Officials say they won't ‘speculate' on cause of D.C. plane crash as Trump blames diversity

Yahoo

30-01-2025

Authorities declined to say what may have caused the deadly plane crash in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night while the investigation is underway, even as President Donald Trump and his allies sought to politicize the incident by blaming diversity efforts.
'We will not be determining the probable cause of the accident while we are here on scene, nor will we speculate about what may have caused this accident,' said J. Todd Inman, Member of The National Transportation Safety Board, at a news conference on Thursday afternoon.
Jennifer L. Homendy, the chair of the NTSB, said that the probe will focus on several factors. 'As part of any investigation, we look at the human, the machine and the environment,' she said. 'So we will look at all the humans that were involved in this accident. Again, we will look at the aircraft. We will look at the helicopter. We will look at the environment in which they were operating in. That is standard in any part of our investigation.'
Homendy said the investigation is a 'whole-of-government effort' and cautioned that it will 'take time to verify' information.
The rescue operation had turned into a recovery effort by Thursday morning. Officials have said they do not believe there are any survivors in the crash.
The midair collision between the commercial flight from Wichita, Kansas, and an Army helicopter occurred near Reagan Washington National Airport late Wednesday night.
The American Eagle flight was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members. More than a dozen of them were figure skaters traveling back from a training camp in Wichita, along with their coaches and parents, according to Skating Club of Boston CEO Doug Zeghibe.
Two of the coaches were former Russian world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, Zeghibe said. Kremlin officials have confirmed that Russian nationals were on the flight.
The crash is the deadliest commercial aviation accident since 2009.
Although the cause of the collision is still being investigated, Trump, who launched a crackdown on diversity, inclusion and equity programs in the federal government since returning to the White House, quickly spread baseless claims that diversity efforts were to blame for the incident.
Inman said the NTSB will issue a preliminary report within 30 days.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com