Awkward moment Secretary of Transportation admits total ignorance and deflects blame to Pete Hegseth

 Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy attempted to shift the blame onto fellow cabinet member and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth during an interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham.

During his appearance, Duffy was grilled by Ingraham on Monday, after a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter caused two commercial flights to divert from Washington’s Reagan National Airport last week. It was reported by the FAA and NTSB that a Delta Airbus A319 and a Republic Airways Embraer E170 were ordered to execute “go-arounds” around 2:30 p.m. after a Pentagon-bound helicopter was instructed to circle the building before being allowed to land.

"So they have got to have a mile and a half of nautical separation, 500 feet separation as well," Duffy, 53, explained. "[The helicopter] breached that airspace, and so two airplanes had to go around." It came as Donald Trump also faced humiliation due to an "embarrassing and diabolical" social media post.

During the awkward exchange, the Transportation Secretary said that "the question becomes who are the VIPS?" He adds, "Is it a 2-star general? A 3-star general. There is a lot of traffic going into the Pentagon."

"The top brass at the White House, they take a suburban or Tesla or they take their own car," he added. "Who do these generals think they are to take helicopters to go to meetings?"

Ingraham seizes on the question, asking the official who he thought it was. "I don't know who it was," responds Duffy.

"We should find out," he says before mentioning that it might be due to the Department of Defence. Ingrahm once again seized on the question by stating, "Who do we ask? I mean, you're the transportation secretary. How do you not know?"

Duffy, who was spluttering in anger, told the journalist that "the FAA doesn't know." The Trump official then went on to further attack the DoD.

"The DOD has promised radical transparency; they should tell us who is qualified to take a helicopter out of the Pentagon," raged Duffy. "I don't know. But they have to tell us."

Well, could you just call up Hegseth," questioned a confused Ingraham. "Well, I--I should actually, why don't you call," stuttered Duffy.

"Let's call him right now," said Ingraham. "But those are the answers that we need," continued Duffy. " Again, when we have these near misses, you gotta stop the traffic."

"The president, the vice president, Pete Hegseth, they should all fly in helicopters," Duffy said. "But a 2-star? I mean, come on."

This is not the first time Duffy has attempted to deflect the blame. On Thursday, Duffy attempted to blame the increased media coverage of recent plane accidents for fueling public concerns about the safety of flying.

Speaking on Fox and Friends, Duffy said while the number of plane incidents had not increased, growing media attention made it appear that way. “The numbers of crashes or incidents with aircraft - they’re not up. It’s been consistent over the last 6-8 years. But the media covers it more after DCA [plane crash],” he said.

The NBTS reported the number of aviation accidents is down nearly ten percent so far this year compared to the same period last year, per ABC News. From January to April this year, the NTSB investigated 250 aviation accidents in the US, down from 275 incidents during the same period last year.

However, Duffy admitted that there were “problems” in the air traffic control systems, adding that a shortage of controllers was contributing to the issue. "We need more air traffic controllers; we’re 3,000 controllers short,” he said.