>> from the heart of where innovation, money, and power collide in silicon valley and beyond, this is bloomberg "technology." with caroline hyde and ed ludlow. ♪ caroline: this is bloomberg "technology." we are awaiting president trump to make remarks on the fatal plane collision in washington. the collision was between an american regional jet and a military helicopter near ronald reagan airport. authorities confirmed there are no survivors on board making this one of the deadliest air

disasters in decades. outside of the airport, tyler kendall joins us live and indeed know megan airport set to be resuming flights as of now. tyler: we are starting to see people coming in with their roller bags as it is 11:00 eastern. reagan national has officially reopened, saying there were some delays and cancellations but they are trying to resume operations as normal. i spoke to somebody about to board a flight later this morning, and he said he wasn't sure if he was going to make it to the airport today, calling it devastating. us reporter were briefed by officials that this has moved from a search and rescue mission to a search and recovery mission. we are not expecting any survivors from this deadly crash. officials confirmed 27 bodies have been pulled from the potomac river. we know 64 people were on the american airlines commercial flight and that three people

were in the black hawk helicopter when it collided. caroline: the trade group for america putting out a statement, we are heartbroken by last night's tragedy involving commercial aircraft and military helicopter near dcaa. we stand ready to assist. ultimately, who else is involved? the response from american airlines as well. tyler: i caught up with the ceo of american airlines and he told me that he has been in touch with the white house and that american airlines is sending 100 personnel here to the airport to assist the families of the victims be when we know this will be a multi agency investigation and response. we are awaiting a briefing from the ntsb later today and trepidation secretary sean duffy says the faa also be involved. a lot of questions remain about how this crash happened considering secretary duffy said everything seemed normal, characterized the flight paths

as normal, were in touch with air traffic control, still trying to figure out exactly how this tragedy came to be. mike: this is my shepherd in san francisco. this is posing an early test for donald's administration. he doesn't even have a head of the faa in place, so it is a bit of a scramble, is it not? tyler: exactly. michael whitaker gave his resignation on january 20, the day of donald trump's inauguration and they have yet to name an acting replacement. we know that our white house team is trying to secure details on what that looks like considering we know that the faa is involved. we also know that the newly minted defense secretary pete hegseth has been debriefed on this and the pentagon is launching their own investigation, but a fairly early test for this new administration, given that sean duffy was just confirmed this week by the senate, so this is really day one for them as this

becomes a multi agency and local response here on the ground at reagan national airport. caroline: he was sworn in hours before this disaster. can you say how this unfolded with emergency services on the evening of the event? tyler: we know the crash happened around 9:00 last night. if you were in washington, you probably heard the sirens as a massive search and rescue operation got underway. officials briefed last night but they didn't give many details. this morning, they said both aircrafts were on what they called normal flight path for both of them and they were in contact with air traffic control. i was in contact with mark warner, democratic senator from virginia, who raised a concern about a shortage of air traffic controllers. as the story continues to develop, questions remain, including why this collision happened. pete hegseth said this was a

training operation but not to look too much into that, that the pilots of the military aircraft were considered to be experienced. we know d.c. police and fire on the ground as they continue the rescue operation but it has been complicated by a few different factors, including the freezing cold temperatures that the region experienced last week, which had frozen the potomac river, made the search efforts more complicated, as well as strong wind overnight which widened the search area, which officials say how complicated their search and rescue missions, but they expect to conclude in the coming days. caroline: tyler kendall, thank you so much. let's go out to kailey leinz. we are currently seeing live shots of the press briefing room in the white house while we await president trump. the latest from the white house administration side. kailey: we know the president has been fully briefed, will be sharing more details as he can. it will be interesting to see to

what extent he provides insight as to where the investigation has led so far when he speaks in a few moments, keeping in mind, this is unusual for anybody other than the investigative authorities to be providing the updates. we will see how much clarity donald trump or his cabinet secretary or sean duffy or pete hegseth can provide as this is an ongoing recovery operation. first and foremost, humanitarian tragedy with 67 lives expected to be lost in last night's events. we will also see if donald trump is similar in tone to what he posted on truth social last night, talking about how the flight paths seemed irregular, this seemed preventable, something echoed by the transportation secretary sean duffy. whether or not they get into any recommendations of how this could be prevented in the future remains to be seen. that might be a conversation that happens later in washington as today is primarily about trying to bring closure and support to the families of those

