Questions continue to abound in this horrifying tragedy outside Reagan National Airport, where an American Airlines flight coming from Wichita, Kansas, was struck by a Black Hawk helicopter.
Was this an air traffic control problem? Was this a pilot error issue? All of that is still very much up in the air. There have been near-misses in the past.
A lot of people are now asking why Black Hawk helicopters are operating at night in an area where passenger jets are taking off and landing.
Apparently, near-misses of this sort tend to happen a lot more often than expected. According to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pilots-recall-problems-washington-airport-after-fatal-crash-2025-01-30/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reuters</a>, “U.S. commercial pilot Rick Redfern was preparing to land at Reagan Washington National Airport about a decade ago when he spotted a bright red Coast Guard helicopter hovering about 50 feet (15 m) above the Potomac River. Air traffic control promptly warned the helicopter pilot to stay clear, and Redfern said he used evasive maneuvers to avoid it and avert a potential disaster &#8211; and that was in daytime, when visibility was clearer.”
It&#8217;s almost unthinkable that this even happened, considering how sophisticated our machinery is now and how sophisticated our ability is to see planes in the air — even at night.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2129-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
But to attribute it to anything other than an accident at this point would be to move beyond the available evidence; it&#8217;s unclear what caused the crash. Apparently, the black boxes have been recovered, so we&#8217;ll have a better window into what was going on aboard the two aircraft before they collided. Army secretary nominee Daniel Driscoll said during a Senate hearing that the crash may prompt the military to reconsider conducting training operations near the Washington, DC airspace.
Yesterday, when President Trump spoke to the press, he brought up the DEI policies of the Obama and Biden administrations that he felt had weakened the air traffic control systems. 
That suggestion made Democrats insane. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), for example, slammed Trump for speculating about DEI issues.
You could make the case that President Trump shouldn&#8217;t be talking about DEI and the FAA until we have more details, but I think what Schumer really objected to was the idea that DEI is bad at all. Like all Democrats, he tends to think DEI is good. And it pervaded every aspect of the Biden administration.
As The Washington Times <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/jan/30/faa-diversity-hiring-practices-scrutiny-long-air-d/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>:
<blockquote>Years before Wednesday’s fatal collision between a military helicopter and a passenger jet approaching Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, critics warned that the Obama and Biden administrations had jeopardized safety by prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion at the Federal Aviation Administration. &#8230;
Critics warned that the FAA’s focus on DEI diverted time and resources from air travel safety. It hobbled the agency as it grappled with air traffic controller shortages, antiquated monitoring equipment and an increase in near misses on crowded airport runways, they said. An unidentified source told The Associated Press on Thursday that the air traffic controller in charge of monitoring the airspace at the time of the fatal collision was performing the work of two people.</blockquote>
In other words, because they couldn&#8217;t get enough “diverse members” in the FAA, they were simply under-hiring. That meant that they were short-staffed during critical times.
The Times continued:
<blockquote>Air safety concerns prompted 11 Republican attorneys general to write to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker last year to question the administration’s hiring practices and priorities. “Unfortunately, the Biden FAA, under your administration, appears to prioritize virtue-signaling ‘diversity’ efforts over aviation expertise. And this calls into question the agency’s commitment to safety,”</blockquote>
That is not wrong. It is true that the Obama and Biden administrations prioritized DEI over safety. The Times added:
<blockquote>The Biden-era FAA website, now scrubbed, said, “The FAA’s mission involves securing the skies of a diverse nation. It only makes sense that the workforce responsible for that mission reflects the nation.” In 2022, the FAA pledged to “diversify its workforce by rethinking its hiring practices,” and administration officials assigned long-term goals to amplify diversity, accessibility and LGBTQ issues. A 2022 performance target required that the agency “host a national symposium with internal and external stakeholders to socialize efforts on the use of gender-neutral language at FAA.” &#8230;
In 2013, the FAA started using a “biographical assessment” to increase the hiring of preferred minority racial groups at air traffic control centers. The assessment asked applicants about their participation in school sports &#8230;</blockquote>
One of the questionnaires circulated by the FAA reportedly awarded points for factors such as having the lowest grade in high school in science — which is psychotic.
There is a lot of heartburn on the Left because Trump is suggesting DEI had something to do with this accident. I can&#8217;t name the number of times that Joe Biden came forth right after some sort of school shooting — before any of the evidence was available — to discuss how gun control was obviously the solution.
Here&#8217;s the salient point: It is very clear that the FAA has been operating along these lines for a very long time. Regardless of whether this crash was a result of DEI or not, there is a reason why the blowback is coming in that form.
We&#8217;ll have to wait and see what the cause of this particular plane crash was, but it is certainly the case that procedures have to change. This is why President Trump took executive action yesterday, signing a memorandum to end DEI practices in the aviation sector and to assess aviation safety, as well as issuing an Executive Order to appoint a new head of the FAA.
Regardless of what led to this crash, DEI procedures must change.
Trump is correct about that.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP-AVIATION-ACCIDENT

Trump, DEI, And The FAA

Airline Crash

American Airlines

Ben Shapiro

Biden Administration

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

Opinion

President Trump

U.S. Army

Washington D.C.

