Trump blames diversity policies for US air crash
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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Paul Moss, and in the early hours of Friday, the 31st of January, these are our main stories. President Trump blames diversity employment policies for the fatal plane crash in Washington. Israel finally releases more Palestinian prisoners after complaining about the chaotic handover earlier of Israeli and Thai hostages. And there are fears of an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda as a nurse dies in a hospital in Kampala. Also in this podcast, why strict rules in schools in Japan are making pupils miserable. And... We say goodbye to Marion Faithfull, who's died at the age of 78. What caused a passenger plane and a helicopter to collide in Washington on Wednesday night, killing all 67 people on board?
It might seem way too soon to know. The investigation's likely to be long and painstaking. And yet one person is already pretty sure about what was behind it. Donald Trump has been outlining his theories, making sure first to say he'd been shaken by what happened.
This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation's capital. and in our nation's history, and a tragedy of terrible proportions. As one nation, we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly. And we are a country of, really, we are in mourning.
But the US is also a country, Mr Trump said, where mistakes have been made. He claimed his Democrat predecessors, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, had weakened safety measures. And he also blamed the encouragement of people from diverse backgrounds to apply for jobs they shouldn't have, something he claimed had happened at America's Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA's website states they include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism all qualify for the position of a controller of airplanes pouring into our country, pouring into a little spot, a little dot on the map.
It wasn't exactly an explicit response, but after the president spoke, the chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board gave a news conference. Jennifer Homendy emphasized that the accident required a thorough investigation to determine what had happened.
We are all here because this is an all-hands, on-deck event. And we're here to assure the American people that we are going to leave no stone unturned in this investigation. We are going to conduct a thorough investigation of this entire tragedy, looking at the facts.
Well, while the investigation may have begun, the clear-up is also still very much ongoing. As our correspondent Nomia Iqbal explained from Reagan Airport, where the passenger plane was heading...
It's almost back to business here at the airport. There have been so many planes flying in the skies. But if you're a passenger on that plane and you look out the window, you will still see the Black Hawk and the airliner half submerged in the icy waters of the River Potomac. The recovery operation is still very much underway behind me. Now, the National Transportation Safety Board has said that it's investigating multiple factors. It's confirmed that they have not recovered the flight data, also known as the black boxes. They plan to issue a preliminary report in around about 30 days, but they have said it will take some time because there's so much information that they have to verify. And even though President Trump seems to have prejudged the investigation, saying what he thinks caused it, the Safety Board says it's refusing to speculate.
Well, Sarah Smith is our North America editor. Was Donald Trump speaking off the top of his head when he was talking about diversity policies being behind what happened?
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Speakers
17 identified
Paul Moss 8 min
Jonathan Head 3 min
Jennifer Mass 2 min
Celia Hatton 2 min
Wira Davis 2 min
Dorcas Wangira 2 min
David Sillitoe 1 min
Lucy Williamson 1 min
Sarah Rainsford 1 min
Verity Wild 1 min
Nomia Iqbal 1 min
Donald Trump 1 min
Lily Wu
Jennifer Homendy
Mark Lowen
Marianne Faithfull
James Menendez
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