Donald Trump broke his silence on the tragic collision between an American Airlines plane and military helicopter in Washington D.C. on his Truth Social page on Wednesday night. In doing so, he questioned how the incident could've occurred and admitted it “should have been prevented.” The regional jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew collided with a military helicopter around 9:00 PM, ET on Wednesday night. There were no survivors.
"The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport," Trump wrote. "The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!" In a follow-up, he added: "What a terrible night this has been. God bless you all!"
Donald Trump Speaks On Deadly Plane Collision
The following morning, Trump discussed the incident further with reporters in the White House Briefing Room. He began the press conference by requesting a moment of silence for the victims and their families before describing Wednesday as “a dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital and in our nation’s history.” As for what caused the collision, Trump said: "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 National Transportation Safety Board is leading an investigation into the collision which occurred near Reagan National Airport. Newly-confirmed Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy has already said of the incident: “We are going to wait for all the information to come in from this vantage point, but … what I’ve seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely.” As for recovery efforts, authorities have found twenty-seven bodies from the American Airlines flight and one body from the Black Hawk helicopter.
