Army secretary nominee Daniel Driscoll questioned whether Army helicopters should be flying training missions in one of the nation’s most congested flight paths after Wednesday's tragic Washington, D.C.-area collision.

"It’s an accident that seems to be preventable," Driscoll, an Army veteran, said during a Thursday confirmation hearing at the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"There are appropriate times to take risk and inappropriate times to take risk," he said. "I think we need to look at where is an appropriate time to take training risk, and it may not be at an airport like Reagan." 

Sixty-four people were aboard the American Airlines flight inbound from Wichita, Kan., which collided with an Army Sikorsky H-60 Black Hawk helicopter just before it was set to touch down at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia. Authorities do not believe anyone survived. 

BLACK HAWK CHOPPER UNIT WAS ON ANNUAL PROFICIENCY TRAINING FLIGHT, HEGSETH SAYS

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed the three soldiers who were aboard the chopper were a "fairly experienced crew" doing a "required annual night evaluation." 

"We anticipate that the investigation will quickly be able to determine whether the aircraft was in the quarter at the right altitude at the time of the incident," he said. 

In a blunt Truth Social post, President Donald Trump called the crash "a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented."

AMERICAN FIGURE SKATER SAYS HE WAS BARRED FROM FLIGHT THAT COLLIDED WITH ARMY HELICOPTER

"The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time," Trump wrote. "It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane."

Ronald Reagan Washington National, an airport owned by the federal government, has been the subject of debate for years. It has one of the shortest runways in the industry, yet Congress approved additional flight slots in 2024 as part of its Federal Aviation Administration bill. The flight from Wichita, Kan., had just been added in 2024. 

The airport faces complicated aviation logistics near hyperprotected airspace near the Pentagon, White House and Capitol, but lawmakers have pushed to keep it open due to the convenience of its proximity to D.C. 

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"We’re gonna have to work together to make sure that never happens again," Driscoll said in his Thursday confirmation hearing, promising to take a hard look at what training was needed, particularly amid the Army's increased use of its vertical lift aircraft. 

Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked a helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight, according to air traffic control audio. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later, saying "PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ" — apparently telling the chopper to wait for the Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine jet to pass. There was no reply, according to the audio. Seconds after that, the aircraft collided.

Military helicopters regularly cross over the D.C.-area airport's flight paths to ferry senior government officials over the Potomac River into D.C. No senior officials were on board the downed Black Hawk, according to the Army. 

Fox News' Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Democrats sounded off about the White House sending U.S. troops to the southern border, but Army secretary nominee Daniel Driscoll insisted that he did not believe it would affect readiness. 

"Is there a cost in terms of readiness?" Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the top Democrat in the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked Driscoll during his confirmation hearing on Thursday. 

"The Army has a long, 249 history of balancing multiple objectives," Driscoll said. "If this is important to the commander-in-chief, the Army will execute it." 

"I think border security is national security," he went on. "We’ve had soldiers at the border for a number of years, and the Army stands ready for any mission."

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., also voiced concerns about sending the military to the U.S. border.

"We're seeing now active duty military, Army, be sent to the border, being sent on missions right now to support DHS," she said. "But according to our Constitution, the US military active duty cannot perform law enforcement roles." 

ARMY SEC NOMINEE QUESTIONS WHETHER MILITARY PILOTS SHOULD TRAIN NEAR DC AIRPORT

Slotkin, a former CIA agent, said she was concerned that without proper training an incident could occur that would turn public opinion against the nation’s armed forces. 

"I'm deeply concerned that active duty troops are going to be forced into law enforcement roles, and we're already hearing stories that really, really touch right on the line," she said.  

"They're not properly trained. There's going to be an incident," she said. "Someone's going to get hurt, there's going to be some sort of blow up, and suddenly we're going to have a community that’s deeply, deeply angry at uniformed military who were just told to go and drive those DHS vehicles through that building, perform support for somebody." 

Slotkin asked Driscoll if he would follow an order from President Donald Trump or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth if it "contravened with the Constitution." 

"I reject the premise that the president or the secretary would ask for an order like that, but I will always follow the law," Driscoll said. 

