March 12, 2019

Trump Offers Insight Into Modern Aviation After Fatal Boeing Crashes

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot.”

Al Drago/ZUMA

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In the wake of Sunday’s fatal Boeing 737 Max 8 plane crash, President Donald Trump on Tuesday complained that modern aviation has become “far too complex” and called for “great flying professionals” to take precedence over new technology.

“I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot,” Trump tweeted.

The president’s insight into the aviation industry comes as countries around the world—including Britain, China, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Oman—have moved to ground the popular Boeing line after an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed shortly after taking off on Sunday. It was the second deadly crash for the 737 model in less than five months.

Senators Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have all called on the US to join others in grounding the Boeing model.

Though Trump did not mention Boeing by name in his tweet, the president’s statement appeared to contradict the Federal Aviation Administration, which on Monday deemed the Boeing model safe to fly. “If the FAA identifies an issue that affects safety, the department will take immediate and appropriate action,” Trump’s Transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, told reporters Monday. “I want people to be assured that we take these incidents, these accidents very seriously.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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