Senator Marshall Joins National Report on Newsmax: We are Demanding Answers

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. joined National Report on Newsmax to discuss the tragic crash between an American Airlines flight traveling from Wichita, Kansas, and a military helicopter that took the lives of 67 individuals. Senator Marshall praised President Trump for his Administration’s transparency and efforts to improve air traffic control standards. Senator Marshall will continue to demand accountability to ensure something like this never happens again.

You may click HERE or on the image above to watch Senator Marshall’s full interview.

Highlights from Senator Marshall’s interview include:

On exemplary leadership from DOT Secretary Sean Duffy, DOD Secretary Pete Hegseth:

“I just want to thank Secretary Sean Duffy, and Secretary Pete Hegseth as well. I spoke with Sean this morning, a long-time friend. I said, Look, the biggest concern that all of us have are these helicopters in this airspace. This is the busiest runway in all of America, and there’s military helicopters in this area, and there was still some confusion around coming tonight. Would they be allowed back in there? And I begged them, please, just stop this until we get it all sorted out. And it’s going to be a while. There’s no reason the military can’t fly their missions in other places. There’s plenty of Atlantic Ocean one direction they can go towards Virginia. They don’t need to be here. So I appreciate the quick response from the Trump administration.”

On the Trump administration acting quickly, being radically transparent:

“I want to thank President Trump for just being radically transparent. I think with past administrations, you wouldn’t have known those facts, you and I’d be speculating on that particular fact…Every helicopter in this airspace has a ceiling of 200 feet, so when that helicopter went above 200 feet, number one is the air traffic controller should have had bells and whistles going off saying, Hey, this is a problem. Mr. Mrs. Whoever’s in that plane, you’re too high. You need to come down. And again, there was not a person assigned to just helicopters that night. Typically, air traffic control has two people, one controlling commercial flights, one controlling the helicopter. So I think that this is absolutely a fact. It’s an error, it’s a failure. I appreciate President Trump’s team taking accountability here, and they’re going to correct it.” 
“Something else people aren’t talking about. President Trump hired over 100 of these air traffic controllers his first week in office, and is going to hold them to the highest standards as well. And I appreciate that, but you’re absolutely right. This helicopter should have never been above 200 feet. We can talk about the night goggles and make some excuses, but there’s no excuse that’s going to bring back my 67 people who perished on that flight.”