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CBS News
13-02-2025
- General
- CBS News
The 2009 Colgan Air disaster became a turning point for U.S. aviation. These families led the call for change.
Last month's mid-air collision near Washington, D.C., was the first fatal American commercial air disaster since shortly after 10 p.m. on February 12, 2009, when Colgan Air Flight 3407 fell out of the sky and crashed into a house near Buffalo, New York. It was the 14th fatal crash of a U.S. airliner in 15 years, but the 2009 disaster would become a turning point in American aviation. In the following years, the crash site was transformed into a memorial and place of reflection for the 50 people who died — 49 on the plane and one person who was in the house. But for the families who lost loved ones — like John and Marilyn Kausner, whose 24-year-old daughter Elly was killed in the incident — the fight that started there never stopped. "She was brilliant, she was beautiful and the life of the party," John said about his daughter. When the National Transportation Safety Board produced its report, it showed pilot error caused the plane to stall and nosedive. It was also revealed the pilot had not been forthcoming about failing prior flight tests. The findings spurred the families of the deceased into action. They banded together and lobbied the government to pass a federal airline safety bill, leading to a mandated 1,500 hours of flight training for co-pilots, the creation of a pilot performance database and a requirement that pilots have 10 hours of rest before flying. The Kausners brought along a posters of the victims on their trips to Washington, D.C., "to put a face to the tragedy," Kausner said. Ron Aughtmon lost his uncle John Fiore, a veteran who dedicated his life to public service. "We call each other the family we never wanted," Aughtmon said of the families of other victims. "Not many people know what flight 3407 is, and our job is to make sure that we keep our loved ones and the fight for airline safety at the forefront." To this day, the families are still pushing to keep those regulations intact as regional airlines attempt to roll back pilot training requirements. The D.C. mid-air collision last month ended what had been the longest safety streak without a fatal crash in American commercial aviation. It had been nearly 16 years since the Colgan Air crash. "When we saw it, it came back. It was rough, but we quickly thought about those families and what they are going through right now," Marilyn Kausner said. The 3407 memorial is a reminder of their loss and the change they fought for. Marilyn also says the other families affected by flight 3407 are now like her own. "It's how I could be with her, and I believe it's why we were also successful did it together," Marilyn said. It's a group they never wanted to join, but now one they can't live without.
Japan Times
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
From anguish to aggression: Trump goes on offense after midair collision
WASHINGTON – After TWA Flight 800 crashed in New York in 1996, U.S. President Bill Clinton asked "every American not to jump to conclusions' about what brought it down and declared it time "to pull together and work together.' Five years later, when American Airlines Flight 587 fell out of the sky, President George W. Bush predicted that the "resilient and strong and courageous people' of New York would get through the tragedy. In 2009, after a Colgan Air plane crashed near Buffalo, New York, President Barack Obama said that "tragic events such as these remind us of the fragility of life.' And then there was President Donald Trump. In the wake of this week's midair collision near Washington, Trump was more than happy to jump to conclusions and pull the country apart rather than together. After declaring it to be an "hour of anguish for our nation,' Trump just five minutes later let anguish give way to aggression as he blamed diversity policies promoted by Obama and former President Joe Biden for the crash, which killed 67 people.
