President Donald Trump has questioned the actions of both the helicopter crew and air traffic controllers prior to a deadly mid-air collision on Wednesday night outside Reagan Washington National Airport.
The crash involved an American Airlines aircraft carrying 64 passengers and crew and a US Army Black Hawk chopper carrying three people. All those on board are feared dead, though officials said they would not be able to provide confirmation on the status of rescue efforts until Thursday morning.
Mr Trump said he has been briefed on the “terrible accident” in a brief official statement offering prayers for those on board.
But he then took to his Truth Social platform to speculate about what caused the crash.
“The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn,” Mr Trump said in his first remarks on Truth Social.
He said the crash could have been prevented. “Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!,” the US president said.
