The Tragedy of Crossed Lines on the Potomac

The truth is that today, after everything else, expecting non political responses to any kind of disaster is stunningly naïve.

On January 30, 2025, near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, an American Airways regional passenger jet and a US Army BlackHawk helicopter collided, resulting in the aircraft crashing into the Potomac River. Footage of the crash has been widely shared, together with speculation regarding the cause. Recovery efforts have so far obtained at least 28 bodies, and all 67 people on the flights (a very small crew on the BlackHawk, and the rest on the passenger jet) are presumed dead. It is the deadliest aviation disaster in the US since 2011.

As with every tragedy, it is also a story. News media, both mainstream and alternative, was immediately on the case. The footage of the explosion filmed from the ground was almost immediately on websites and social media. Within the first hour, details of the passenger lists are emerging, together with the horrific news that the passenger jet had included a young US skating team. Images of these innocent teenagers whose lives were cut so horrendously short will of course have the emotive impact that such losses always have and always should have if we are to remain fully human.

But the news cycle isn’t fully human, and nor is the world of politics and nor, ironically, is human nature itself. The same species capable of feeling instant sympathy and despair when innocent and especially young lives are lost, is the same species capable of causing such deaths, either by incompetence, fecklessness or in cases like terrorism, deliberate and soulless intent. The FBI have apparently immediately declared that there is no evidence of terrorism in this event, which may well be the truth and which, in normal times, most people would accept pretty quickly.

But these are not normal times, and the FBI do not have the nuetral, trusted, authoritative voice they once possessed. As they speak on this tragic event, what they say is inevitably coloured by what happens and has happened elsewhere. At the same time they speak, Kash Patel’s nomination as their new boss is being furiously contested by the same Democrats who turned the FBI into a sort of partisan secret police force, raiding Trump’s home, destroying evidence they possessed that incriminated Democrat politicians and their families, and engaging in increasingly criminal and outrageous efforts to exclusively support one side of politics.

When a tragedy occurs, we are told to forget everything else we already know. We are told that we can listen to and trust the FBI or the mainstream media take on an event, and that being respectful to the victims of an event means enacting that trust in the authorities that belonged to an earlier and more innocent (at least on the surface) age. We are told this while we know exactly why Kash Patel’s nomination is so fiercely contested, and while we remember that the same FBI declaring an instant truth on this tragedy, is the FBI that allowed itself to become a political tool, and the FBI that did such astonishingly malign things ascribed coordinate terrorist kidnapping and murder entrapment plots where it turned out that all the most active participants were either FBI agents or FBI paid, coached and instructed accomplices and informants.

As it happens my own view is that in this instance the FBI are right. There is, at least publicly, so far zero evidence of terrorism or conspiracy in this crash. Multiple persons with piloting experience, including of that specific airfield and of flying BlackHawk helicopters, have pointed to the factors which suggest a ‘normal’ tragic incident derived from human error. Read these descriptions, and you are quickly apprised of the way that helicopter lights can easily blend into background city lights or the way that night flying a BlackHawk helicopter in the vicinity of a commercial airfield is both a commonplace event and an extremely complex task.

These accounts have informed us that there are times in flight where the attention of the crew is all on tasks within the helicopter, simply because there is so much to be done in terms of monitoring the communications with air traffic control, making navigational calculations, and checking the systems of the helicopter itself as you go. They have also pointed out that the least experienced member of the crew had 500 hours of flight experience, with the others having 1,000 hours or more. They have reminded us thar BlackHawk helicopters are actually designed to be difficult to spot from other aircraft, especially at night. All this lends itself to the view that this was indeed a terrible accident, as does the record of similar such incidents. Blackhawk flights have resulted in collisions or crashes on multiple occasions with no evidence of conspiracy or terrorism.

It seems pretty logical that military aviation vehicles designed to evade detection, which are incredibly complex feats of engineering and design full of high tech systems that require skilled and swift attention, could if frequently crossing paths with commercial regional flights create the conditions of, and tragically end up enacting, a crash. To imagine these vehicles will never crash is somewhat absurd. What we see from the ground is not what is seen from the flights themselves.

