Donald Trump has linked a diversity drive at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) under previous governments to a deadly plane crash in Washington DC.

Sixty-seven people were killed when an American Airlines jet and a military helicopter collided mid-air on Wednesday night.

Speaking at the White House, the new US president suggested the diversity efforts had made air travel less safe.

He said: “We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas.”

Read the latest on the crash in Washington

Later Sky’s US partner NBC news said staffing at Reagan Washington National Airport, where air traffic controllers were guiding the flights, was “not normal”, according to an initial FAA report.

The tower normally has a controller who focuses specifically on helicopter traffic.

But at the time of Wednesday night’s crash, a source said, one controller at DCA was overseeing both plane and helicopter activity.

FAA guidelines do allow for this position to be combined.

At his briefing Mr Trump blamed his predecessor, former president Joe Biden, for lowering standards for air traffic controllers.

“We have to have our smartest people,” he said. “They have to be naturally talented geniuses.”

He added: “The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website.”

Mr Trump criticised Mr Biden and another Democrat former president Barack Obama for putting “policy over safety” when it came to US aviation.

“I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary,” Mr Trump said.

He said that after being sworn in last week, he signed an executive order which “restored the highest standards of air traffic controllers”.

Read more:
Washington DC plane crash: What we know so far
Air traffic control heard diverting planes moments after collision

Mr Trump also said: “When I left office and Biden took over he changed them [standards for those who work in aviation system] back to lower than ever before, I put safety first, Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen because this was the lowest level.”

At a later briefing he was asked if gender or race played a role. He answered: “It may have, I don’t know. Incompetence may have played a role.”

Authorities have said the rescue operation for passengers on board the jet and the Black Hawk helicopter shifted to a recovery one as they believe there are no survivors.

A total of 28 bodies, including 27 from the jet and one from the helicopter, have been recovered from the Potomac river.

“This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital and in our nation’s history and a tragedy of terrible proportions as one nation, we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly,” Mr Trump said.

The American Airlines jet was carrying 60 passengers and four crew when it crashed with the military helicopter, carrying three soldiers, shortly before 9pm local time on Wednesday.

Flight 5342 was preparing to land on runway 33 at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport when it collided with the helicopter.

The crash is the country’s worst civil aviation disaster since 2009.

Mr Trump also said “the people in the helicopter should have seen where they were going” and that the crash involved a “confluence of bad decisions”.

The Pentagon and US army are investigating the crash, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on X.

Three Israeli and five Thai hostages have been freed under a phased ceasefire deal that has halted fighting in Gaza.

But after a chaotic release that saw crowds swarm sections of the handover, Israel temporarily delayed the freeing of 110 Palestinians expected in exchange.

The first hostage, 20-year-old female Israeli soldier Agam Berger, was released in northern Gaza.

Hours later, footage from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis showed a stunned and scared-looking Arbel Yehoud being led through a crowd, flanked by armed, masked Palestinian militants.

Gaza ceasefire latest

The Israeli civilian was at the centre of a dispute between Israel and Hamas last weekend.

It’s suspected she was being held by Islamic Jihad, another militant group in Gaza.

A third Israeli, civilian Gadi Mozes, 80, was also released on Thursday.

Israeli military identified the five Thai nationals as Thenna Pongsak, Sathian Suwannakhan, Sriaoun Watchara, Seathao Bannawat and Rumnao Surasak.

In return for the release of the Israeli hostages, Israel is expected to set free 110 Palestinians detained in prisons, including children, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

Among them are a 61-year-old held since 1992 and 30 teenagers, the youngest a 15-year-old boy.

Their release was pausedafter the Israeli PM condemned the “shocking” scenes of the handovers to the Red Cross.

Benjamin Netanyahu said Palestinian detainees would be held until the safe exit of Israeli hostages was guaranteed in future.

He said later that he had received such a commitment, and Israeli media reported the releases of Palestinians would go ahead.

The war has devastated much of Gaza’s infrastructure, including homes, roads, sanitation and communications networks.

The latest planned exchange is part of a fragile truce – mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt – that began on 19 January and has so far held, aimed at winding down the deadliest war ever fought between Israel and Hamas.

In the first round, Hamas released three Israeli soldiers, including British-Israeli Emily Damari, in return for 90 Palestinians, including a teacher who said she had been held for seven months.

Among the roughly 250 people taken from Israel during Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack which ignited the conflict, some have died in captivity in Gaza, while others have been released or rescued.

More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive, according to Hamas-run authorities in Gaza, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

On Monday, hundreds of thousands of Gazans traversed rubble and dirt to return to what was left of their homes in the north of the Gaza Strip.

But joy was tempered by grief as many discovered shattered or looted homes, no running water in the vicinity and dire shortages of basic supplies.

On Thursday, a new Israeli law came into effect banning the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) from Israeli territory.

It raised fears of a shutdown of its schools, medical facilities and other services in east Jerusalem – and possibly more in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where UNRWA is the biggest provider of aid.

British MP Sarah Champion, who chairs the International Development Committee of MPs, called the ban “devastating”.

“Food, water, education, even rubbish collection will all be affected,” she said.

“In the strongest possible terms, I urge the UK government to do everything it can to get all parties round the table and ensure that UNRWA can fulfil its UN-mandated work. The success of the current ceasefire hangs in the balance if not.”

An Iraqi man who burned copies of the Koran in Sweden has been killed in a shooting, Swedish authorities say.

Swedish police said Salwan Momika was shot dead in a house in Sodertalje, a town near Stockholm, on Wednesday, hours before a court verdict was due in a trial in connection with his burning of the Koran.

Five people have been been arrested, but police did not say whether the gunman was among those detained.

Mr Momika, a refugee and anti-Islam campaigner, staged several desecrations of Islam’s holy book in public or in social media broadcasts in 2023.

Worldwide publicity of the burnings caused widespread anger and criticism, as well as riots in Sweden and numerous Muslim countries.

Sweden’s prime minister has expressed concern the shooting may be linked to a foreign power.

“I can assure you that the security services are deeply involved because there is obviously a risk that there is a connection to a foreign power,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said at a news conference on Thursday.

A court in Stockholm had been due to sentence Mr Momika, 38, and another man on Thursday over “offences of agitation against an ethnic or national group,” in connection with the Koran burnings.

The court said the verdict was postponed because one of the defendants had died.

Judge Goran Lundahl and court documents confirmed Mr Momika was the deceased.

Meanwhile, police said they were alerted to a shooting in Sodertalje on Wednesday night.

Officers found a man with gunshot wounds, who later died. A preliminary murder investigation was opened.

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The 38-year-old was streaming live on TikTok at the time he was shot, local media has reported.

A video seen by news agency Reuters showed police picking up a phone and ending a livestream that appeared to be from his account on the app.

In 2023, Sweden raised its terrorism threat to the second-highest level after Koran burnings, many of them by Mr Momika, triggered threats from jihadists.

Burning the Koran is seen by Muslims as a blasphemous act because they consider it the literal word of God.