A workforce from Elon Musk’s SpaceX is visiting the Air Site visitors Management Command Heart in Virginia Monday to assist overhaul the system within the wake of final month’s lethal air catastrophe in Washington, DC, US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy introduced. The information comes after CNN reported that the Federal Aviation Administration fired a whole lot of probationary staff who preserve vital air site visitors management infrastructure.
In a put up on X, Duffy mentioned the workforce from SpaceX went to Virginia to “get a firsthand take a look at the present system, study what air site visitors controllers like and dislike about their present instruments, and envision how we are able to make a brand new, higher, fashionable and safer system.” Beforehand, Duffy said that Musk’s DOGE workforce would “plug in” to the FAA to assist “improve our aviation system.”
Duffy additionally dismissed criticism about opening the door to a Musk-led workforce to a different delicate space of the federal authorities. “As a result of I do know the media (and Hillary Clinton) will declare Elon’s workforce is getting particular entry, let me clarify that the @FAANews often offers excursions of the command heart to each media and firms,“ Duffy mentioned. (Clinton has previously criticized the DOGE workforce’s lack of expertise.)
“I do know the media (and Hillary Clinton) will declare Elon’s workforce is getting particular entry”
The FAA is beneath heightened scrutiny three weeks after a midair collision over the Potomac River resulted within the deaths of 67 folks. The tragedy highlighted shortages of air site visitors controllers in addition to congestion at main hubs like Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport. The FAA has fielded hundreds of complaints from air site visitors employees describing harmful situations from employees shortages to dilapidated buildings. And the company itself lacked a everlasting head on the time of the crash — largely as a result of Musk had a hand in ousting the last administrator after the FAA fined SpaceX for failing to submit security information.
Duffy’s put up doesn’t point out Musk’s position within the ouster, nor the a whole lot of employees who had been simply laid off. CNN says the probationary staff had been possible focused as a result of they’ve been employed for lower than a yr and lack the fitting to enchantment.
“This draconian motion will enhance the workload and place new duties on a workforce that’s already stretched skinny,” David Spero, Nationwide President of the Skilled Aviation Security Specialists, AFL-CIO, said in a statement. “This determination didn’t contemplate the staffing wants of the FAA, which is already challenged by understaffing.”