HEGSETH SHARES DETAILS ON BLACK HAWK CHOPPER TRAINING FLIGHT

Slotkin shot back: "Your predecessor, Army Secretary [Mark] Esper, had this exact thing that he wrote about in his book, 82nd Airborne Army was asked to come in and clean up a peaceful protest in Washington, DC. So I reject your rejection that this is theoretical."

"We’re counting on you to protect the integrity of a non-political military that is not trained in law enforcement roles." 

Immediately upon taking office, Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border and 1,500 active duty troops — 1,000 Army personnel and 500 Marines — deployed to the southern border. 

There already were 2,500 U.S. service members stationed at the southern border. The troops were ordered there in May 2023 during the Biden administration under Title 10 authorities approved by former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and are planned to be there until the end of fiscal year 2025, according to a U.S. Northern Command spokesperson. 

"Whatever is needed at the border will be provided," Hegseth said Monday, hinting at the possibility of additional deployments in the coming weeks.

Trump also signed an executive order designating drug cartels in Latin America as foreign terrorist organizations, granting the military greater authority to interdict them. 

An estimated 67 people are presumed dead after a Black Hawk helicopter collided with a commercial American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday evening.

A total of 64 people, including four staff members, were aboard passenger American Airlines Flight 5342, and three soldiers were on the Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk that came from Fort Belvoir in Virginia. 

AMERICAN AIRLINES PLANE, ARMY HELICOPTER COLLIDE OUTSIDE REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT NEAR WASHINGTON DC

Here is a timeline of events leading up to and immediately after the Wednesday night crash:

AA Flight 5342 departs Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ITC) for Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) at 5:18 p.m. CST, or 6:18 p.m. EST, according to air traffic control records from FlightRadar24.

An Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter departs Fort Belvoir as part of a training exercise. An senior Army official told Fox News the soldiers were part of a "fairly experienced" Black Hawk crew, and they had night vision goggles aboard the helicopter.

Flight 5342 began to descend into DCA from the south.

DC PLANE CRASH AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL AUDIO REVEALS MOMENT CONTROLLERS SAW DISASTER: ‘TOWER DID YOU SEE THAT?’

Air traffic controllers ask Flight 5342 to land on Runway 33, and pilots acknowledge the order.

ATC AUDIO:

An air traffic control official asks the Black Hawk (PAT-25) pilot whether he can see the commercial aircraft.

"Do you have the CRJ in sight?" the controller asks, and the helicopter pilot confirms he sees the passenger plane and requests "visual separation," meaning he is trying to get out of the flight's path, according to FlightRadar24 audio.

"PAT-25, do you have the CRJ in sight?" the controller can be heard saying to the helicopter pilot 30 seconds before the crash.

The controller makes another radio call to PAT-25 moments later: "PAT-25, pass behind the CRJ."

ATC AUDIO REVEALS MOMENT CONTROLLERS SAW DISASTER:

Army UH-60 and Flight 5342 then collide over the Potomac River, causing an explosion midair at an altitude of about 300 feet that was caught on camera.

Air traffic controllers can be heard reacting, and asking, "Did you see that?"

The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) receives phone calls reporting a plane crash over the Potomac. 

REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT CRASH: MILITARY BLACK HAWK HELICOPTER COLLIDES MIDAIR WITH AMERICAN AIRLINES JET

MPD, D.C. Fire and EMS, and "multiple partner agencies" begin coordinating a search and rescue operation.

DCA closes due to an "aircraft emergency."

The DC Fire and EMS Department posts an update on X stating, "Confirmed small aircraft down in Potomac River vicinity Reagan National Airport. Fireboats on scene."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posts a statement from President Donald Trump to X.

"I have been fully briefed on the terrible accident which just took place at Reagan National Airport. May God Bless their souls. Thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders. I am monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise," the statement reads.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser holds a press conference with other law enforcement personnel and announces that a passenger aircraft collided with a military aircraft.

DC Fire and EMS Chief John A. Donnelly announces that officials "have recovered 27 people from the plane and one from the helicopter."

"Despite all these efforts, we are now at a point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation," Donnelly says.

Officials hold a press conference in Washington, D.C., saying all 67 passengers, crew members and soldiers on board both aircraft are presumed dead.

"We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation," Donnelly says during the briefing. "We don’t believe there are any survivors."

