Within hours of American Airlines flight 5342 crashing into the Potomac River and killing everyone on board, Trump and Republicans were already blaming the first commercial air disaster in sixteen years on diversity initiatives.
During a press conference Thursday morning, Trump claimed a focus on making the airline industry ‘less white’ led to the crash. From the lectern, the president called the focus on diversity from the Biden administration a “disaster”. He went on to label the leadership of former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as “bullshit”.
The president went on to claim that Buttigieg, the first gay transportation secretary, harmed the department “with his diversity”.
When asked how he could conclude that diversity initiatives caused the crash, Trump responded “because I have common sense”.
Trump was joined on stage by Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and current Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. All three men also attacked DEI initiatives in the wake of the crash.
Vance implied the initiatives caused people to be hired who are not “competent enough to do the job”. The Vice President also claimed without evidence, that recent air traffic control applicants “were turned away because [they are white]”.
Hegseth claimed “the era of DEI is gone”, while Duffy stated “we can only accept the best and the brightest”.
All four straight, white men in power at the time of the crash spent the press conference casting blame elsewhere.
However, not only is blaming diversity initiatives misguided and racist, it’s completely counter to the facts.
Commercial airline tragedies have decreased in the United States as the diversity of pilots, crew members, and mechanics has increased.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 2004 and 2024, diversity in airline mechanic and pilot careers grew significantly.
In 2004, women made up just 3.4% of airline mechanics and 5.3% of airline pilots. By 2024, 6.9% of airline mechanics and 9.6% of airline pilots were women.
The same trends are true for people of color. Over two decades, the number of Black pilots and flight engineers has risen from 1.7% to 4.4% of the industry. Asian and Hispanic pilots and flight engineers have also seen their representation increase; from 1.3% and 3.2% respectively in 2004, to 2.2% and 8.3% today.
Over roughly that same time frame, fatal crashes have significantly decreased.
In the twelve years since September 11, 2001, nearly 400 people died in commercial airline crashes across the United States. Between 2014 and 2024, only two people lost their lives during incidents on commercial airlines flights.
Wednesday night’s mid-air collision of a military helicopter and an American Airlines flight marks the first crash of a US-based commercial flight since a Colgan Air flight crashed in western New York state in 2009, killing 50.
Airline travel has only become safer as the diversity of mechanics, pilots, and other crew members has increased. Yet Trump and many Republicans chose to use this tragedy to disparage and undermine the hard work and intelligence of thousands who continue breaking barriers in the industry. And they did it all just miles from the Potomac River, where the bodies of 67 people were still being pulled from the icy water.
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