All 67 people on board the plane and the helicopter were killed.
An American Airlines regional jet went down in the Potomac River near Washington, D.C.'s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after colliding with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night, with no survivors.
Sixty-four people were on board the plane, which departed from Wichita, Kansas. Three soldiers were on the helicopter.
The collision happened around 9 p.m. when the PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet was on approach to the airport.
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has 25 Certified Professional Controllers as well as three Certified Professional Controllers in Training who have been fully certified at other facilities. The tower is authorized to have 28 controllers.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump is "intent on ensuring that we are increasing staffing" at air safety agencies, despite the administration trying to cut the federal workforce and offering buyouts to workers.
"That's why he signed a very strong executive order on his second day in office, immediately terminating DEI hiring practices at the FAA," Leavitt said. "He also, following the tragic crash, as you all know, in the Oval Office yesterday signed a memorandum, directing an immediate assessment of the FAA to ensure the federal government is maintaining the highest personnel and aviation safety standards."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the investigation is ongoing into whether the controller was diversity, equity and inclusion hire.
This comes after President Donald Trump on Thursday claimed without evidence that DEI initiatives could be a factor in the crash.
DEI or any similar program does not apply to hiring for air traffic control, which requires rigorous health examinations and a multiyear training process. Applicants must pass a medical exam, an aptitude test and a psychological test that is more stringent than that required of a pilot, said Chris Wilbanks, FAA deputy vice president of safety and technical training.
Trump on Thursday pointed to a New York Post article as he accused Democrats of pushing to hire people with severe mental disabilities at the FAA. But the diversity language referenced in the article was on the FAA website during the entirety of Trump’s first term and has been on the site for more than a decade, according to Snopes.
The cause of the crash has not been determined.
Leavitt said Trump believes commercial flying "is still indeed safe, and Americans should feel safe."
"With that said, two things can be true at the same time, and we certainly have seen the deterioration of federal hiring standards at the Federal Aviation Administration," Leavitt said at a press briefing Friday. "And the president wants to increase those standards. He wants pilots in this country who have the great responsibility of flying American citizens by the tens of millions every single day, to be chosen for that position based on their merit and their skills. And so, the administration will continue to prioritize this."
American Airlines will retire the flight number 5342, the company said, which is standard action following major aviation incidents.