By contrast there has also been an immediate assumption of conspiracy. I understand where this comes from. I understand why people would, quite legitimately, consider the word of the FBI suspect, and perhaps consider it especially suspect when it’s given so soon. How do the FBI already know, with certainty, that there is nothing suspect in this event? Doesn’t that require a period of investigation first?

The online commentary which is suspicious of the already emerging official narrative also supplies some circumstantial evidence for that suspicion. The FBI alacrity in declaration and past history has now become, perhaps inevitably given their recent actions, itself a suspicious marker. But these commentators have also pointed to the seeming fact that the BlackHawk’s transponder was not on, that a military training exercise was taking place at all in such a vicinity, and the erratic flight path of the BlackHawk which seems to veer sharply towards the passenger jet changing speed, altitude and direction to do so. Also publicly released already are communications between the traffic control tower and the BlackHawk which indicate the military vehicle being apprised of the presence of a passenger jet. Those recordings are somewhat ambiguous since it’s possible that the short warning given was mistaken for notification regarding another flight and plane altogether.

Many people will think that this immediate competition between an official innocent narrative and an alternative conspiratorial narrative is a reflection of recent times. It’s the consequence of the age of social media. It’s everyone mouthing off on Facebook, X, BlueSky, Instagram or whatever other platform they use. The least honest and the most corrupt will selectively pick out the wildest responses and say ‘this is why we need to control and limit misinformation’. But really this is not just the social media age at work, it’s far more than that and something that has been building for far longer.

Every tragedy is politics. Every tragedy is news.

And the news is politics.

No matter who is delivering it, no matter who is receiving it, it’s political.

President Trump, for instance, has immediately commented on it. If he didn’t comment, that would be an outrageous insult to the victims. Because he commented, that’s (can you guess) an outrageous disrespect to the victims.

President Trump’s enemies and political opponents have immediately commented on it too. Democrats like Adam Schiff and Pete Buttigieg have immediately blamed the new Trump administration for the collision. Putting a freeze on insane levels of federal spending apparently caused the collision. Trump has removed federal employees who would have prevented the tragedy, according to the Democrat line.

Of course this is standard Democrat naked, partisan exploitation of everything, standard Democrat moralising, which is always simply a performative marshalling of hate against the long established target of Trump. It was instant, it was absurdly inaccurate, they don’t care. They will immediately use 67 innocent dead bodies to score their political points.

As ever, we are also told that what Trump does is the same thing. Trump strongly criticised the previous, Biden administration Transport Secretary, Pete Buttigieg. He also cited DEI hiring policies. Democrats howled in outrage about this, and projected their own opportunism, partisanship, and callous disregard for the norms of respectful behaviour or the lives of victims onto Trump. Look, look, they howled….Trump us to blame. Look, look, they howled….Trump is so disgusting he’s trying to use this to score political points and attack his opponents.

Neither they, nor Republicans who agree with them seem to understand the ‘pot, meet kettle’ nature of such attacks.

First, let’s be completely clear on one thing. Democrats have shown they don’t give a shit about real people. They have shown it in Carolina. They have shown it in Hawaii. They have shown it in California. They have shown it in their responses to fires, floods, train derailments, chemical spills, storms, invasions and every kind of disaster you can imagine. They have shown they don’t give a shit about ordinary Republican voters, and they have just as often shown that they don’t give a shit about ordinary Democrat voters. The people in Hawaii were directed into the flames to die. Their hydrants weren’t working, their alarms were switched off. Their water supply wasn’t there. The people in Carolina were left in the freezing cold with nothing. FEMA officials were picking out Trump voting homes specifically to refuse them assistance. The money that should be there to help American disaster victims had already been spent on foreign invaders. Elsewhere, huge clouds of toxic gases filled the sky in East Palestine, Ohio. Did Democrats give a shit? Of course not. The only Palestinians they care about are the ones killing Jews.

