Trump's new order calls for a deeper review of aviation safety

President Trump signed a memo Thursday ordering an immediate assessment of aviation safety, amid an ongoing investigation into what caused the fatal collision of the American Airlines flight and the Black Hawk helicopter in Washington.

“This shocking event follows problematic and likely illegal decisions during the Obama and Biden administrations that minimized merit and competence in the Federal Aviation Administration,” Mr. Trump’s order says.

It calls for newly sworn-in Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to review hiring decisions and changes to safety protocols made during the Biden administration, and to reverse any “concerning safety and personnel trends.”

“We want the most competent people. We don’t care what race they are. We want the most competent people, especially in those positions,” Mr. Trump said while signing the memo.

“You’re talking about extremely complex things [in aviation] and if they don’t have a great brain, a great power of the brain, they’re not going to be very good at what they do and bad things will happen,” he said.

“All I’m talking about is competence. And we want, in that particular position, we have to have the most competent people in our country, because we’re talking about lives,” the president said.

When asked if race and gender played a role in the accident, Mr. Trump said, “it may have, I don’t know.”

“Incompetence might have played a role,” he said. “We’ll let you know that.”

He said the accident was preventable and said he “would’ve thought [the air traffic controllers] should’ve seen it.”

All 64 people aboard the plane and three soldiers on the Army helicopter are believed to have died in the crash.

In a press briefing earlier Thursday, Mr. Trump put the blame of the accident on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and Democrats, saying those policies put unqualified people in air traffic control positions.

“We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system,” Mr. Trump said in his first appearance in the White House press briefing room since starting his second term.

He said he brought aviation standards up when he took office for the first time in 2017, but President Biden “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,” he said.

When reporters asked what evidence he had to connect the crash to DEI initiatives, the president said it was “common sense.”

He also signed an executive order to appoint Christopher Rocheleau as the deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration — an announcement he made during his press briefing.

Mr. Rocheleau is a long-time aviation official, who Mr. Trump said is “highly respected.” He recently returned to the agency as deputy FAA administration after a stint in the private sector. 

He previously served as chief operating officer of the National Business Aviation Association, and most recently served as the FAA’s acting safety chief before leaving the agency in 2022. He also held other senior roles within the agency. 

The position requires Senate confirmation. 

Mr. Trump has signed several executive actions in his first weeks as president targeting DEI initiatives, including removing them from the military, schools and governmental agencies.

• Jeff Mordock contributed to this report.