President Donald Trump claimed to have cracked the case of a tragic mid-air collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and a U.S. Army helicopter.
The president has been speculating about the cause of the crash, which killed all 67 people on board both aircraft, and variously blamed the collision on so-called diversity hires, meaning primarily women and Black people, and his Democratic predecessors, and he again blamed the soldier flying the helicopter in a Friday morning social media post.
"The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot," said the president of the United States on his Truth Social website. "It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???"
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Data from FlightRadar24, which tracks and records aircraft data for most flights in the U.S., showed the chopper's last estimated altitude was about 400 feet before the crash, while the jet's altitude was about 375 to 400 feet, but investigators have not yet determined how or why the helicopter might have been flying above the permitted flight ceiling on the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport is 200 feet.
"We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas, and I think we'll probably state those opinions now," Trump said Thursday during a White House briefing, about 14 hours after the crash. "Because over the years I've watched as things like this happen and they say, well, we're always investigating, and then the investigation three years later, they announce it ... These are great people, and they are working tirelessly to figure out exactly what happened. We will state certain opinions."
Trump also posted screenshots of social media posts by his close adviser Elon Musk and a MAGA influencer, as well as a misleading 2024 report originally posted by Fox News that blamed diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for an incident where an Alaska Airlines flight lost a door.
"This is just one reason why our Country WAS going to hell!!!" Trump said in reference to those comments.