California is one of their strongholds. They have locked it up as a One Party State. It’s theirs. They own it. They decide everything there, they are responsible for everything there. What did they deliver to the poor schmucks of California who vote for them, or even the mega-rich actors and directors of the Hollywood hills who donate to them? An apocalyptic hellscape, that’s what they delivered. An AVOIDABLE apocalyptic hellscape. Whole neighbourhoods burnt down. The Pacific Palisades gone. Multi million dollar beachfront properties gone. Giant palaces overlooking LA gone. Some of the richest places in the world reduced to landscapes of ash and ruin.

Gee, is this stuff political? Is whether you support the kind of policies that burn the world around you to ash and ruin a political issue? Are disasters often caused by political choices…political? Of COURSE they fucking are.

You can’t disrespectfully politicise anything from a Trump, or a MAGA, or a right-wing perspective. Guess what, the mainstream media are ALREADY there. The Democrats are ALREADY there. And the fact that political choices, safety choices, decisions about what we prioritise and where we spend our money and what we care about are ALREADY there make criticism of Donald Trump getting angry and mentioning DEI totally fucking absurd.

It’s not just Democrats who have criticised President Trump for ‘politicising’ this plane crash or for mentioning DEI or for supposedly ‘disrespecting’ the victims of the tragedy. Republicans too have been clutching their pearls. It didn’t take long, did it? Pearl clutching and insisting on ‘respect’ and the courtesies of a world that is gone is what half of Republicans do with every second of their lives.

To these people I say OF COURSE it would be better, infinitely better, if there was such a thing as a non political tragedy. OF COURSE it would be better if a tragedy was met with, at least in the first instance, nothing but respect for the victims or horror at the event or words of comfort to the bereaved. Yes, OF COURSE that would be nicer, better, kinder, more civilised.

It’s not the world we live in. It’s not the world Democrats and the 24/7 news cycle and the mainstream media and the vast corruption of the political system have given us. The world we live in is the one where the media and the Democrats will and do instantly blame a Trump administration for a transport tragedy when the Trump Transport Secretary has been in post ONE DAY when the tragedy occurs.

How can we forget that they disrespect the dead this way? How can we forget that they lie this way? Can an administration that’s been in place a week ACTUALLY be to blame for a tragedy? Of course not. If any political choices contribute to the tragedy they MUST logically be ones from the Biden administration. They must be ones from Pete Butigieg’s period as Transport Secretary.

If you buy a house and find a dead body buried under the patio that was put in fifteen years ago by the previous owner, does that make you the killer? Are you to blame? It’s logically and morally impossible for you to be to blame. I know the Trump administration has been acting very rapidly and very energetically, but could they have acquired full responsibility for every air traffic control, transport recruitment policy and operations policy over all the previous years, sufficient to cancel out every impact Pete Buttigieg and Democrats had on those things over several years….in ONE DAY?

Perhaps it’s the ultimate tribute. Perhaps Democrats really do think that either Trump or his Transport Secretary Sean Duffy have the powers of God Almighty and really can erase everything they did over four years in ONE DAY and really can prevent any tragedy with divine and unerring certainty in ONE DAY. Because that’s the only way you can claim the Trump administration was responsible for this event.

If there IS a political dimension to blame it has to be Democrat one. Those air traffic controllers would have been working throughout the Biden term. They would have been subject to the Biden term recruitment policies. The number of air traffic controllers available, the way they operate, the people selected to be in those posts, the training they receive, all subject to four years of Democrat control and one day of Trump 2nd administration control at the time of the tragic collision.

What do we see when we investigate? It takes just seconds of searching to find articles going back years about DEI practices negatively impacting air traffic control and transport safety. The Obama administration blocked thousands of white male applicants for such posts. The Biden administration returned to those sort of policies after the first Trump term. You can find recent advertisements by the FAA looking to recruit the mentally disabled in the name of diversity. You can be sure that in the four years of the Biden administration the military under General Milley were advancing female and ethnic minority pilots on the basis of skin colour, sexual orientation and gender. You can bet your life on that. In fact, the Biden administration ALREADY bet your life on that. The FAA were recruiting, specifically going out of their way to recruit, the mentally unbalanced and those subject to hallucinations, delusions and mental health issues, as air traffic controllers.

