--- title: "America’s Deadliest Airliner Crash in 23 Years Happens a Week After Trump Guts Airline Safety Groups" description: "Just over a week after gutting aviation authorities, the United States experienced its deadliest aviation disaster in nearly 24 years." date: "2025-01-30" modified: "2025-01-30" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/america-deadliest-air-crash-trump" categories: - "Advanced Transport" tags: - "donald trump" - "elon musk" - "FAA" - "federal aviation administration" --- # America’s Deadliest Airliner Crash in 23 Years Happens a Week After Trump Guts Airline Safety Groups ![Just over a week after gutting aviation authorities, the United States experienced its deadliest aviation disaster in nearly 24 years.]() *\Image: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images\* Just over a week after [firing the heads]() of the Transportation Security Administration and Coast Guard, [eliminating all members]() of a key aviation security advisory group, and [freezing all hiring]() at the Federal Aviation Administration including [key air traffic controllers](), the United States has experienced its deadliest aviation disaster in [nearly 24 years](). Officials [fear that]() all 60 passengers and four crew members on board an American Airlines flight have died after the jet collided with an Army helicopter on a training exercise while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC early Wednesday evening. While the timing of the Trump administration's gutting of aviation safety prior to the crash is impossible to ignore, it's still unclear what exactly led to the mid-air collision. We know that it was a clear night above the Potomac River, and both aircraft were flying in standard patterns, as the [*Associated Press* reports](). Yet obviously something went tragically wrong, and officials believe the crash was preventable. In the immediate wake of the disaster, Trump posted a [chilling update on Truth Social]() in which he speculated wildly about the event in what sounds a lot like an attempt to deflect blame for the deadliest crash in the US since [all 260 people aboard an American Airlines flight died]() just after takeoff on November 12, 2001, in New York, just two months after 9/11. "It is a clear night, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn't the helicopter go up or down, or turn," Trump wrote. "Why didn't the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane." As *Bloomberg* global aviation editorial leader Benedikt Kamell [has since pointed out](), it's "unusual for officials to come out this early with theories, but Trump isn’t known to take his time in publicly airing his views." In a [followup]() almost twelve hours after the accident, Trump said he had "been fully briefed on the terrible accident which just took place at Reagan National Airport. May God Bless their souls." Others took a more somber tone. "It’s absolutely heartbreaking to think of families waiting at the airport, expecting to greet loved ones, only to receive such devastating news," said former FAA deputy administrator Dan Elwell in a [statement](). Regardless of where the investigation leads, the Trump administration's gutting of aviation authorities highlights the potential consequences of throwing the entire federal government into chaos. The National Transportation Safety Board is now investigating the incident. In the meantime, we should expect to hear more harebrained theories as to what may have led to the crash, considering the [sheer amount of disorder]() the Trump administration has stirred up over its first two weeks. On that note, multi-hyphenate billionaire and White House advisor Elon Musk — who has [previously blamed Black pilots]() for causing plane crashes without providing any evidence whatsoever — has yet to comment on the matter. "It will take an airplane crashing and killing hundreds of people for them to change this crazy policy of DIE," he wrote in a January 9 tweet, a bafflingly racist outburst that intentionally mixed up the letters of the acronym for "diversity, equity, and inclusion." The deplorable utterance had [civil groups horrified]() at the time. **More on the FAA:** *[The FAA Grounds SpaceX's Rockets for a Third Time After Mysterious Anomaly]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()