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| Deadly plane crash. |
Count this as the first 2025 Blame Game.
Also the first defection of blame from the 45/47th President.
President Donald J. Trump is in charge and everything that happens from 12:00pm Jan. 20, 2025 until 11:59am Jan. 20, 2029. It all falls on him.
Can't blame former president Joe Biden.
Y'all voted for this!
The second major crisis in the U.S. and the fucking president and Vice President JD Vance pivot to other entities to deflect from accountability. The Republicans so far at risk of losing the U.S. House and two senate seats. They will not have a permanent Congressional majority but neither will the Democrats.
Republicans need to stop gaslighting.
If any tragedy happened in America, say a deadly wildfire, the far right automatically blamed Biden and Democrats. Or even a deadly school shooting. The suspect was Black, so automatically the far right assumes the suspect is a Democrat or the new word "DEI."
Trump called the crash “a moment of anguish” for the country and said there is now a “systematic and comprehensive investigation” underway, led by the National Transportation Safety Board, and announced he was appointing Christopher Rocheleau as the acting FAA administrator.
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| No survivors. |
He then pivoted to baselessly alleging that standards for air traffic control recruitment and hiring had become lax during the presidencies of his two Democratic predecessors, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
“We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system. I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary, you remember that only the highest aptitude they have to be the highest intellect and psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers,” he claimed. “That was not so prior to getting there ... and 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's ever seen because this was the lowest level. Their policy was horrible, and their politics was even worse,” he added.
The deadly collision between a military Blackhawk and a American Airlines flight is going to be 2025's most shocking in Trump’s term. And once again, he makes statements that impact the world. Even if they're false statements, his impacts will affect everyone.
Trump also falsely claimed to have once again raised standards for air traffic controllers by signing a memorandum upon taking office which shuttered a longstanding effort at the Federal Aviation Administration to recruit people with disabilities to serve in roles having nothing to do with air traffic control.
Positions in the air traffic control system require years of training, special licenses, and annual physical examinations and medical certifications to ensure that controllers meet high-performance standards.
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| President Donald J. Trump and Vice President JD Vance blame former president Joe Biden and DEI. They are shameless. |
Continuing, the president slammed the FAA’s disability recruitment program for having sought out “people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities” and falsely claimed that the prior administration wanted people with such disabilities to serve as air controllers.
“Brilliant people have to be in those positions, and their lives are actually shortened, very substantially shortened because of the stress where you have many, many planes coming into one target and you need a very special talent and a very special genius to be able to do it,” Trump said.
Vance, who joined Trump at the briefing, also took time to blame diversity initiatives for the crash and suggested that the FAA had been lowering standards because the government has been attempting to hire non-white people for ATC positions.
"If you go to some of the headlines over the past ten years many hundreds of people suing the government because they would like to be air traffic controllers but turned away because of the color of their skin. That policy ends under Donald Trump’s leadership. Safety is the first priority of our aviation industry,” he said.
At the same time as he attacked the prior administration and diversification efforts for the crash, Trump also said he wasn’t sure that the air traffic control system workers involved did anything wrong with respect to the tragedy. He also suggested it was the Army helicopter pilots who’d erred in a social media post made shortly after the crash.
American Eagle Flight 5342, a scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by a Bombardier CRJ700 series airliner collided mid-air with a United States Army Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter while on final approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport near Washington, D.C.. Both aircraft crashed into the Potomac River, killing all 67 people on board the two aircraft.
Flight 5342 was operated by PSA Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Airlines Group, and was en route from Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita, Kansas. The helicopter was on a training flight out of Davison Army Airfield in Fairfax County, Virginia.
Within three hours of the collision, authorities confirmed fatalities. As of 2:50 the following morning, no survivors had been reported, and search and rescue operations were described as "becoming more grim." Kansas senator Roger Marshall said that all 67 people were presumed dead.
Among the passengers were several U.S. Figure Skating athletes, personnel, and family members returning from a national development camp held in conjunction with the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas. Coaches traveling as passengers were Russian nationals Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, the pair skating gold medalists at the 1994 World Figure Skating Championships, along with Russian three-time figure skating champion and coach Inna Volyanskaya. As many as 15 passengers may have been affiliated with figure skating. It was the second fatal aviation accident involving members of the U.S. Figure Skating team, the first being the 1961 crash of Sabena Flight 548 in Belgium.
Four passengers were members of the D.C.-based UA Steamfitters Local 602 union.
Three students and six parents from multiple schools of the Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia were onboard the flight.
Among the soldiers aboard the UH-60L Black Hawk, the two military members identified so far are the Black Hawk's pilot, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Eaves from Noxubee County, Mississippi, and the Black Hawk's crew chief, Ryan O'Hara, a 29-year-old US Marine veteran from Gwinnett County, Georgia.
U.S. Figure Skating confirmed that “several members of the skating community” and their family members were returning from a development camp held after the national U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas.
“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” the organization said. “We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available.”
Members of the Skating Club of Boston and their families were among the victims, Doug Zeghibe, CEO of the club, told NewsNation.
Skater Spencer Lane, 16, and his mother, Christine Lane, as well as Jinna Han, 16, and her mother, Jin Han, were among those who died.
“I’m not sure there’s words in the dictionary right now” for how the son of two Olympic figure skaters killed in the Reagan National Airport crash must feel, Doug Zeghibe, CEO of the club, told NewsNation.
