Rep. Sam Graves, the Missouri Republican in charge of overseeing the Federal Aviation Administration in the House, said Friday that diversity initiatives at the agency had nothing to do with a crash between a commercial airplane and an Army helicopter that killed 67 people earlier this week.
In an interview with POLITICO, Graves, who chairs the House Transportation Committee and is an experienced private pilot who is rated to fly a commercial airplane, said many questions remain about just what caused the crash. He urged allowing investigators to do their work — but said that he doesn’t believe DEI initiatives played a role, despite insistence to the contrary from President Donald Trump and some others in the GOP.
“I don’t think it had anything to do with this particular accident. I have concerns about DEI within the FAA and for that matter all the transportation agencies, but I’ve had that concern now for years,” Graves said.
Graves noted that the pilots involved were experienced and that there was a “separation issue” between the helicopter and airline that needs to be further investigated. He also said it’s important to wait until all the facts are uncovered before even beginning to consider whether a legislative fix is appropriate.
Graves also sought to reassure a jittery public, saying “air travel is absolutely safe.”
“We have dozens and dozens and dozens of helicopter flights up and down the Potomac and the Anacostia [rivers] every single day and they interact with those airline flights coming in and out,” he said “We have to find out what exactly happened.”
Graves said there is a “hard ceiling” for those helicopters and that preliminary data suggests the helicopter was flying above it. “We have to figure out why that is.”
“These are very experienced pilots, too. We need to get the facts first before we go running off and trying to fix problems that maybe aren’t problems to begin with,” he said.
Graves also said he didn’t believe that a recent memo issued by the Trump administration freezing federal hiring with some exceptions (including for “public safety”) applied to air traffic controllers. (An aide for Graves clarified that it did not apply.)
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