Flights resume landing at DCA; the first aircraft lands at the airport at 11:02 a.m.

A Department of Homeland Security source told Fox News Digital on Thursday morning that there are "no terror concerns" after the collision, and officials suspect the crash was "just a tragedy."

Prior to the deadly collision, there had been a military aircraft-involved crash in Alaska on Tuesday. Officials said a U.S. Air Force F-35 fighter jet crashed in Alaska after the pilot managed to safely eject from the aircraft.

There have been at least 238 deaths and 227 injuries stemming from non-combat U.S. military aircraft crashes since 2012, according to the FAA.

There have also been multiple "close call" incidents at DCA since 2023.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Air Traffic Control (ATC) audio from Wednesday’s collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet reveals the moments before and after controllers witnessed the disaster unfold. 

The two aircraft collided at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, at around 9 p.m. with 60 passengers and four crew members onboard the passenger jet, while three soldiers were inside the helicopter. A massive recovery operation is underway on the Potomac River.

In the air traffic control audio, a controller can be heard directing American Airlines Flight 5342 to take Runway 33.

AMERICAN AIRLINES PLANE, ARMY HELICOPTER COLLIDE OUTSIDE REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT NEAR WASHINGTON DC

The AA pilot confirms he can take Runway 33 and is clear to land the aircraft, a PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet, referred to as "CRJ."

The controller then instructs the helicopter, an Army UH-60 helicopter Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter, referred to as "PAT25," to pass behind the jet.

"PAT25, do you have the CRJ in sight? PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ," the controller says.

No response is heard on the ATC audio feed. Fox News has learned that the helicopter did respond, but on a different frequency, a frequency for helicopters.

About 40 seconds later ground traffic control alerted the tower.

REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT CRASH: MILITARY BLACK HAWK HELICOPTER COLLIDES MIDAIR WITH AMERICAN AIRLINES JET

"Tower Did you see that?"

"Yup we saw it," someone from the tower says, and then the controllers begin the process of frantically diverting the flights.

"Everybody hold your positions on the field right now," a female controller says.

"Fire command. The accident happened in the river. Both the helicopter and the plane crashed in the river... he approached into Runway 33," she says.

"All runways are closed. Nobody's landing, no one moving at all," she tells the fire command, adding that he has clearance to use all taxiways and runways for a response. 

"It was probably out in the middle of the river, the controller says. "I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. I haven't seen anything since they hit the river. But it was a CRJ and a helicopter that hit, I would say about a half mile off the approach into 33," she says.

At the time of the crash, Reagan National Airport reported clear skies, visibility of 10 miles and winds sustained out of the northwest at 16 mph, gusting to 26 mph. The temperature at the time was 50 degrees.

The Army told Fox News Digital that the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, carrying three soldiers, was "from Bravo Company, 12th Aviation Battalion, out of Davison Army Airfield, Fort Belvoir" and was conducting a "training flight."

Russian and U.S. figure skaters were on board an American Airlines flight.

The collision marked the first time there has been a crash involving a U.S. commercial flight since 2009.

Colgan Air Flight 3407, a flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Buffalo, New York, stalled and crashed during a landing approach near Buffalo Niagara International Airport on Feb. 12, 2009. The plane slammed into a house.

Fox News’ Greg Wehner and Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report. 

Surrounded by loved ones, retired U.S. Army Col. William "Bill" A. Connelly, 100, was honored at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Orlando on Friday evening during a flag retreat ceremony. 

Connelly stood tall and proud as he saluted the flag that had been risen from half-staff in honor of the late former President Jimmy Carter before being lowered and folded to be given to him. 

Afterward, Disney cast members lined up to shake Connelly's hand. Something unfamiliar happened next, when park visitors also lined up to thank him for his service.

Connelly said he felt "great" after the ceremony. The veteran and his family are not only Disney fans who have been to the parks and on a Disney cruise, but his son-in-law is a Disney cast member. 

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When asked what his secret is to a long life, Connelly said, "Having happy people around you."

Connelly, originally from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, was drafted into the Army when he was 18. He served with the 115th Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army, and fought in the battle on D-Day at Omaha Beach, Normandy, according to a biography shared by his family.

