1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,620 Now bring in Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas. Sir, thank you so much for taking the time this 2 00:00:04,620 --> 00:00:10,580 morning. I do appreciate it. Yeah, yeah. Well, good morning to you and your listeners. It's 3 00:00:10,580 --> 00:00:16,780 just, it's a tough day for Kansas. We probably, we lost 67 people. It just feels like a gut punch 4 00:00:16,780 --> 00:00:21,000 and we're just lifting those families up in prayer, trying to surround them with our love. 5 00:00:21,080 --> 00:00:26,560 We're all mourning with them and it's a tough day. Yeah, we know the American Airlines flight 6 00:00:26,560 --> 00:00:32,940 was coming into DC from Wichita. I'm sure some of the people that you represent were likely on that 7 00:00:32,940 --> 00:00:40,100 flight. What are you hearing from families this morning? Yeah, I think we're just all in shock. 8 00:00:40,900 --> 00:00:45,620 At least half of these families are from Wichita. It looks like a fair number of people from the 9 00:00:45,620 --> 00:00:50,520 East Coast as well, but there's only one direct flight out of Wichita. This is a flight I've 10 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:55,900 taken multiple times and it would be unusual for me to get on that plane and not recognize some of 11 00:00:55,900 --> 00:01:00,880 the people in there. But regardless, it's just, you know, we're all on our knees today. We're 12 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:05,840 humbled. We're just praying for God's grace on these, on all these families. They got a tough, 13 00:01:05,960 --> 00:01:10,720 tough day ahead of them. Just trust me, it's a tough day. Yeah. And I think that that's the thing 14 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:14,700 that's rocking everybody to their core, right, is that this could have been any of us just on a 15 00:01:14,700 --> 00:01:19,380 flight to DC that this happened to. You know, President Trump has now said that this deadly crash 16 00:01:19,380 --> 00:01:24,700 quote should have been prevented. At this point, the FAA, the NTSB, the Department of Transportation, 17 00:01:24,700 --> 00:01:30,580 all investigating in tandem together. With what you know so far, do you agree with that, 18 00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:36,800 sir, that this was preventable? I do. And I appreciate President Trump's transparency. I 19 00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:42,260 really, really do that the American people deserve to be leveled with. You know, there was a couple 20 00:01:42,260 --> 00:01:48,120 of huge concerns. Why are we letting military aircraft in this airspace? This is the busiest runway 21 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:53,440 in America. Why are we letting them there in the first place? And then their transponders don't 22 00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:58,240 communicate with commercial planes. So I understand why they don't have transponders on. They don't 23 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:01,900 want the bad guys to know where they are. But if you're going to be in airspace where there's 24 00:02:01,900 --> 00:02:07,020 commercial airplanes, very busy, you need to have a transporter that works. There's other places they 25 00:02:07,020 --> 00:02:12,420 could do this military training. This helicopter should have never been above 200 feet. The collision 26 00:02:12,420 --> 00:02:17,760 occurred at 350. So all the helicopters have a ceiling of 200 feet. Why was he up there? Why was 27 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:23,440 air traffic control not yelling and screaming at him or her as well? So I do think this was this 28 00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:28,200 should have never happened. And just it's so sad. What questions do you have for air traffic 29 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:31,860 control? Because, you know, we're getting that report that there was only one person there that 30 00:02:31,860 --> 00:02:37,000 was supposed to be doing the job of two. I mean, Senator, what do you make of that? And what do you 31 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:45,440 want to know from the FAA? Yeah. So we did meet with the FAA and the national transportation folks 32 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:49,820 yesterday as well. And the sad thing is every question I have for them is we'll get back. 33 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:55,240 You know, my question is the policy. Why are we letting military planes, police planes in this very 34 00:02:55,240 --> 00:02:59,580 busy airspace if they don't have transponders to work? And then, of course, their radio communications, 35 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:06,840 a different channel than the commercial flights as well. Look, this is I hate to point fingers. I don't 36 00:03:06,840 --> 00:03:11,600 want to jump to conclusions, but I think air traffic control could have helped prevent this 37 00:03:11,600 --> 00:03:17,460 situation as well. And we're waiting for that full review. We know that sometimes they only have one 38 00:03:17,460 --> 00:03:21,720 person handling this. Usually they have one person handling just the helicopter. And if they had that 39 00:03:21,720 --> 00:03:26,000 one person focused on the helicopters, again, I think they've been yelling and screaming, what are 40 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:31,440 you doing above 200 feet? You know, and these folks had night goggles on, which decreases your peripheral 41 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:36,060 vision in the helicopter. I mean, most likely that's what we're assuming. If you need to do that type of 42 00:03:36,060 --> 00:03:41,080 training, don't do it above DCA airport. And speaking of just that airspace, you know, 43 00:03:41,140 --> 00:03:47,740 class B airspace, very congested, extremely busy. Just last year, though, you know, Congress gave the 44 00:03:47,740 --> 00:03:55,100 A-OK to add 10 more daily flights to DCA. I know fellow senators like Tim Kaine, you know, 45 00:03:55,360 --> 00:04:00,020 opposed to that move. You think that needs to be rethought, sir? 46 00:04:00,020 --> 00:04:07,180 Yeah, I think once I discovered this horrible policy of allowing military plane in this airspace 47 00:04:07,180 --> 00:04:11,500 without a transponder on, I think we need to revisit everything. And if they're going to 48 00:04:11,500 --> 00:04:15,340 increase the flights, then we need to have more air traffic control. And by the way, last week, 49 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:19,920 President Trump hired over 100 more of these air traffic controllers. So he's trying to address 50 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:26,220 this problem up front, you know, and he was trying to reverse this trend in less safety within the air 51 00:04:26,220 --> 00:04:32,020 traffic control and within more within the FAA, I would say. And before I let you go, what's your 52 00:04:32,020 --> 00:04:37,020 message to passengers across the country who are now nervous to get on a plane? 53 00:04:39,340 --> 00:04:46,300 Yeah, I understand. I have empathy. And I appreciate President Trump's up front communication here. 54 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:51,220 They've grounded or they've there's no more helicopters allowed in this airspace 55 00:04:51,220 --> 00:04:56,380 at DCA as well. Right now, this is the first accident has been 15 or 20 years, 56 00:04:56,440 --> 00:05:00,180 the first major accident as well. Still probably safer than traveling in a car. 57 00:05:00,180 --> 00:05:05,080 But thanks for watching, everybody. Go to join in in dot com to find News Nation on your television 58 00:05:05,080 --> 00:05:09,780 provider. Also, don't forget to click that red subscribe button below to get more of News 59 00:05:09,780 --> 00:05:12,220 Nation's fact driven, unbiased coverage.