Staffing levels at the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan National Airport were "not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic," according to a preliminary Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety report on the mid-air collision.

Sixty-seven people are believed to have died in the crash, which occurred while an American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, was landing at Washington Reagan National Airport. So far, 28 bodies, including those of three Army soldiers, have been recovered.

Officials have not established the reason for the collision and investigations are ongoing. Meanwhile, first responders are still trying to recover bodies from the Potomac River.

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According to a preliminary report seen by , a single controller was responsible for both managing helicopters in the airport's vicinity and directing arriving and departing planes at the time of the crash. Such duties are typically handled by two separate controllers.

Aviation attorney Robert Clifford, who has been involved in numerous airline disaster cases including the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes, said the Department of Transportation, the Defence Department and the FAA should call for an immediate, temporary halt to all military helicopters in the airspace used by commercial airlines going into Reagan. "I can't get over how stunningly clear it is that this was a preventable crash and this should never, ever have occurred," Mr Clifford said.

"There have been discussions for some time about the congestion associated with that and the potential for disaster. And we saw it come home last night," he added.

While holding a press conference at the White House earlier today, Trump confirmed there were no survivors after the crash. "As one nation, we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly," he said at a press briefing. "Sadly, there are no survivors" of the crash, he added. "We'll find out how this disaster occurred and will ensure that nothing like this ever happens again," he said.

But Trump then went on a long rant in which he seemed to blame diversity initiatives for the tragic crash. During the press briefing, the president proceeded to attack his political opponents and unleash grievances about diversity hires within the FAA.

"The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency's website," Trump said. He added that the programme allowed for the hiring of people with hearing and vision issues as well as paralysis, epilepsy and "dwarfism".

In his rant, Trump said air traffic controllers needed to be geniuses, adding: "They have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses. You can't have regular people doing their job." When asked by a journalist whether he had any evidence to support his claims that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and hiring preferences played a role in the crash, Trump said he didn't - but defended doing so "because I have common sense."

Following Trump's comments, US pilot and flight instructor Pete Muntean hit out at the president, saying: "What he has said is not only unprofessional, unpresidential, inconsiderate of the status of this investigation, but frankly, it is just unhinged that he could even say with any sort of certainty that diversity, equity and inclusion policies had any part to play in this accident."

Muntean highlighted the collision occurred little more than 12 hours before Trump had begun politicising the disaster. "Remember that 67 people are dead. I hate to get so upset here, but this is something that investigators will really need to pick apart piece by piece, and that is going to take some really significant time," said Mr Muntean.

He reacted to Trump's implication that the hiring practices of Air Traffic Controllers may be to blame. "I have to feel for the air traffic controllers in the tower at Reagan National Airport, who had to essentially sit there helplessly and make the call to first responders to say, we have a serious aircraft crash at 8.48pm last night."