US President Donald Trump has blamed last week's deadly collision of a passenger jet and army helicopter on what he called an "obsolete" computer system used by US air traffic controllers, and he vowed to replace it.

Trump said during an event that "a lot of mistakes happened" on January 29 when an American Airlines flight out of Wichita, Kansas, collided with an army helicopter as the plane was about to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, killing all 67 people on board the two aircraft.

In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, Trump blamed it on diversity hiring programs. But overnight, he blamed the computer system used by the country's air traffic controllers.

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"It's amazing that it happened," Trump said during a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast at the US Capitol.

"And I think that's going to be used for good. I think what is going to happen is we're all going to sit down and do a great computerised system for our control towers. Brand new — not pieced together, obsolete."

Trump said the US spent billions of dollars trying to "renovate an old, broken system" instead of investing in a new one. He said in his private jet, he uses a system from another country when he lands because his pilot says the existing system is obsolete.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Elon Musk said in posts on X that Musk's team at the Department of Government Efficiency is going to help rapidly upgrade the nation's aviation safety system.

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The Federal Aviation Administration has been working since the mid-2000s — long before Trump's first term in office — to upgrade the air traffic control system through its NextGen program.

Congress passed a law in 2003 that prompted the upgrades because of concerns about mounting air travel congestion and concerns that it would only get busier.

Geoff Freeman, who heads the travel industry group the US Travel Association, lauded Trump's pledge to replace the current system, saying the industry has repeatedly called for greater investments in technology and manpower.

Federal officials have been raising concerns about an overtaxed and understaffed air traffic control system for years, especially after a series of close calls between planes at US airports.

Among the reasons they've cited for staffing shortages are uncompetitive pay, long shifts, intensive training and mandatory retirements.

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Trump said that if the nation had a newer system, alarms would have sounded when the Black Hawk helicopter, which was on a training exercise, reached the same altitude as the plane.

But an FAA report after the crash said that the controller did get an alert that the plane and helicopter were converging when they were still more than a mile (1.6km) apart.

The controller responded by asking the helicopter if it had the plane in sight and directed the helicopter to pass behind the plane. The helicopter responded that it did have the plane in sight.

An early focus of the investigation has been confirming the altitude of the plane and helicopter. The jet's flight recorder showed its altitude as 325 feet (99m), plus or minus 25 feet (7.6m).

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Data from the airport's air traffic control system suggests the helicopter was above its 200-foot (61m) flight ceiling. The screen the controller was looking at that night showed that based on radar and other data, the helicopter was at 300 feet (91m), the NTSB said, noting that the figure would have been rounded to the nearest 100 feet (30m).

To get more precise information, investigators need to be able to examine the wreckage of the still-submerged Black Hawk to verify the data. The helicopter isn't expected to be recovered until later this week.

This crash was the deadliest in the US since November 12, 2001, when a jet slammed into a New York City neighbourhood just after takeoff, killing all 260 people on board and five on the ground.

There was concern after the crash that Trump's efforts to slash the size of the federal workforce could worsen the shortage of air traffic controllers if some of them accepted the deferred resignation offers sent to all federal employees last week.

But air traffic controllers were told by their union that certain positions within the Federal Aviation Administration, including theirs, were exempt.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said in its email to members that additional positions might be exempt based on the employees' "national security or public safety responsibilities." The union had already recommended to its members that they reject the offers, which were extended the day before the midair collision.

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Upon learning about the deadly mid-air collision in Washington, D.C., on January 29, 2025, I immediately thought of the frequent low-flying helicopters in my community. As a resident of Jersey City Heights in Jersey City, NJ, my home is located 9.5 miles from Newark Liberty International Airport, 4.5 miles from the HHI Heliport in Kearny, NJ (the largest operating heliport in the United States), and 2.1 miles from the Newport Helistop in Jersey City, NJ. Throughout the day and night, helicopters fly so low overhead that the sound of their blades is deafening, and items in my family’s home rattle from their proximity.

I have lived in Hudson County for most of my life and have been a resident of Jersey City for over 20 years. What were once infrequent noise occurrences, expected in an urban area, have sadly become a regular nuisance and safety concern, not only in Jersey City but also in neighboring towns in Hudson County, such as Hoboken, Weehawken, and Bayonne.