affected by the crash. mike: you did raise the question of what happens next in terms of policy, may be ways to prevent a recurrence of this. we know that corridor along that area of the potomac is common with military aircraft. what are we hearing about that today? kailey: this was something raised by the congressional delegation representing the states in the area, maryland and virginia. there was a high profile fight taking place in washington last year around the faa, the addition of airline slots. ultimately 10 round-trip flights were added as a part of that package and there was concern from senators, who we heard from at the briefing this morning, about the way that could add to congestion, potentially, safety concerns. there is no direct link that we are aware of between those additions and the events of last

night, but it speaks to the congestion issues in the d.c. area, noting it is not just commercial space but military as well. the idea that there was an ordinary night training flight taking place for those on the helicopter at the same time that you have a commercial airliner entering the airspace, getting ready to land at dca. it is that kind of thing on the military and commercial aviation side, when it comes to questions around air traffic control, personnel, congestion. tens of millions of travelers a year. all of those things are likely to be looked at as we move beyond the recovery stage into further aftermath. it is still in active recovery scene as we speak. caroline: we continue to await president trump to talk about this tragedy from the press briefing room. we heard from the newly anointed defense secretary pete hegseth. remind us what he said about the events. kailey: he noted there were

three military personnel on board the helicopter. next of kin had not been notified. the military is not right now releasing their ranks or names, but he didn't know they were fairly experienced pilots on board the blackhawk, that this was a routine training mission. he and sean duffy said that we shouldn't take training to suggest that these pilots were still getting experience. these were routine annual operations they had to do, getting flight hours, not at they were learning on the job. this will be looked at further, as sean duffy indicated this morning, the helicopter was aware of the commercial aircraft. less clear if the aircraft was aware of the helicopter. donald trump, in his post last night, suggesting it was amber on the part of the helicopter pilot. we don't have those answers yet. we will see if they shed any more light on that or if we have to wait to hear from the ntsb later today.

all of them we should note, everyone we have heard from today, has first and foremost, expressed condolences to the people on board. mike: is there a risk that the president in his enthusiasm to get out today gets ahead of where the investigation is, drawing his own conclusions about what might have happened? kailey: arguably we saw that last night in the immediate aftermath. he took two truth social and said the airplane was on a routine approach, saying why didn't the helicopter go up or down or turn, why didn't the control tower say something? he said the bad situation looks like it could have been prevented. we don't know what the president has seen that may have led him to those conclusions, if this is where the investigation has gotten to, because we have yet to hear from the ntsb investigators. there is certainly a chance the president gets ahead of where the officials are.

we will have to wait to see what he says in a few minutes, if he has updated his tone or thoughts since last night. we heard something more measured on truth social this morning as he expressed his condolences, saying that he will share more information as it's available. caroline: what about where the american airlines departed from? we have heard from leaders of the state. kailey: there was a briefing for officials in wichita kansas. we understand there was a figure skating training camp happening in wichita and many of the skaters and personnel were on board, among the 64 individuals whose lives are assumed to have been lost in this. it is less obvious about where the aircraft originated from, as it is about what happened when it was trying to land at reagan national airport. i would just point out on your note about the faa, the faa does not have an acting administrator now.

the administrator stepped down on january 20 when trump was inaugurated. we have yet to see somebody else take that place. it will be interesting if there is a push to get somebody confirmed quickly in the senate, which is focused on other confirmation hearings and votes happening this week, but there could be a renewed push to get that role filled quickly at the faa. mike: this is a search effort taking place under very difficult conditions. talk about what the response has been like on the ground there that you have seen. kailey: we heard from officials about this last night and this morning. given the d.c. area has a lot of jurisdictions, state police, federal authorities, a lot of different emergency responders that have come to the scene to assist in what was originally coming to your point, a rescue operation, turned into a recovery operation.