PRESIDENT BIDEN AWARDS MEDAL OF HONOR TO SEVEN ARMY VETERANS

The Army allowed him to finish high school, go to college where he was in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, earn his bachelor of arts degree and re-enlist in the Army as an officer. 

He was involved in both the European and Pacific theaters during World War II, which included the landing at Normandy. He spent 27 years in the military, and was awarded the Bronze Star for Meritorious Service in a Combat Zone. 

Most of Connelly's Army life was spent working with the Counterintelligence Corps. He is the father of three daughters, a grandfather of six, a great-grandfather of six and became a centenarian on Saturday.

Connelly's wife of 63 years, Jean, passed away in 2016.

The WWII veteran cracked some jokes while speaking with Fox News Digital, and his humility shined through when he said his service in the military was "nothing special."

The daily flag retreat ceremony tradition in Main Street, USA, town square dates back to the park's opening day on Oct. 1, 1971. It features the pledge of allegiance, the singing of "God Bless America" and "The Star-Spangled Banner."

"The ceremony is a tribute—a thank you to veterans for their service, sacrifice and dedication to protecting our country," Disney World's website reads. 

More stories about Disney saluting military service heroes can be found here. 

Two new videos have been released in relation to Wednesday's Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas as investigators try to piece together what caused an active-duty U.S. Army soldier to kill himself and then blow up the electric pick-up truck.

The first video shows the Tesla Cybertruck slowly leaving the hotel’s valet area earlier in the morning, while the second video is taken from inside the hotel and shows the truck exploding, sending flames and fireworks into the air. 

Investigators believe Matthew Livelsberger, 37, shot himself in the head before blowing up the futuristic-looking truck outside the iconic hotel, sending flames, fireworks and shrapnel upward just steps away from the hotel's glass doors.

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Livelsberger was the only fatality, although seven bystanders reported having minor injuries. A motive has yet to be established. The cause of death was suicide by gunshot, according to the Clark County coroner.

The first video is surveillance footage and shows who police say is Livelsberger driving the rented Cybertruck slowly out of the hotel’s valet area. Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill says Livelsberger then visited several places along the Las Vegas Strip, including stopping at the parking lot of a business near the Flamingo Hotel.

In another clip, the truck is stopped at traffic lights on Sands Avenue and then Livelsberger takes a right turn toward Trump International, where he ultimately stops outside the front doors and 17 seconds later the truck goes up in flames. 

Authorities say the truck contained gasoline and camp fuel containers, as well as large firework mortars. The explosion occurred just steps away from the hotel's glass doors, which were not damaged.

The second video, taken by a witness in the hotel’s lobby, shows the truck in flames after the initial explosion. An alarm inside the hotel can be heard going off and emergency lights are flashing.

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Two explosive bangs can be heard, followed by the sound of fireworks going off and then another explosion as the top of the truck remains on fire. The incident took place at around 8:40 a.m. local time. 

Among the charred items found inside the truck were a handgun at Livelsberger's feet, another firearm, a number of fireworks, a passport, a military ID, credit cards, an iPhone and a smartwatch, McMahill said. Authorities said both guns were purchased legally.

Livelsberger was a U.S. Army special operations soldier who had several addresses associated with him and was on leave from Germany, where he was serving with the 10th Special Forces Group.

Kenny Cooper, a special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the level of sophistication is not what officials would expect from an individual with this type of military experience.

Meanwhile, FBI Special Agent Spencer Evans added that investigators were looking for potential terror ties to Livelsberger but had not found any as of Thursday afternoon.

"The question about whether it's being investigated globally, absolutely – like I said, we're running down investigative leads around the world," he told reporters. "No information that we're aware of right now that connects this individual to any terrorist organization around the world, but that's obviously the thrust of the investigation…ruling out that there's any sort of terrorism nexus."

An Army spokesperson told Fox News that Livelsberger began active duty in the Army in January 2006 and reached the rank of master sergeant. 

Livelsberger spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a massive Army base in North Carolina that is home to the Army Special Forces Command.

Livelsberger joined the National Guard from March 2011 to July 2012, followed by the Army Reserve from July 2012 to December 2012. Additionally, the U.S. Army Special Operations Command confirmed Livelsberger was on approved leave at the time of his death. 

