Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Tragedy in DC-Trump goes ALL IN on Government Reform plus How & Why it Happened w Sen Ted Cruz

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Tragedy in DC-Trump goes ALL IN on Government Reform plus How & Why it Happened w Sen Ted Cruz · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Donald Trump walked into the White House Press Briefing Room
0:05
Speaker 1: to hold a press conference on the horrific plane crash
0:08
Speaker 1: that happened, and it was a sad moment, but also
0:12
Speaker 1: a moment where the President said, we must do better
0:14
Speaker 1: when it comes to hiring. He's taking a lot of
0:17
Speaker 1: criticism because he was asked questions about dei hiring practices
0:21
Speaker 1: and the government that had put together many people in
0:24
Speaker 1: many different departments and agencies, including the FAA, not choosing
0:28
Speaker 1: the best among us, but choosing those based on diversity, equity,
0:32
Speaker 1: and inclusion.
0:34
Speaker 2: Now the President is taking heat for his answers.
0:36
Speaker 1: I want you to hear from him at this press
0:39
Speaker 1: conference so you know exactly what he really said and
0:42
Speaker 1: not what the media is reporting. They are taking him
0:46
Speaker 1: out of context. Here's the President in his own words.
0:50
Speaker 3: Mister Reid, welcome, Thank you very much. Thank you.
0:56
Speaker 4: I'd like to request a moment of silence or the
1:00
Speaker 4: victims and their families please.
1:24
Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
1:31
Speaker 4: I speak to you this morning in an hour of
1:33
Speaker 4: anguish for a nation. Just before nine pm last night,
1:39
Speaker 4: in an American Airlines Regional jet carrying sixty passengers and
1:43
Speaker 4: four crew collided with an Army black Hawk helicopter carrying
1:47
Speaker 4: three military service members over the Potomac River in Washington,
1:51
Speaker 4: DC while on final approach to Rega National Airport. Both
1:57
Speaker 4: aircraft crashed instantly and were immediately submerged into the icy
2:01
Speaker 4: waters of the Potomac.
2:03
Speaker 3: Real tragedy.
2:05
Speaker 4: The massive search and rescue mission was underway throughout the night,
2:09
Speaker 4: leveraging every asset at our disposal. And I have to
2:12
Speaker 4: say the local state, federal military, including the United States
2:17
Speaker 4: Coast Guard in particular, they've done a phenomenal job so quick,
2:22
Speaker 4: so fast. It was mobilized immediately. The work has now
2:28
Speaker 4: shifted to a recovery mission.
2:32
Speaker 3: Sadly, there are no survivors.
2:35
Speaker 4: This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation's
2:39
Speaker 4: capital and in our nation's history, and a tragedy of
2:43
Speaker 4: terrible proportions. As one nation, we grieve for every precious
2:49
Speaker 4: soul that has been taken from us so suddenly, and
2:53
Speaker 4: we are a country.
2:54
Speaker 3: Of really we are in mourning. This is really shaken
2:59
Speaker 3: a lot.
2:59
Speaker 4: Of people, well, including people very sadly from other nations
3:03
Speaker 4: who are on the flood for the family members back
3:06
Speaker 4: in Wichita, Kansas, here in Washington to sea and throughout
3:10
Speaker 4: the United States, and in Russia we have a Russia
3:15
Speaker 4: contingents of very talented people. Unfortunately, we're on that plane,
3:19
Speaker 4: very very sorry about that. Whose loved ones were board
3:23
Speaker 4: the passenger jet. We can only begin to imagine the
3:26
Speaker 4: agony that you're all feeling. Nothing worse on behalf of
3:31
Speaker 4: the first Lady, myself and three hundred and forty million Americans.
3:35
Speaker 4: Our hearts are shattered alongside yours, and our prayers are
3:38
Speaker 4: with you now and in the days to come.
3:41
Speaker 3: We'll be working very, very diligently. In the days to come.
3:44
Speaker 4: We're here for you to wipe away the tears and
3:47
Speaker 4: to offer you our devotion, our love, and our support.
3:50
Speaker 3: There's great support.
3:52
Speaker 4: In moments like this, The differences between Americans fade to
3:57
Speaker 4: nothing compared to the bonds of affection and loyalty that
4:00
Speaker 4: unite us all, both as Americans and even as nations.
4:04
Speaker 4: We are one family, and today we are all heartbroken.
4:08
Speaker 3: We're all searching for answers.
4:12
Speaker 4: That icy Potomac was a cold, cold night, cold water.
4:19
Speaker 3: We're all overcome with.
4:20
Speaker 4: The grief for many who have so tragically perished will
4:24
Speaker 4: no longer be with us. Together, we take solace in
4:27
Speaker 4: the knowledge that their journey ended not in the cold
4:30
Speaker 4: waters of the Potomac, but in the warm embrace of
4:32
Speaker 4: a loving God. We do not know what led to
4:36
Speaker 4: this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas,
4:40
Speaker 4: and I think we'll probably state those opinions now, because
4:44
Speaker 4: over the years I've watched as things like this happen
4:46
Speaker 4: and they say, well, we're always investigating, and then the
4:49
Speaker 4: investigation three years later they announce it.
4:52
Speaker 3: We think we have some pretty good ideas.
4:55
Speaker 4: But we'll find out how this disaster occurred and will
4:58
Speaker 4: ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. The FAA
5:03
Speaker 4: and the NTSB and the US military will be carrying
5:06
Speaker 4: out a systematic and comprehensive investigation. Our new Secretary of Transportation,
5:12
Speaker 4: Sean Duffy his second day on the job when that happened.
5:18
Speaker 4: It's a rough one. We'll be working tirelessly. He's a
5:23
Speaker 4: great gentleman. The whole group is these are great people,
5:27
Speaker 4: and they are working tirelessly to figure out exactly what happened.
5:31
Speaker 4: We will state certain opinions, however, I'm also immediately appointing
5:36
Speaker 4: an acting Commissioner to the FAA, Christopher Rochelieu, a twenty
5:41
Speaker 4: two year veteran of the agency. Highly respected Christopher, thank
5:46
Speaker 4: you very much, appreciate it. We must have only the
5:49
Speaker 4: highest standards for those who work in our aviation system.
