Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended Donald Trump‘s criticism of DEI hiring practices in government and revealed new details about the investigation surrounding the fatal plane crash in D.C. 

On Wednesday evening, a military Black Hawk helicopter crashed with a civilian airliner above airspace in Washington, D.C., killing 67 people.

The defense secretary appeared on Fox News to discuss the tragedy on Friday, revealing that the investigation was focusing primarily on the altitude of the plane and the Black Hawk.

‘We are looking at altitude, and the president was clear about that, someone was at the wrong altitude,’ Hegseth said. ‘Was the Black Hawk too high? Was it on course? Right now we don’t quite know.’

President Trump revealed on social media Friday morning that the helicopter was ‘flying too high.’

‘It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???’ the president wrote on TruthSocial.

Hegseth confirmed that three soldiers were aboard the Black Hawk helicopter but could not conclusively say which pilot was flying the helicopter at the time of the crash.

‘You had a captain in training. You had a chief warrant officer too as an instructor. And then you also had a staff sergeant in that Black Hawk as well,’ he said.

Chief Warrant Officer 2, Andrew Eaves has been identified as the pilot on board the Black Hawk Army helicopter, the crew chief was identified as Ryan O’Hara.

The female co-pilot has yet to be named.

Hegseth said the military wanted to make sure the families were notified before revealing the names of everyone killed in the crash.

He defended President Donald Trump’s claim that diversity, equity and inclusion programs within government were partially to blame for the crash.

‘The environment around which we choose pilots or air traffic controllers, as the president pointed out correctly yesterday, better be highest possible standard,’ he said. ‘The best of the best who are managing, you know … a flight a minute and managing radio traffic.’

Hegseth backed Trump’s efforts to root out DEI programs out of the federal government, especially among air traffic controllers. 

‘I don’t care what background they come from, what their race is, what their gender is, if they are rich or poor. I just need them to be good at their job because I need my flight to land safely,’ he said.

Hegseth also promised to root out DEI programs out of the Defense Department, blaming former President Joe Biden for implementing the practice throughout government.

‘For too long under Biden cared about this things, emphasize those things, pushed real or perceived quotes at the Defense Department,’ he said. 

‘We are ending all of that, it’s been made very clear across all of our services and commands, is it merit only and this means we will get the best of the best.’