The reason for this significant increase is the number of non-essential helicopters traveling to and from NYC, offering sightseeing tours and quick commuter transportation. Companies such as New York Helicopter, Blade, FlyNON, Hummingbird, and Heliflite have proliferated, dominating our once peaceful skies. These companies offer tourists the chance to see the sights of NYC and the Statue of Liberty without ever touching the ground. FlyNON even offers “doors-off” flights, allowing passengers to dangle their feet outside the doorless helicopter for a more immersive view.

Within Hudson County, concerned residents have organized, pleading with city officials, contacting the FAA, and writing letters to heliport owners, all to no avail. We have even coordinated efforts with the well-established grassroots organization, Stop The Chop NY/NJ, which has spent years working to ban non-essential helicopters and regulate airspace over the NYC metropolitan area.

And while some progress has been made on the other side of the Hudson River thanks to the efforts of Stop The Chop NY/NJ, nothing has happened in New Jersey. Each party tends to defer to the others, with no single entity willing or able to do anything meaningful about this public safety and quality-of-life issue.

In the wake of the Washington, D.C., tragedy, I wonder how quickly change would come if a catastrophe like the one in Washington, D.C., occurred over a densely populated city like Jersey City, NJ, instead of a body of water.

Is that what it would take to prompt action and create effective legislation drastically reducing the thousands of non-essential helicopter flights that clog our skies and burden the already overwhelmed air traffic control center at Newark Liberty International Airport? For the sake of my family and neighbors, I dread to find out.

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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Army helicopter that collided with an American Airlines plane killing 67 people last week had turned off an advanced surveillance system that the federal government has hailed for making airspace safer, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said on Thursday.

Cruz, who was among a group of lawmakers briefed on the collision by federal authorities, said the Black Hawk helicopter had switched off its automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast sometime prior to the Jan. 29 crash.

"This was a training mission, so there was no compelling national security reason for ADS-B to be turned off," Cruz said after a briefing from the National Transportation Safety Board and FAA. He added that the helicopter had a transponder so it would appear on radar, but said ADS-B is significantly more accurate.

The system, which is the preferred method of surveillance for air traffic control in the U.S., improves visibility by broadcasting an aircraft's GPS location, altitude and ground speed, according to the FAA. The system includes a display that shows pilots where there are other aircraft in the sky or on a runway.

The helicopter was on a routine training mission when it collided with the airliner, which was inbound from Wichita, Kansas. Data has indicated that the Black Hawk may have been flying above its 200 foot flight ceiling, though the FAA said investigators need to access the crashed aircraft to verify the data.

Salvage crews return to the Potomac River for helicopter

Salvage crews began the process of retrieving a U.S. Army helicopter from the Potomac River on Thursday.

The multi-agency operation has retrieved most of the crashed American Airlines plane out of the icy water, including its wings, fuselage and cockpit.

Now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will focus on retrieving the mangled helicopter, a crucial component in federal authorities' probe as they look to confirm data related to its altitude at the time of the collision, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

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Reagan National Airport limits flights after plane-helicopter crash

The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it would slow the arrivals rate at Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA) outside of Washington as weather and recovery efforts were affecting flight paths into the airport.

"The FAA is slowing traffic into and out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport due to weather conditions and recovery efforts in the area," the FAA said in a statement to USA TODAY.

The move was first reported by Reuters, which said that arrivals would be reduced from 28 per hour to 26 per hour during the slowdown. The reduced arrivals rate would likely lead to a slight increase in average delay lengths at the airport while it was in force.

– Zach Wichter, USA TODAY

Officials will address staffing, congested air traffic after deadly collision

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he will change the rules that govern staffing at airport control towers and vowed to examine the congested airspace in the Washington area following the fatal crash at Reagan National Airport.

Speaking about rules that allowed a supervisor to reduce staffing before the fatal crash, Duffy said "We're going to pull that authority back to make sure that we have the right policies in place inside our towers to make sure when you fly you're safe."

Duffy said he also plane to announce steps to increase air traffic control training while also hiring more applicants. The FAA is about 3,000 controllers short of staffing levels and nearly all control towers have staffing issues.

Moreover, Duffy said officials will look at military missions in Washington airspace and see whether they could be scheduled at times when traffic is lower. The Black Hawk helicopter was on a routine training mission when it collided with the airliner.

