Sen. Ron Johnson Suggests the Black Hawk Helicopter Intentionally Slammed into the Airliner: ‘Did the Pilot Close Their Eyes?’

B. Johnson: “This has been a wild week in Washington, D.C. Nobody was expecting this. And since this is top of mind with the FAA, perhaps you can explain, like, from your position, how did this happen and what reforms need to be made? “

R. Johnson: “I’d say bureaucratic incompetence across the board. You know, why do they have any flight path of helicopters anywhere near Reagan National Airport, whether it’s at the right altitude or not? I mean, it’s — that’s just insane to do that. We know that the air traffic system has been broken. It’s antiquated. We know it’s not properly staffed. You know, why didn’t the Biden Administration do anything about it? So no, these are problems that have been going on for years. People have known about it. But, again, it’s why I’m not a fan of government. It’s completely incompetent. You know, really, under anybody’s management, you cannot properly manage a $7 trillion a year entity and expect anything better than this probably. It’s just — it’s sad. We’ve got to shrink the size of government so we can manage what we have a whole lot better, because right now it’s completely out of control.”

B. Johnson: “I will say, if — given the dark circumstances, at the very least the Trump Administration is being transparent, is telling us the truth, is, like, coming forward with an enormous amount of information. And we are — we can rest assured that we’re going to get to the bottom of what actually happened here. Final question on the subject, Senator, what do you believe actually happened?”

R. Johnson: “I really don’t know, it’s completely inexplicable to me. It sure looked like that helicopter just purposely ran right into that airliner. I — was the pilot, did he close his eyes for, you know — again, you can’t, you can’t explain it. How can you not see an airplane when you are flying a helicopter close to an international airport? How can you not be looking all over the place, much less like right in front of you? You cannot explain this.“