Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy vows it's safe to fly after shocking crashes, echoes Trump's DEI criticism

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy on Sunday assured Americans it's safe to fly after two plane crashes last week, but he said investigators are still answering critical questions on the shocking incidents and doubled down on President Donald Trump's criticism of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Duffy was sworn in as transportation secretary hours before the Wednesday crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport that killed 67 people. As the investigation into what caused the collision continues, he assured Americans wary of boarding a plane that the skies are safe.

"Air travel is the safest form of travel that you can undertake in the country. Now, we've seen some cracks, and it rattles people when they see these disasters," Duffy told CNN. "But air travel is safe."

Duffy also said he's looking for answers on whether area air traffic controllers were understaffed and why the Black Hawk helicopter that collided with the American Airlines flight was flying at its height, especially near the Washington airport's busy runways.

Additionally, Duffy addressed the Medevac jet that plummeted from the sky on Friday and crashed in a fiery explosion in Philadelphia, killing at least 7 people and injuring 19. He said more answers on the crash will come once the National Transportation Safety Board is able to recover the plane's so-called "black box."

"Until that time, we won't know what went wrong on that flight," Duffy said.

But the transportation secretary on Sunday also repeatedly echoed Trump and his top allies' criticism of DEI efforts in the immediate aftermath of the DC-area collision.

"We must have only the highest standards for people who work in our aviation system," Trump said at a White House briefing Thursday. "Only the highest aptitude, the highest intellect, and psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers."

DC plane crash: NTSB on air traffic control tower staffing, last-second communications

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, also at the briefing, issued their own attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion and alleged that merit-based hiring had fallen to the wayside.

“The era of DEI is gone at the Defense Department," Hegseth said.

Trump and other top administration officials haven't provided evidence that hiring practices and diversity initiatives are to blame for the crash or that race/ethnicity, gender or ability was related or responsible.

But Duffy, charged with overseeing the country's transportation projects and policies, also criticized diversity and hiring initiatives on Sunday.

"In the last administration, they were focused on, not safety, but they were focused on changing the name from cockpit to flight deck or notice to Airmen, they wanted to change it to notice to air mission," Duffy said in an appearance on CNN. "They focused on EVs and sustainability and racist roads ? things that don't matter in regard to safety."

But he added that his department is planning to address the critical understaffing at control towers across the country, also pointing to academies that were shut down amid the COVID-19 pandemic and other recent factors.

"We haven't had enough air traffic controllers in America for a very long time," he told Fox News Sunday in another Sunday appearance.

"Our air traffic controllers, they are stressed out, they're tapped out, they're overworked. That's no excuse, it's just a reality of what we have in the system," Duffy continued.

But, Duffy told CNN, "I can't flip a switch and make that happen overnight."

"This process and this plan we're developing right now, that's going to, a year, two, three years from now, show real results of putting certified air traffic controllers ? bright, smart, brilliant people in towers controlling airspace," he said.

Duffy called the crashes "tragic," and said mourning families across the country who lost loves ones "makes us recommit that this doesn't happen again, that other families don't have to go through what these families are going through because we have air crashes, air disasters like the one in Philadelphia and the one here in DC."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Plane crashes: Duffy says it's safe to fly, echoes Trump DEI criticism