5:52
Speaker 4: I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best
5:58
Speaker 4: to extraordinary.
6:00
Speaker 3: Remember that only.
6:02
Speaker 4: The highest aptitude have to be the highest intellect and
6:08
Speaker 4: psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers.
6:15
Speaker 3: That was not so prior to getting there.
6:18
Speaker 4: When I arrived in twenty sixteen. I made that change
6:22
Speaker 4: very early on because I always felt this was a
6:24
Speaker 4: job and other jobs too, but this was a job
6:27
Speaker 4: that had to be superior intelligence and we didn't really
6:32
Speaker 4: have that, and we had it. And then when I
6:35
Speaker 4: left office and Biden took over, he changed them back
6:39
Speaker 4: to lower than ever before.
6:44
Speaker 3: I put safety first.
6:45
Speaker 4: Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, and they
6:49
Speaker 4: put politics at a level that nobody's ever seen.
6:55
Speaker 3: Because this was the lowest level.
6:58
Speaker 4: That policy was horrible and their politics was even worse.
7:03
Speaker 3: So, as you know, last week, long.
7:04
Speaker 4: Before the crash, I signed an executive order restoring our
7:08
Speaker 4: highest standards for air traffic controllers and other important jobs
7:12
Speaker 4: throughout the country.
7:13
Speaker 3: So it was very interesting.
7:14
Speaker 4: About a week ago, almost upon entering office, I signed
7:21
Speaker 4: something last week that was an executive order, very powerful
7:26
Speaker 4: and restoring the highest standards of air traffic controllers and others.
7:30
Speaker 4: By the way, then my administration will set the highest
7:34
Speaker 4: possible bar for aviation safety. We have to have our
7:37
Speaker 4: smartest people. It doesn't matter what they look like, how
7:41
Speaker 4: they speak, who they are matters intellect, talent, the word talent.
7:46
Speaker 4: Have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses. It can't have
7:51
Speaker 4: regular people doing that job. They won't be able to
7:54
Speaker 4: do it, but will restore faith in American air traveler.
7:58
Speaker 4: Have more to say about that. You want to point
8:01
Speaker 4: out that various articles that appeared prior to my entering office,
8:07
Speaker 4: and here's one. The FAA's diversity push includes focus on
8:13
Speaker 4: hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities.
8:19
Speaker 1: Let's just pause there and think about that. The President
8:23
Speaker 1: didn't just say this. He brought receipts. He brought receipts
8:28
Speaker 1: of actual articles where the fa is saying we are
8:32
Speaker 1: not hiring the best. It's not what we do here.
8:37
Speaker 1: We are hiring people with severe mental issues or disabilities
8:44
Speaker 1: as part of our DEI hiring practices and PEP. We
8:47
Speaker 1: are like, well you can't say that, why not? That's
8:50
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Speaker 1: two Patriot. Now, we don't exactly know who's fault it
10:37
Speaker 1: is yet on this. It could be multiple, It could
10:39
Speaker 1: be accidents happen, there's human air involved. But the president's
10:43
Speaker 1: also making it clear we need to go back to
10:45
Speaker 1: having the best in the brightest, regardless of race, regardless
10:49
Speaker 1: of sexual orientation, and up on the website as we
10:54
Speaker 1: as this crash happen, there were job postings.
10:57
Speaker 2: And there were these orders from these government agents.
11:00
Speaker 1: He's on DEI and the President brought receipts of articles
11:04
Speaker 1: talking about this, and I want you to hear again.
11:07
Speaker 4: Here's what he said to point out that various articles
11:12
Speaker 4: that appeared prior to my entering office.
11:15
Speaker 3: And here's one.
11:17
Speaker 4: The FAA's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with
11:22
Speaker 4: severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities.
11:27
Speaker 3: That is amazing.
11:29
Speaker 4: And then it says FAA says people with severe disabilities
11:33
Speaker 4: a most underrepresented segment of the workforce, and they.
11:36
Speaker 3: Want them in and they want them they can be
11:39
Speaker 3: air traffic controllers. I don't think so. This was.
11:44
Speaker 4: In January fourteenth, so that was a week before I
11:48
Speaker 4: entered office. They put a big push to put diversity
11:52
Speaker 4: into the FAA's program. Then another article the Federal Aviation Administration,
12:00
Speaker 4: This was before I got to office. Recently, second term,
12:06
Speaker 4: the FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities,
12:13
Speaker 4: psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a
12:17
Speaker 4: diversity and inclusion hiring initiatives spelled out on the agency's website.
12:22
Speaker 1: Can you imagine, just so you know, this was up
12:26
Speaker 1: on the websites for hiring when this plane crash happened.
12:33
Speaker 1: And that's the reason why Donald Trump's coming in and saying,
12:35
Speaker 1: if you want to know what you've been paying for,
12:37
Speaker 1: if you want to know what you're getting, this is
12:40
Speaker 1: what you're getting. This is what you've been paying for,
12:43
Speaker 1: This is everything you've been there. I mean, this is
12:47
Speaker 1: it like this is this is the government for the
12:51
Speaker 1: last four years actively looking for people that are having
12:55
Speaker 1: mental health issues to be in charge those that are
13:00
Speaker 1: with all of these types of issues. And then they're
13:02
Speaker 1: proud of it, and they're like, oh, yeah, this is great,
13:06
Speaker 1: this is absolutely great. Come on down be an air
13:09
Speaker 1: traffic controller. Now, I want to be clear, we don't
13:13
Speaker 1: exactly know what happened yet, but what he's saying is
13:19
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be shocking or surprising if this played into it,
13:25
Speaker 1: and if this did pay into it, play into it,
13:28
Speaker 1: then there should, I think, be hell to pay. And
13:31
Speaker 1: he said, as he described it, I don't think so.
13:34
Speaker 1: Now when he says I don't think so, what does
13:37
Speaker 1: he mean. What he means is not under my watch
13:40
Speaker 1: for the next four years, we're going to hire the brightest,
13:44
Speaker 1: We're going to hire the best. We are not going
13:49
Speaker 1: to hire DEI hires and put people's lives at risk.