we know they are dealing with incredibly difficult conditions. the potomac was frozen in parts last week due to frigid temperatures. they are still dealing with ice, very windy this morning, so that makes the work of trying to recover as much as they can from the aircraft incredibly difficult. that work is still underway, and i would note, with recognition of the opening moments ago. these are recovery personnel potentially working underneath likes taking off and landing as they try to get everything back to normal as possible. caroline: kailey leinz, thank you. we continue to await the press briefing that president trump will hold in a few minutes from the white house. let's bring in syd philip, joining us from new york, team leader for global aviation. you have managed to obtain the audio, an account of audio exchanges occurring in air traffic control at ronald reagan

airport. could you take us through what you've heard? syd: we listen to the audio which is available on a collection of all of the world. basically the air traffic controllers were trying to establish where the helicopter, whether it had actually seen the crj, the american airlines plane, then asked the pilots of the helicopter to go behind the crj. moments later, we hear , oh my, the transition and then somebody asked, did you see that, referring to the explosion that took place which is captured on video. it doesn't paint the picture of the approach. it seems to be completely normal as they were going into the airport. it was a routine flight from wichita to washington, d.c.. it is a congested airport and normally you have air traffic

control telling aircraft to position themselves as they take off and land, try to coexist in the airspace, but something went wrong for the helicopter to actually go into the american airlines plane and caused this accident to happen. mike: skies over major cities around the world seemed busier than ever with traffic. how are regulators coping with the risk of incidents like this taking place? sid: the previous administration talk a lot about hiring more air traffic controllers, raising them back to levels where they were required to be. post-pandemic, there was a drop in air traffic controllers. the biden administration talked about how there was a need to hire 2000 controllers so that they could be in place this year. that was part of the battle they had in congress. the u.s. government has

acknowledged the fact that there has been a lot of near misses in recent years. one of the factor they have attributed that to is the fact that there is a shortage of air traffic controllers. at the moment, it takes a long time to train up air traffic controllers. you cannot just hire someone and have been controlling aircraft immediately. it is a laborious process and it is very hard. they have to make sure workers are in place and well-trained, ready to do the job they need to do. caroline: i want to return to the audio that you brought to our attention, as you said, available online. it really seems to show that they were aware of how close these two aircraft were and indeed ask them to reposition. sid: exactly, air traffic controllers were aware of the helicopter movement, they were asking the helicopter to move. essentially, it is just a matter of seconds before disaster struck.

the american airlines plane was seconds from landing at reagan international airport. it was just sort of the wrong place, wrong time, and things went horribly wrong. mike: sid, has there been any discussion about systems on the aircraft, on the ground have been adequate to address the traffic and may be due more to alert pilots and controllers about the proximity of aircraft? sid: there are systems on board on planes that tell pilots traffic around them, something called tcas, which alerts pilots to traffic around them. unfortunately, it doesn't work below 1000 feet because of the fact when you are landing, you would have false alarms. this accident may prompt changes in how the systems operate. it may prompt changes in procedures, in terms of how

airspace operation works. it is still early days. we are still gathering the facts, waiting to hear from the regulators, and tsp determines the cause of the accident. we are waiting on the findings. but that could be months. caroline: this is a human story. there are a lot of people who are now going to be going to the reagan airport boarding flights. give us the context of what historical resurgence we have seen potentially in accidents, how low accidents remain within aircraft, and ultimately what we have seen prior to this in washington itself involving that particular body of water. sid: aviation incidents are few and far between. this is the first major crash in the u.s. since 2009. incidents have been very rarely. there has been a spate of incidents in the last couple of

months but that is sort of an anomaly. aviation has never been safer. in terms of statistics, aviation is the safest way of travel. at the same time, there will be concerns with passengers flying into busy airspace such as reagan national airport, where there is a lot of air traffic movement, both civilian, private jets, government planes, as well as military planes. that is part of the process with regulators when they come up with how they should work on any changes they need to make in the systems at the airport. in terms of aviation, per se, it is still one of the safest ways to travel. mike: the industry members, companies including american, have they made any special requests over the years on safety on the government's part,

past administration and the current administration, that we should watch for? sid: there is always a dialog asking for more infrastructure, asking for more in terms of staffing, atc, more flights because airlines are trying to add as much capacity as they can. there is always a bit of a conflict and dialogue between airlines, regulators, government in terms of what the requirements are. especially on the issue of air traffic control, atc. that impact the number of flights they can operate. without the requisite number of atc staff, airlines cannot operate as many flights as they want. that was something that came up in the previous administration. as the new administration takes charge, brings in a new administrator for the faa -- right now there is no administrator at the faa. once regulators are in place, secretary duffy brings in his staff, it will be a part of the dialogue going forward.

