By Shania Shelton, CNN

(CNN) — The midair collision at Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night has presented Sean Duffy with a major crisis just hours after he was sworn in as secretary of transportation.

Duffy will not lead the investigation into the crash that led to the presumed deaths of 67 people — the National Transportation Safety Board will lead the inquiry and the Federal Aviation Administration will assist. But Duffy will be the de facto public face of the Trump administration’s leadership in the crisis — he was the first person President Donald Trump brought to the podium after speaking about the crash from the White House — and he’ll also be tasked with addressing the inevitable questions that will come from the tragedy, including a nationwide shortage of air traffic controllers and any potential changes to the Washington, DC-area airspace.

In remarks early Thursday morning, Duffy said the collision was “preventable.”

“Everyone who flies in American skies expects that we fly safely, that when you depart an airport, you get to your destination,” Duffy told reporters. “That didn’t happen last night, and I know that President Trump, his administration, the FAA, the DOT, we will not rest until we have answers for the families and for the flying public.”

Duffy, a former US representative and Fox Business host, was sworn in Wednesday after being confirmed the day before. As transportation secretary, Duffy is leading 55,000 employees and will grapple with some of the most complex challenges facing the nation as they oversee aviation, roadways and rails. Other issues on his plate include Boeing’s string of quality control and manufacturing issues, airline labor union strike threats and climate-focused initiatives such as electric vehicles and charging stations.

Meanwhile, the FAA, which is part of the DOT, is operating without a permanent administrator since Mike Whitaker stepped down earlier this month. A number of other leadership positions are also vacant, the FAA’s website shows. In remarks late Thursday morning, Trump announced that Chris Rocheleau, a former chief operating officer of National Business Aviation Association, will lead the FAA in an acting capacity.

“What Sean has at his disposal, he has a very highly professional staff at DOT and at FAA who have dealt with these, these issues. But we need to get an FAA administrator approved to become a part of Sean’s team,” Ray LaHood, who served as transportation secretary former President Barack Obama’s first term, said on CNN Thursday morning.

Shortly after LaHood took over the DOT in early 2009, Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing 50 people.

If anything positive came out of that tragedy, LaHood said on “CNN News Central,” “it’s that we worked with the families and we worked with Congress, and Congress was able to pass legislation for pilot safety, more pilot rest, and some real reforms.”

Duffy served in the US House of Representatives from 2011 to 2019, representing Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District. He most recently was co-host of Fox Business’ “The Bottom Line,” after first joining Fox News as a contributor in 2020.

He was one of Trump’s least controversial Cabinet nominees and was approved unanimously by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Technology before being confirmed by the full Senate in a 77-22 vote.

In one of his first moves leading the Transportation Department on Wednesday, Duffy moved to roll back a variety of policies on Wednesday related to diversity, equity and inclusion, bringing the agency in line with the Trump administration’s effort to clamp down on the practice.

The-CNN-Wire
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