13:54
Speaker 1: Potentially while flying to fill a stupid quota. That is
13:59
Speaker 1: something we will not do. And the President saying it
14:05
Speaker 1: to the American people because he's like, if you want
14:07
Speaker 1: to know why I'm making changes, and the media is
14:09
Speaker 1: going to lie to you, this is why.
14:11
Speaker 2: Here are the receipts, here's the job postings.
14:14
Speaker 1: Here are the articles written just a week before I
14:16
Speaker 1: took office on the fourteenth.
14:18
Speaker 4: These are people that are I mean, actually their lives
14:23
Speaker 4: are shortened because of the stress that they have. Brilliant
14:29
Speaker 4: people have to be in those positions, and their lives
14:32
Speaker 4: are actually shortened, very substantially shortened because of the stress
14:36
Speaker 4: where you have many, many planes coming into one target
14:40
Speaker 4: and you need a very special talent and a very
14:43
Speaker 4: special genius to be able to do it. Targeted disabilities
14:47
Speaker 4: are those disabilities that the federal government, as a matter
14:50
Speaker 4: of policy, has identified for special emphasis and recruitment and hiring.
14:55
Speaker 3: The FAA's website states.
14:57
Speaker 4: They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy,
15:05
Speaker 4: severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism.
15:11
Speaker 3: All qualify for the position of.
15:16
Speaker 4: A controller of aeroplanes pouring into our country, pouring into.
15:20
Speaker 3: A little spot, a little dot on the map, a
15:22
Speaker 3: little runway.
15:25
Speaker 4: The initiative is part of the faas Diversity and.
15:28
Speaker 3: Inclusion Hiring Plan. Think of that.
15:30
Speaker 4: The initiative is part of the FAA's Diversity and Inclusion
15:35
Speaker 4: Hiring Plan, which says diversity is integral to achieving FAA's
15:39
Speaker 4: mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel.
15:42
Speaker 3: I don't think so. I don't think so. I think
15:43
Speaker 3: it's just the opposite.
15:45
Speaker 4: The FAA website shows that the agency's guidance and diversity
15:50
Speaker 4: hiring were last updated on March twenty third of twenty two.
15:54
Speaker 4: They wanted to make it even more so. And then
15:57
Speaker 4: I came in and I assume maybe this.
15:59
Speaker 3: Is the reason.
16:01
Speaker 4: The FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buddhachek, a
16:07
Speaker 4: real winner.
16:08
Speaker 3: That's the guy. He's a real winner.
16:09
Speaker 4: Do you know how badly everything's run since he's run
16:11
Speaker 4: this Department of Transportation.
16:13
Speaker 3: He's a disaster.
16:16
Speaker 4: He was a disaster as a mayor, he ran his
16:19
Speaker 4: city into the ground, and he's a disaster now. He's
16:22
Speaker 4: just got a good line of both the Department of Transportation,
16:27
Speaker 4: his government agency charged with regulating civil aviation, well, he
16:31
Speaker 4: runs it forty five thousand people, and he's run it
16:34
Speaker 4: right into the ground with his diversity.
16:37
Speaker 1: You notice here and Donald Trump said what he said
16:40
Speaker 1: a moment ago. People die when you put these policies
16:45
Speaker 1: into serious positions where there is safety or national security involved.
16:53
Speaker 1: That's why the President said it the way that he
16:55
Speaker 1: said it. That's why he came out the way that
16:59
Speaker 1: he came out out to say, let's have a press
17:01
Speaker 1: conference and let's talk it out.
17:03
Speaker 2: That's why I came out and brought receipts.
17:05
Speaker 1: One of the things that this administration's doing in his
17:08
Speaker 1: second term that's so much better than him in the
17:10
Speaker 1: first term is bringing the receipts. He's bringing the receipts
17:16
Speaker 1: to the room and saying, here it is, this is
17:20
Speaker 1: what they did, this is what they wrote about, this
17:23
Speaker 1: is how they described it, this is when they started
17:26
Speaker 1: implementing it. They ran it into the ground. And he's
17:30
Speaker 1: not doing it to grandstand. He's doing it to say,
17:34
Speaker 1: while I am making significant changes, you need to understand why,
17:41
Speaker 1: because the media is going to lie to you about it.
17:44
Speaker 1: The media is going to tell you that these changes
17:48
Speaker 1: are just terrible, and go through this list and they're
17:50
Speaker 1: going to fearmonger you and you need to understand that
17:53
Speaker 1: while I'm making these changes, this is to keep you safe.
17:57
Speaker 1: This is to protect you and your family. I have
18:00
Speaker 1: no doubt that last night on that plane, there were
18:03
Speaker 1: a lot of different races, a lot of different voters.
18:07
Speaker 1: There were people that Republican, there are people that are Democrats,
18:10
Speaker 1: people that are in the middle, there are people that
18:11
Speaker 1: were registered to vote, not registered vote, people from all
18:13
Speaker 1: over the world.
18:14
Speaker 3: We know that.
18:16
Speaker 1: All of them deserve to have competent people in and
18:19
Speaker 1: around them. Now, it may come back that this was
18:22
Speaker 1: human error in a mistake, a tragic mistake that could
18:26
Speaker 1: absolutely happen, but there also could be part of this
18:29
Speaker 1: that is in fact the DEI.
18:31
Speaker 2: We don't know yet.
18:32
Speaker 1: But what we do know is there are people that
18:35
Speaker 1: deserve to lose their jobs within the FAA, within these
18:40
Speaker 1: sectors because they were not the best people hired for
18:43
Speaker 1: the job.
18:43
Speaker 2: They were a quota.
18:45
Speaker 1: And in serious jobs like this, you cannot have average
18:49
Speaker 1: people doing the jobs. You need the best, and you
18:53
Speaker 1: need the brightest. I want you to hear my conversation
18:58
Speaker 1: center Ted Cruz and I had about well, this tragedy
19:01
Speaker 1: that happened in Washington when all this was unfolding, with
19:04
Speaker 1: this helicopter and airplane colliding.
19:07
Speaker 2: Listen carefully to his words.