caroline: we await president trump to brief us and the world at the white house press briefing room. sid, last week on this the faa lack of leadership, how important is that? sid: it is a significant position. the fact that there is no leadership at the faa is a significant vacuum. remember, the aviation industry has been through a lot in the last year or so. last january, we had a blowout of the boeing 737 max door which led to a lot of scrutiny on bowling, safety, manufacturing, the cap on production at boeing. caroline: we now see the president beginning to address at the white house. pres. trump: a moment of silence for the victims and their families, please.

thank you very much. i speak to you this morning in an hour of anguish for our nation. just before 9:00 p.m. last night, and american airlines regional jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew collided with an army black hawk helicopter caring three military service members over the potomac river in washington, d.c. while on phone overall to reagan national airport. both aircraft crashed instantly and were immediately submerged into the icy waters of the potomac. real tragedy. a massive search and rescue mission was underway throughout the night, leveraging every asset at our disposal.

and i have to say the local, state, federal, military, including the united states coast guard in particular, they have done a phenomenal job. so quick, so fast. it was mobilized immediately. the work has now shifted to a recovery mission. sadly, there are no survivors. this is a dark and excruciating night in our nation's capital, and our nations history, and a tragedy of terrible proportions. as one nation, we agree for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly. we are a country of -- really we are in morning. this has really shaken a lot of people, including people who are sadly from other nations who were on the flight. for the family members back in wichita, kansas, here in washington, throughout the united states, and in russia, we

have a russia contingent, very talented people unfortunately were on that plane. we are very sorry about that. whose loved ones were aboard the passenger jet. we can only begin to imagine the agony that you are all feeling. nothing worse. on behalf of the first lady, myself, three hundred 40 million americans, our hearts are shattered alongside yours and our prayers are with you now and in the days to come we will be working diligently in the days to come. we are here for you to wipe away the tears and offer you our devotion, our love and support, great support. in moments like this, the differences between americans fade to nothing compared to the bonds of affection and loyalty that unite us all both as americans and even as nations. we are one family and today we are all heartbroken. we are all searching for answers

. that i see potomac, it was a cold, cold night. coldwater. we are all over come with the grief for many who have so tragically perished, will no longer be with us. together we take solace in the knowledge that their journey ended not in the cold waters of the potomac but in the warm embrace of a loving god. we do not know what led to this crash but we have some very strong opinions, ideas, and i think we will probably state those opinions now. over the years, i have watched as things like this happen and i say we are always investigating, and in the investigation three years later, they announce it. we think we have some pretty good ideas. but we will find out how this disaster occurred and we will ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. the faa and the ntsb and the u.s. military will be carrying out a systematic and comprehensive investigation. our new secretary of

transportation sean duffy, second day on the job when that happens. it is a rough one. we will be working tirelessly. he is a great gentleman. these are great people. they are working tirelessly to figure out exactly what happened. we will state certain opinions, however. i'm also need to be appointing and acting commissioner to the faa, christopher grisha lou, a 22-year veteran of the agency, highly respected. thank you very much. appreciate it. we must have only the highest standards for those that work in our aviation system. i changed the obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary. you remember that. only the highest aptitude 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 the change early on because i always felt this was a job, and other jobs, too, but this was a job that had to be superior intelligence. we didn't really have that. we had it. then when i left office and biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before. i put safety first. obama, biden, and the democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody has ever seen, because this was the lowest level. policy was horrible, and their politics was even worse. as you know, last week, long before the crash, i signed an executive order restoring our highest standards for air traffic controllers and other

important jobs throughout the country, so it's very interesting. a week ago, almost upon entering office, i signed something last week that was an executive order, very powerful, restoring the highest standards of air traffic controllers and others by the way. my administration will set the highest possible bar for aviation safety. we have to have our smartest people. it doesn't matter what they look like, how they speak. intellect, talent. the word talent. they have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses. you cannot have regular people doing their job. they will be able to do it. we will restore faith in american air travel. i will have more to say about that. i want to point out various articles that appeared prior to my entering office, and here is one. the faa's diversity push

includes hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. that is amazing. then it says the faa says people with severe disabilities are most underrepresented segment of the workforce and they want them in and they can be air traffic controllers. i don't think so. january 14, so that was a week before i entered office. they put a big push to put diversity into the faa's program. then another article. the federal aviation administration, this was before i got to office. recently, second term. the faa is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative, spelled out

