OAN Staff James Meyers
9:39 AM – Wednesday, February 19, 2025
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt went after Senator Chuck Schumer for saying that President Donald Trump was part of the blame for the Delta Air Lines jet that flipped over in Toronto, Canada.
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“It’s incredibly irresponsible for Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to say such a thing when the investigation is still underway,” the press sec told Fox News’ “America Reports” late on Tuesday.
“This crash unfortunately took place in Canadian airspace with Canadian air traffic controllers overseeing it,” she said.
This comes after the Democrat Senate Majority Leader fired off multiple posts on X, referencing the FAA cuts that the Trump administration made in the previous weeks.
“I’m thankful that everyone in the flight incident in Toronto that took off from Minneapolis is safe, but we keep seeing these incidents day after day. Meanwhile, Trump’s doing massive layoffs at the FAA —including safety specialists — and making our skies less and less safe,” Schumer wrote.
“To those asking whether it matters that the plane’s destination was in Canada: The flight took off from Minneapolis. The FAA was still responsible for inspecting the aviation equipment, and Trump just let go of FAA safety specialists,” he added.
His remarks come after Trump put the blame on the Biden administration’s FAA standards for being part of the deadly crash that took place between an American Airlines plane and an Army black hawk helicopter that left all 67 people dead at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in January.
Leavitt pushed back more, pointing out the fact that Canadian air traffic controllers were responsible for directing the plane ahead of its crash-landing, and that “no air traffic controllers have been let go” by the Trump administration.
“In fact, Secretary [Sean] Duffy has put great emphasis on hiring the best and the brightest air traffic controllers who want to be part of the FAA,” Leavitt continued.
Furthermore, she claimed that the Biden administration was sitting “on their hands when it came to aviation safety for four years.”
The press secretary’s latest remarks come as officials are still investigating multiple possibilities of the crash, including weather conditions, human error or an aircraft malfunction.
Footage of the crash circulating across social media showed the plane hitting the ground so hard that its right wing was torn off as it plunged into the icy and snow-covered runway.
The jet, which was coming from Minneapolis, went up in flames before it completely flipped over.
In nothing short of a miracle, all 80 people on board the flight survived, although 18 were injured, with three suffering critical injuries.
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