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The US FAA Command Center will be visited by Musk’s DOGE team on Monday
The US Federal Aviation Administration’s command center is set to host Elon Musk’s DOGE team for talks on Monday.
A visit to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Air Traffic Control command center in Warrenton, Virginia, is scheduled for Monday by members of Elon Musk’s government downsizing team, DOGE, as the Trump administration works to revamp the system.
In a social media post on Sunday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy promoted the visit, saying that DOGE staff would “get a firsthand look at the current system, learn what air traffic controllers like and dislike about their current tools, and envision how we can make a new, better, modern, and safer system.”
Reversing course earlier this month, the Trump administration refused to allow Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security officers and air traffic controllers to take part in a government incentive program for voluntary resignations.
The union for Professional Aviation Safety Specialists said on Saturday that thousands of workers were let go, including several hundred probationary FAA employees, as part of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s drive to streamline the US government.
According to the union, this “draconian action will increase the workload and place new responsibilities on a workforce that is already stretched thin.” On Sunday, a request for comment from the FAA was not immediately answered.
On X late Sunday, Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, defended the scheduled DOGE visit by saying that “air travel safety is a non-partisan matter.” SpaceX engineers will contribute to safer air travel.
Prior to this year’s brief outage of the FAA’s NOTAM pilot warning system, which is located at the Virginia command center, Musk had voiced worries about it.
Senator Maria Cantwell pushed Duffy this month to keep Musk out of FAA airspace reform, pointing to possible conflicts of interest and the agency’s penalties against SpaceX. Late Sunday saw no comment from SpaceX on the issue.
With an average of 45,000 flights each day, the FAA reports that more than 25% of all scheduled flights worldwide arrive at or depart from US airports.
After a deadly airborne crash highlighted ongoing shortages in aviation safety professionals, two US senators demanded this week that the FAA improve funds and manpower. “The FAA is currently short by over 3,500 air traffic controllers, with staffing levels remaining stagnant in recent years and declining 10% since 2012,” said Senators Jeanne Shaheen and John Hoeven.
67 people were killed in the greatest US air catastrophe in more than 20 years on January 29, when an Army helicopter and an American Airlines regional plane collided close to Washington Reagan National Airport.
Assuring that “America has the most innovative, technologically advanced air traffic control system” is what Duffy has promised to do. He’s reviewing the rules that permitted air traffic control controllers to cut manpower before to the deadly collision.
Duffy will also likely unveil new initiatives to speed up hiring and training for air traffic control. He will meet with teachers and trainees of air traffic controllers at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma this week.
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