Originally Posted by
makobob
In the end, the chain of events were allowed to happen as did this horrible accident that took the lives of sixty-seven beautiful souls. The President is totally correct in that we need to hire pilots and air-traffic controllers based on merit and experience, nothing else!
The President is likely not quite correct in his description of some of the accident circumstances, and has perhaps misunderstood a briefing if there was one. Pilots used to considering the risk of mid air collision know it might not be straight ahead in the view
"The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn,"
As for recruitment of new people, decode this and following remarks
As part of the hiring freeze, no federal civilian position that was vacant at noon on January 20 would be filled, and no new positions would be created unless required by law or under the president's orders. Trump's order does not apply to military personnel or positions related to immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety.
It is unclear whether the freeze prevents the FAA from hiring new air traffic controllers or if these roles fall under public safety professionals.
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trum...-crash-2023348
Other articles say that air traffic controllers were amongst FAA staff who received offers to resign with 8 months pay
Subsequently there may have been some later official sourced remarks that they are not eligible for the offer, but not necessarily also clarification whether they have been told this
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/air-traffic-controllers-initially-offered-buyouts-told-leaving-118330627