air traffic controllers. More recently, air traffic controllers were included in the Trump administration’s offer of buyouts to federal employees.

Investigation of the plane-copter crash will be led by the independent National Transportation Safety Board, which is chaired by Jennifer Homendy. For the record, she has also clashed with Musk, over the safety of self-driving software in his Tesla vehicles.

Trump flatly blamed DEI and his Democratic predecessors for the crash. He credited common sense for his conclusion, and he did so without corroborating evidence. SOP?

Considering the flurry of activity across the federal government, prompted by Trump’s budget slashing imperatives, DOGE’s planned disruptive effects and firings, in general, and Musk’s running off the FAA head, in particular, it occurs to me, that factors other than DEI may have contributed to the crash. Feel free to draw your own inferences. Meanwhile, I leave you with, “(DEI) That’s one theory, but…!”

I’m done; holla back!

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Subsequent editions of “Break It Down” will be mailed to your in-box. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects related to this post, consult the links below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Potomac_River_mid-air_collision

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpvmdm1m7m9o

https://www.yahoo.com/news/faa-administrator-quit-jan-20-045322293.html