Figure skater Brielle Beyer, 12, and her mother, Justyna Magdalena Beyer, were also on board the flight, reported NBC News.
Donna and Peter Livingston, along with their two daughters, Everly, 11, and Alydia, 14, were coming back to Virginia after attending a skating competition in Kansas.
12-year-old Olivia Ter was also on the flight after attending the U.S. Figure Skating National Development Camp in Wichita, according to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Department of Parks and Recreation.
Inna Volyanskaya, an ice skating coach in Ashburn, Virginia, also died in the crash, according to a post from Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA).
Skating coach Alexandr “Sasha” Kirsanov was also a passenger on the flight, his wife, Natalia Gudin, told ABC News.
Jonathan Campos, 34, was one of the pilots flying the passenger jet, reported The New York Times.
Campos wanted to be a pilot from the time he was 3 years old, Beverly Lane, Campos’ aunt, told the outlet.
“I think he wanted to be free, and be able to fly and soar like a bird,” she said.
His father told NewsNation’s “CUOMO” that his son will be remembered as a kind, happy man.
“His career was going great. He was engaged to a great girl. He was just at the prime of his life,” Tim Lilley said. “I was so proud of him,” he said, adding that his son was able to obtain certification in just a few years because he “pursued it with a vigor.”
Flight attendant Ian Epstein, from Charlotte, North Carolina, was also killed, his family has confirmed.
Danasia Brown was the other flight attendant on the plane, her cousin-by-marriage, Carolyn Edwards, confirmed to NBC News.
The Kremlin confirmed Thursday that Russian-born ice skating coaches and former world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were aboard the American Airlines jet.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the figure skaters had won the pairs title at the 1994 world championships and competed at the Winter Olympics twice.
Attorney Kiah Duggins who had worked with the Civil Rights Corps was a passenger on the American Airlines flight.
Duggins grew up in Wichita and and represented the Miss Kansas Organization as Miss Butler County in 2015, reported KWCH.
She was described as “a brave and beautiful soul, a light in the fight for civil rights” by former Sedgwick County Commissioner Lacey Cruse.
“Her loss is heartbreaking, not only for her family and friends but for everyone who believes in justice and equality,” Cruse wrote in a Facebook post. “May her work, her message, and her spirit continue to inspire and create change. Gone too soon but never forgotten.”
Asra Hussain Raza, 26, was returning home to Washington D.C. after a work trip for her consulting position, her husband Hamaad Raza told WFIU.
“She gave a lot, but she had so much more to give. But if there was ever someone who took advantage of their 26 years of life, it was her.”
Raza told the outlet he was waiting for his wife at the airport and said her last text to him read, “We’re landing in 20.”
Cedarville University in Ohio confirmed Thursday that one of the victims of the crash was student Grace Maxwell.
Maxwell was a junior majoring in mechanical engineering with a minor in biomedical engineering and was anticipating her graduation in 2026, the college said in a statement.
“Grace was a quiet person with a keen interest in helping others through engineering,” Tim Norman, who served as her secondary adviser, said. She had been scheduled to serve on a “project team this semester that would begin to create a hand-stabilizing device for a differently enabled Dayton boy so he could feed himself rather than relying on others,” according to the school.
The university said that counselors are available for students needing services.
Bob Schrock and his wife, Lori Schrock, were also aboard the American Airlines flight.
The Schrocks were farmers in southwest Kansas along the Oklahoma border, reported The Kansas City Star.
Mikey Stovall was on the American Airlines flight coming home after an annual trip to Wichita to hunt duck and pheasant with friends, his mother Christina Stovall told WINK.
She described her son as an “amazing father, friend and son,” the outlet reported.
“Mikey did not have one enemy. If you see pictures of him, which I’m sure I’m going to post on there, he was the life of the party. He loved everybody. He didn’t see color, he didn’t see anything. He’s the happiest person. He saw good in everybody, almost to a fault,” Stovall said.
Melissa Jane Nicandri, 28, of Brooklyn, was among the victims who died, according to her family.
The Washington, D.C., branch of the Steamfitters union said four members were on board the American Airlines flight that crashed.
“The entire United Association is grateful to the first responders who worked tirelessly through the night, and who will continue to investigate what happened,” the post on X reads. “Our focus now is on providing support and care to the families of our Brothers as we continue to gather more information in the coming days. We will share more details as they become available, including a nationwide UA relief effort for the families. These members will be forever in our hearts, and may God bless them and their loved ones. May they forever rest in peace.”
Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia announced that multiple victims were former students in the school system.
“Our hearts are heavy as we process the devastating news of last night’s tragic plane crash over the Potomac River involving an American Airlines flight and an Army helicopter. This unimaginable loss has deeply affected our community, and with great sorrow, we have learned that multiple victims were former LCPS students,” the district said in a statement.
Mental health professionals would be available to help students and families with their grief, the district announced.
American Eagle Flight 5342 was en route from Wichita, Kansas, with 60 passengers and four crew members aboard when it collided Wednesday with a UH-60 Black Hawk carrying three soldiers. Both aircraft went into the icy Potomac River, prompting a large search-and-rescue operation.
American Airlines has set up centers in D.C. and Wichita for people seeking information about relatives.
People who believe they have family members on the flights and are looking for further information are asked to call 800-697-8215.
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