on the agency's website. can you imagine? these are people that are actually, their lives are shortened because of the stress they have. brilliant people have to be in those positions. and their lives are actually shortened very substantially shortened because of the stress. you have many planes coming into one target. -- you need a special talent and a genius to be able to do it. the faa's website states they include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, absolute see, -- epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism all qualify for the

position of a controller of airplanes pouring into our country, pouring into a little spot, a little dot on the map, a little runway. the initial and is part of the faa's diversity and inclusion hiring plan. think about that, it says diversity is integral to ensuring the faa -- i don't think so. i think it is the opposite. the faa shows that the agency's guidance on diversity hiring was last updated on march 23 of 2022. they wanted to make it even more so. 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, do you know how badly everything has been run since he has run the department of transportation?

he's a disaster. he was a disaster as a mayor. he ran his city into the ground. and he is a disaster now. he has a good line of bull --. the department of transportation , while he runs it, 45,000 people, he has run it into the ground with his diversity. i have to say that it's terrible. within the faa, another story, that the workforce was too white. that they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change that and to change it immediately. 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 them at levels nobody has ever seen before.

that's why we won. we want the people that are competent. we mourn and pray and would like to ask all americans to join me in a moment of silence as we ask god to watch over those who have lost their lives and bring comfort to the loved ones. i want to say god bless everyone. this has been a terrible short period of time. we will get to the bottom of it. we have seen it many times. i have had the honor of hearing tapes. tapes are scary. you had an airline coming in, american airlines. he was doing everything right. he was on track, the same track as everybody else. probably the same track they have had for 25 years or more. he's coming into path. and for some reason, you had a

helicopter that was at the same height when they hit, and going at an angle that was unbelievably bad when the air traffic controller said do you see, was talking about do you see him? there was little time left when that was stated. also, he said follow him in. and then almost immediately after that, seconds after that, there was the crash that took place. you had a pilot problem from the standpoint of the helicopter because it was visual. it was very clear at night. it was cold and clear, clear as it could be. the american airlines plane have

lights blazing. they have their landing lights on. i could see it from the kennedy center tape, we had a tape on the kennedy center. that seems to be the primary. it is such an area where there are a lot of cameras looking into the air and space. we will probably see many shots of it before too much time goes by. we had a situation where you had a helicopter that had the ability to stop, i have helicopters. you can stop a helicopter very quickly. it had the ability to go up or down or the ability to turn. and the turn it made was not the correct turn, obviously. and it did somewhat the opposite of what it was told. we don't know that would have been the difference. the timing was so tight. it was so little -- there was so little time. what you had was you had vision.

the helicopter had vision of the plane. because you had vision of it all the way, perfect vision of all the way from the kennedy center where the tape was taken. and for some reason, there were not adjustments made. you could have slowed down the helicopters, substantially. you could have gone up or down or straight up or straight down, you could have turned. you could have done a million different maneuvers. for some reason, it just kept going. and then made a slight turn at the very end and by that time, it was too late. they should not have been at the same height. because if it wasn't the same height, you could have gone under or over it. and nobody realized or they didn't say that it's at the same height. at the same height, it still would not have been great but you would have missed it by quite a bit. could have been 1000 feet higher or 200 feet lower.

but it was exactly at the same height and somebody should have been able to point that out. all of this is going to be studied. it just seems to me that from a couple of words i would like to use, the words common sense, some really bad things happened. and some things happened that should not have happened. you have a helicopter going in an identical direction. you had a helicopter that was at the exact same height as somebody going in essentially the opposite direction. you had a plane that was following a track which is a track that every other plane followed. i don't imagine, i know i've heard today that they might have been following the preceding plane which was pretty close but not that close. you would not have been able to see that because of the direction the helicopter was coming in at. we had a confluence of bad decisions that were made.

