During a portion of an interview with NBC News aired on Thursday’s broadcast of “NBC Nightly News,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy stated that abnormal staffing in the control tower at Reagan National Airport when a helicopter and plane collided is “not new to us” and there has been “low staffing in other towers.”
Host Lester Holt said, “We asked her about not normal staffing in the control tower when this happened.”
He then played a clip where he asked Homendy, “What’s the NTSB response to that?”
Homendy responded, “That’s not new to us. We have seen low staffing in other towers.”
In another part of the interview, Holt asked, “Is this one of the worst fears of the NTSB?”
Homendy answered, “Yes. It is. And it’s actually something that I warned about before Congress when I last testified on aviation safety, that this is exactly our worst fear. And here, we are investigating a tragedy that we haven’t seen in years.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
