Rep. Scott Franklin, R-Fla., told Newsmax on Monday that "America's aviation safety system is the safest in the world" despite concerns raised by deadly crashes recently in Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.
When asked about these recent incidents on "Wake Up America," and whether Americans should be concerned about air travel, Franklin, a former Navy aviator, said, "In any form of travel, there's always risk, but I still think America's aviation safety system is the safest in the world. It's the safest form of transportation we have."
He added that the investigation into the crash between a military helicopter and a commercial airliner just outside of Reagan National Airport in Washington "will show ultimately what happened here."
Franklin noted that "air traffic control is one of those situations where the only standard is perfection." He added, "I want the people who are best in the world at doing that job."
He said, "Regardless of whether we're talking aviation safety or any area in government, people expect that the best and most qualified people will be hired to do the job. So if we find evidence that that's not been the case, then we'll certainly root that out."
The congressman later said that he wanted to "be careful" so investigators don't "lock into one aspect of this and miss out on the possibilities of learning."
He noted that "aviation safety in our country has a long history that's unfortunately been written in blood. And, you know, we are infinitely safer as an air traffic control system than we were decades ago, where I would say aviation safety back in the ’50s and ’60s was borderline dangerous."
Franklin said that "there's always an element of risk involved" in air travel, adding, "the more we can learn and mitigate, the safer we're going to be. And I think we've already seen some things come out of this, particularly in the D.C. incident, that are causing some changes in procedures that, you know, in hindsight, probably shouldn't have been there to begin with."
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