President Trump said Thursday that he wanted to overhaul America’s air traffic control system following last week’s deadly collision between a passenger jet and a military helicopter in the skies over Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
“The tragedy last week should remind us all that we have to make the most out of every single day we have,” Trump, 78, told attendees of the National Prayer Breakfast at the US Capitol, saying that he wants to huddle with lawmakers on the possibility of creating a “brand new” system rather than renovating an “old broken” one.
“We should have had better equipment,” the president added. “They were understaffed for whatever reason. I guess the helicopter was high and we’ll find out exactly what happened.”
A total of 67 people were killed when an American Airlines regional jet and a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter collided over the Potomac River Jan. 29, the deadliest US commercial air disaster since November 2001.
Members of Congress frequently rely use Reagan National Airport to commute to and from their districts, as it is the closest major hub to the US Capitol.
“We’re going to do a great computerized system for our control towers,” Trump teased. “Brand new, not pieced together, obsolete.”
“We spent billions and billions of dollars trying to renovate an old broken system instead of just saying ‘Let’s cut it loose and let’s spend less money and build a great system.’”
Later Thursday, officials from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Safety Transportation Board (NTSB) plan to brief lawmakers on the collision, which is still under investigation.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy revealed Wednesday that the Trump administration has been in contact with tech baron Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency about upgrading US air traffic controller technology.
“Big News – Talked to the DOGE team. They are going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system,” Duffy wrote on X.
Duffy has tried to reassure the public that the US has the “safest airspace in the world.” He’s also noted that if airports have an issue with control tower staffing, “they’re going to shut down the airspace instead of letting people fly in an environment that isn’t safe.”
There was only one air traffic controller overseeing helicopters and planes around Reagan Airport at the time of the crash. Typically, there is at least one overseeing helicopters and one managing planes.
Duffy has acknowledged it will take years to train air traffic controllers to make up for a decades-long shortfall.
“They are not even close to having the right amount of staff,” the spouse of one ex-air traffic controller told The Post last week. “This is not a new problem. It goes back to [former President Bill] Clinton. It’s not going to get any better. … These controllers are the best in the world, they all love their jobs but they are overworked!”
