Passenger Plane and Black Hawk Helicopter Collide In Mid-Air Over Potomac River

[ZariusTwo]

At least 30 bodies have been recovered from Washington DC's Potomac River, after an American Airlines flight collided in mid-air with a Black Hawk helicopter

The jet was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members from Wichita, Kansas when it crashed near Ronald Reagan National Airport. Three soldiers were in the helicopter

Rescuers are working in "extremely rough" conditions, emergency services say - with the water reported to be icy

The US Figure Skating association confirms "several members of the skating community" were on board the plane

US President Donald Trump says he has been briefed on the "terrible accident" and questions why the helicopter didn't "go up or down"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cy7kxx74yxlt

[ZariusTwo]

Update: There are no survivors

[Mayhem]

Dear lord, what a ****ing car crash of a briefing

BREAKING: Donald Trump sinks to a new low and blames "diversity" for the tragic plane crash in Washington D.C. — avoiding the truth that our Federal Aviation Administration’s leader resigned after Elon Musk pressured him to.

Trump then got brutally fact-checked to his face...

"Are you saying this crash was somehow caused and the result of diversity hiring? And what evidence have you seen to support these claims?" a reporter asked Trump during a press briefing.

"It just could have been," said Trump, offering no evidence. "We have a high standard. We've had a much higher standard than anybody else and there are things where you have to go by brain power."

The implication here is that diverse hires are somehow lacking in brain power — an assertion that is certain to please Trump's racist base.

"You have to go by psychological quality and psychological quality is a very important element of it," he continued. "These are various very powerful tests that we put to use and they were terminated by Biden and Biden went by a standard that's the exact opposite."

It must be pointed out that Michael Whitaker, the FAA's leader, stepped down from his role on January 20th after Elon Musk demanded that he leave.

And Trump wasn't done there...

"We don't even yet know the names of the sixty-seven people who were killed and you are blaming Democrats and DEI policies and air traffic control and seemingly the member of the U.S. military who was flying that Black Hawk helicopter. Don't you think you're getting ahead of the investigation right now?" asked CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

"No, I don't think so at all," said Trump. "I don't think were the names of the people— You mean the names of the people that are on the plane? Uh, you think that's going to make a difference?"

"Does it comfort their families to hearing you blaming DEI?" asked Collins.

"There are a group of people that have lost their lives. If you want a list of the names we can give you that, we'll be giving that very soon," said Trump. "We're in coordination with American Airlines. We're in coordination very strongly obviously with the military but I think that's not a very smart question. I'm surprised coming from you."

And it just kept getting worse...

"What plan do you have? Are we going to see some fired? Are you going to fire some of those diversity hires in the federal government? What plan do you have?" asked a reporter.

"I would say the answer is yes if we find that people aren't mentally competent," said Trump. "You see the language. The language is put out by them and if you see that— I'm not going to bore you by reading it again but these are not people that should be doing this particular job. They'd be very good for certain jobs but not people that should be doing this particular job."

In reality, the real problem is that the FAA is understaffed. We need more air traffic controllers, not fewer. By firing hardworking individuals just because they're diverse, Trump will make it even more likely that another tragic crash occurs.

The catastrophe of a press briefing just kept going...

"Today, you blamed the diversity element but then told us that you weren't sure that the controllers made any mistake. You then said that perhaps the helicopter pilots were the one's who made a mistake," said a reporter.

"Yup. It's all under investigation, " said Trump.

"I understand that," said the reporter. "That's why I'm trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash?"

"Because I have common sense, okay?" said Trump. "And unfortunately a lot of people don't. We want brilliant people doing this. This is a major chess game at the highest level. When you have sixty planes coming in during a short period of time and they're all coming in different directions and you're dealing with very high-level computer, uh, computer work and very complex computers..."

"And one of the other things I'll tell you is that the systems that were built, I was going to rebuild the entire system and then we had an election that didn't turn out the way it should have," he claimed.

The most telling part of the briefing came next, when Trump was brutally fact-checked by a reporter.

"The cited FAA text that you read is real but the implication that this policy is new or that it stems from efforts that began under President Biden or the Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is demonstrably false, it's been on the FAA website—" said a reporter.

"Who said that? You?" interjected the president.

"No it's on the website, the FAA's website, it was there in 2013. It was there for the entirety of your administration too. So my question is why didn't you change the policy during your first administration?" asked the reporter.

"I did change it. I changed the Obama policy," insisted a flustered Trump. "And we had a very good policy. And then Biden came in and he changed it and then when I came in two days, three days ago, I signed a new order bringing it to the highest level of intelligence. Okay?"

Trump then abruptly moved on to another reporter, clearly worried that a followup question would further expose his lies.

[Autbot_Benz]

Originally Posted by Mayhem

Dear lord, what a ****ing car crash of a briefing

is he gonna blame everything on DEI in his 4 years?

[Vegita-San]

Originally Posted by Mayhem

Dear lord, what a ****ing car crash of a briefing

no, that was that mayoral 'press conference' that took all the important people who should have been at the crash site, to stand behind her so she could look important. while, at the same time, giving us NOTHING new about the situation.

I'm not blaming DEI here, I think this one might be terrorism. that helicopter headed STRAIGHT toward the plane. and should not have been training near an active airport.

and quite frankly, diverse hires ARE lacking in brain power. You need not look further than Kamala Harris.

