SIMON BARBER: Chronicle of a US air disaster foretold
Manipulation of air traffic controller tests preceded the deadly collision between helicopter and passenger jet over Washington
03 February 2025 - 05:00
Week two of the “Golden Age” US President Donald Trump announced at his inauguration featured the death of 67 in a collision between an out-of-position military helicopter and a passenger jet on final approach to Washington’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
When, 39 years earlier almost to the day, the president for whom that airport was renamed had to respond to another disaster — the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger shortly after launch — he delivered one of the finest speeches of a career in which there were many (even if you did not always agree with him)...
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