Woke Culture

The more we learn about the mid-air collision involving American Airlines 5342 and a military Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday night, the more it&#8217;s clear that we can now identify some reasons why this catastrophe happened.
This is something that, in the mainstream press, you&#8217;re not supposed to say out loud. You&#8217;re supposed to believe that we can&#8217;t really know anything about what happened — and that, at a minimum, we should allow a few years&#8217; worth of investigation to take place, before we jump to any conclusions. That&#8217;s certainly the position of CNN, which sent a reporter to the White House briefing yesterday to browbeat Donald Trump because he cast blame on the Black Hawk pilots, DEI and air traffic control. Watch:
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We&#8217;ve talked a lot about how Trump is reforming Washington at a very rapid pace, largely with his steady stream of executive orders and executive actions. But one of the most important changes he&#8217;s making is that he&#8217;s introducing accountability to the federal government. He&#8217;s demonstrating that he has no patience for the bureaucratic runaround that allows disasters like this to occur in the first place. The corporate media cannot run interference anymore. They cannot hide what actually happened.
One of the reasons that&#8217;s true is that, in this case, we have primary sources that we can rely on. There are a lot of aviation enthusiasts on platforms like YouTube, and they regularly upload air traffic control data and audio. And those videos paint a pretty clear picture of what took place on Wednesday night. Here for example is a reconstruction of the accident from the account &#8220;VASA Aviation.&#8221; It combines the radar tracking data with audio from air traffic control. In this footage, you&#8217;ll hear the first relevant interaction between the tower at Reagan airport and the Black Hawk helicopter crew. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="007 Visual Seperation" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/saYk_jL2BeI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
So the tower says, &#8220;PAT 25, traffic just south of the Woodrow Bridge, a CRJ, it&#8217;s 1200 feet setting up for runway 33.&#8221;
And then comes the response: &#8220;PAT 25 has the traffic in sight, requesting visual separation.&#8221;
And then &#8220;visual separation&#8221; is granted.
This is a key moment. Contrary to what you may have heard in the media, the controller tells the Blackhawk pilot exactly what plane to look out for, and where it is at that exact moment. And the Blackhawk pilot states that he sees the plane at the bridge, and will avoid it.
At this point, everything&#8217;s going normally.
Then, about twenty seconds later, an alarm goes off in the control tower, because the two aircraft are on a collision course. That obviously signals that the Blackhawk pilot may not have followed the instructions. Listen to what happens at that point:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="008 Crash Reaction" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5q8QY8qVkg4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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This time around, the air traffic controller isn&#8217;t very specific. He doesn&#8217;t state where exactly the passenger plane is, he just tells the helicopter pilot to avoid a &#8220;CRJ,&#8221; probably because he assumes they&#8217;re still tracking the same plane he mentioned earlier. He also doesn&#8217;t give the helicopter pilots much time to respond. And then, as you heard, within seconds the two aircraft collided.
So right away, there&#8217;s reason to speculate that maybe the Blackhawk helicopter was somehow looking at the wrong plane. Or maybe the Blackhawk lost sight of the passenger jet at some point, and failed to tell anyone. Either way, it&#8217;s clear that air traffic control&#8217;s guidance in those final seconds was very lacking, to say the least. And on top of that, based on the radar data, the Blackhawk pilots made a series of other mistakes, in addition to failing to see the passenger jet that was right in front of them.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mws-ep-1527-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
As several aviation analysts have pointed out, the Blackhawk helicopter was supposed to be below 200 feet at this point. That&#8217;s a requirement for all helicopters on that route, at that point, right in front of the runway at DCA. The idea is that they&#8217;ll pass below the arriving traffic at the airport. But in this case, according to the radar data, the helicopter was flying above 300 feet. Additionally, the helicopter appeared to be slightly off course.
According to the published charts for this area, the helicopter was supposed to be hugging the land. Instead, it was over the water. Here&#8217;s how one aviation analyst described the problem:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="009 Recap of Flight Paths" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jaM9VdRbeik?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Late last night, the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/29/us/plane-crash-washington-dc?rsrc=ss&amp;unlocked_article_code=1.tU4.kM9x.An5Rzyh6YvWu&amp;smid=nytcore-ios-share&amp;referringSource=articleShare" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confirmed</a> this analysis: &#8220;The Army Black Hawk was supposed to be flying in a different location and lower when it collided with a passenger jet, according to four people briefed on the matter.&#8221;
So already, we have evidence of serious errors by pretty much everyone involved in this crash, except the American Airlines flight crew. They were in the right place, doing the right thing. The helicopter pilots were apparently too high and off-course, and they clearly failed to spot the plane that was right in front of them. According to the defense secretary, they also had night-vision on, which reduced their field of view. And the air traffic control wasn&#8217;t offering much help.
And that&#8217;s not even scratching the surface of the extent of the failures here. NBC News reports that, according to the FAA, staffing levels were &#8220;not normal&#8221; at the airport at the time of the accident. One controller was handling both inbound planes and helicopters, where normally two controllers split those responsibilities. So this is some of the most congested, critical airspace in the entire country, and we&#8217;re evidently running things at half capacity. How exactly is that possible?
As you might remember, a little over a year ago, I did a few <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6byj8jfZYRA" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3D6byj8jfZYRA&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1738441249163000&amp;usg=AOvVaw31SaIoTbIYpw6lfbzff2RU">monologues</a> on the fact that a major aviation disaster was imminent in this country. It got to the point that it felt redundant after a while, because every week, there would be a new series of near-misses. We didn&#8217;t even have time to talk about all of them. In one of these monologues I specifically pointed out that TCAS — the on-board collision avoidance system in most commercial planes — doesn&#8217;t help prevent mid-air collisions when aircraft are close to the ground. It&#8217;s not designed to work below 1,000 feet. So I made the point that there&#8217;s a very high risk of a mid-air collision near the ground. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="010 Matt Predicts More Accidents" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NThFetmVdVQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I&#8217;m not an aviation expert. I&#8217;m not even a hobbyist. I&#8217;m a high school educated podcaster. But even I knew, more than a year ago, that this was a major risk. Our mid-air collision fail-safes simply do not work at low-altitude. That&#8217;s especially true given that some low-flying aircraft don&#8217;t have TCAS at all, like military Black Hawks.
With that information, you might think that the FAA would consider, say, banning helicopters from flying directly into the approach paths of major airports like Reagan National. But they didn&#8217;t think of that, apparently. Instead, this is the chart that helicopters currently use to fly around DC:
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-869635 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/gbtoHN0-Imgur-629x576.png" alt="" width="629" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/gbtoHN0-Imgur-629x576.png 629w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/gbtoHN0-Imgur-300x275.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/gbtoHN0-Imgur-768x703.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/gbtoHN0-Imgur.png 1188w" sizes="(max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px" /></div>
As you can see, they just put the helicopter routes right in front of the airport. Look at how close Route 1 and Route 4 are to the runway. And if there&#8217;s any deviation from those altitudes whatsoever, there&#8217;s a major risk of a catastrophe. Everyone has to be perfectly on their game, at all times, or else there could be a disaster.
But as we know, very often, air traffic controllers are not always on their game. Almost all of the near-disasters I&#8217;ve talked about over the years were potential mid-air collisions caused by incompetent air traffic control. Here&#8217;s one of these near-misses from Reagan National Airport — the same airport where the crash occurred on Wednesday. This is from last April. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="012 Near Crash on Taxi 1" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0gOkFKYBR8c?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
You can hear the controllers in the tower screaming once they realize their mistake. Again, there was new footage like this every week. That&#8217;s why, in 2023, there were 503 air traffic control lapses that the FAA categorized as &#8220;significant,&#8221; which was a 65% jump year-over-year. I&#8217;ll say that again. &#8220;Significant lapses&#8221; by air traffic controllers increased by 65% in just one year.
It&#8217;s not hard to understand why this might be happening, given all of the evidence of declining standards at the agency. Last year for example I <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qofbS4OFLHM" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DqofbS4OFLHM&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1738441249163000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3-_fGXff2ALW-bdZ1uBm36">published</a> footage and documentation from whistleblowers in the FAA and the aviation industry. And what these whistleblowers made clear is that the FAA (and the airlines) have drastically cut their performance expectations, across the board. Actually, that&#8217;s underselling what happened. The FAA specifically went out of its way to punish white applicants. They introduced a &#8220;biographical questionnaire&#8221; that dinged applicants who had relevant education or experience, knowing that white applicants would be affected the most. In one case, an FAA official was even <a href="https://x.com/tracewoodgrains/status/1752091831095939471" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/tracewoodgrains/status/1752091831095939471&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1738441249163000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0pCHihEurO-D_MG5RT_Gv_">caught</a> <a href="https://x.com/JoshDehaas/status/1752175942166868312" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://x.com/JoshDehaas/status/1752175942166868312&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1738441249163000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0CDsU9rBPQmgjlId8PAHDf">helping</a> black employees — and only black employees — to access inside information that would help them in the application process. In the footage I reported on last year, a senior FAA official openly talked about the importance of &#8220;reducing the number of white males&#8221; in the aviation industry.
As increasingly under-qualified air traffic controllers have been promoted, the situation has deteriorated further. And that&#8217;s produced a constant stream of near-misses that continued right up until this disaster. As the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/01/30/dc-plane-crash-updates-helicopter-potomac-reagan-airport/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a>: &#8220;Just 24 hours before the collision of American Eagle Flight 5342 and an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport on Wednesday, another jet trying to land there had to make a second approach after a helicopter appeared near its flight path.&#8221;
So that&#8217;s what we know. Airlines and the FAA deliberately lower standards and then near misses dramatically increase. No one does anything about it, or takes preventative measures of any kind. And then we have an inevitable crash.
Based on those facts, do we know for sure that if DEI were never invented as a concept, then this accident would never have happened? No, we don’t. Based on the information we have right now, we can&#8217;t say that with certainty. One of the Black Hawk pilots was reportedly a woman with just 500 hours of experience, but we don&#8217;t yet know whether she was handling the controls at the time of the crash — although that seems likely, since her male co-pilot was doing the radio calls. But we still don&#8217;t know the full extent of her qualifications, or anything else.
At the same time, as Donald Trump outlined yesterday, that&#8217;s not really the point. The point is that we shouldn&#8217;t even have to wonder, even for a second, if DEI played a role in an incident like this. But we do have to ask that question because any agency or organization that practices DEI cannot claim to be upholding the highest possible standards.
As Trump pointed out, that never ends well — particularly in an industry like aviation. Watch:
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If we want to avoid future disasters like this one, this is the approach we need to take. We don&#8217;t really have a choice. You simply have to establish high standards. And if you can&#8217;t find enough applicants who meet those standards — if there&#8217;s a shortage of qualified personnel — then the solution is to pay qualified applicants more, so that you attract competent people.
At this point, we also need a full accounting of the damage that the COVID lockdowns have done to this country. Last night I received an email from a senior engineer at a major company in the aviation industry: &#8220;While nobody had it easy, the aviation industry was hit particularly hard. The demand for air travel plummeted when the lockdowns took effect, resulting in massive attrition of experienced people out of every corner of the aviation industry. When demand came back about three years ago, these people were replaced by relatively young and inexperienced new hires. I would be utterly shocked if this did not in some way impact the midair collision at Reagan National.&#8221;
That&#8217;s another aspect to this incident I hadn&#8217;t really considered. We have too few qualified people in part because of the devastation that the COVID lockdowns inflicted on this country. It&#8217;s yet another reason why we should never allow lockdowns like that to occur in this country. And the current White House seems to understand that.
Moving forward, the White House has now committed to rooting out existing DEI hires at the FAA, so they can start recruiting competent employees. Speaking to Fox last night, senior White House official Stephen Miller said that&#8217;s exactly what&#8217;s about to happen. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="014 Stephen Miller" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/A236FNVe3bY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This is the step we need to take. We have no other choice. Once an organization actually rewards competence, things start improving very quickly. A competent FAA official might decide, for example, that it&#8217;s a bad idea to have a helicopter route pass right in front of a major airport, on the assumption that the helicopter will never make a mistake and go 100 feet above or below their assigned altitude.
Those are the kinds of practical, life-saving decisions that get made when you&#8217;re focused entirely on your mission, and nothing else. They&#8217;re the kinds of decisions that Americans just voted for, in record numbers. And they&#8217;re the kinds of decisions that need to get made, immediately, before a lot more people die.

