Trump names acting FAA administrator after fatal collision

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he had appointed a former senior aviation official as the acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration, a day after the deadliest U.S. air disaster in more than 20 years. The announcement came after an American Airlines regional passenger jet collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River near Reagan Washington National Airport. Chris Rocheleau, a U.S. Air Force veteran who worked at the FAA for more than 20 years, was previously COO of the National Business Aviation Association. Sources said Liam McKenna, who was the counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee, has also been named chief counsel at the FAA. Rocheleau has been at the FAA since last week, the sources added. Mike Whitaker, unanimously confirmed as the FAA administrator in October 2023, stepped down early from his five-year term on Jan. 20 when Trump took office and for 10 days the FAA declined to say who was running the agency on an acting basis. Trump has not yet named a permanent candidate to replace Whitaker. Trump suggested that efforts to boost diversity at the FAA could have been a cause in the crash. At a White House press conference, he harshly criticized Pete Buttigieg, who headed the Transportation Department under President Joe Biden, saying, "he's a disaster... He's run it right into the ground with his diversity." Buttigieg blasted Trump on social media, calling his comments "despicable." "As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch," Buttigieg said.<br/>