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President Donald Trump wasted little time this week trying to assign blame for the nation's deadliest air disaster in more than two decades. Among his chief targets:
An FAA diversity hiring initiative he suggested had undermined the agency's effectiveness.
No evidence has emerged that rules seeking to diversify the FAA played any role in the collision Wednesday between an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed 67 people.
Nevertheless, Trump's comments drew attention to the agency's attempts to address its most pressing and long-standing problem — a persistent shortage of air traffic controllers who are critical to keeping the nation's skies safe.
Trump is using this week's disaster as another opportunity to push back against diversity programmes, after signing executive orders that banned such initiatives across the federal government.
That included one specifically for the secretary of transportation and the federal aviation administrator.
During the White House press briefing, Trump said the FAA diversity programme allowed for hiring people with hearing and vision issues, as well as paralysis, epilepsy and “dwarfism.”