American Airlines Plane And Black Hawk Helicopter Crash Near Reagan National Airport

Why The Plane Crash Was Entirely Foreseeable And Preventable

Donald Trump

Matt Walsh

President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> mocked a reporter on Thursday for asking an absurd question about him visiting the crash scene of the passenger jet that went down in the Potomac River this week.
The exchange happened after Trump signed an executive order in the Oval Office and was answering a few questions from reporters.
&#8220;Do you have a plan to go visit the site or meet with any of the first responders?&#8221; the reporter asked.
&#8220;I have a plan to visit, not the site, because you tell me, what&#8217;s the site?&#8221; Trump responded. &#8220;The water?&#8221;
&#8220;You want me to go swimming?&#8221; Trump asked.
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Trump Mocks Reporter Over Question On Plane Crash Site: ‘You Want Me To Go Swimming?’" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9Z75jCx_Cr4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The exchange came after Trump signed two executive orders on Thursday following the tragic plane and helicopter collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Trump’s first executive order appointed Chris Rochelau as deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. Rochelau will serve as the acting administrator since the administrator seat is currently vacant, the president’s staff secretary, Will Scharf, said at the signing.
The president’s second executive action is titled: “Immediate Assessment of Aviation Safety.” It orders the Secretary of Transportation and the FAA administrator to “review all hiring decisions and changes to safety protocols made during the prior 4 years, and to take such corrective action as necessary to achieve uncompromised aviation safety, including the replacement of any individuals who do not meet qualification standards.”
“This review shall include a systematic assessment of any deterioration in hiring standards and aviation safety standards and protocols during the Biden Administration,” the order notes.
Trump stressed to reporters on Thursday that though it is unclear what role DEI measures played in the tragic plane crash, it is extremely important to his administration that employees be chosen on merit and competency.
“We want the most competent people,” he said. “We don’t care what race they are. We want the most competent people, especially in those positions. You’re talking about extremely complex things, and if they don’t have a great brain, a great power of the brain, they’re not going to be very good at what they do, and bad things will happen.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="‘A Great Power Of The Brain’: Trump Talks About What He Wants In Air Traffic Controllers" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fa50EVDDCKQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

President Trump Signs Executive Orders On Aviation Safety

Trump Mocks Reporter Over Nonsensical Question On Plane Crash

Media

Plane Crash

Politics

WASHINGTON—President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> signed two executive orders on Thursday in the wake of a tragic plane and helicopter collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
His action comes after an Army helicopter and American Airlines Flight 5342 collided Wednesday night before crashing into the Potomac River. Authorities worked throughout the night to recover the bodies of the deceased, and said Thursday that there were no survivors out of the 67 people on both aircrafts.
Trump&#8217;s first executive order appoints Chris Rochelau as deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. Rochelau will serve as the acting administrator since the administrator seat is currently vacant, the president&#8217;s staff secretary, Will Scharf, said at the signing.
The president&#8217;s second executive action is titled: &#8220;Immediate Assessment of Aviation Safety.&#8221; It orders the Secretary of Transportation and the FAA administrator to &#8220;review all hiring decisions and changes to safety protocols made during the prior 4 years, and to take such corrective action as necessary to achieve uncompromised aviation safety, including the replacement of any individuals who do not meet qualification standards.&#8221;
&#8220;This review shall include a systematic assessment of any deterioration in hiring standards and aviation safety standards and protocols during the Biden Administration,&#8221; the order notes.
<div id="attachment_868847" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/donald-trump-issues-executive-orders-on-flight-safety-dei-following-reagan-airport-tragedy/american-airlines-plane-and-black-hawk-helicopter-crash-near-reagan-national-airport" rel="attachment wp-att-868847"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-868847" class="wp-image-868847 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2196164305-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2196164305-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2196164305-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2196164305-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2196164305-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2196164305-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2196164305-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2196164305-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>(Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)</div>
Trump laid out in the executive action, as he did during Thursday&#8217;s press briefing, how former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden took steps to minimize merit and competence by prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion principles in the FAA.
&#8220;The Obama Administration implemented a biographical questionnaire at the FAA to shift the hiring focus away from objective aptitude,&#8221; his executive action says. &#8220;During my first term, my Administration raised standards to achieve the highest standards of safety and excellence.  But the Biden Administration egregiously rejected merit-based hiring, requiring all executive departments and agencies to implement dangerous &#8216;diversity equity and inclusion&#8217; tactics, and specifically recruiting individuals with &#8216;severe intellectual&#8217; disabilities in the FAA.&#8221;
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&#8220;On my second day in office, I ordered an immediate return to merit-based recruitment, hiring, and promotion, elevating safety and ability as the paramount standard,&#8221; the order reads. &#8220;Yesterday&#8217;s devastating accident tragically underscores the need to elevate safety and competence as the priority of the FAA.&#8221;
Trump stressed to reporters on Thursday that though it is unclear what role DEI measures played in the tragic plane crash, it is extremely important to his administration that employees be chosen on merit and competency.
&#8220;We want the most competent people,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We don&#8217;t care what race they are. We want the most competent people, especially in those positions. You&#8217;re talking about extremely complex things, and if they don&#8217;t have a great brain, a great power of the brain, they&#8217;re not going to be very good at what they do and bad things will happen.&#8221;
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&#8220;All I&#8217;m talking about is competence,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;And we want, in that particular position, we have to have the most competent people in our country, because we&#8217;re talking about lives. Now, it may or may not have to do, but I don&#8217;t like that the helicopter was at the exact same level as the airplane. The helicopter should&#8217;ve been 1,000 feet or 500 feet above it, or something below it. The plane was at 300-400 feet.&#8221;
Trump described the fatal crash as &#8220;tragic&#8221; but preventable, asking: &#8220;Do you blame it on the air traffic controller too in addition to the pilots? They should&#8217;ve seen it. I would&#8217;ve thought they should&#8217;ve seen it.&#8221;
He also shared that he will be meeting with some of the families of the deceased.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Donald Trump Issues Executive Orders On Flight Safety, DEI Following Reagan Airport Tragedy

