Update on helicopter plane crash - one air traffic controller was doing two jobs at once

Staffing has been low as have the standards for hiring. A bad combination.

The air traffic controller on duty at the time of the deadly passenger plane-Black Hawk helicopter crash in Washington, DC, was doing the work of two people, the Federal Aviation Administration said. 

Staffing in the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” the FAA found in its preliminary report, according to the New York Times. 

Now we can bicker and argue over the DEI polities and such, but there is no excuse for not being able to hire air traffic controllers. In this case, one of the two jobs the one worker was responsible for was overseeing the helicopters. So there can be no argument that this shortage was not directly associated with the accident. Moreover, the Reagan Washington Airport has had series of near misses in recently months. So things have been getting worse.

Now pistol Pete Buttigieg has been said to be upset that he is getting blame for some of this. More than just upset. Apparently he even stomped he feet a time or two. He was that mad. But as much as certain liberals want to blame Trump and Duffy for this, I am pretty sure that either 10 days or 2 days is enough to have taken over full authority of the Department of Transportation, much less gotten this granule. This is on those who have been in charge for the past four years. Not just the many near misses, but also for this actual crash.

Meanwhile the left is trying to use this as a political tool against Trump, especially for his stance that we need to get back to merit based hiring. I would argue that at some point Trump should change the rhetoric from being "against" DEI and instead be "for" merit-based hiring. It's difficult to ultimately argue in the wake of a crash like this that it is more important to be "inclusive" in your hiring decisions rather than just hire qualified people who do not let planes crash. This should be a losing argument for Democrats and a big winner for Trump and the GOP. They just cannot let it be drug down into the dumps with a lot of nonsense about race. Keep it about merit and hiring the best people possible.