and you have people who lost their lives, violently lost their lives. we are going to take a few questions. i would like to ask our new secretary of transportation to say a few words, sean duffy. a great gentleman. he just started. it's not your fault and i know you agree with me strongly on intellect and even psychological well-being of the air traffic control. such an important position. and i think i can't emphasize stronger, i changed it when i first ran in 2016. i changed it. we had the highest standard you could have. and then they changed it back. that was biden, to a standard that i read it to you, that was from one of your papers. i changed it back a few days ago. unfortunately, that was -- we

will see. we don't know that it's the controller's fault. we know there was a lot of vision and people should have been able to see at what point do you stop, at what point do you say that plane is getting a little close? this is a tragedy that should not have happened. >> thank you, mr. president. the president's leadership has been remarkable during this crisis. we have had a whole of government response, local, state, federal and, when you see that kind of cooperation, it against with leadership in this body. thank you for that, mr. president. you make our jobs a lot easier. you made an important point that when we deal with safety, we can only accept the best and the brightest in positions of safety that impact the lives of our loved ones. our family members. i think you make a really

important point. that is the motto of your presidency, the best and the brightest. the most intelligent coming into the spaces. i want to take a moment and extend my condolences to the families of the loved ones. we commit to them that we are going to get to the bottom of this investigation, not in three years or in four years but as quickly as possible with the ntsb who is here today as well as the faa. what happened yesterday should not of happened. it should not have happened. and when americans take off in airplanes, they should expect to land at their destination. that didn't happen yesterday. that's not acceptable. and so, we will not accept excuses. we will not accept passing the buck. we will take responsibility at the department of transportation and the faa to make sure we have the reforms dictated by president trump in place to make sure these mistakes do not

happen again. i want to thank you for your leadership mr. president. i appreciate the confidence you placed in me. >> thank you, mr. president. i want to echo what the transportation secretary said about your leadership from the moment we found out about this, we were in contact with the white house trying to find out what happened. no excuses, we will get to the bottom of this. first and foremost from the defense department, we want to pass condolences to the 64 souls and their families that were affected by this. it never should happen. and certainly the three service members, the young captain and the chief officer. on a routine annual retraining of night flights on a standard quarter for a continuity of government mission, the military

does dangerous things and routine things on the regular basis. tragically last night, a mistake was made. i think the president is right. there was some sort of elevation issue that we have immediately begun investigating at the dod and army level. the army cid was on the ground investigating. top-tier aviation assets are investigating to it to the bottom of it so it does not happen again because it is unacceptable. i want to echo what the president said because it pertains to the dod as well. we will have the best and the brightest at every position possible. it is colorblind and merit-based. the best leaders possible, whether it is flying blackhawks or airplanes, leading platoons are in government. the era of dei is gone at the defense department. and we need the best and brightest, whether it is in our air traffic control or in our

generals or throughout government. thank you for your leadership and courage on that and we will stand by you. >> thank you, mr. president for your leadership. i want to reemphasize something the president said. there was a whole of government response. we were all on the phone and communicating yesterday, trying to get to the bottom of this immediately. but also trying to commit to kate with the american people about what happened. something the president said that i think bears reemphasizing which is that when you don't have the best standards in who you are hiring, it means on the one hand, you're not getting the best people in government but on the other hand, it puts stresses on the people who are already there. i think that is a core part of what president trump is going to bring and has already brought to washington, d.c. we want to hire the best people because we want the best people in air traffic control and we want to make sure we have enough people at air traffic control

who are competent to do the job. if you go back to some of the headlines over the past 10 years, you have many hundreds of people suing the government because they would like to be air traffic controllers but they were turned away because of the color of their skin. that policy ends under donald trump's leadership because safety is the first priority of our aviation industry. thank you, mr. president. >> on d.e.i. and the claims you've made, are you saying this crash was somehow caused and the result of diversity hiring and what evidence have you seen to support those claims? >> we have a high standard. we have had a much higher standard than anybody else. there are things where you have to go by brainpower and psychological quality. psychological quality is a very important element of it. these are very powerful tests that we put to use and they were terminated by biden. biden went by his standard which is the exact opposite. so we don't know. but we do know you had two

planes at the same level, a helicopter and a plane. that should not of happen. we will see, we will look into that and see. certainly, for air traffic controllers, we want the brightest, the smartest and sharpest. we want some buddy who is psychologically superior and that's what we are going to have. please, go ahead. >> there were several russian nationals on the flight. will the u.s. government be willing to facilitate the transfer of their remains considering the fact that there is no direct air travel between the two countries? >> we have been in contact with russia and the answer is yes, we will. go ahead. >> the situation in the democratic republic of the congo is getting worse. the president has been mediating the conflict between rwanda

because he wants to bring peace and stability read the situation is really bad right now. i want to hear from this president if you have any plan in the future to bring peace -- >> it is a serious problem and i agree but i don't think it's appropriate to talk about it but it is a serious problem. >> you are blaming democrats and d.e.i. policies and air traffic control and seemingly a member of the u.s. military who was flying the helicopter, don't you think you're getting ahead of the investigation? >> i don't think so, at all. with the names of the people that are on the plane, do you think it's going to make a difference? they are a group of people who have lost their lives. if you want a list of the names, we can give you that. we will be giving that very soon, in coordination with american airlines. we are in coordination strongly with the military. i think that's not a very smart question. i'm surprised, coming from you. >> thank you, president trump.