Executive

President Donald Trump on Thursday correctly noted that Democrats have long sought to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-takes-aim-at-fallen-standards-in-air-traffic-control-in-post-crash-briefing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lower standards for aviation professionals</a> out of concern that the field is overwhelmingly white and male.
In 2023, President Joe Biden nominated a black man, Phil Washington, to oversee the Federal Aviation Administration despite Washington having little experience in the field. Washington had run Denver&#8217;s airport for two years in a job that largely revolved around managing the airport&#8217;s commercial space. He withdrew his nomination after he could not answer basic questions about flying in a Senate hearing, leading to bipartisan condemnation.
Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC), a pilot, <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6323484571112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> &#8220;He should have never been appointed for the job. I put this on Joe Biden who was going more for diversity rather than the public safety when it comes to air traffic.&#8221;
In 2016, the Department of Transportation&#8217;s Inspector General found that a group advocating for black air traffic controllers, the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees (NBCFAE), gave black applicants the answers to a test, according to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKMfXppl64g">Fox News</a>.
The inspector general declined to pursue criminal charges against the cheaters, even though one was caught in a lie by investigators, according to Michael Pearson, an attorney who uncovered the secret report. Pearson added that those implicated remained employed by the FAA.
In 2013, President Barack Obama&#8217;s FAA Administrator, Michael Herta, &#8220;made an historic commitment to <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/07/21/insane-republicans-oppose-obama-policy-risking-airline-passengers-lives-advance-woke-agenda/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transform</a> the Federal Aviation Administration into a more diverse and inclusive workplace that reflects, understands, and relates to the diverse customers we serve,&#8221; after commissioning a paper that said relying on qualifications and test scores created &#8220;barriers&#8230;for racial/ethnic minorities.&#8221;
Seventy-three percent of white applicants passed the qualifications stage, compared to 47% of black applicants and 60% of Hispanic applicants. If the cutoff score for the test was 85, 78% of Asian applicants and 77% of white applicants passed, while only 38% of black applicants and 41% of Hispanic applicants did. But if the cutoff was lowered to 70, racial equity was in sight, with all Asian applicants passing, 99% of white applicants passing, and 90% of black applicants passing, the Obama consultant said.
In the end, the Obama administration opted to add a &#8220;Biographical Questionnaire&#8221; (BQ) to the application, which was used to give minorities extra points by asking questions about how many sports they played, or asking them to explain the cause of their failures, seemingly &#8220;to elicit stories of personal disadvantage.&#8221;
Pearson <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh9SxqsQdpo">said</a> the questionnaire actually punished people for being competent. It gave them 10 points for saying they&#8217;d been unemployed for the last three years, but just two points for saying they were trained pilots. Applicants were also rewarded if they said science was their worst subject in high school.
Historically, air traffic controllers were recruited from the military or elite schools, in a rigorous process reflective of the fact that lives were on the line. But the new process, in a bid to diversify, opened hires to what the FAA called &#8220;off-the-street.&#8221;
In 2024, House Republicans introduced a provision removing the biographical questionnaire into the FAA&#8217;s funding bill. Biden signed the funding package into law in May 2024.

Biden FAA nominee Phillip Washington Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images). Inset: National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees

Trump Is Right: Democrats Have A History Of Racial Scandals In Aviation

New details indicate the air traffic control tower at Reagan National Airport in the Washington, D.C., area was understaffed when a nearby helicopter <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/plane-crash-halts-all-flights-at-ronald-reagan-washington-national-airport" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collided</a> with a passenger jet on Wednesday night.
An internal preliminary report from the Federal Aviation Administration (<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/federal-aviation-administration-faa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FAA</a>) said that staffing at the tower was &#8220;not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,&#8221; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/29/us/plane-crash-washington-dc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to The New York Times</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“The tower was nearly a third below targeted staff levels, with 19 fully certified controllers as of Sept. ***2023***… The shortage — caused by ***years*** of employee turnover and tight budgets, among other factors — has forced many controllers to work up to six days a week…” <a href="https://t.co/f78yCtL21j">https://t.co/f78yCtL21j</a>
&mdash; Jerry Dunleavy IV 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) <a href="https://twitter.com/JerryDunleavy/status/1885064348814504313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The newspaper said the controller who was dealing with helicopters around the airport was also instructing planes that were landing and departing, tasks which are typically assigned to multiple people.
Also mentioned by The New York Times was how the Reagan airport tower had been understaffed for years, part of a nationwide shortage that has led to many controllers working long hours, up to six days a week.
The newspaper further explained that the Reagan airport tower was nearly a third below targeted staff levels, with 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023 reported to Congress in an FAA <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20241225184848/https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/afn-aba-20240509-cwp.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">workforce plan</a>.
Search efforts in the Potomac River began immediately after the mid-air crash between an American Airlines jet with 60 passengers and four crew on board and an Army Black Hawk Helicopter carrying three soldiers.
President Donald Trump <a href="https://x.com/cspan/status/1885002717858263358" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on Thursday afternoon, &#8220;Sadly, there are no survivors. This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation&#8217;s capital and in our nation&#8217;s history and a tragedy of terrible proportions.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
President Trump on DCA helicopter-plane crash: &quot;Sadly, there are no survivors. This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation&#39;s capitol and in our nation&#39;s history and a tragedy of terrible proportions.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/ZzeXygwpAr">pic.twitter.com/ZzeXygwpAr</a>
&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1885002717858263358?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
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National Transportation Safety Board officials <a href="https://x.com/ABC/status/1885056794378015045" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> their agency plans to release a preliminary report on the D.C. crash &#8220;within 30 days&#8221; followed by a final report when an investigation has been completed.
The mid-air collision follows the Senate confirmations in the past week of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, both of whom have responded to the tragedy.
&#8220;What happened today should never have happened. I want the families of the victims to know that they have my word: I will not rest until you have the truth,&#8221; Duffy <a href="https://x.com/SecDuffy/status/1885017745244237898" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a series of posts to X.
&#8220;I will find answers to how this happened. I have directed every relevant agency to immediately investigate what went wrong, and I will not tolerate delays or bureaucratic excuses,&#8221; the secretary added.
He concluded by saying: &#8220;If there was negligence, incompetence, or failure anywhere in the system, we will find it — and I will fix it. I will provide further updates as we uncover the facts.&#8221;

