In the early morning hours of Thursday, Donald Trump’s new transportation secretary Sean Duffy approached the microphone at a press conference, as search and rescue crews scoured the Potomac River looking for survivors of a crash between a military helicopter and a commercial jet near Washington.
In his first full day in office after being confirmed on Tuesday, Duffy’s agency, the Department of Transportation, was now facing down the worst U.S. aviation disaster since 9/11.
“Listen, my focus is on those who are impacted on this flight and, again, I’ve been the secretary for a little over a day, and the tragedy that we’re going to deal with — with this recovery, I think, is touching everyone’s hearts, whether it’s here in the greater D.C. area or in Kansas,” he said, flanked by officials. “I think everyone here is thinking and praying for those who potentially have lost a loved one.”
During his confirmation hearings, Duffy, a former Fox Business host and five-term Wisconsin congressman, discussed priorities like helping America remain competitive with Chinese electric vehicles, rolling out self-driving car rules, and restoring faith in Boeing after the U.S. stalwart aerospace firm suffered a series of crashes, manufacturing defects, and scandals in recent years. He’ll also be helping guide some of the funding from the $1 trillion in infrastructure funding passed under the Biden administration.
All of that was pushed to the side when an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet collided near Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night, killing all 67 passengers onboard.
Now, Duffy says, his focus is finding “answers for the families” about why the crash happened.
At a briefing on Thursday with D.C. officials, Duffy said that the aircraft remained in contact with the control tower and were following “standard” flight paths, leaving questions over what caused the crash.
“To back up what the president said, from what I’ve seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely,” Duffy said.
Duffy will oversee one of the bodies investigating the collision, the Federal Aviation Administration, and will work closely with another, the independent National Transportation Safety Board.
Despite the early stage of the investigation into the crash, Duffy’s boss, the president, has jumped in and offered multiple, at-times baseless explanations for the crash, including claiming without evidence that diversity policies were to blame.
“I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary, you remember that only the highest aptitude they have to be the highest intellect and psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers,” he claimed in the White House briefing room on Thursday. “That was not so prior to getting there … and then when I left office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before. I put safety first.”
During the same press conference, Trump seemed to blame air traffic controllers, claiming their “warnings were given very very late”
At the briefing, Duffy praised Trump’s leadership and reiterated the administration’s commitment to eliminating diversity requirements.
In fact, one of Duffy’s first actions as secretary was implementing a Trump executive order rolling back DEI programs across the federal government.
The transportation secretary said on Wednesday he would “identify and eliminate all Biden-era programs, policies, activities, rules, and orders that promote climate change activism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, racial equity, gender identity policies, environmental justice, and other partisan objectives.”
His bigger objective, though, will likely be rebuilding trust in the American aviation system.
“Safety is our expectation,” he said on Thursday. “Everyone who flies in American skies expects that we fly safely. That when you depart you get to your destination. That didn’t happen last night. I know that President Trump, his administration, the FAA, and DOT, we will not rest until we have answers for the families and for the flying public. You should be assured that when you fly, you’re safe.”