19:09
Speaker 5: Well, it was truly a tragic and horrific accident, and
19:12
Speaker 5: it cost the lives of sixty seven souls. The commercial
19:16
Speaker 5: airliner from American Airlines, flying from Wichita, Kansas to Washington
19:21
Speaker 5: d C. Reagan Airport had sixty passengers on it and
19:25
Speaker 5: four crew members. And then an Army black Hawk helicopter
19:29
Speaker 5: had three soldiers on it, bringing the total death toll
19:33
Speaker 5: to sixty seven. The two collided just before nine pm
19:41
Speaker 5: on Wednesday night. They collided as the American Airlines airliner
19:48
Speaker 5: was landing at d C. Reagan Airport. And I'll tell
19:52
Speaker 5: you today, so you and I are recording this Thursday night. Today,
19:56
Speaker 5: I spent a lot of the day dealing with the
19:58
Speaker 5: aftermath of this. As you know, I'm the chairman of
20:01
Speaker 5: the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. It has
20:04
Speaker 5: jurisdiction over all of aviation, and so today I hosted
20:09
Speaker 5: briefings from the FAA and the NTSB, the National Traffic
20:15
Speaker 5: Safety Board, and were heard from. They were bipartisan briefings.
20:24
Speaker 5: I had senators both Republicans and Democrats, that participated, and
20:30
Speaker 5: we got we got briefings the NTSB, which is, as
20:36
Speaker 5: I said, the National Transportation Safety Board does investigations whenever
20:40
Speaker 5: there's a serious accident, whenever there's an accident, an aviation accident,
20:44
Speaker 5: whenever there's a rail accident, they do investigations, and so
20:49
Speaker 5: we heard from them. Now as of Thursday, the NTSB
20:54
Speaker 5: had over a dozen investigators on the ground. And listen,
20:59
Speaker 5: in the wake of an accident, you've got to actually
21:02
Speaker 5: see what happened. You've got to investigate and discover the facts,
21:05
Speaker 5: discover the evidence. In this instance, we know that the
21:08
Speaker 5: American Airlines flight was coming in. It was initially on
21:14
Speaker 5: Runway one at Reagan Airport, and then the air traffic
21:17
Speaker 5: controllers moved it to runway thirty three, So they shifted
21:20
Speaker 5: the runway right at the very end, and the American
21:23
Speaker 5: Airlines pilots changed their descent to land on runway thirty three. Now, simultaneously,
21:30
Speaker 5: there was an Army black Hawk helicopter that was traveling.
21:34
Speaker 5: There are multiple helicopter routes that go in and around
21:38
Speaker 5: Reagan Airport, and that Army helicopter was on Route one
21:42
Speaker 5: and then it was shifting from Route one to Root four,
21:45
Speaker 5: and the air traffic controllers were in contact obviously with
21:50
Speaker 5: the pilots of the American Airlines flight and also the
21:54
Speaker 5: pilots of the helicopter, and after telling the American Airlines
22:00
Speaker 5: yet to land on Runway thirty three, the air traffic
22:04
Speaker 5: controller tells the black Hawk pilots to visually confirm and
22:10
Speaker 5: have in line of sight the incoming plane, and the
22:14
Speaker 5: black Hawk helicopter pilots confirmed that yes, they have the
22:17
Speaker 5: plane in sight, and they also instruct the black Hawk
22:23
Speaker 5: pilots to come behind the plane that is landing. What
22:28
Speaker 5: in fact happens, or what appears to have happened, is
22:31
Speaker 5: the black Hawk helicopter came in front of the plane
22:34
Speaker 5: that was landing. The two collided midair and exploded midair.
22:39
Speaker 5: Now at this point it appears everyone involved died. Both
22:45
Speaker 5: the plane and the black Hawk helicopter sunk into the
22:48
Speaker 5: Potomac River. They were both in relatively shallow water, about
22:54
Speaker 5: seven to eight feet of water where they had sunk.
23:01
Speaker 5: As of Thursday, the black box the flight recorder had
23:06
Speaker 5: been recovered from the airplane and they are in the
23:09
Speaker 5: process of recovering the black box, the audio transcript recorder
23:15
Speaker 5: for the Blackhawk helicopter. So both of those will be
23:17
Speaker 5: recovered and they're trying to piece together what happened. What
23:21
Speaker 5: do we know. We know that somebody were multiple somebodies
23:26
Speaker 5: made a catastrophic mistake, a catastrophic mistake that led to
23:31
Speaker 5: a massive loss of life. At this point, and look,
23:34
Speaker 5: there are lots of people who are giving all sorts
23:36
Speaker 5: of theories, who are jumping on all sorts of possibilities.
23:40
Speaker 5: In my view, we shouldn't speculate. We shouldn't we shouldn't
23:44
Speaker 5: get ahead of the evidence.
23:45
Speaker 4: We need to.
23:45
Speaker 5: Understand exactly what caused this accident, Whether it was an
23:50
Speaker 5: error on the part of the army pilot, whether it
23:53
Speaker 5: was conceivably an error on the part of the commercial
23:57
Speaker 5: airliner pilot, whether it was an error on the part
24:00
Speaker 5: of the air traffic controller, or some combination of multiplayers
24:05
Speaker 5: in that regard. We don't know right now. What we
24:08
Speaker 5: do know is two aircraft were in the same place
24:10
Speaker 5: at the same time. Now, as we were having the
24:14
Speaker 5: briefing from the NTSB and the FAA that they told
24:19
Speaker 5: us several things. Number One that had the helicopter stayed
24:26
Speaker 5: on Route four, it would have been well out of
24:30
Speaker 5: the way of the landing path of the airline, and
24:34
Speaker 5: it would have been in a lower altitude than where
24:38
Speaker 5: the helicopter and the jet collided. We don't know what
24:43
Speaker 5: happened exactly. One of the things the NTSB is going
24:46
Speaker 5: to do in this investigation is they're going to listen
24:48
Speaker 5: to the black box recordings of both aircraft and they're
24:51
Speaker 5: going to retrace the path, the exact path of both
24:55
Speaker 5: aircraft to discover was one of them where it was
24:59
Speaker 5: not supposed to be? Were both of them where they
25:01
Speaker 5: were not supposed to be? At this point, we don't
25:03
Speaker 5: have a clear answer to that, and it's easy I
25:06
Speaker 5: would say, don't trust twitter, don't trust every theory. Look,
25:10
Speaker 5: they looked at one theory and actually something I asked
25:12
Speaker 5: the NTSB, I said, when the air traffic controller asked
25:15
Speaker 5: the black Hawk pilots, do you have visual confirmation to
25:18
Speaker 5: the aircraft? And the black Hawk pilots confirmed that, do
25:22
Speaker 5: we have evidence that they were looking at a different airplane?