Emergency Crews Respond To Aircraft Crash Near Reagan National Airport

Report Suggests Airport Tower Understaffed At Time Of Collision, Had Been For Years

Air Travel

General

Transportation

U.S.

President Donald Trump held a press conference Thursday morning after the crash between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight near Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C., Wednesday night. After expressing the nation&#8217;s grief for those lost in the tragedy, the president denounced past Democratic administrations for weakening air traffic control standards.
“I speak to you this morning in an hour of anguish for our nation,” Trump began. “This was a dark and excruciating night in our capital and a tragedy of terrible proportions. We grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so sadly.”
After expressing sympathies for the victims, Trump stressed the need for stronger Federal Aviation Administration standards and took aim at Democratic administrations which he said had weakened them.
“We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system,” he said. “I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary. You remember that only the highest aptitude, they have to be the highest intellect and psychologically superior people, were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers. That was not so, prior to getting there. When I arrived in 2016, I made that change very early on because I always felt this was a job that, and other jobs too, but this was a job that had to be superior intelligence, and we didn&#8217;t really have that, and we had it.”
“And then when I left office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before,” Trump stated. “I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody&#8217;s ever seen, because this was the lowest level. Their policy was horrible, and their politics was even worse.”
“I do want to point out that various articles that appeared prior to my entering office, and here&#8217;s <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/faas-diversity-push-includes-focus-hiring-people-severe-intellectual-psychiatric-disabilities">one</a>,” he said quoting  Fox News article from January 2024: “The FAA diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities.”
The article stated:
<blockquote>
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is actively recruiting workers who suffer &#8220;severe intellectual&#8221; disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/us/education/diversity">diversity and inclusion</a> hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website. &#8220;Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring,&#8221; the FAA’s website states. &#8220;They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.&#8221;
The initiative is part of the FAA’s <a href="https://www.faa.gov/jobs/diversity_inclusion">&#8220;Diversity and Inclusion&#8221;</a> hiring plan, which says &#8220;diversity is integral to achieving FAA&#8217;s mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel across our nation and beyond.&#8221; The FAA’s website shows the agency’s guidelines on diversity hiring were last updated on March 23, 2022.
</blockquote>
“&#8217;The Initiative is part of the FAA&#8217;s diversity and inclusion hiring plan,'&#8221; Trump quoted. “Think of that. ‘The initiative is part of the FAA&#8217;s diversity and inclusion hiring plan, which says diversity is integral to achieving FAS mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel.’ I don&#8217;t think so. I don&#8217;t think so. I think it&#8217;s just the opposite.”
“The FAA website shows that the agency&#8217;s guidance on diversity hiring were last updated on March 23 of [2022]. They wanted to make it even more so,” he stated. “And then I came in, and I assume maybe this is the reason; the FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a real winner. The guy&#8217;s a real winner. You know how badly everything&#8217;s run since he&#8217;s run the Department of Transportation. He&#8217;s a disaster. He was a disaster as a mayor. He ran his city into the ground, and he&#8217;s a disaster. Now he&#8217;s just got a good line of bulls***. The Department of Transportation, his government agency charged with regulating civil aviation, well, he runs it —45,000 people — and he&#8217;s run it right into the ground with his diversity. So I had to say that it&#8217;s terrible.”
Given his criticism of the former Transportation Secretary, the president said in response to a question from Daily Wire White House Correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan that it was helpful to have his new secretary confirmed the day before.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MaryMargOlohan</a>: &quot;Is it helpful to have your Secretary of Transportation confirmed, and does this intensify your interest in getting other nominees confirmed quickly as well?&quot;<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>: &quot;We want fast confirmations. And the Democrats are doing everything they can to delay them.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/EOCBzqawxP">pic.twitter.com/EOCBzqawxP</a>
&mdash; Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1885015283875643850?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
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During his remarks, Trump hammered past administrations for maintaining that the FAA was &#8220;too white.&#8221;
“Then it&#8217;s a group within the FAA, another story determined that the workforce was too white, that they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change that and to change it immediately,” the president continued. “This was in the Obama administration just prior to my getting there — and we took care of African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, we took care of everybody at levels that nobody has ever seen before. It&#8217;s one of the reasons I won. But they actually came out with a directive: too white. We want the people that are competent.”

