When the collision between a military Black Hawk helicopter and a Bombardier CRJ 700 operated by American Airlines occurred at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, I discussed it with the team at Global Airspace Radar. On the morning of the accident, we decided not to write about it. Multiple media outlets reported about it already and there was nothing new we could contribute at that time
Then I watched the speech of Donald Trump about the accident on CNN and everything changed. Don’t get me wrong, this is not about being pro- or anti-Trump. We all have opinions about him and this is fine. However, being an aviation professional, a private pilot myself, and having worked with various air traffic management organisations over the past 25 years, there are things that I need to step-up for.
Common sense simply is not enough
In his speech, Donald Trump attributed blame and explained what he understands are the causes for this accident. When being asked by a journalist how he came to those conclusions, he replied “Because I have common sense”.
Aviation accidents are complex. They have multiple causes. Many barriers have to fail for an accident to occur and each of those failures is complex too. No pilot just flies into another aircraft and no air traffic controller simply lets something like this happen. Understanding what happened will take time and can’t be derived from the little information available. If Trump had a solid basis for this analysis, he would not then recourse to “common sense”.
It is normal for politicians to address the public when such tragedies happen. People are mourning and they need their leaders even more in such circumstances. However, the role of politicians is not to point fingers and attribute blame, especially not on the base of a gut feeling. It is not respectful to those who have been impacted, it does not contribute to establishing the truth and it does not help prevent further accidents.
Just culture must be preserved
It took decades to build a strong safety culture in the aviation industry and a critical aspect of it is that investigations are led to establish causes, not responsibilities. Having a just culture implies that “honest mistakes” can be reported and analysed and that nobody should be blamed for them.
If the multiple mistakes leading to this accident were all made in good faith, the proper course of action is to adjust rules and regulation, maybe to review training procedures, to disseminate information and to change the system. This is the only way leading to a safer aviation system.
The judiciary system shall only be activated in case of an intentional misdemeanor or gross negligence. Here again, not something determined on a “common sense” basis. Building trust in just culture takes decades. Destroying it takes seconds. Losing this trust would be a major step back for all of the aviation industry.
Not all aviation jobs are safety-critical
Then there were the comments about the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Everybody has an opinion about DEI and this is ok, too. What is not ok though is to directly link this accident to the DEI activities at the FAA.
The FAA has many missions. To cite just a few: managing airworthiness of aircraft, issuing pilot licences, and Air Traffic Control (ATC). Many jobs at the FAA are not safety-critical and should be made accessible to a larger number of workers, whatever their background, health and fitness condition. This is what the DEI program was for, opening more opportunities in operations roles.
The requirements, selection criteria and training for air traffic controllers are strict and demanding. A DEI program could lead to more candidates applying and contribute to leveling the pre-selection playing field. It is about broadening the input of the funnel, not to lower the bar when it comes to air traffic controllers training and performance assessment.
One more thing
Donald Trump is by far not the only speculator. As always in similar circumstances, the media are full of “aviation experts”, each with different fields of expertise and different levels of knowledge. Simply remember this: the only people with first-hand information are the official investigators and they will not speak until they are confident in their findings. Period.
