ARLINGTON, Va. — Virginia senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine addressed the aftermath of a deadly American Airlines midair collision, expressing condolences for the victims and gratitude towards first responders.
Scroll down for a transcript of their remarks at a 7:30 a.m. briefing on the deadly midair collision:
Sen. Mark Warner (D - Virginia)
I want to join with everyone else and express my condolences for the victims. For folks who don't live in the DMV, we are made up of a lot of jurisdictions.
Reagan airport is in Virginia, across the river, we have Maryland, obviously the District, but has been indicated by the chief, when tragedy happens, all those distinctions between the various jurisdictions and our federal partners all disappear.
I want to again thank all the first responders.
On a personal note, I'll just add that, literally, I now know I was coming back from the District, from a dinner to my home in Old Town, Alexandria, and while I did not see the collision, I wondered, I'd never seen this many red lights streaming towards the airport and across the river in Maryland.
About this time, my phone started blowing up, and I realized that this accident had taken place. There will be a time to figure out. I know NTSB will have a briefing later in the day, but to the victims, our condolences. To the first responders, our thanks.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D - Virginia)
Sorrow, thanks and questions.
Sorrow, as all have expressed to the crew, to the passengers, to the soldiers, to their families, to their friends, to their loved ones, to people who are still trying to get information and unsure whether their loved ones have been lost.
We offer our profound condolences to them and our sorrow for this tragedy.
Thanks.
I'll echo, Mayor what you began with, when you see a challenge like this, and you see people from so many different agencies, local, state, federal, with different uniforms, different badges, but working in such a coordinated way even in the midst of a tragedy, it does give you a sense of appreciation and pride in people's willingness to come to the danger and work together.
And I started to see that as a local official 30 years ago in Richmond, and definitely have seen it here.
And then finally, questions.
They're going to be a lot of questions, obviously a lot of questions, and that's what the NTSB's job is, is to be an independent investigator of incidents like this. And they are here. We were in dialog with them earlier today. They've been here since they got the alert, and they will be doing the work and playing lead in answering the many questions that we have.
And that's as it should be. It's not a time to speculate. It's a time to investigate and get answers to the questions we need, and I have confidence that will be done.
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