The former acting Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Billy Nolen said during an interview that President Trump made an “excellent choice” in choosing Christopher Rocheleau as the agency’s next leader. 

“It’s a great decision. Chris, when I joined the FAA, was my number two. I think the world of him, and I think the President has made an excellent choice,” Nolen said during his Thursday appearance on NewsNation’s show “The Hill.” 

Trump said earlier on Thursday that he picked Rocheleau to be the FAA’s acting administrator, less than a day after a military helicopter and a passenger plane crashed into each other Wednesday night near the Washington Reagan National Airport. 

“I’m also immediately appointing an acting commissioner to the FAA, Christopher Rocheleau. A 22-year veteran of the agency, highly respected. Christopher, thank you very much, appreciate it,” Trump said on Thursday from the White House briefing room.

Previously, Rocheleau was the deputy administrator. 

An American Airlines flight going from Kansas to Washington, D.C., collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter Wednesday night, killing 67 people. Sixty travelers were on the flight from Wichita along with four crew members. Three soldiers were on the helicopter. The disaster was one of the deadliest in the country in the last 20 years. 

Nolen, who was the acting FAA head during the Biden administration until the summer of 2023, hopes the tragic crash at one of the nation’s busiest airports should be used as an opportunity to develop better safety innovations. 

“Use this moment. Let’s not let this tragic event go to waste,” he said on Thursday. “Let’s take this as an opportunity to say, what are the other innovative things we can do? We got some brilliant people out there in America, right? And let’s think about what we can apply be it AI, how do we make our airspace more efficient?” 

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