based on your analysis so far, do you have a sense of who was at fault, if it was the plane, the helicopter, air traffic control and can you assure people that it is safe to fly in and out of d.c.? >> i've given you the analysis. the analysis was it was based on vision. you had a lot of people who saw what was happening. you had some people who knew what was happening. there were some warnings but the warnings were given very late. the warnings were given very late. it's almost as they were given, a few seconds later, there was a crash. a gentleman brought up earlier. but the people in the helicopter should have seen where they were going. i can't imagine people with 2020 vision not seeing what's happening up there. they should not have been at the same height.

they were going in reverse directions or sideway directions, you want to be at different heights. i see it all the time. you have planes going in the opposite. they are always lower or higher. if there is a screwup, there's not going to be a tragedy. it will be close but there will never be a tragedy if you are at different elevation. for whatever reason, they were at the same elevation. and also, from the american airline center, you say what was a helicopter doing? very sad. visually, some buddy should have been able to see and have taken that helicopter out a plan they should have been at a different height. >> you mentioned the russians on board that plane. what other nationalities were on board? >> there were a couple others on board, we will announce that in an hour. we have specific information.

we have called the countries and spoken to most of them but there were other countries that were represented. >> this crash happened after that. was the executive order successful? what more can you change? >> we were in the process of making those changes. this is something that should have been done a long time ago. my original order should have never been changed and i think maybe we wouldn't have had this problem. >> we see everyday life. what plans do you have? are you going to fire some of the diversity hires? what plan do you have? >> i would say the answer is

yes. if we find people are not mentally competent. you see the language. the language was put out by them. i'm not going to bore you by reading it again. these are not people that should be doing this particular job. it would be very good for certain jobs but not people that should be doing this particular job. >> mr. president, you have blamed the diversity element but told us you were not sure the controllers made any mistake and then said perhaps the helicopter pilots were the ones who made the mistake. that's why i'm trying to figure out how you come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash. >> because i have common sense. unfortunately a lot of people don't. we want brilliant people doing this. this is a major chess game at the highest level. when you have 60 planes coming in during a short period of time

and they are coming in different directions, and you are dealing with high-level computer work and very complex computers, one of the other things i will tell you is that the systems that were built, i was going to rebuild the entire system. we had an election that did not turn out the way it should have. they didn't build the systems properly. we spent -- they spent money renovating the system, spending more money than they would have spent if they bought a new system for air traffic controllers. there are certain companies that do a very good job, they didn't use those companies. for used companies that should not of been doing it. i think it's very important to understand that for some jobs, and not only this but air traffic controllers, they have to be at the highest level of genius. >> i want to ask you about the ice skaters because the u.s. ice-skating community was

affected. the implication that this policy is new or it stems from efforts that began under president biden or the transportation secretary, pete buttigieg is demonstrably false. >> who says that, you? >> it's on the faa's website. it was there in 2013. it was there for the entirety of your administration too. why didn't you change it during your first administration? >> i changed the obama policy. we had a good policy and biden came in and changed it. when i came in two days, three days ago, i signed a new order bringing it to the highest level of intelligence. please. >> you mentioned vision was probably the problem that was an issue in this crash. there have been some reports that one of the colleagues in the helicopter may have been using night vision equipment. >> we will know that pretty soon. it may change your view plan if

you have the night vision. it is possible that could have happened. that would be may be a reason why you wouldn't actually see as well as on a clear night, you can see sometimes better without it. >> is it helpful to have your secretary of transportation confirmed and does this intensify your interest in getting other nominees? is it helpful to have your secretary of transportation confirm and does this intensify your interest in getting other nominees confirmed? pres. trump: we want fast confirmations. the democrats are doing everything they can to delay them. they have taken too long. we are struggling to get very good people that everybody knows will be confirmed, we are struck get them out faster. we want them out faster. it's a good question, actually. we have been pushing sean. everyone knows sean for a long time. he got many democrat votes. they want to take as long as