25:24
Speaker 5: You could certainly this strikes me as a reasonable inference
25:28
Speaker 5: that the the helicopter pilot looks and says, yes, I
25:30
Speaker 5: see the plane and perhaps didn't realize it was a
25:34
Speaker 5: different plane. That was landing, because presumably if they saw
25:37
Speaker 5: the plane that led to the collision, they would not
25:40
Speaker 5: have stayed in the path of the plane, but they
25:43
Speaker 5: would have would have piloted elsewhere. So NTSB and FAA
25:47
Speaker 5: told me right now we don't know, so that's not confirmed.
25:50
Speaker 5: That's that's a theory people are saying online it is
25:55
Speaker 5: a plausible theory, but we don't have confirmation of.
25:58
Speaker 3: That right now.
26:00
Speaker 5: There's also discussion about the equipment. So the Blackhawk helicopter
26:06
Speaker 5: had a transponder, so it was appearing on radar. It
26:10
Speaker 5: did not have technology called ADSB, which is technology that
26:18
Speaker 5: pings the location of an aircraft and it does so
26:22
Speaker 5: using GPS rather than radar, and ADSB is more accurate
26:26
Speaker 5: and more reliable then simply a transponder that is pinging
26:30
Speaker 5: on radar. Now, under the FAA rules, military aircraft and
26:37
Speaker 5: federal law enforcement an aircraft are exempted from the requirement
26:42
Speaker 5: that they have ADSB technology. And I will tell you
26:45
Speaker 5: as we were talking with the FAA, as we were
26:48
Speaker 5: talking with the NTSB, what they told us, at least
26:55
Speaker 5: initially is that had the Blackhawk had a they said,
27:00
Speaker 5: it would have not have altered the ability of air
27:03
Speaker 5: Traffic Control and the American Airlines pilot to see the helicopter.
27:10
Speaker 5: I don't know. I will confess I don't know the
27:13
Speaker 5: technical answers to that to this precisely, which is why
27:17
Speaker 5: the investigation needs to proceed. I expect to get an
27:20
Speaker 5: answer on that, but we don't know the answer to
27:22
Speaker 5: that exactly. I will say, also, Ben, I think a
27:26
Speaker 5: very reasonable question that a number of senators were asking
27:31
Speaker 5: is why exactly are there so many helicopter flight paths
27:37
Speaker 5: immediately in the vicinity of such a busy airport as
27:40
Speaker 5: D C. Reagan Airport? Is that a sound policy decision
27:46
Speaker 5: to have helicopters traveling that close. Now, I don't know
27:50
Speaker 5: if that's the cause of it, By the way, we will.
27:53
Speaker 5: What we do know is the two should not have collided,
27:55
Speaker 5: and so somebody screwed up, and well we'll figure out
27:58
Speaker 5: who and how and why.
28:00
Speaker 2: And look, Washington.
28:01
Speaker 1: I talked to IT pilot today and he said, Washington's
28:04
Speaker 1: just different, and Reagan's just different. There's a lot more
28:07
Speaker 1: helicopters there, there's a lot more airspace there that's different
28:10
Speaker 1: than other parts. It's a lot more intense, there's a
28:13
Speaker 1: lot more rules especially after nine to eleven, and so
28:16
Speaker 1: you got to look at all those things. It goes
28:18
Speaker 1: back to what you're saying, it's just different. Private airplanes,
28:22
Speaker 1: for example, aren't going into Reagan. You go into DoLS
28:24
Speaker 1: for that exact reason, because you're protecting and so there
28:29
Speaker 1: are so many X factors. Is one pilot to today,
28:32
Speaker 1: there's so many questions to ask. This is not as
28:34
Speaker 1: simple yes or no or point a finger, because there's
28:37
Speaker 1: so many X factors when you fly.
28:39
Speaker 5: To DCA Well, and I'll say the briefing that I
28:42
Speaker 5: hosted with NTSB and the FAA, so I was on it.
28:46
Speaker 5: Obviously Maria Cantwell, who is the ranking member, the senior
28:49
Speaker 5: Democrat on the Commerce Committee, she was on it. We
28:52
Speaker 5: also had both of the Kansas Senators, Jerry Moran and
28:55
Speaker 5: Roger Marshall. They both participated, and obviously the flight came
28:58
Speaker 5: from Wichitas, so the can the senators are particularly engaged.
29:03
Speaker 5: And then we had Tammy Duckworth and Jerry Moran and
29:06
Speaker 5: Tammy Duckworth are the chairman and ranking member, respectively of
29:09
Speaker 5: the Aviation Subcommittee of the Commerce Committee, so they're both
29:12
Speaker 5: particularly engaged in aviation issues, which is why I invited
29:15
Speaker 5: both of them to participate. So Tammy Duckworth was in
29:19
Speaker 5: the military. She was a helicopter pilot, and she's in
29:22
Speaker 5: a wheelchair. She was very badly wounded in a combat injury.
29:28
Speaker 5: But she is an experienced helicopter pilot. And I will
29:30
Speaker 5: tell you in the briefing, I commented, I said, Tammy,
29:33
Speaker 5: it's really helpful to have an experienced helicopter pilot as
29:37
Speaker 5: part of this discussion, because she was literally she had
29:40
Speaker 5: the maps out of the flight path and she's looking at, okay,
29:43
Speaker 5: where runway thirty three is and where helicopter Root four is.
29:47
Speaker 5: And Tammy was saying in the course of the discussion, look,
29:49
Speaker 5: if the helicopter stayed on helicopter Root four, it should
29:53
Speaker 5: not have been anywhere close to the landing pattern for
29:57
Speaker 5: runway thirty three. That was an insight. Look, I'm not
30:01
Speaker 5: a helicopter pilot. I don't have the insight to look
30:03
Speaker 5: at those maps and determine that. I thought that was
30:06
Speaker 5: a very interesting insight from her. I'll tell you something else.