New York Times
31-01-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
From Anguish to Aggression: Trump Goes on Offense After Midair Collision
After TWA Flight 800 crashed in New York in 1996, President Bill Clinton asked 'every American not to jump to conclusions' about what brought it down and declared it time 'to pull together and work together.' Five years later, when American Airlines Flight 587 fell out of the sky, President George W. Bush predicted that the 'resilient and strong and courageous people' of New York would get through the tragedy. In 2009, after a Colgan Air plane crashed near Buffalo, President Barack Obama said that 'tragic events such as these remind us of the fragility of life.' And then there was President Trump. In the wake of this week's midair collision near Washington, Mr. Trump was more than happy to jump to conclusions and pull the country apart rather than together. After declaring it to be an 'hour of anguish for our nation,' Mr. Trump just five minutes later let anguish give way to aggression as he blamed diversity policies promoted by Mr. Obama and former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for the crash, which killed 67 people. Mr. Trump has never been like other presidents. He does not follow many of the rituals and traditions of his office. He practices the politics of division rather than unity. Where past presidents have sought to project a comforting, paternal presence for a stricken nation in moments of crisis, Mr. Trump's instinct is to move quickly from grief to grievance. He has long demonstrated that he is more comfortable as the blamer in chief than consoler in chief. His decision to use the bully pulpit of the White House on Thursday to assign responsibility for the crash to his political rivals by name without offering a shred of evidence was, even for Mr. Trump, a striking performance. And it was no off-the-cuff comment. He followed up by signing an order directing a review of 'problematic and likely illegal decisions' by Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden. 'I put safety first,' Mr. Trump told reporters in his first visit to the briefing room of his second term. '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. Their policy was horrible and their politics was even worse.' The Democratic presidents, he said, made 'a big push to put diversity into the F.A.A.'s program,' leading to Wednesday night's disaster over the Potomac River. Never mind that the 'problematic' hiring policy language he read had also been in place during his own administration and that he could not say whether it had any connection to the crash. It was not the first time Mr. Trump has exhibited what even his own former aides have called an 'empathy gap.' Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, with thousands of Americans dying every day at its peak, Mr. Trump rarely paused long enough to dwell on the human toll and never sponsored any memorial to the fallen. Instead, he focused his public messages on finding others to fault, whether it be China, Mr. Obama, Democratic governors, the World Health Organization, federal regulators or his own scientific advisers. He has responded similarly to natural disasters by going on the attack. Just this month, Mr. Trump reacted to the devastating wildfires in greater Los Angeles by blasting Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, calling him 'Newscum.' After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, he engaged in a war of words with San Juan's mayor and, when he finally visited the island, memorably tossed paper towels to people who had been left without food, water or power. Angry at criticism of his handling of the calamity, he later suggested to aides that the United States sell or trade away Puerto Rico. 'Trump doesn't lead with empathy,' said Olivia Troye, who served on the White House Covid task force staff before later publicly criticizing the president's management of the pandemic. 'He exploits tragedy for whatever political grievance he's peddling at the moment, never offering the comfort or stability a president should.' The exception has been if the victims of a tragedy buttress a political argument he has been making. At a ceremony this week to sign a bill cracking down on unauthorized immigrants charged with certain crimes, he expressed compassion for relatives of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student killed last year by a migrant from Venezuela who had crossed into the United States illegally. Mr. Trump often moves to place any crisis into his own political or ideological narrative, regardless of the facts. He tied the California fires to wrongheaded environmental and water policies, assertions that experts disputed. After the New Year's Day terrorist attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Mr. Trump blamed immigration, even though the attacker was a U.S. citizen born in Texas. This week, after American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter over Reagan National Airport, Mr. Trump went straight to diversity policies, with no evident basis. The problem, he said, was that candidates for air traffic controller jobs were rejected because the work force was 'too white' while people with serious mental or physical disabilities were hired. In addition to Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden, two of Mr. Trump's longtime favorite targets, the president singled out Pete Buttigieg, who served as Mr. Biden's transportation secretary, saying that 'he's a disaster.' Mr. Buttigieg, as it happens, is considered a possible Democratic candidate for president in 2028. Mr. Trump's instant focus on diversity programs generated outrage among Democrats. 'Listen, it's one thing for internet pundits to spew off conspiracies,' Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said on the Senate floor not long afterward. 'It's another for the president of the United States to throw out idle speculation as bodies are still being recovered and families are still being notified. It just turns your stomach.' Mr. Buttigieg pushed back on social media. 'Despicable,' he wrote. 'As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch.' Mr. Buttigieg and other Democrats pointed out that Mr. Trump had just fired the members of an aviation security advisory group, although there was no indication that the move had contributed to this week's crash. 