President Donald Trump met with American Airlines Chief Executive Officer Robert Isom on Wednesday to discuss Trump’s push for additional investment in updated air traffic control systems.
The FAA has changed how helicopter traffic is managed near the busy airport in response to last month’s crash, leading to delays and diverted flights.
The meeting came two weeks after the Jan. 29 collision of an American Eagle plane with an Army helicopter near Reagan National Airport in Washington, which killed all 67 people on the two aircraft.
Trump’s actions are unlikely to have affected the late January airplane crash at Ronald Reagan National Airport, an aviation expert told PolitiFact.
“No president has had more planes crash in their first month in office than Donald Trump.” “Air crashes happen. But there were more under Biden than under Donald Trump.”
The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a fatal midair collision near Washington.
The United States saw double the number of fatal plane crashes under President Joe Biden's first month in office than during the second Trump administration's first month.
Trump called a judge’s ruling blocking political appointees from accessing the Treasury Department’s system a “disgrace.”
Despite the spate of incidents making headlines, the FAA is slimming down its workforce and one worker has already been laid off in Austin.