Trump's Theory about the Plane Crash

[NameChangedForThis1985]

Just watched his press conference in absolute disbelief. He's just blamed the air traffic controllers as apparently under the Biden administration they recruited people into the role who weren't intellectually capable. He actually blames diversity criteria and basically box ticking.... 'hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities' - that's a direct quote.

As someone with ASD, anxiety and depression who works in a high level, highly skilled role, I am angry on behalf of anyone like me.

The man is a dangerous liar.

(edited by MNHQ)

He is starting quite deliberately using this horrible accident to start blaming sectors of society he doesn't like and encouraging his supporters to do the same. It started with the migrants...

Migrants are terrorists
Diversity programs have put stupid non-white people in jobs they don't deserve
Left wing government employees have been invited to retire.

It's really hard to accept, but we have to realise that America is fast turning into a fascist state. And Trump is not a lone madman. He is supported by the republican party and the 30%+ who voted for him and think he's marvellous.

You don’t rely on seeing other planes for Christ’s sake. If so there’d be crashes left, right and centre every day of the year.

Actually in some situations /with some clearances that is exactly what you do legitimately do. It doesn’t happen so much in Europe but being given a visual clearances or being told to maintain separation visually is very common in the US, even going into major airports.

The problems however really start when controllers rely on using visual clearance as the prime method of traffic separation in busy airspace at night……..

Just watched Hegseth ( the most unqualified government official, lets ignore all his other 'proclivities' for the moment) state with great conviction, ' that we will have the best and brightest in every position possible' .....the irony appears to be lost on him and trump that neither of them should be standing behind the presidential podium. It would be hysterically funny if it weren't so serious.

The ATC requests the helicopter pilot confirm the plane is in sight... so it clearly is of relevance. Numerous highly qualified chopper pilots have discussed the effects of NVGs on sightlines, also, elsewhere.

I think the soldiers were focusing on the other plane higher up and further back as seen on the Kennedy Centre vision.

Do you seriously believe that US airports recruit people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities as air traffic controllers?

@Turkeyneck101

Strip clubs, alcohol and sexual abuse.

See the CNN link I shared earlier

@AlisonDonut
Was the advert for the visually impaired pilots seen around the 1st of April by any chance?

I think the basic problem here, apart from Trump's lack of understanding or intellect, is that he has made the assumption that every single person working for the US Air Traffic Control company is an air traffic controller.

Which is of course nonsense. There will be cleaners, security guards protecting the buildings, IT people, HR people, canteen people, accountants etc etc. There are absolutely no safety/security issues with giving someone with poor vision or a history of depression a job in a canteen or an accounts office.

So how does depression stop someone from being an ATC? Pilot, fair enough because of the risk of suicide-by-air-crash, but ATC?

I would be prepared to put good money on a bet that this will not be found to be the cause of the accident. For what it's worth, it sounded to me this morning as if the general view was that the helicopter pilot was concentrating on one plane and just didn't see the one that he collided with. I hope the air traffic controllers who were dealing with the flights in question sue Trump for billions. There can be few more serious libels than saying without foundation that someone was not recruited on merit, that they are severely intellectually disabled, and that they caused the deaths of of more than 60 people.

Is it appropriate to start second guessing how this happened? There will be a formal investigation, where conclusions and recommendations will be made.

Tell trump that

"For what it's worth, it sounded to me this morning as if the general view was that the helicopter pilot was concentrating on one plane and just didn't see the one that he collided with. "

That's what I don't understand though - pilots of aircraft aren't meant to just rely on what they can see, because that would be far too prone to error so they have radar and other means to be alerted to other aircraft in their path, there is no way this helicopter could not have been alerted to the presence of a commercial aircraft especially in the landing vicinity of this airport

Lack of controllers, you say?

https://nypost.com/2025/01/30/us-news/air-traffic-controller-was-doing-the-job-of-two-people-during-crash-faa-says/

The trouble is that, if you abolish all diversity initiatives, you stand a high risk of shutting out some extremely able people because hiring will, once again, be heavily influenced by recruiters' personal prejudices.

Elon Musk tweeting something is not 'reporting'.

Well firstly it’s a truly appalling way to discuss anybody.

Secondly, there is no way they have done an investigation yet and conclusively know everything that happened.

Thirdly it’s totally irresponsibile and could lead to people with disabilities like autism being discriminated against.

Sure

There is the narritive around TG women specifically participating in female sports. This is objectively a concern for the safety of women, and there is still currently no evidence to demostrate that TG women don't have an advantage, and they have been included because for some reason taking time to find out if it is safe of fair to include them.

There is also alot of concern about schools socially transitioning children without their parents knowledge. This even made it in the new SATC reboot. The extreme leftist have behaved horrifically by saying if this isn't allowed to happen that children will die. I saw AOC speaking about this and it was the same language and tone as all the right wing extremists talking about immigration, it was disgusting.

I say all this as someone who isn't particulally political, but leans more towards the left in general. I believe we should work to being inclusive but when that inclusion comes at the expense of safety of others then we can say no, you are not entiteled to your dream.

"Me too. I switch it off though, or fast forward through items I find unpleasant or upsetting. There are world leaders (lots of them!) guilty of far worse than verbals (FAR worse) who barely merit a mention on MN? I'm of the opinion that the dialogue around Trump is media induced hysteria 🙂"

@SassK nailed it 🙌🏻

I agree with this, thats why there needs to be procedures informed by law that prevents prejudice, but there also has to be a reasonable expectation that if there are some jobs that require more physical force for example that the options to participate at a high level will be limited.

I know someone who is a petit (5'2") woman and small with it. Who has just been hired to work to their apprenticship in a garage. She will be limited just by the size of her hands, it will take her longer to get that hands on experience than it would for a male, and she will not be as productive as her male colleagues putting the employer in this situation. She is willing to take on the challenge and accepts her limitiations, but it will be significantly harder for her.

Just when you think Trump can't be any more offensive, he proves you wrong.

I think there are many, many people who simply don't understand DEI.

But you don't know that they were recruiting for air traffic control posts. They ma well have aimed to hit target by recruiting minority staff for admin, cleaning and catering work.

@Lilifer

That's what I don't understand though - pilots of aircraft aren't meant to just rely on what they can see, because that would be far too prone to error so they have radar and other means to be alerted to other aircraft in their path, there is no way this helicopter could not have been alerted to the presence of a commercial aircraft especially in the landing vicinity of this airport

It’s really is perfectly possible fly aircraft, even large airliners around visually, looking out of the window, using what you can see, but you have to be careful where you do it…at some airports in quiet airspace in good weather in daylight it’s entirely appropriate and makes things more efficient…however as for this accident:

Nighttime.

Neither aircraft will have had a radar that allows them to detect other aircraft…

Without getting into the really techie stuff (phew) the collision warning system on the CRJ (possibly also on the helicopter) is blocked from issuing alerts at low altitude (to avoid that system itself causing an accident)…

I’m not sure what DCA had available in the tower in the form of radar or whether the controller had capacity to monitor that in addition to other tasks…but in any event the controller offered clearance using visual separation (I.e. mark one eyeball) all legit and iaw with US and local rules.