'Time for the president to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again,' Mr. Buttigieg wrote. In this opening chapter of his return to power, Mr. Trump seems fixated on diversity programs more than ever. Other than immigration, he has made it perhaps the central villain of his second term. Among his first acts was to order the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs throughout the federal government and a review of federal grants and loans to weed out any that promote diversity. Recognizing the writing on the wall, many states, localities, universities and private companies are now scrapping their diversity programs, either to curry favor with the new administration or to preserve their federal financing. Mr. Trump and his allies have successfully made the acronym D.E.I. politically radioactive. As with so much else in this Trump 2.0 era, the road to Mr. Trump's broadsides against the Federal Aviation Administration's leadership and policies may lead back to Elon Musk, the president's billionaire patron who has been given wide latitude to restructure government in the new administration. Mr. Musk has long quarreled with the F.A.A., which has hit his SpaceX rocket company with fines for safety lapses and sought to delay a launch. Last fall, he called for 'radical reform at the F.A.A.' and a week later he reposted a picture of Michael Whitaker, the agency administrator, with the caption, 'He needs to resign.' Mr. Whitaker did just that the day Mr. Trump took office last week, and the new president appointed an acting successor on Thursday. While Mr. Trump said there would be a 'systemic and comprehensive investigation' of this week's crash, he did not wait to offer the conclusions of his own rather less methodical inquiry. He went on at some length about F.A.A. diversity policies that encourage the hiring of people with severe disabilities, the same ones in place when he was in office last time. What he could not say was whether any people with severe disabilities were actually hired as air traffic controllers as opposed to for other jobs compatible with their abilities. Nor could he say whether anyone on duty on Wednesday night fit that category. Indeed, he acknowledged that there were many unanswered questions. 'We don't know that that would have been the difference,' he said of helicopter pilots not following instructions. He said he did not know whether another plane might have blocked the pilots' view. He said he did not know why adjustments were not made when the two aircraft hurtled toward each other. He said he did not know if the helicopter pilots were wearing night-vision goggles. 'We don't know that necessarily it's even the controller's fault,' he said at another point. But just because he did not know all those things did not mean he was not certain who was to blame. No need to wait for the investigation to reach that conclusion.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Aviation attorney discusses likely lawsuit against government, American Airlines filed by victims' families
An aviation attorney predicts families of the midair collision victims will be filing lawsuits against both the U.S. government and American Airlines in the coming days. No survivors are expected after an Army Black Hawk helicopter on a training mission collided with an American Airlines regional jet carrying 64 people as the jet was preparing to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday evening. Three soldiers were aboard the Black Hawk. "Typically, right after — obviously, the families are dealing with a lot of shock and grief right now — a lot of times it's really hard for people to wrap their minds around aircraft accidents because they're just not supposed to happen," James Brauchle told Fox News Digital on Thursday, adding that air travel is "extremely safe." "We haven't had a commercial accident in the U.S. involving a U.S. carrier since 2009." Dc Plane Crash Timeline: Midair Collision Involves 67 Passengers, Crew Members, Soldiers Buffalo-bound Colgan Air Flight 3407 killed all 49 people on board on Feb. 12, 2009, after the plane stalled and crashed into a home, killing a person inside. Read On The Fox News App Brauchle said the families' main question as they struggle with their grief is "why did this happen? How did this happen? How could it have happened? And they really are seeking answers." He added that once they get through their "initial shock, that's usually the next step is seeking the answers and wanting to know why this happened." Dc Plane Crash Air Traffic Control Audio Reveals Moment Controllers Saw Disaster: 'Tower Did You See That?' Brauchle said he doesn't think there's ever been a commercial aircraft crash in the U.S. that didn't result in litigation. "So, I'm going to assume that that's going to happen," Brauchle said. "And that's usually done, obviously, through the filing of a lawsuit." Based on his professional experience, he said, the airline and the government are both likely to be sued. Brauchle said the government's accountability could be twofold. "One for obviously operating the helicopter, because it was being flown by the Army, but also air traffic control that's regulating and monitoring that airspace is FAA, which is again a government agency," he said. Brauchle cautioned that it is early in the article source: Aviation attorney discusses likely lawsuit against government, American Airlines filed by victims' families
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Why Republicans keep blaming disasters on DEI
