The aircraft had flown tourists in New York City thousands of times before crashing Thursday with a Spanish family aboard. Passengers who had flown earlier that day are processing the shock.

© Adam Gray for The New York Times

Concerns that a deadly collision could occur at Reagan National Airport had long been building. But attempts to draw attention to potentially dangerous conditions sometimes went unheeded.

The vice president and transportation secretary claimed that diversity hiring efforts had affected staffing levels among air traffic controllers, but there is no evidence that such efforts played a role in the crash.

There is no evidence that diversity efforts played a role in the crash, and his statements disregarded his own administration’s hiring policies.