Donald Trump has launched a bizarre tirade while labelling the head of air traffic control "a disaster" even though there has been no suggestion about the cause of the tragic crash so far. The US president appeared to blame air traffic controllers for the devastating mid-air collision between a passenger jet and a US Army helicopter that claimed 67 lives. The president shamefully turned the tragedy political, criticising Barack Obama's administration for the quality of those employed to guide planes in landing and taking off safely.

Trump said: "We did 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 because, over the years, I've watched as things like this happen. We think we have some pretty good ideas, but we'll find out how this disaster occurred, and we'll ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.". And he appeared to blame a "diversity push" at FAA for the crash, as he speculated: "I do want to point out that various articles that appeared prior to my entering office. And here's one, the FAA's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing.

"And then it says FAA says people with severe disabilities are most underrepresented segment of the workforce said they want them in, and they want them, they can be air traffic controllers. I don't think so. This was January 14, so that was a week before I entered office. They put a big push to put diversity into the FAA's programme.". He continued: "Brilliant people have to be in those positions, and their lives are actually shortened, very substantially shortened because of the stress where you have many, many planes coming into one target, and you need a very special talent and a very special genius to be able to do it." Trump then said he needed to make sure air traffic controllers were of "superior intelligence", claiming the Biden administration had "changed them back to lower than ever before.".

He said during the press briefing from the White House: "We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system. I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary. You remember that. Only the highest aptitude. They have to be the highest intellect, and psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers. That was not so prior to getting there.".

Trump added: "When I arrived in 2016, I made that change very early on, because I always felt this was a job that, and other jobs too, but this was a job that had to be superior intelligence, and we didn't really have that. And we had it. And then when I left office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before.". "Their policy was horrible," the president said, "and their politics was even worse." He also labelled former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as "a disaster", blaming him for the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA)'s diversity objectives. There is no evidence, at least yet, to suggest that the air traffic controllers were at fault in the crash.

Trump confirmed all those on board the American Airlines flight and the helicopter had died. "Sadly, there are no survivors," he said adding he was speaking to the American people in an "hour of anguish" and asked for a moment of silence at the top of his remarks. Promising to work "very diligently in the days to come", he said his administration was there to offer support for those affected. "We are one family, and today we are all heartbroken. We're all searching for answers that icy, icy Potomac, or is it cold, cold night, cold water," he added.

"We're all overcome with the grief for many who have so tragically perished will no longer be with us together. We take solace in the knowledge that their journey ended not in the cold waters of the Potomac, but in the warm embrace of a loving God.". Following his rant at air traffic control standards, he then questioned why the US Army helicopter had taken the course it had. "We had a situation where we had a helicopter that had an ability to stop," he said. "You could have slowed down the helicopter, you could have stopped the helicopter, or gone up or down," he said. "For some reason, it just kept going.".