The black boxes from American Airlines flight 5342 and the Army helicopter that collided on Wednesday night have been found in the icy waters of Washington DC’s Potomac River. At a press briefing on Friday afternoon, Todd Inman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said there was “a high level of confidence” that useful information would be obtained from them.

In addition, critical information, records and interviews from the Federal Aviation Administration and air traffic control facility at Reagan Washington National Airport are giving the NTSB, “the info we need to make an accurate assessment,” Inman said.

He did not address, nor was Inman asked about a new development that continues to cast a political light on the disaster in which 67 people were killed, 64 on the commercial flight from Wichita and 3 on the Black Hawk helicopter training flight.

The family of one of the three Army pilots killed in Wednesday’s mid-air collision asked that her name not be made public. It is an unusual request and suggests that America’s toxic political environment could be impacting the lives of people who might never have considered they would become a part of it.

Some degree of politics always seeps into government operations, including air accident investigations, as I reported at length in the “Conspiracy” section of my book, The Crash Detectives. But at no time in my 30 years writing and investigating air accidents have I seen political policy inserted with such little regard to its impact.

Less than a day after the crash, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the FAA’s new acting administrator to undo the “damage caused by the “Biden administration’s DEI and woke policies.”

At a press conference signing the order, Trump was asked why he concluded that DEI was related to the crash.

“Because I have common sense. OK? And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t.”

With this talk going on at the White House, it is not a stretch to imagine that the family of the woman pilot of the Black Hawk might be concerned their lost loved one would be singled out as a “diversity hire” or otherwise subjected to the social rage machine. To be clear, no reason was given for the family’s decision.

A statement from the Army identifying the other two crew members read, “At the request of the family, the name of the third Soldier will not be released at this time.”

Some tip-toeing around Trump’s comments could also be seen at the Thursday’s NTSB news conference. Asked by ABC’s Tom Costello if the investigation would be harmed by the President’s statements, Board Chair Jennifer Homendy deflected.

“With all respect,” Homendy said, “the press also likes to state what probable cause is before we state probable cause.”

A determination of probable cause is at the other end of the journey on which the board has embarked. To answer the question why two aircraft were in the same place at the same time, many issues need to be examined.

The most obvious is why. Why did the helicopter crew fail to see the regional jet? What was the air traffic controller’s role? Did the FAA’s air traffic control facility have sufficient staffing? If not, why not? Chould a second person in the tower have helped?

The NTSB will likely elevate the scope of its inquiry to include a growing hazard at DCA; a persistent and long-running shortage of controllers and an increase in flights at the Capitol’s airport.

This too is political, with its origins in President Ronald Reagan’s decision to show he could be tough with unions by firing 11-thousand striking union air traffic controllers. His ban on their ever working again for the federal government ensured a long-lasting shortage that persists to this day.

The airport, meanwhile is getting busier, in part because politicians from western states in both parties lobbied to add more flights in 2023 and 2024 even though the airport is over capacity.

So yeah, there’s a political component to aviation safety. But if, (and this is only an if), the grieving family of a female helicopter pilot is asking for her name to be withheld out of concern she might be turned into a symbol of a “diversity hire,” I hope we can agree, that is a bridge too far.