30:08
Speaker 5: She said that I didn't know that was interesting. It's
30:11
Speaker 5: been widely reported the Army Black helicopter was on a
30:14
Speaker 5: training mission. What she said is the Army routinely codes
30:19
Speaker 5: virtually every flight as a training mission. And she said
30:23
Speaker 5: the reason they do that is Army pilots are required
30:25
Speaker 5: to have a certain number of hours to keep their certification,
30:30
Speaker 5: and so every flight they do as a training mission
30:32
Speaker 5: to maintain those hours. So what she said is it
30:35
Speaker 5: doesn't necessarily convey what the purpose of that flight was
30:39
Speaker 5: that it is being called a training mission. I have
30:41
Speaker 5: to admit I would not have known that had she
30:44
Speaker 5: not said that, And I think all of us we
30:45
Speaker 5: were like, oh, that's interesting.
30:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, because when you listen, especially if you're just watching
30:50
Speaker 1: the news, and they're like, why would you have this
30:52
Speaker 1: training flight this time and night? Yeah, right there in
30:55
Speaker 1: this airspace. Surely there's somewhere else you could go and TrAAin.
30:59
Speaker 1: That is a lot less ingested than DCA and all
31:01
Speaker 1: the regulations that you have and this bravo space around
31:05
Speaker 1: the Washington d C at the highest level, go somewhere
31:09
Speaker 1: else and be safer. But the way that you just
31:11
Speaker 1: described it from her, well, this actually makes sense. They
31:13
Speaker 1: could be doing real work and they categorize it as
31:17
Speaker 1: a train mission.
31:18
Speaker 5: So look, I think in the days that go forward,
31:21
Speaker 5: we're going to find out what the precise mission was.
31:25
Speaker 5: My understanding is the pilots for the American Airlines flight
31:29
Speaker 5: were quite experienced. They had a very significant number of
31:32
Speaker 5: hours of flight, so they were very experienced. At this point,
31:35
Speaker 5: I don't have a clear picture of what the experience
31:37
Speaker 5: level was for the Army pilots. I'm confident we will
31:41
Speaker 5: find out more about that, and I'm confident we will
31:45
Speaker 5: have discussions on policy questions. One discussion I'm sure we
31:48
Speaker 5: will have is whether the exemptions of the FAA rules
31:52
Speaker 5: for military aircraft and federal law enforcement aircraft from having
31:56
Speaker 5: the ADSB technology, whether that is a good decision or not.
32:01
Speaker 5: My understanding is one of the reasons for that exemption
32:04
Speaker 5: is the military and law enforcement sometimes doesn't want to
32:06
Speaker 5: be tracked. They don't want their location evident, and there
32:10
Speaker 5: may be reasons for both military and law enforcement context
32:14
Speaker 5: why you want the ability not to be tracked in
32:18
Speaker 5: real time. I think that's a discussion we're going to
32:21
Speaker 5: have to have, and as I sit here today, I
32:25
Speaker 5: don't know whether that if the Blackhawk had that technology,
32:29
Speaker 5: whether it would have made a material difference preventing this accident.
32:33
Speaker 5: I think that's a reasonable question to ask. Secondly, I
32:37
Speaker 5: think we're going to get some real questions about, Okay,
32:40
Speaker 5: how many helicopter flights are there in and around Reagan Airport?
32:45
Speaker 5: Do we need all of those flights? Is there an
32:48
Speaker 5: unnecessary and unreasonable risk. I don't know the answer to that.
32:51
Speaker 5: There may be some compelling reason why you need to
32:54
Speaker 5: have that. I certainly think you ought to give the
32:56
Speaker 5: military a chance to explain it. But I think given
32:59
Speaker 5: this horrific collision and the lives that are lost, we're
33:05
Speaker 5: gonna have to have a very serious conversation about what
33:09
Speaker 5: caused this accident and what steps can be taken to
33:13
Speaker 5: prevent this from happening in the future.
33:15
Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about the government aspect of this as well,
33:17
Speaker 1: because there's people that have been asking is there full staffing?
33:22
Speaker 1: Are we understaffed? Are there enough people in the towers?
33:25
Speaker 1: Are there enough qualified people in the towers? Has that
33:28
Speaker 1: even become part of the conversation yet?
33:30
Speaker 5: On the hill it's certainly part of the conversation. I
33:33
Speaker 5: would say at this point, we don't know.
33:35
Speaker 4: So.
33:35
Speaker 5: I've seen reports that the air traffic controller was assigned
33:39
Speaker 5: to multiple responsibilities. It's not clear what the facts are
33:42
Speaker 5: on that, and one of the dangers coming out of
33:45
Speaker 5: a catastrophic accident is there's a fog of war. There's
33:49
Speaker 5: people here, a snip at this and the other, and
33:50
Speaker 5: they repeat it. And I'm a big believer, I will
33:53
Speaker 5: say the NTSB, I've grown to really respect the work
33:57
Speaker 5: they do. They investigate when you have a catastrophic accident,
34:02
Speaker 5: They investigate based on the facts, based on evidence, and
34:05
Speaker 5: they do a good job of not jumping to conclusions,
34:07
Speaker 5: trying to figure out, okay, exactly what happened. So last
34:10
Speaker 5: Airlines when you had the door plug blowoff, and TSB
34:13
Speaker 5: did a very thorough investigation there and presented their conclusions.
34:16
Speaker 5: And so today we heard from them, but it was
34:21
Speaker 5: barely twelve hours into the investigation, so they didn't know
34:25
Speaker 5: a whole lot yet. And I do think and they
34:29
Speaker 5: will reach a conclusion expeditiously. These guys are serious and
34:33
Speaker 5: technical and they try to follow the facts, and that
34:36
Speaker 5: investigation is important. Once we know the facts of what
34:41
Speaker 5: caused the accident, then we can say, all right, what
34:46
Speaker 5: steps can be taken to minimize these risks going forward.
