President Trump recently came before the nation on live TV to express his sorrow over the airplane/helicopter crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. He said he spoke for the country and expressed condolences to the families of the victims civilian and military. Well done.

He then left his prepared speech and rambled on about the deficiencies in the nation’s air traffic control system like he knew that was the root cause of the crash and how the whole thing was the fault of his predecessor. He asserted that President Biden allowed people who weren’t intelligent enough to become air traffic controllers because they were not Caucasian and how we needed nothing but smart people to fill those critical positions. Indeed we do, but to imply this accident was the result of an air traffic controller who wasn’t intelligent was not in and of itself too smart.

The truth is that Trump, and no one else, knows exactly what happened and why. As a retired safety professional who has conducted over 50 fatality investigations, I learned early on to never proceed with any investigation with the assumption of what caused the accident.

This accident will be thoroughly investigated by highly qualified people who are excellent at their job. The president should let the professionals do their job and stop telling the country that he knows what happened and that he alone is going to correct the deficiencies in the FAA to make us all safe as we fly.

Royal Hoyt
Westbrook