President Donald Trump said he would speak to congressional leaders about legislation to create a U.S. air traffic control system following a deadly crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, calling the current technology “obsolete.”

“We’re all going to sit down and do a great computerized system for our control towers, brand new, not pieced together,” Trump said February 6 at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.

The president said he would raise the issue with Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“We have to get together” to pass “a single bill” to provide a better control system, the president said. Trump said the U.S. had spent “billions and billions of dollars trying to renovate an old, broken system, instead of just saying, cut it loose and let’s spend less money and build a great system.”

The president said the work could be done by “two or three companies,” instead of what he said was a complex arrangement assembled by dozens of companies.Trump said the U.S. had fallen behind other nations which had “unbelievable air controller systems,” including features he suggested would have alerted air traffic controllers to the impending disaster outside Washington January 29, when an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines Group Inc. regional jet, killing 67 people — all of those aboard both crafts.

“It would have just never happened if we had the right equipment,” Trump said.

The helicopter’s flight path in crowded airspace near the airport has emerged as a key line of inquiry for investigators looking into the cause of the crash. They are also looking into air-traffic control staffing levels, including the fact a controller was directing both planes and helicopters in the area. Trump, however, blamed diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices at the Federal Aviation Administration after the crash and suggested pilot error on the part of the helicopter for the disaster.

Trump’s remarks follow comments from Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, who has said he is working with billionaire Elon Musk’s government efficiency effort to help “rethink” the nation’s airspace. Duffy said he had spoken with Musk and his team will help with plans to modernize the U.S. aviation system, but did not offer specifics on the plan.

Musk, in an X post on February 5, said his team aims to “make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system.”

The prospect of Musk — whose rocket company Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is regulated by the FAA — getting involved with the FAA’s operations has already been criticized for posing a conflict of interest. The agency last year proposed hitting SpaceX with fines for alleged violations of launch license requirements, while Musk had called on the agency’s top official under the Biden administration to resign. 

Washington Senator Maria Cantwell said she plans to send Duffy a letter urging him to keep Musk out of the agency’s airspace operations.

“It’s a clear conflict of interest, and Secretary Duffy should make sure that Mr. Musk is not part of the FAA air transportation system,” said Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate committee that oversees aviation. Her state is also home to much of Boeing Co.’s commercial aircraft manufacturing.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office warned in a December 2024 report that the FAA needed to take urgent action to update its air-traffic controller systems, noting a 2023 risk assessment that found 76% were either unsustainable or potentially unsustainable.