Trump Takes Aim At Fallen Standards In Air Traffic Control In Post-Crash Briefing

Airplane crash

Barack Obama

Joe Biden

President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> on Tuesday ordered a review of all Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees in “critical safety positions” to ensure they are properly qualified.
In a presidential memorandum, Trump said that the Transportation Secretary and FAA Administrator would begin evaluating FAA employees in safety positions and replace them if necessary. The review comes after a string of airline safety incidents and close calls over the last few years.
In the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/keeping-americans-safe-in-aviation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">memo</a>, Trump said that the FAA had “betrayed its mission by elevating dangerous discrimination over excellence” during the Biden administration. The agency <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/01/14/news/faas-diversity-push-includes-hiring-people-with-intellectual-and-psychiatric-disabilities/">reportedly</a> recruited employees with &#8220;severe intellectual&#8221; disabilities and other mental and physical challenges under a diversity and inclusion hiring strategy.
“For example, prior to my Inauguration, the FAA Diversity and Inclusion website revealed that the prior administration sought to specifically recruit and hire individuals with serious infirmities that could impact the execution of their essential life-saving duties,” Trump wrote. 
As a result, Trump said he would initiate a review of the &#8220;past performance and performance standards of all individuals in critical safety positions and take all appropriate action to ensure that any individual who fails or has failed to demonstrate requisite capability is replaced by a high-capability individual that will ensure top-notch air safety and efficiency.”
Several mishaps in the last year include a plane carrying the Gonzaga University men’s basketball team <a href="https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/43229303/jet-carrying-gonzaga-bulldogs-ordered-stop-lax" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nearly colliding</a> with another plane taking off at the Los Angeles International Airport in December. In September, two Delta planes <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/delta-planes-collide-on-atlanta-airport-tarmac" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collided</a> while taxiing at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, and one plane’s tail was nearly ripped off.
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The memo also reiterated previous <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-ends-equity-in-federal-hiring-promises-to-only-focus-on-merit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive orders</a> stipulating that the federal government would no longer look at “equity” when hiring but practice merit-based hiring focused on skills, experience, and patriotism. Trump said hiring for the FAA would be based on individual capability, competence, achievement, and dedication. 
“Illegal and discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring, including on the basis of race, sex, disability, or any other criteria other than the safety of airline passengers and overall job excellence, competency, and qualification, harms all Americans, who deserve to fly with confidence,” the FAA memo said. “It also penalizes hard-working Americans who want to serve in the FAA but are unable to do so, as they lack a requisite disability or skin color.&#8221;

Southwest And Other Airlines Testify At Safety Hearing On Capitol Hill

Trump Initiates Review Of All FAA Workers In ‘Critical Safety Positions’

Air and Space

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/federal-aviation-administration-faa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Federal Aviation Administration</a> (FAA) announced on Thursday that it was instituting new restrictions on drone activity over parts of New Jersey.
The announcement comes as the federal government has botched responding to news reports about public sightings of late-night drones that have spooked some local residents and caused a wide range of theories to be floated online about what was happening.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement, “In coordination with the FAA and our critical infrastructure partners who requested temporary flight restrictions over their facilities, out of an abundance of caution, the FAA has issued temporary flight restrictions over some critical infrastructure facilities in New Jersey.”
The agency published 22 Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) prohibiting drone flights over critical New Jersey infrastructure.
The restrictions were imposed on drones operating from ground-level up to 400 feet above ground — the maximum height that civilians are supposed to fly their drones.
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The restrictions ban drones from being flown over power stations and other infrastructure, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/19/us/faa-restricts-drones-power-locations-new-jersey?Date=20241219&amp;Profile=CNN&amp;utm_content=1734633335&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The power stations include the Cedar Grove Switching Station, Athenia Switching Station, Hudson Switching Station, PSE&amp;G Kearny Switching Station, and Bayonne Switching Station.
The ban only applies to drones and no other types of aircraft.
Drone flight restrictions were implemented late last month over Trump&#8217;s golf course in Bedminster and Picatinny Arsenal — a U.S. military research facility.
Federal law enforcement officials and the U.S. military released a detailed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/feds-u-s-military-release-statement-assessing-what-people-are-seeing-with-drone-sightings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> on Monday night saying that after an extensive investigation, the mysterious drone sightings that people have seen on the East Coast do not amount to anything nefarious, nor is there any threat to the public.
“Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones,” the statement said. “We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast.”
They said that the FBI alone has received more than 5,000 tips over the last few weeks, which has generated approximately 100 leads that authorities have investigated.
“We continue to support state and local authorities with advanced detection technology and support of law enforcement,” the statement said. “We urge Congress to enact counter-UAS legislation when it reconvenes that would extend and expand existing counter-drone authorities to identify and mitigate any threat that may emerge.”
They added that drone sightings near U.S. military facilities, while concerning, are not a new phenomenon and that the Department of Defense “takes unauthorized access over its airspace seriously and coordinates closely with federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities, as appropriate.”
“Local commanders are actively engaged to ensure there are appropriate detection and mitigation measures in place,” the statement added.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/drone-fears-cause-new-problem-people-shining-lasers-at-manned-aircraft">Drone Fears Cause New Problem: People Shining Lasers At Manned Aircraft</a>