Search and rescue teams hadn't even finished pulling the bodies out of the Potomac River before Donald Trump began blaming diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs for the disastrous Wednesday night plane crash between a military helicopter and a commercial jet outside Washington that likely killed 67 people. During a rambling press conference Thursday, Trump pushed his theory that air traffic controllers were to blame, then claimed without evidence that the Biden and Obama administrations had lowered aviation hiring standards. He also criticized an effort to hire people with disabilities that existed throughout his entire first term in office. 'I put safety first,' Trump claimed. '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.' Vice President JD Vance claimed: "If you go to some of the headlines over the past ten years many hundreds of people are suing the government because they would like to be air traffic controllers but were turned away because of the color of their skin. That policy ends under Donald Trump's leadership.' Before Wednesday's collision, there hadn't been a major commercial airline crash on American soil in 16 years, when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed during landing near Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all 49 people onboard. When pressed about his claim DEI was responsible for the crash, which is under investigation, Trump responded: 'It just could have been.' He added that he reached the conclusion because 'I have common sense.' It was only the most recent disaster for which Trump and his allies have blamed DEI, even though the facts don't support them. As wildfires tore through the hills of Los Angeles this month, those on the right quickly boiled the crisis down to DEI, seemingly because Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is the first woman and second Black person to lead the city., and L.A. fire chief Kristin Crowley, a 22-year fire veteran, is the first woman and openly queer person to lead the department. Trump's billionaire supporter and partner Elon Musk claimed: "They prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes,' sharing screenshots of a four-year-old L.A. Fire Department racial equity plan He then put a finer point on it, writing that 'DEI means people DIE' in response to a video of Crowley talking about using a DEI focus to attract the 'best and brightest' to the force. Experts say a variety of factors caused the devastating fires, from drought conditions, to 100 mph Santa Ana winds, to neighborhoods built in dangerous fire zones, to a city water distribution system that was unable to keep hydrants filled fast enough to match a wildfire-scale blaze descending on a dense urban environment. Part of the reason Crowley has spoken openly about fostering a more inclusive culture at the department is because it faced years of complaints and lawsuits about discrimination under her predecessors, issues which would also seem to get in the way of a focus on fire-fighting. No matter how multi-faceted a crisis, the playbook against DEI has been run again and again. When an extremist plowed his car into revelers and attempted to set off bombs during New Year's Day celebrations in New Orleans, GOP Rep. Dan Meuser told Fox News: 'The priority of the last four years has been DEI, not IEDs [improvised explosive devices] ...You talk to anyone who's willing to speak within these agencies, that's what their focus has been.' When a shipping vessel collided with Baltimore's Key Bridge and brought it tumbling down in March, a Utah gubernatorial candidate blamed 'governors who prioritize diversity," even though the ship at issue allegedly had a record of shoddy maintenance. Meanwhile, online commenters deluged Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott with racist attacks, accusing him of being a 'DEI mayor.' Mayor Scott and Maryland Governor Wes Moore are both Black and Democrats. 'We've been the bogeyman for them since the first day they brought us to this country, and what they mean by DEI in my opinion is duly elected incumbent,' Scott said in response to the attacks, claiming DEI attacks are a dog whistle for people who 'don't have the courage to say the N-word.' The last four years have witnessed a sea change in how the country and its institutions consider race and identity. The massive racial justice protests after the 2020 murder of George Floyd by police set off a nationwide conversation about anti-Black racism in the U.S. Yet police killings of mostly people of color continued and key police reform largely stalled at a national level. But some courts and the corporate world inspired a brief push to make workplaces more equitable and diverse. That triggered a backlash. In 2023 the Supreme Court, stacked with Trump-appointed justices, struck down affirmative action in higher education. At the same time, Republicans pushed to ban books talking about identity and race, claiming schools at all levels were indoctrinating students with 'critical race theory,' a niche academic concept that seemingly came to stand in on the right for anything mentioning the existence of non-white people or racism. In the corporate world, right-wing activists used viral social media campaigns to push major U.S. companies to drop DEI programs, and name brands like McDonald's, Walmart, and Harley all backed away from such programs. While Trump and his supporters consistently argue that opposing DEI is in fact colorblind, with a focus on fairness and merit, it also can't be ignored how demonizing people of color is a core part of the Trump movement. The president's 2016 campaign began with his claim in Trump Tower that Mexican immigrants were rapists and drug dealers, and the Republican has continued attacking minorities since, branding Black Lives Matter protesters as 'thugs,' claiming during the 2024 debates that Haitian migrants are eating cats, and accusing border-crossers of 'poisoning the blood' of America. The MAGA movement, in other words, doesn't seem to actually want a society that ignores race and identity; they just won't admit admit what they're doing is identity politics too, just from the right instead of the left. The consequences of all this DEI wrangling may seem philosophical, but they are very real and deeply ironic. The perception that California leaders are a bunch of social justice warriors who can't be trusted seems to be feeding into recent Republican threats to impose conditions on disaster aid to the state, which is highly atypical. The new administration has moved to end federal funding for DEI programs across the federal government and organizations supported by its work, impacting thousands across agencies and disciplines. And the White House sets the tone for the rest of the country. When the next disaster rolls around, it'll only be a matter of time before the right hops online and goes viral with claims that DEI is to blame. And the most powerful people in the world, regardless of the facts, will be quick to believe them.