And it’s disrespecting to the dead to look into that? It’s disrespectful to the dead to mention that?

Let’s talk about respect for the innocent victims of tragedy. I’ll tell you how a President shows respect.

1. He cares enough to FUCKING turn up and see the tragedy. He visits the tragedy. He talks to people. He immediately wants to investigate. Trump has done more in those terms ALREADY for people in Carolina, California and yes with this plane crash than Biden did for all the disasters and all the victims of his term.

2. He speaks about the tragedy immediately and honestly. For years we had politicians who never speak honestly. Trump always speaks honestly. Is what he says sometimes crude? Yes. Is what he says sometimes inaccurate? Occasionally, though often he leaps to the RIGHT conclusion before anyone else dares to. But you know what? It’s honest. He doesn’t try to give a measured, polite, nobody can be offended by this answer. He’s honest. If he’s angry and furious and thinks a policy or a person is to blame….he SAYS IT. And it’s not just ‘because it’s a Democrat. It always has a foundation. You can go away and look up the crazy shit he refers to and unless you are a moron you can see that, yes, that could have contributed to this, and probably did.

3. He wants a full investigation and he wants do change the things that caused the tragedy, by whatever political actions he can enact.

Respect is NOT shown just by mouthing polite platitudes. Respect is not shown by safely confining yourself to standard lines of condolence and regret. Quite often families of victims or survivors of tragedy aren’t looking for those standard lines of ‘compassion’ at all, whether the compassion is real or faked.

What they are always looking for is answers. Why did this happen? Could it have been prevented? Was it human error? Where their choices at a higher level thar could have avoided it? And, yes, who is to blame.

But most importantly, what actions at least give those deaths the meaning of trying to prevent it happening again, of changing the things that helped it occur, of giving enough of a shit to be angry about the deaths and angry at ANY complacency, incompetence or malice behind those deaths.

Limiting yourself to ‘we offer our deepest condolences’ is fine and worthy in a non political setting. No public tragedy today is a non political setting.

Limiting yourself to that if there ARE policies and people to blame, who deserve blame, is a DISRESPECT to the dead. And it’s fucking morally and pragmatically objectionable too. It makes no sense. This demand for respect towards DEI? Respect towards Pete Buttigieg? This treating of Trump pointing to a probably accurate assessment of the impact of DEI, which we have already seen WAS a factor in other disasters, as somehow equivalent to him spitting in the faces of grieving families, is absurd.

The only way you prevent the tragedies is if you DO get angry about things that make them more likely, and you DON’T give a shit about how that sounds or how ‘soon’ it is after the deaths of innocents that you start discussing potential causes.

That polite world where everyone offers respectful condolences, and that competent world where there are no political causes of tragedy, and that moral world where everyone is genuinely commenting because they actually care and not because it looks good or gives them a chance to attack their enemies….that is not the world of the 24/7 news cycle. It’s not the world of mainstream or alternative commentary either. It’s not the world the FBI and the Democrats and the people who hate Trump have been building. That world is the world of standards and trust.

You don’t get back to it with demanding that ‘we be better’ or that ‘we show respect’ when nobody else is doing so. You get back to it by righteous fury at all the incompetence and ideology thar blocks the path back to it. You get back to it by brutal honesty and hard uncompromising truths and ACTUALLY doing things.

The way Trump does. The way the 2nd term has been doing. I know those grieving families will get the truth, whatever it is. And I know those victims will at least lead to future victims being less likely, if there is any way Trump can make that happen. I know DEI won’t come before safety. I know politeness won’t come before safety. I know that everything that needs to be done to make it vanishingly unlikely that teams of innocent kids die like this, will be done.

THAT is real respect, and I respect it. The greatest respect of all, is making sure we don’t have to see as many photos of lost kids as we have already seen.