When accidents occur, it is usually not a good idea to overly speculate about the causes. The tragedy involving an airline aircraft and military helicopter at Reagan National Airport will be formally investigated, and many recommendations will be made.

In the meantime, President Trump, the Vice President, and the Secretary of Defense, all made appropriate and unusually smart public statements, and thoughtfully answered many press questions. President Trump especially, zeroed in on how the prior Biden administration, and the prior Transportation secretary, turned our nation’s aviation system into a DEI hiring program, and lost their focus on fundamental factors that reinforce safety.

This included pressuring airlines, air traffic control, the FAA, and the military, into favoring people on factors outside strict qualification. Worse than that, however, it included a government hiring program for individuals and groups with cognitive disabilities into critical safety roles. That, obviously, is unacceptable.

The primary safety factor, as the President explained, is having the right people in the right jobs doing the right things. In technical jobs like aviation, it is merit, experience and hard qualifications that matter, and matter most.

Going forward, the country’s airline, air traffic control, and military sectors will have a stronger, renewed mandate on human fitness, skill, experience, and performance.

I’m not suggesting that prior political policy led directly to this tragedy; however, the ways that our political leaders communicate, or don’t communicate, along with how they display leadership in critical times, has profound effects downstream on business and government concerning their confidence, morale, and performance expectations.

Trump is setting new expectations, and this will strengthen greatly one of the most vital components of our economy, and of our national security: aviation, aerospace, and defense.

Matthew G. Andersson is the founder and former CEO of Indigo Airlines, backed by the American Express Corporation and McKinsey and Company. He is a jet command pilot and graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He was an executive adviser in aerospace and defense with Booz Allen Hamilton and testified before the U.S. Senate on new aircraft in the national airspace system. He is the author of The New Airline Code, concerning aviation economics and policy. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the University of Texas at Austin, where he worked with White House national security adviser W.W. Rostow at the LBJ School of Public Affairs.

Image: Salva F. Ayala