On January 29th, 2025, the United States experienced its first hull damage of a passenger aircraft since the Colgan crash in 2009. Tragically, 67 passengers and crew members appear to have died in a mid-air crash between a CRJ-700 regional jet operated by PSA (contracted by American Airlines) and a military UH-60 Blackhawk.

The CRJ was making a circling landing approach at Ronald Reagan National Airport, which is located directly across the river from the United States Capitol. They were flying down the Potomac, and the final approach was a low-altitude turn to a short final (about 500 feet over the ground). It’s not unusual, and based on the tracks that I’ve seen, it appears that the CRJ was right where it should have landed. However, we won’t be able to confirm this until the NTSB releases its preliminary report.

The Blackhawk was on a routine training flight. Military, government, and law enforcement helicopters fly low along a corridor that follows the Potomac River. We can only speculate on what happened until the NTSB weighs in, but let me try to answer some basic questions.

Many people have commented on how bright the landing light was on the CRJ and wondered how the Blackhawk could have hit it. It is important to note that the crash video which went viral was not from the helicopter’s perspective. The helicopter was approaching on the side. Position lights, strobes, and beacons are easily lost amongst city lights.

Second, because helicopters are designed to climb with a low nose, it is likely that the Blackhawk did not have an immediate line of vision to the CRJ. Why did the crew of the military tell air traffic control that they could see the aircraft? They may have misidentified the regional jet departing and further undermined their situational awareness. To provide more context, Blackhawk’s crew was flying according to visual flight rules. This means that it was their duty to avoid traffic and see any other aircraft.

To summarize, it appears (though nothing is certain) that the Blackhawk called the wrong traffic in sight and then mistakenly climbed into the regional jet without ever seeing it. That would make this a very tragic case of pilot error.

Unfortunately, Democrats and members of the press have chosen to ignore this fact pattern in favor of playing politics. Social media was flooded with posts blaming the Trump administration for this crash.

Democrats have forced me to get political on this subject. For starters, this crash had nothing to do whatsoever with the Trump administration or its policies.

Do you have a shortage of ATC? We’ll discuss this. Was it caused by anything the Trump administration did eight days ago or any other action? On no planet is that true. You can’t become an air traffic control in just eight days.

We can go this route if Democrats wish to. What is the cause of the current ATC shortages? The Biden administration rejected more than 3,000 applicants who did not meet DEI standards. It took its lead from the diversity programs established by the Obama Administration. How do we know? It led to a class action lawsuit which is still going on.

In other words, Democrat presidents put DEI above safety, purging thousands of people who could have solved the shortage because their skin color didn’t match up with the left’s political wants. That’s what the Trump administration is trying to fix by eliminating diversity quotas at the FAA. So again, if Democrats would like to go down this road of trying to place blame, Republicans should be happy to do so. It won’t work out well for the former.

ATC does not seem to be the primary culprit in this case. An investigation will determine if there were any questions regarding the amount of separation that was permitted. These attempts to blame an administration that has been in power for only eight days are laughable, they are also ghoulish, and disgusting.