they can. they ask questions like some of the questions that peter would ask that were totally irrelevant and not very good questions. they want to keep it going and keep it going as long as possible. i was very honored actually. >> what are your plans to meet with the families? is there anything you can tell us about the training? >> these are the things that will come up with the investigation. you don't know. the helicopter was in the wrong place at the wrong time. and a tragedy occurred. >> you've been critical of the current regulations and have called for reforms that the faa. i am curious -- >> i made the reforms.

three days ago. >> what's your message to the american public in the weeks and months ahead? should they be hesitant to fly? if you could clarify something the defense secretary said that this helicopter went on a continuity of government mission. >> i don't know what that refers to. they were practicing. that is something that should be done. it is only continuity in the sense that we have to have very good people and there has to be continuity. it was basically practice and it was a practice that worked out very, very badly. >> the first question, should people be hesitant to fly right now? >> no, not at all. i would not hesitate to fly.

this is something that has been many years since something like this has happened. the collision is something that we don't expect ever to happen again. we are going to have the highest level people we have already hired. some of the people you already hired for that position come along before we knew about this. from the time i came in, we started going out and getting the best people because i said it's not appropriate what they are doing. i think it's a tremendous mistake. if they like to do things and they like to take them too far, this is sometimes what ends up happening. i'm not blaming the controller. i am saying there are things that you could question like the height of the helicopter or the height of the plane being at the same level and going in opposite directions. flying is very safe. we have the safest flying anywhere in the world and we will keep it that way. thank you very much, everybody.

>> you've been listening to the president. he was speaking after the deadly d.c. air crash. preston trump in the white house briefing room, making comments on the collision in midair -- president trump in the white house briefing room, making comments on the collision in midair air freight we want to get context on the commons he was making and things we have learned from the president. i want to go to kailey leinz. there is a lot we know -- don't know about this crash. they are doing work on the ground. what did president trump say? >> i think it is important to point out what he led with after his initial remarks around the tragedy of this, that the country is in -- country is in mourning.

it is opinions and ideas that donald trump was largely presenting in the briefing room today. he suggested he thinks a pilot problem from the standpoint of the helicopter could have been to blame. he said the people in the helicopter should have seen where they were going but he called into question the air traffic controllers and said they don't know if it was the controllers fall and that warnings were given very late but he said i'm not blaming the controller. we heard from the president that some of this may have been to do with biden administration era policies are on the faa, pointing specifically to the faa hiring practices around people with intellectual disabilities. as was pointed out in the press conference by a reporter, that language has been on the faa website going back to 2013 and was present during the first trump administration. he talked about an executive order that will change how things are done when it comes to dei. when he was pushed as to how he saw a link between diversity hiring and the crash that

happened last night, he said it just could have been. he said he doesn't think he is getting ahead of the investigation. i would note that what we have heard from the president, we heard echoes of the sentiment from sean duffy and pete hegseth of the defense department. we have yet to hear from the actual ntsb investigators who are the ones officially charged with figuring out what happened that led to the tragic events of last night. as we heard from the president, the perception that there were no survivors of the 67 people on board those two aircraft. >> thank you for putting into context, the president's remarks, especially when it comes to diversity hiring at the faa. in terms of personnel, what the staffing at the faa look like? you mention sean duffy and the new defense secretary as well, pete hegseth. we have those gentlemen in place. what about for the ntsb and the faa?

>> there are officials in place at the ntsb many holding over from the last administration. the active faa administrator resigned on january 20 when donald trump was sworn in. there is not someone who has been named in his place to this point. we heard that president trump was enacting a position for christopher rush low. that will put someone in that role for now. there will be a push i'm assuming. we heard the president alluded to it under question from a reporter about the actual confirmation process to make sure that ultimately an administrator is confirmed in an expert is just a matter by the u.s. senate which, this week, is preoccupied by other confirmation hearings and votes. there will be an effort to fill that road is the -- role as that is a crucial vacancy at a time a tragedy such as this has happened. sean duffy was sworn into office yesterday. it's his first full day on the job. he is be confirmed sworn in transportation secretary to