Americans can expect quick response from Trump adminParrish Alford (AFN) The nation awakened to a terrible air travel tragedy Thursday, but Americans can’t let fear dictate their lives, says a retired Naval officer. Ray Alexander told American Family Radio this morning that Americans should actually have more confidence in air travel right now, not less. 
“If at any time the average American passenger should feel more comfortable flying, I will feel more confident flying, because there’s more confidence, more leadership, more serious mindedness to implement fully effective correction actions in response to this investigation,” he said. Alexander contends the Trump administration will feel the urgency of the situation and will be eager to prove itself capable of leading through an unexpected event much as it has through planned agenda initiatives in these early days of governance. The investigation, he predicted, will be “streamlined with resources applied to get it done quickly.” Alexander believes answers from the National Transportation Safety Board will come in no more than a month’s time. |
As of early Thursday morning, first responders had recovered the bodies of 27 passengers from the American Airlines jet that was inbound from Wichita Kansas.
The body of the plane was found upside down in three sections in waist-deep water. The wreckage of the helicopter was also found.
The U.S. Army said the helicopter that collided with a passenger jet was a UH-60 Blackhawk based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. A crew of three soldiers were onboard the helicopter, an Army official said. The helicopter was on a training flight.
Military aircraft frequently conduct training flights in and around the congested and heavily-restricted airspace around the nation’s capital for familiarization and continuity of government planning.
Passengers on the jet included a group of figure skaters, their coaches and family members who were returning from a development camp held after the national U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, U.S. Figure Skating said in a statement.
The organization confirmed that “several members of the skating community” were on the flight. It did not provide more details.
“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” the organization said. “We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available.”
The Kremlin has confirmed that Russian figure skaters, as well as other Russian nationals, were also on the American Airlines plane.
Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asks the helicopter if it has the arriving plane in sight: “PAT25, do you have the CRJ in sight?”
The controller makes another radio call to PAT25 moments later: “PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ.”
The two aircraft collide seconds later.
The audio from flight tracking sites doesn’t record any response from the helicopter, if any, to the warnings from air traffic control.
