Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy will welcome a team from SpaceX to the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Virginia on Monday as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) looks to Elon Musk’s company for advice on making “a new, better, modern and safer system.”
SpaceX, the leading rocket and spacecraft company in the world, will visit the FAA’s command center shortly after multiple deadly plane crashes sent shockwaves through the United States in recent weeks. In a post on X on Sunday, Duffy said he wants to seek “advice from the brightest minds in America” to follow through on President Donald Trump’s desire to improve the country’s air traffic control system.
“I’m asking for help from any high-tech American developer or company that is willing to give back to our country,” Duffy wrote. “Tomorrow, members of @elonmusk’s SpaceX team will be visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in VA to 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.”
Musk replied to Duffy’s post, writing, “The safety of air travel is a non-partisan matter. SpaceX engineers will help make air travel safer.”
As the Trump administration continues to give Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project more power and oversight of federal government agencies, Duffy attempted to get ahead of any criticism over his invitation to the SpaceX team.
“Because I know the media (and Hillary Clinton) will claim Elon’s team is getting special access, let me make clear that the [FAA] regularly gives tours of the command center to both media and companies,” he wrote.
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The Trump administration fired around 400 probationary FAA workers over the weekend, according to the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, a union representing FAA and Department of Defense employees. Those terminated included environmental compliance workers, aeronautical information specialists, maintenance workers, and mechanics, USA Today reported.
On January 29, just over a week after Trump took office, an American Airlines flight with 64 people on board collided midair with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River. All 64 on the American Airlines flight, along with three servicemembers on the helicopter, died in the crash, marking the first deadly commercial plane crash on U.S. soil since 2009. Days later, a medical jet with six people on board crashed in Philadelphia, killing everyone on the plane and one person on the ground.
Federal investigators are trying to determine the cause of the midair collision over the Potomac. On Friday, the National Transportation Safety Board said the Black Hawk helicopter could have had bad data, making one pilot believe they were flying at 300 feet while the other pilot thought they were at 400 feet. The NTSB added that air traffic control’s instructions for the helicopter to go behind the incoming American Airlines flight could have been missed if one of the pilots keyed her radio at the same time as the message from air traffic control came through, ABC News reported.
Following the collision, President Trump said his administration would “restore faith in American air travel,” adding that air traffic controllers must be “our smartest people.”
“It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. … They have to be talented, naturally talented. Geniuses. Can’t have regular people doing their job,” Trump said in a White House press briefing.
RELATED: Trump Initiates Review Of All FAA Workers In ‘Critical Safety Positions’
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Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy will welcome a team from SpaceX to the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Virginia on Monday as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) looks to Elon Musk’s company for advice on making “a new, better, modern and safer system.”
SpaceX, the leading rocket and spacecraft company in the world, will visit the FAA’s command center shortly after multiple deadly plane crashes sent shockwaves through the United States in recent weeks. In a post on X on Sunday, Duffy said he wants to seek “advice from the brightest minds in America” to follow through on President Donald Trump’s desire to improve the country’s air traffic control system.
“I’m asking for help from any high-tech American developer or company that is willing to give back to our country,” Duffy wrote. “Tomorrow, members of @elonmusk’s SpaceX team will be visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in VA to 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.”
Musk replied to Duffy’s post, writing, “The safety of air travel is a non-partisan matter. SpaceX engineers will help make air travel safer.”
As the Trump administration continues to give Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project more power and oversight of federal government agencies, Duffy attempted to get ahead of any criticism over his invitation to the SpaceX team.
“Because I know the media (and Hillary Clinton) will claim Elon’s team is getting special access, let me make clear that the [FAA] regularly gives tours of the command center to both media and companies,” he wrote.
PRESIDENTS’ DAY SALE! 40% Off DailyWire+ Annual Memberships With Code DW40
The Trump administration fired around 400 probationary FAA workers over the weekend, according to the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, a union representing FAA and Department of Defense employees. Those terminated included environmental compliance workers, aeronautical information specialists, maintenance workers, and mechanics, USA Today reported.
On January 29, just over a week after Trump took office, an American Airlines flight with 64 people on board collided midair with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River. All 64 on the American Airlines flight, along with three servicemembers on the helicopter, died in the crash, marking the first deadly commercial plane crash on U.S. soil since 2009. Days later, a medical jet with six people on board crashed in Philadelphia, killing everyone on the plane and one person on the ground.
Federal investigators are trying to determine the cause of the midair collision over the Potomac. On Friday, the National Transportation Safety Board said the Black Hawk helicopter could have had bad data, making one pilot believe they were flying at 300 feet while the other pilot thought they were at 400 feet. The NTSB added that air traffic control’s instructions for the helicopter to go behind the incoming American Airlines flight could have been missed if one of the pilots keyed her radio at the same time as the message from air traffic control came through, ABC News reported.
Following the collision, President Trump said his administration would “restore faith in American air travel,” adding that air traffic controllers must be “our smartest people.”
“It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. … They have to be talented, naturally talented. Geniuses. Can’t have regular people doing their job,” Trump said in a White House press briefing.
RELATED: Trump Initiates Review Of All FAA Workers In ‘Critical Safety Positions’
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