Media partisans weaponize plane crash tragedy

For the past several years, the air traffic I see out the windows of my office has been constant — a regularly occurring string of flights headed north up the Potomac toward Ronald Reagan International Airport, and others headed south after taking off. Yesterday morning was the first time I can remember seeing the skies utterly clear of traffic, as the ferry boats that normally take tourists and visitors from port to port along the river were instead repurposed as salvage vehicles for divers seeking out the remains of the passengers lost in the crash of American Eagle Flight 5342 and soldiers flying the Army Black Hawk it collided with a mere 400 feet above the water. For all the flashing lights and yellow tape cordoning off major portions of the river along the George Washington Parkway, the day was marked by an eerie silence, as if the whole of the bustling DMV were shocked mute by the tragedy.

The initial shock had barely faded when certain people were already attempting to weaponize the crash into the realm of politics. Desperate media partisans were forced to delete tweets suggesting that President Trump’s clearing out of an aviation review board or his assertion of new control over the TSA could be the cause for this crash — both of which were nonsensical takes. Then there was Trump, highlighting the shortages he believes are caused by longstanding objections of many air traffic controllers to the wisdom and legality of DEI priorities within the programs — a critique that took the form of an executive order just last week.

Disasters of this sort are few and far between in American history, but this one gains prominence not just because of the number of lives lost but the prominence of the airport in question. The most important people in politics fly into and out of Reagan — sometimes, in the case of new senator Jim Justice, they do so every day.  And given the omnipresence of military and other government helicopters in the area, the task of managing a confined airspace is quite daunting. Just the day before the crash, another flight had to pull a last-minute go-around to avoid hitting a nearby helicopter. 

The investigation that will be spun up around this crash could take a great deal of time, but the eventual answer may not leave anyone satisfied. The possibility of slight miscommunication with an overburdened controller, or a simple visual misjudgment of which plane the helicopter pilot needed to note, will leave few feeling better about what happened to cause all this pain. It would be nice to have a convenient, simple act of incompetence or corruption to blame in this moment. But that’s far too easy. Instead, all of those connected by the ties of community to those who lost someone close need to do the harder task of comforting and supporting them through this difficult time as best we can. It’s not much, but it’s all that we can do. The river flows on, and the planes are flying outside the window again, lights blinking softly in the gray dawn.