[Andrew NDB]

I mean, are we just suddenly forgetting the last couple of years of DEI pilots/co-pilots? You know, pressing the wrong buttons and almost crashing plane after plane? This was all over the news time and again and the airline practices of this were largely exposed. I don't see the question being asked now in this instance as some kind of "bombshell."

[Autbot_Benz]

here is that DEI that Trump wants to blame for this accident

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Autbot_Benz

here is that DEI that Trump wants to blame for this accident

God you guys are so easy.

-sigh-
It does work if the testing and licensing standards changes impacted any tests because of DEI that any pilots took amidst lower standards to get POC's in place.

You guys really don't get it. You just aren't capable of having the conversation on the levels it requires - it's just one after the other of responses of the lowest common denominator. It's the same leftist brain-trust who took up the argument that "autism does not make you give a Nazi salute" - a point that literally no one actually made but was the easiest assault of nonsense to chew on and spit out.

90% of the time I have anything to say to some of you people it literally has to be about pointing out the way to have a conversation instead of addressing any point whether it's right or wrong. Just so much to unpack with some of you guys just to attempt the conversation somewhere down the road.

It's f'n hysterical.... And for the one or two of you logic-twisters who read this and now want to latch onto that I'm "condescending and holier than thou", I would point out that I don't have to do this in normal spaces and that in-fact the problem is more likely that you're just f'n @$$hole haters.

Originally Posted by Mayhem

Dear lord, what a ****ing car crash of a briefing

It was a wreck of a briefing. Just presented very poorly.

[Mayhem]

The plane was on an approved and frequently used approach pattern to the airport. This is, in my opinion, almost certainly on the helicopter pilot screwing up.

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

and quite frankly, diverse hires ARE lacking in brain power. You need not look further than Kamala Harris.

The majority of DEI hires were women (only 4% black) so… you’re basically saying women in work are dumb?

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by Mayhem

Dear lord, what a ****ing car crash of a briefing

It's quite something to hear or read him babbling and bulls***ing his way through stuff like he always does while talking about "psychological quality" and claiming he has common sense.

[Coola Yagami]

Trump came off as a fumbling retard if that article was accurate.

"It was THE DEI cause trust me bro. We need the big brain power on that there fancy powerful computers. Very powerful computers. Yes I know the best big brain people and the best powerful computers"

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Mayhem

The majority of DEI hires were women (only 4% black) so… you’re basically saying women in work are dumb?

Ah dude, you're making it too easy for him.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Mayhem

The majority of DEI hires were women (only 4% black) so… you’re basically saying women in work are dumb?

Liberal clownism strikes again with zero productive input and more bull$#!(.
Yet more evidence that you have nothing in conversation that is valid and rely on these tactics to get by.

Pure technodromer right there.

[Vegita-San]

Originally Posted by Mayhem

The plane was on an approved and frequently used approach pattern to the airport. This is, in my opinion, almost certainly on the helicopter pilot screwing up.


The majority of DEI hires were women (only 4% black) so… you’re basically saying women in work are dumb?

the ones hired usually tend to be. easily controlled idiots.

[member_removed]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I mean, are we just suddenly forgetting the last couple of years of DEI pilots/co-pilots? You know, pressing the wrong buttons and almost crashing plane after plane? This was all over the news time and again and the airline practices of this were largely exposed. I don't see the question being asked now in this instance as some kind of "bombshell."

Can you please cite some sources.

Crew chief of the helicopter was a white male. Other crew members not yet named.
The instructor had over 1000 hours experience.

Seemly DEI played no part in this tragedy, on the part of the helicopter.

[IndigoErth]

Dang, a figure skating coach from (formerly?) the local university and two young kids, both with promising skating careers, who he was a coach to all died in it.


https://www.delawareonline.com/story...y/78058508007/

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by member_removed

Can you please cite some sources.

Crew chief of the helicopter was a white male. Other crew members not yet named.
The instructor had over 1000 hours experience.

Seemly DEI played no part in this tragedy, on the part of the helicopter.

Total DEI hire. Clearly there were too many Hispanics in the airline business so they need to hire at least one whiteboy for diversity purposes. And over 1000 hours? Pfff. Rookie whiteboy numbers. Who was the pilot, Vanilla Ice?

[Mayhem]

Conspiracy or not, I've seen a plot of the helicopter flight path in the minutes before the accident. It looked like it was trying to head towards other planes in the area, but hadn't got the correct altitude. So... possible suicide by helicopter?

Which further emphasises my previous comment that the plane pilot appears completely innocent in this, and quite likely the airport controllers too.

[Vegita-San]

Originally Posted by member_removed

Can you please cite some sources.

Crew chief of the helicopter was a white male. Other crew members not yet named.
The instructor had over 1000 hours experience.

Seemly DEI played no part in this tragedy, on the part of the helicopter.

the latest rumor is that supposedly there was a transgender aboard with suicidal tendencies. if that is the case, then trump was right again.

however, that doesn't explain why the other two trainees didn't react and do something.

[Mayhem]

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

the latest rumor is that supposedly there was a transgender aboard with suicidal tendencies. if that is the case, then trump was right again.

Which has been shot down (no pun intended) from what I’ve read, wrong identification.

The analysis I’ve seen suggests the pilot was concentrating on the other plane you see in the video footage and was completely unaware of the other plane coming up to their left.