Fox News’ Mitch Picasso and Michael Ruiz as well as The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A war is being waged against American society. The goal? To disrupt it, break it down and remake it in a completely different way. This sort of assault falls under the category of "political warfare" – meaning the use of all weapons of power, short of a shooting war, to achieve goals. 

One of the most successful political warfare weapons used against American society is DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion). Those who wield it know their goal. As Democrat Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley said: "the truth is that America needs DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] to disrupt systems of oppression that are active in every facet of society."  

Sound a little like the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)? Not surprisingly, for decades China-linked entities have used real societal issues as cover to support organizations that exacerbate American societal divisions to advance CCP interests.  

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In 1971, during China’s murderous Cultural Revolution, Huey Newton, founder of the Black Panthers, traveled to China where he met a supportive Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. Back in the U.S., the Panthers sold copies of Mao’s Little Red Book to raise money, including for weapons. 

Beijing doesn’t care about discrimination in America, it wants to pit American against American and weaken the country from the inside in order to make it easier to "win without fighting." DEI is an effective political warfare weapon to achieve that goal. 

Once inside organizations, DEI programs function like IEDs (improvised explosive device) in a battle zone. They lie hidden. Then, one wrong move and bang – your career, self-worth, ability to provide for your family, can be over. And no one looks at you the same way again.  

(This analogy in no way minimizes the horror of the physical damage caused by real world IEDs. It’s just a way to understand the seriousness of the institutional and personal damage done by DEI.) 

One aspect of IEDs is those who place them, and/or remotely detonate them, stay safely out of the blast zone. Similarly, those using DEI/IEDs to attack know there is rarely any punishment, even for false accusations.  

One result, as Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth put it – from privates to commanders – people are constantly "walking on eggshells." It spreads fear, distrust and stress.   

The U.S. military still functions (and often very well), but the DEI/IED tension is ever present – affecting recruitment, morale, training, effectiveness and ultimately lethality. 

There are dedicated and effective efforts to ‘demine’ society by people like Manhattan Institute senior fellow Chris Rufo and Conservative activist Robby Starbuck. But in the military, no similar efforts by senior officers come to mind. 

Indeed, when the DEI/IEDs were being laid in the military, leadership helped.  

Testifying before Congress in 2021, then-Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley, indicated "White rage" in the military was his priority – even though at the time intelligence about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s possible invasion of Ukraine was presumably on his desk.  

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin launched an "extremists" hunt. He found fewer "extremists" in the ranks than you’ll find in any Ivy League faculty lounge.  

In 2022, the current Chief of the Joint Staff, General Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. wrote a memo that implicitly called for racial quotas in the Air Force officer ranks – at least.  

The DEI/IEDs did their damage. Meanwhile, the services struggle to find recruits, U.S. arsenals are depleted, and we still aren’t focused on fighting China.  

Beijing ought to be delighted.  

We’ve seen the results of DEI/IED in the military before.  

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In the late-‘60s, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s "Project 100,000" pushed in recruits from mental and physical categories who otherwise would have been rejected.  Race wasn’t involved – it was about changing standards to meet quotas. Indeed, in the late 1940s when Black Americans were finally allowed to compete (to the same standards) as other Americans, the American military – and American society – greatly benefited.

But Project 100,000 was equity and inclusion on overdrive. The harm was immediate, including those soldiers being three times more likely to be killed in action, not to mention getting others around them killed.

Moreover, Project 100,000 contributed to the collapse of discipline throughout the U.S. military services, to include racial violence, drugs and gangs that lasted well into the 1970s.

Nobody much remembers those days, unfortunately.  Don’t think they couldn’t return.

It’s not superficial diversity that is our strength; it is our unity of purpose.  

An efficient, effective and deadly military depends on high standards that are unfailingly maintained – along with fair treatment, equal opportunity and advancement on merit. Remove any one of these and you’re asking for trouble. DEI/IED removes all of them. No wonder China has been such a supporter. 

If DEI is allowed anywhere near the US military (or anywhere else) it should be good DEI: Discipline, Effort and Integrity. All things the individual has control over. The content of the character.  

The sooner the DEI/IED mine-clearing teams do their work, the safer we will all be.  

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