Some air traffic control towers in the United States are not manned at all, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., told Newsmax on Saturday.
Biggs, who is running for governor of Arizona, told "Saturday Report" that in his home state, there's an airport with an air traffic control tower that goes "hours where ... it's unmanned."
"The tower is not staffed," he highlighted, "and you have planes coming in — commercial planes coming in."
"They assure me that that that can be fixed. It has to be fixed. Those types of things have to be fixed around this nation."
NBC News reported that 64 people died aboard the American Airlines flight on Wednesday and three from the Blackhawk helicopter crew.
An anonymous source told NBC News that one person was in the air traffic control tower monitoring both helicopters and airplanes at the time of the crash.
One air traffic controller was responsible for coordinating helicopter traffic and arriving and departing planes when the collision happened, according to a report by the FAA that was obtained by The Associated Press. Those duties are often divided between two people, but the airport typically combines the roles at 9:30 p.m, once traffic begins to slow down. On Wednesday the tower supervisor directed that they be combined earlier.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.