A bombshell Federal Aviation Administration report revealed that the control tower where pilots were receiving instructions from was understaffed before the plane crash in Washington, DC.
Typically, two controllers are supposed to be informing airplanes landing at and leaving from the Ronald Reagan International Airport and directing helicopters flying in the area. However, at the time of the accident, there was only one controller handling the directions, according to an internal preliminary safety report reviewed by the New York Times.
The control tower's staffing was "not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic," the report stated according to NYT.
Ronald Reagan International Airport has been facing an air traffic control staffing shortage, as many airports are across the country. But while the FAA and controllers' union want about 30 controllers on staff, the airport just had 19 fully trained controllers as of September 2023.
While the crash remains under investigation, audio recordings of air traffic control were released online, conveying the shock that personnel felt when they witnessed the crash. One person can be heard saying "Did you see that?"
Officials believe that no one survived the Wednesday night collision between an American Airlines flight and an Army Black Hawk helicopter. So far, 28 bodies of the 67 total passengers and crew between the two flights have been recovered, as reported by NPR.
"Obviously, it is not standard to have aircraft collide. I want to be clear on that," Sean Duffy, the newly appointed Secretary of Transportation, told reporters. "But prior to the collision, the flight paths that were being flown from the military and from American, that was not unusual for what happens in the D.C. airspace."
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump appeared to blame diversity initiatives for the accident, despite no evidence arising that could have prompted that statement.
Trump went on to criticize Democrats, arguing that he "put safety first" while former Democratic administrations "put politics first."
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