Trent Morse, President Donald Trump‘s pick to sit on the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board of directors, is doubling down on his criticisms of Washington Dulles International Airport’s mobile lounges following Monday’s “people mover” crash.
Eighteen people were sent to the hospital on Monday when one of the controversial runway mobile lounges crashed into a dock at the Washington-area airport. Local flyers have harbored strong feelings, both good and bad, about the transport system since the 1960s, and this week’s crash launched the debate back into the spotlight.
Morse, a former White House Presidential Personnel Office official, told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that “the people mover is a relic of the past” in his nomination hearing last week.
“It is an embarrassment that international travelers, when visiting the capital of the most powerful nation in the world, are transported back to the ’60s,” Morse said. “If I have the privilege of being confirmed, I will work tirelessly with my colleagues to make Dulles the airport that we should be proud of.”
Morse said he will seek the removal of Dulles’s mobile lounges, according to the Washington Post. However, according to Northern Virginia Magazine, an MWAA official said in September that the transport system could be there to stay for another 15 to 20 years.
The White House gave a nod to Morse’s push for infrastructure reform at Dulles in a statement on Wednesday, falling in line with Trump’s March executive order titled “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Again.”
“Eighteen people were recently hospitalized due to an accident involving the notorious ‘people movers’ at Dulles,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said. “The American people can rest assured that the Trump administration is committed to leaving no stone unturned to make our nation’s infrastructure as safe and sleek as possible.”
Airports and air travel have been a major contention point recently, as the government shutdown has caused flight delays and cancellations and has forced air traffic controllers to work without pay.
The MWAA has been part of the epicenter of the discussion on airport safety ever since the midair collision of a Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger plane landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport killed 67 people in January.
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The authority oversees both Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport.
A spokesperson for the MWAA told the Washington Examiner they could not comment on behalf of the board of directors.