34:51
Speaker 5: But I do think one of the things I'm merging
34:54
Speaker 5: my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats. Is is don't get
34:58
Speaker 5: ahead of ourselves. And by the way, I'll tell you
35:01
Speaker 5: just a personal aspect to this. So last night, Wednesday night,
35:06
Speaker 5: I was having dinner in Washington, d C. I was
35:08
Speaker 5: having dinner with Mike Waltz. Mike Waltz is President Trump's
35:12
Speaker 5: national security advisor. And so most nights when I'm in Washington,
35:16
Speaker 5: d C. I have working dinners. I have dinners with colleagues,
35:20
Speaker 5: with other senators or House members, I have dinners with
35:22
Speaker 5: Cabinet members. Sometimes I have dinners with subject matter experts.
35:26
Speaker 5: So last night I was having dinner with Mike Waltz,
35:28
Speaker 5: the Trump's national security advisor, and we were talking foreign policy.
35:32
Speaker 5: We're talking the Middle East. We were talking Israel and
35:34
Speaker 5: Iran and China and all of the foreign policy challenges
35:38
Speaker 5: facing this country. And I will tell you right at
35:40
Speaker 5: the end of the dinner, we actually were just wrapping
35:43
Speaker 5: up when Mike got a call and said, oh wow, okay,
35:46
Speaker 5: there's been a collision between a jet and helicopter at
35:49
Speaker 5: d C. Reagan Airport. So Mike left to go back
35:51
Speaker 5: to the White House to deal with it. And as
35:55
Speaker 5: I was walking out, I'll tell you been a particularly
35:58
Speaker 5: personal aspect. So last night Heidi was flying into d
36:02
Speaker 5: C and she was flying into Reagan.
36:06
Speaker 3: Wow.
36:06
Speaker 5: And she was due to land about thirty minutes after
36:09
Speaker 5: this accident happened. And so I'll say, my body man,
36:14
Speaker 5: who's a great kid, is with me frequently came up.
36:18
Speaker 5: I'll give him credit what he said to me walking
36:20
Speaker 5: up as he said, Heidi's okay, but there's been an
36:24
Speaker 5: accident at d C Reagan and a commercial jettis hit helicopter.
36:28
Speaker 5: I was very glad he started with Heidie's okay because
36:31
Speaker 5: I got to say.
36:32
Speaker 3: And so what happened.
36:33
Speaker 5: Her flight was diverted from Reagan and it landed in
36:35
Speaker 5: BWI for beer.
36:37
Speaker 2: They don't know.
36:37
Speaker 5: BWO's Baltimore, Baltimore, Washington, and it's about forty five minutes away.
36:42
Speaker 5: There are three airports that serve DC Washington. Reagan is
36:46
Speaker 5: the closest to d C Washington. Dulles's in Northern Virginia
36:50
Speaker 5: a little further out, and then BWI Baltimore, Washington is
36:54
Speaker 5: like I said, forty five minutes to an hour out.
36:56
Speaker 5: So she was diverted and so when she landed, it
36:59
Speaker 5: was interesting. Texted her immediately said hey, are you okay.
37:01
Speaker 5: I got no answer because she was still in the
37:03
Speaker 5: air And then when she landed, I called her immediately,
37:07
Speaker 5: and as she was getting off the plane, she said,
37:10
Speaker 5: what happened. I don't understand. Why do we get sent
37:11
Speaker 5: to BWI? So they didn't tell the passengers why they
37:14
Speaker 5: were diverted, And so I told her what had happened,
37:18
Speaker 5: and she was and I look, I understand, you don't
37:20
Speaker 5: want to tell passengers on an airplane. Hey, there was
37:22
Speaker 5: just a plane crash that freaks people out. But I
37:26
Speaker 5: told her and then she came home. But I got
37:28
Speaker 5: ad met. It freaked me out a little bit that
37:31
Speaker 5: my wife was within twenty thirty minutes of where there
37:35
Speaker 5: was a fatal plane crash at that airport, and you
37:38
Speaker 5: and I both landed at DCA hundreds of hundreds of
37:43
Speaker 5: thousands of times, And.
37:45
Speaker 3: So it's.
37:48
Speaker 5: I got to say.
37:49
Speaker 4: I did.
37:51
Speaker 3: I was.
37:52
Speaker 5: I said a long prayer and was like, God, thank
37:55
Speaker 5: you for sparing Heidi. And when she got to our apartment,
37:59
Speaker 5: I gave her a very long hug. And it's uh.
38:01
Speaker 3: And I am.
38:02
Speaker 5: Grieving for the sixty seven families who are mourning the
38:06
Speaker 5: loss of their loved ones. It's horrific and and and
38:10
Speaker 5: we're certainly grieving them, and we're grateful for all the
38:12
Speaker 5: first responders and everyone who's been really heroic, uh try
38:16
Speaker 5: to deal with this, this this catastrophe since it happened.
38:19
Speaker 1: Well, I also want to just highlight the response was incredible.
38:24
Speaker 1: And I'm sure you've got some of that briefing that
38:27
Speaker 1: came about this. You know, there's always criticism of we
38:30
Speaker 1: could do things better, but the on the ground first responders'
38:34
Speaker 1: response truly seemed unbelievable. How quick they were responding, how
38:40
Speaker 1: fast there was so many people there to help. You
38:43
Speaker 1: were hoping for good news that they were going to
38:45
Speaker 1: be survivors. We now know that the tragic loss of
38:48
Speaker 1: life and were what the reality was. But even in
38:52
Speaker 1: the recovery, it was all hands on deck and it
38:55
Speaker 1: made me proud to be an American. I mean, it
38:57
Speaker 1: was it was truly incredible to watch it in real
38:59
Speaker 1: time on Yeah.
39:01
Speaker 5: I talked early this morning to Robert Isam, who's the
39:04
Speaker 5: CEO of American Airlines. He flew to DC. He was
39:07
Speaker 5: on the ground. Obviously, they were dealing with sixty passengers
39:11
Speaker 5: and four crew members who were killed, and they were
39:13
Speaker 5: dealing with trying to provide help and support to the families,
39:16
Speaker 5: and I talked to him. I also talked to Sean Duffy,
39:20
Speaker 5: is the Secretary of Transportation. You know, Seawan was confirmed
39:23
Speaker 5: the day earlier, like it literally this was his first
39:27
Speaker 5: day on the job. Yeah, and Shawn is a good
39:31
Speaker 5: man and a serious man, and he's been diving in
39:33
Speaker 5: and trying to deal with it. But this is a
39:35
Speaker 5: heck of a welcome to be Secretary of Transportation. We've
39:38
Speaker 5: got a major airplane accident on day one and he's
39:43
Speaker 5: dealing with it and look the resources to investigate to
39:48
Speaker 5: try to determine exactly what happened. The NTSB in particular,
39:52
Speaker 5: they're very good at this, and we're trying to track down.