"We also have to look at (military) missions that have flown the DC airspace," Duffy said. "We're going to hopefully find this out, but if they had night vision goggles on a mission like that at nine o'clock at night and not at 1 a.m. – it is unacceptable."

"We can fly training missions at a different time of night," he added.

What we know about the NTSB's investigation into the collision

So far, investigators with the NTSB have interviewed all five people working in the control tower at the time of the collision, collected data from the black boxes recovered from the aircrafts, obtained maintenance and flight logs, and have begun piecing together a timeline of the events leading up the crash, synchronizing flight data and communications.

After recovering the wreckage of the crashed plane, investigators will examine its cockpit switch positions and instrument readings, according to the NTSB. The agency said it still needs to examine the Black Hawk to verify more information about the accident, especially the helicopter's altitude at the time of the crash.

The air traffic control tower display showed the Black Hawk was flying at 300 feet at the time of the collision, the NTSB has said, though that flight track data was rounded to the nearest 100 feet and exact altitude is still not known.

According to the latest release, it appears the helicopter exceeded the 200-foot maximum altitude assigned to the flight path it used on the night of the crash. To confirm that, however, investigators need to access the helicopter.

The NTSB said it expects to have a preliminary report outlining the facts and information gathered during the initial phase of the probe within 30 days of the crash. A final report detailing the cause of the crash is expected to take one to two years to complete.

Rate of near-midair collisions are higher around DCA

There have been 30 near-midair collisions since 1987 around Reagan National Airport, with one-third of those incidents being military aircraft-related and seven including helicopters. While this is higher than the national rate and could cause concern among air travelers, aviation experts say the numbers don't indicate flying is unsafe.

"It’s important to keep a little bit perspective, for a lot of folks 30 aircraft sound like a lot but it’s almost over 40 years," said Philip Mann, an assistant professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida.

NMACs, formerly called near-misses, are defined by the FAA as "an incident associated with the operation of an aircraft in which a possibility of collision occurs as a result of proximity of less than 500 feet to another aircraft," or when a pilot, crew member or even passenger reports "a collision hazard" between two or more aircraft.

Mann said this could cause "a little bit of fuzziness."

"There could still be a football-field-and-a-half distance between the two (aircraft) and they could be side-by-side," he said. "If you come a foot inside of that, you've had a near miss."

– Kathleen Wong

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Contributing: Reuters

DELTONA, Fla. —

In the most recent Deltona City Commission meeting, the mayor, although not in attendance, was called out for a recent trip he took to Washington, D.C., during the presidential inauguration, which was funded by taxpayer dollars.

"He can't approve projects on his own without a vote of the commission," said Dori Howington, Deltona city commissioner. "So why would he think that he could pick up and travel to Washington, D.C.?"

Howington said all trips must be approved by the commission, which she claims didn't happen, but the mayor said he got approval.

"I spoke to the city manager," said Mayor Santiago Avila, city of Deltona. "I told them, you know, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and then I told them, 'Hey, look, I got a really cool email from Sen. Scott's office. They gave me a personal invitation to be at the inauguration.'"

However, the city manager does not have the authority to grant that approval. Howington claims the city paid nearly $3,000 for the trip.

This includes the mayor's and his wife's hotel stay, meal reimbursements, and mileage costs. WESH 2 News put in a public records request for a copy of all the receipts.

The mayor claims the bill wasn't that high and adds that a flight there would have been more expensive.

"Do I have the city pay $800 to take me to D.C., or can I just drive up? That's 14 hours, but I'll drive and save my city some money. Right?" Avila said. "I stayed at one of the cheaper hotels."

The mayor said he went to D.C. and chose cheaper options. He mentioned that he did not end up attending the president's inauguration.

Many asked why he even took the trip in the first place and what benefit it had to the community. He said it was to build relationships and secure funds for the city to help with flooding.

"I went to D.C. for the U.S. Conference of Mayors," Avila said. "I wanted to make sure I spoke to Senator Scott and his staff about when the $44 million comes to the Senate. We really need that support in Deltona."

However, Howington said there was no need for him to go all the way to Washington, D.C., to meet with state leaders.

"Our mayor actually sees Rick Scott quite a bit," Howington said. "So I'm not sure why that meeting had to take place in Washington, D.C., especially during the inaugural week."