Readers write

Can’t pin LaGuardia tragedy on air traffic controllers

The recent tragedy at LaGuardia Airport is indeed horrific. We are very fortunate to have the very capable Jennifer Homendy as chair of the National Transportation Safety Board. She wisely pointed out that these tragedies are typically caused by multiple factors. Yet the recent New York Times article in Monday’s AJC implies the fault lies with not enough air traffic controllers.

As the Air Canada flight was arriving at LaGuardia, a United flight was frantically trying to find a gate because of fumes in the back of the plane. Unable to find an open gate, they would have used a fire truck to evacuate the plane. But a look at the mitigating factors of the LaGuardia disaster shows the fire truck involved in the incident did not have a transponder, which would have enabled immediate communication from the tower. Fire trucks fall under the purview of the Port Authority. Finding an open gate involves yet another agency.

So many moving parts and different agencies at the airport hindered the controllers. Add to this that they work with an air traffic control system from the 1980s, in dire need of an update. While Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy focused on hiring more controllers after the Ronald Reagan Airport disaster last year, we need greater coordination among agencies.

GAIL VAIL, GREENSBORO

Trump should blame Hegseth, pull out of Iran

Pete Hegseth continues to embarrass our country on the world stage by publicly demonstrating his ignorance about how Islamic ideology works.

He will most likely succeed in uniting disparate factions, who once fought each other, into a massive force against one enemy — the U.S. Not that the president cares about destroying Islam or not, it seems that he may be realizing he’s a participant in Hegseth’s Jumanji war games video and should be looking for a way out.

Why not implement his famous scapegoating strategy — fire Hegseth for misinforming him about the threat in the first place, creating the oil crisis, getting more press than he is, and having better hair. Then he can claim it was all the fault of the secretary of war, while he wanted to negotiate for a peaceful solution all along — and that he has many Muslim friends.

INGRID MACDONALD, MARIETTA

Government ‘swamp’ is more polluted than ever

President Donald Trump has not drained the swamp: He has simply filled it with malignancy that makes it more caustic, polluted and foul-smelling.