Hylio Drones

FAA Imposes Restrictions On Drones Over Parts Of New Jersey

Drones

New Jersey

Federal authorities and the U.S. military released a detailed statement on Monday night saying that after an extensive investigation, the mysterious drone sightings that people have seen on the East Coast do not amount to anything nefarious, nor is there any threat to the public.
The statement comes from the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, FAA, and Department of Defense. It follows weeks of speculation and widespread news coverage of the sightings, many of which have occurred in New Jersey.
&#8220;Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones,&#8221; the statement said. &#8220;We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast.&#8221;
The U.S. government entities said that there are currently more than a million registered drones in the U.S. and that thousands are flown daily, which they expect to increase in the years to come.
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They said that the FBI alone has received more than 5,000 tips over the last few weeks, which has generated approximately 100 leads that authorities have investigated.
&#8220;We continue to support state and local authorities with advanced detection technology and support of law enforcement,&#8221; the statement said. &#8220;We urge Congress to enact counter-UAS legislation when it reconvenes that would extend and expand existing counter-drone authorities to identify and mitigate any threat that may emerge.&#8221;
They added that drone sightings near U.S. military facilities, while concerning, are not a new phenomenon and that the Department of Defense &#8220;takes unauthorized access over its airspace seriously and coordinates closely with federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities, as appropriate.&#8221;
&#8220;Local commanders are actively engaged to ensure there are appropriate detection and mitigation measures in place,&#8221; the statement added.

Drone flying over ocean at dawn

Feds, U.S. Military Release Statement Assessing What People Are Seeing With Drone Sightings

Department of Defense

Department of Homeland Security

The top Democrat on the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-house-of-representatives" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House</a> Intelligence Committee said on Sunday he could promise that mysterious <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/drones" target="_blank" rel="noopener">drone</a> sightings over the United States over the past month are not a sign of an coming attack like the strike on Pearl Harbor during World War II.
Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) told Fox News anchor Jacqui Heinrich, who was sitting in for Shannon Bream on &#8220;Fox News Sunday,&#8221; that U.S. citizens should be &#8220;sober&#8221; about the situation and &#8220;not start worrying about Iranian &#8220;motherships&#8221; or Martians landing.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
WATCH: Rep Jim Himes <a href="https://twitter.com/jahimes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jahimes</a> on growing bipartisan frustration over the federal government’s response to drone sightings. <a href="https://t.co/7UR9DLPUzP">pic.twitter.com/7UR9DLPUzP</a>
&mdash; Fox News Sunday (@FoxNewsSunday) <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNewsSunday/status/1868324070476919071?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 15, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
One of his colleagues, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-congressman-sources-claim-mystery-drones-over-new-jersey-come-from-mothership-sent-by-iran" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> last week that &#8220;qualified sources&#8221; told him drones were coming from an Iranian &#8220;mothership&#8221; off the East Coast. However, the Pentagon and White House have insisted they have no proof of a foreign link.
Heinrich pressed Himes on whether he was concerned this could be &#8220;a Pearl Harbor moment, like with the Japanese submarines surveilling in the waters off Hawaii in the months leading up to the attack,&#8221; and whether a &#8220;state actor&#8221; is &#8220;preparing for some kind of an event in the future.&#8221;
&#8220;No, it&#8217;s not,&#8221; Himes said. &#8220;And frankly, Jacqui, we shouldn&#8217;t — look, our adversaries that will — that would wish us harm, you know, have billion-dollar satellites over our heads right now that are capable of, you know, doing what we do to them, which is observing.&#8221;
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Himes said U.S. adversaries would not put their technology over a place like Newark, New Jersey, where it could fall out of the sky and be captured. He also noted that &#8220;it was not happy for the Chinese&#8221; when the U.S. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-spy-chief-responds-to-balloon-controversy-were-going-to-see-more-of-this" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shot down their spy balloon</a> early last year.
&#8220;So no, I really don&#8217;t. I mean, there&#8217;s lots of things to worry about. Don&#8217;t get me wrong. And we worry about Iran. We worry about China. But no, they are not going to launch an attack on Pearl Harbor that is preceded by drones,&#8221; Himes said.
&#8220;Now, does that mean that they&#8217;re not going to use it to try to spy on our sensitive facilities? Of course, they might,&#8221; the congressman added. &#8220;But no, this is not the predecessor for an attack on the American homeland. I can promise you that.&#8221;

Rep. Jim Himes

Top House Intel Dem: Mysterious Drone Sightings Don’t Signal Coming Pearl Harbor-Like Attack

Congress

National Intelligence

National Security

U.S. House of Representatives

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and United Airlines have launched an investigation involving a chartered flight that was transporting the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/colorado" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Colorado Rockies</a> from Denver to Toronto.
Rockies hitting coach Hensley Meulens posted a video on social media that showed him sitting in the pilot&#8217;s seat in the cockpit while the plane was in the air, ESPN <a href="https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39976154/rockies-coach-posts-video-cockpit-prompting-faa-probe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
&#8220;Had some fun in the cockpit on our flight from Denver to Toronto. Thanks to the captain and the first officer of our United charter that allowed me this great experience,&#8221; Meulens wrote in a caption for the social media post.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
The Colorado Rockies are under investigation by the FAA and United Airlines after a video showed hitting coach Hensley Meulens in the cockpit of the team’s charter mid-flight.<a href="https://t.co/raRrpPBJzY">pic.twitter.com/raRrpPBJzY</a>
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) <a href="https://twitter.com/FOS/status/1781375768548823108?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 19, 2024</a></blockquote>
United Airlines responded to the video by saying in a statement: “We’re deeply disturbed by what we see in that video, which appears to show an unauthorized person in the flight deck at cruise altitude while the autopilot was engaged.”
“As a clear violation of our safety and operational policies, we’ve reported the incident to the FAA and have withheld the pilots from service while we conduct an investigation,” the statement added.
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The FAA said that it opened an investigation, but that it will “not comment on the details of open investigations.”
“Federal regulations restrict flight deck access to specific individuals,” the FAA added.

Colorado Rockies v Washington Nationals – Game One

Colorado Rockies Under Federal Investigation After In-Flight Incident

Colorado

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