White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has blasted Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for suggesting President Trump was partly to blame for the Delta Air Lines jet that crash-landed and flipped over in Toronto, Canada.
Leavitt ripped the Democratic lawmaker just hours after he appeared to link Monday’s disastrous Delta landing to the president’s recent cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration’s workforce.
“It’s incredibly irresponsible for Chuck Schumer to say such a thing when the investigation is still underway,” the press sec told Fox News’ “America Reports” late Tuesday.
“This crash unfortunately took place in Canadian airspace with Canadian air-traffic controllers overseeing it,” she said.
Schumer had fired off a slew of tweets referencing the FAA cuts as he reacted to news of the Delta plane bursting into flames and tipping over as it touched down at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday.
“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.
Leavitt was quick to note that Canadian air traffic controllers were responsible for directing the plane ahead of its fiery crash-landing — and that “no air-traffic controllers have been let go” by the Trump administration.
“In fact, Secretary 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.
She went on to blast the Biden administration for sitting “on their hands when it came to aviation safety for four years.”
Her reaction to Schumer’s remarks came as investigators continued to probe whether weather conditions, human error or an aircraft malfunction could be to blame for the Delta plane saga.
Horrifying video from the scene showed the plane landing so hard that its right wing was sheared off as it skidded onto the snow-covered runway.
The jet, which was en route from Minneapolis, then burst into flames before flipping over.
Miraculously, all 80 people on board the flight survived.
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