39:56
Speaker 5: Obviously there was a massive mistake, but we need to
40:01
Speaker 5: figure out who made it and why and and and
40:04
Speaker 5: how could it have been prevented so that we can
40:06
Speaker 5: learn lessons and and try to stop this from happening again.
40:09
Speaker 5: I will say this though, also as just to comfort everyone.
40:13
Speaker 5: As horrific as this is, it is worth remembering that
40:17
Speaker 5: air travel is is hands down the safest mode of transport.
40:21
Speaker 5: It and your odds uh of being killed driving to
40:26
Speaker 5: the airport are still higher than they are being killed
40:30
Speaker 5: flying on a commercial airline, so they're not zero and
40:33
Speaker 5: and and in some ways it is amazing given the
40:37
Speaker 5: flights that occur all over this country in so many places,
40:41
Speaker 5: that that that that it has been a long time
40:44
Speaker 5: since we've had a mass fatality accident in the United States,
40:48
Speaker 5: given how complicated flying is. And in some ways that's remarkable.
40:51
Speaker 5: But nonetheless, this tragedy, we should do everything we can
40:57
Speaker 5: to press for for zero fatal and so we're going
41:01
Speaker 5: to learn lessons from this and try to try to
41:03
Speaker 5: prevent it from happening again.
41:05
Speaker 1: You mentioned something and just you talk about perspective, it
41:08
Speaker 1: was it's amazing just how fast things can change. Because
41:12
Speaker 1: Sean Duffy, who you know well, and his wife Rachel,
41:16
Speaker 1: they have a large family, and he was welcomed just
41:21
Speaker 1: minutes before at his office and his family was there,
41:26
Speaker 1: and he walked up to walk into the office where
41:29
Speaker 1: he's going to serve the American people. And he went
41:31
Speaker 1: into that office and then I'm sure afterwards was immediately
41:34
Speaker 1: rushed out because of what happened. And I sent a
41:38
Speaker 1: note to is what Rachel last night. I just said,
41:40
Speaker 1: you know, I'm so proud and I'm so sorry that
41:42
Speaker 1: the first night that this is what you're having to
41:44
Speaker 1: deal with the best that I know, God has put
41:46
Speaker 1: y'all there for times like this to lead into comfort,
41:49
Speaker 1: and I do think the American people shoul understand they're
41:52
Speaker 1: incredible leaders that we have just gained who are going.
41:55
Speaker 2: To do an amazing job in times like these. Sean
41:58
Speaker 2: is one of those.
41:59
Speaker 5: Yeah, and look, I'm grateful that he was on board
42:02
Speaker 5: and confirmed and was able to be doing his job
42:05
Speaker 5: on the day this accident. Also Pete Hegseth, who was
42:07
Speaker 5: just confirmed as Secretary of Defense. Listen, this is a
42:11
Speaker 5: crisis involving the loss of life for three soldiers as
42:15
Speaker 5: well and the question of who was at fault. There's
42:19
Speaker 5: at least some real question whether the military pilots have
42:25
Speaker 5: committed some serious error. We don't know for sure, but
42:29
Speaker 5: that you look at Pete Hegseith, you're just confirmed as
42:32
Speaker 5: Defense secretary. This is a serious challenge to deal with
42:35
Speaker 5: in his first couple of days as well, and I'm
42:37
Speaker 5: grateful both of them were confirmed on the job because
42:41
Speaker 5: you need strong leadership to deal with with with the
42:43
Speaker 5: crisis of this magnitude I was.
42:45
Speaker 1: Going to ask you my next question quickly was going
42:47
Speaker 1: to be the follow up on the military side. We
42:49
Speaker 1: talked so much about you know, transportation, the airlines and
42:54
Speaker 1: the CEO and et cetera. But let's talk about the
42:56
Speaker 1: military side. There was loss of life there as well.
42:59
Speaker 1: What do we know from that perspective.
43:01
Speaker 5: We know three soldiers were aboard the black Hawk and
43:04
Speaker 5: they were all killed. We don't know the details now
43:07
Speaker 5: of who made the mistake. Obviously somebody did because this
43:13
Speaker 5: should not have happened, But we don't know where the
43:15
Speaker 5: mistake was, and it's where the investigation, like NTSB will
43:20
Speaker 5: retrace the exact path of each airline, each aircraft and
43:26
Speaker 5: figure out, okay, who was not where they were supposed
43:30
Speaker 5: to be, who was in the wrong place? Was there
43:32
Speaker 5: a miscommunication? Look as you review the transcripts, you know
43:37
Speaker 5: FA and NTSB told us, at least initially reviewing the
43:40
Speaker 5: transcript it appeared like when the air traffic controller said, okay,
43:44
Speaker 5: do you have visual confirmation of the airline and the
43:46
Speaker 5: helicopter pilot said yes. What we were told in the
43:49
Speaker 5: briefing is ordinarily the air traffic controller would move on
43:52
Speaker 5: say okay, you guys are taken care of onto the
43:54
Speaker 5: next flight. So that was their initial take. Is that
43:58
Speaker 5: exchange a here to be a fairly typical exchange back
44:03
Speaker 5: and forth of navigating multiple aircraft in close proximity. Nevertheless,
44:11
Speaker 5: we'll find out as we examine, was there just one
44:15
Speaker 5: individual who made an error? Were there multiple individuals? Was
44:20
Speaker 5: what was the cause of this? And that I'm confident.
44:23
Speaker 5: I've told the other members of the Commerce Committee. As
44:26
Speaker 5: NTSB reaches conclusions, i'll have another briefing where we sit
44:30
Speaker 5: down with them and can ask them, ask them hard
44:33
Speaker 5: questions and understand, Okay, what really caused this and how
44:37
Speaker 5: do we prevent it from happening again.
44:39
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44:42
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