The Memo: Washington flight disaster sparks political fights

Details are emerging about the Washington air disaster that killed 67 people — and some of those factors are only likely to fuel political fights.

On Thursday afternoon, reports emerged from the New York Times and CBS News that air traffic control staffing levels were “not normal” when an American Airlines jet collided with a military helicopter as it neared its landing at Reagan Washington National Airport.

The news organizations were basing the “not normal” assessment on a preliminary report from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). According to the Times, the person who was directing helicopter traffic near the airport was also doing the same job with planes that were taking off and landing.

“Those jobs typically are assigned to two controllers rather than one,” the Times reported.

This key detail is sure to reinvigorate debate over staffing levels among the nation’s air traffic controllers — and President Trump’s inclusion of those people in the buyout plan that he has offered to the federal workforce.

In May 2024, the FAA estimated it needed roughly 3,100 more air traffic controllers than it actually had in order to meet its staffing plans across the country. At that point, there were about 11,500 fully qualified controllers, whereas the staffing plans projected an optimum staff of 14,600.

When those numbers came out, CNN reported that the FAA had hired 1,512 new controller candidates in the previous fiscal year but had also lost around 1,300 employees through retirement or through people dropping out or failing training.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration offered federal employees a deal whereby they would be paid through September — so long as they agreed by Feb. 6 that they were going to quit. Katie Miller, who serves on the advisory board of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, wrote proudly on social media at the time that the offer was being made to “more than TWO MILLION federal employees.”

That decision is not, of course, responsible for Wednesday evening’s catastrophic crash. But the policy has been made more politically salient by virtue of it being announced just days before the collision.

“Air traffic controllers – already understaffed – got Trump’s ‘buyout’ this week with a 1 week ultimatum to decide,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote on social media Thursday afternoon.

Ocasio-Cortez also contended that Trump had “gutted the Aviation Safety Committee last week.”

She was referring to the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, which scrutinizes safety issues at airports and within airlines.

On Jan. 21 — the day after Trump took office — The Associated Press reported that the membership of the group had been eliminated, though it would continue to exist on paper. The order came via a memo from the new administration stating that the membership of all such committees was being cut to help in “eliminating the misuse of resources and ensuring that DHS activities prioritize our national security.”

Trump, however, incited yet another controversy when he implied during a White House briefing Thursday morning that practices promoting diversity could have somehow been responsible for the tragedy that had taken place the previous evening.

The president contended that the FAA is “actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities … under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the company’s website.”

The language in question has been on the FAA’s website for more than a decade, according to the factchecking website Snopes — and appears to have remained there throughout the first Trump administration.

The language has stirred controversy before. In 2024, the FAA told Fox News that although the aviation administration “proactively seeks qualified candidates from as many sources as possible,” it was also the case that anyone it recruits “must meet rigorous qualifications.”

Pressed for evidence that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives were responsible for the Washington disaster, Trump said, “it just could have been” and ascribed this view to “common sense.”

His remarks elicited instant criticism, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) saying that his speculation “turns your stomach” and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) saying that it was “grotesque.”

A less partisan dispute has also been given new salience by the tragedy — the sheer intensity of the air traffic at National Airport, one of two major airports that serve the nation’s capital.

A bid to increase the number of landing slots at the airport — a move that needs to be authorized by Congress because the federal government runs National Airport — failed in 2023, but received approval after being embedded within a broader FAA authorization bill last year.

Both times, the expansion drew significant pushback from lawmakers in Virginia and Maryland who warned of safety concerns. Then-Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) cautioned in 2024 that he saw “a critical need to safeguard the airport” from more flights because increasing the number of slots “undermines” safety.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) wrote on social media in April 2024 that a near-miss at the airport earlier the same day underscored how “Congress needs to put passenger safety first and stop efforts to add more flights to this airport.”

His effort to stall the increase was unsuccessful as the Senate passed the FAA authorization bill by an 88-4 vote. The four “no” votes were from the quartet of senators representing Maryland and Virginia.

Again, the line of causation is not clear from any of these factors to Wednesday’s crash. How and why the helicopter appears to have failed to get out of the way of the plane is the core of the issue — and still has no definitive answer.

Still, the political fights over a broader culpability will likely rage on in the days to come.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.