The president is more concerned with attacking the federal government than with putting safety first

Few stretches of airspace on the planet are as busy or as carefully monitored as the skies above Washington DC. Commercial and military aircraft are on the move there at all times. The greatest concentration is around Reagan National airport, the city’s principal domestic hub, which sits on the west bank of the Potomac River within sight of the Capitol dome.

No one yet knows how a Black Hawk military helicopter collided with an American Eagle flight from Wichita above the Potomac on Wednesday evening. But the destruction was total. No survivors have been found from among the 64 people on board the flight from Kansas or among the three-strong crew of the helicopter. By early Thursday, the rescue effort was already a recovery operation. Bodies were being lifted from the river’s icy waters through the day.