The beginning of the New Year has brought a fear of air travel along with it. Within the first two months, we have had four deadly plane crashes in the United States of America alone. Along with these crashes, we have been met with unreasonable claims of DEI being the cause of the crashes and a notion to cut FAA funding by President Donald Trump.
Of the four recent plane crashes, the two most commonly talked about are the medical jet carrying people back to Mexico that crashed in Philadelphia and the collision of the American Airlines flight with the Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington D.C. These crashes have caused a bit of unease and paranoia among citizens of America and anyone who had plans of visiting.
As a response to the crash in the Potomac River, President Donald Trump blamed the unfortunate crash on DEI. He stated, “For some jobs — and not only this but air traffic controllers — they have to be at the highest level of genius.” He implies that DEI hires don’t have the skills required to be pilots. This claim was made without any evidence of the pilot’s ethnicity.
When asked why he believed diversity to be the reason behind the crash, he responds saying., “I have common sense, OK, and unfortunately a lot of people don’t. We want brilliant people to do this. For some jobs — and not only this but air traffic controllers — they have to be at the highest level of genius,”.
Due to these unfortunate crashes, Trump has decided to try and freeze funding to the FAA. This line of action has been viewed as a rash decision and is currently being blocked by U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan. Mr. Elliott, a teacher at BASE, gives his opinion on the matter. “I think that was sheer arrogance. We can’t just jump to conclusions like that,” states Mr.Elliot.
Ms. Barclay, the dean at BASE, states, “Many military aircraft were in the area, a lot of investigation should be done into how things are monitored.” President Trump’s claims have been baseless and his plans for the FAA funding seem irrational.
