Leaderless FAA begins investigation of Washington plane crash
COVFEFE
— Dolorosa Santos (@dolorosasantos.bsky.social) January 30, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Equality not to blame for the tragedy
1-20: Trump Inauguration – FAA director Michael Whitaker resigned after pressure from Musk over proposed SpaceX fines of more than $600,000 over alleged violations of its government license in two rocket launches.
1-21: Air Traffic Controller hiring frozen
1-22: Aviation Safety Advisory Committee disbanded
1-28: Buyout letter sent to fed employees
1-29: First American mid-air collision in 16 years. On Wednesday night, a military Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet. On Thursday, as bodies were removed from the Potomac River, officials said all 67 people onboard the two aircraft were dead.
When Trump’s new secretary of transportation, Sean Duffy, was asked, “Is there an acting FAA director?” he walked away from reporters.
Note, this was posted on X 14 hours before the crash:
An FAA employee I know confirms agency already lacks sufficient air traffic controllers. The so-called “buyouts” and other attacks on federal employees won’t help.
Remember that fact when the flight delays (crashes?) commence and Trumpers start falsely blaming DEI or Biden. — Thomas Schaller (@schaller67) January 29, 2025
🛬UPDATE—Airport control tower was understaffed—At the time of the DCA airport crash, one controller was working 2 different tower positions, normally done by 2 people—which FAA memo says was “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic”. ➡️We should not downsize the FAA pic.twitter.com/35ZMIp5805 — Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) January 30, 2025
2) The internal report said the controller who was handling helicopters in the airport’s vicinity was also instructing planes that were landing and departing from its runways — jobs typically assigned to two different controllers
Gift 🎁 link:https://t.co/0ymZgRqYUb
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) January 30, 2025
3) This increases the workload for the air traffic controller and can complicate the job. One reason is that the controllers can use different radio frequencies to communicate with pilots flying planes and pilots flying helicopters. https://t.co/pyWiGEQpqS — Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) January 30, 2025
4) man, this Thomas guy @schaller67 is now 2/2 on his predictions in one tweet. https://t.co/iDJI7eIWad
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) January 30, 2025
There are some true things: President Trump forced out of office the administrator of the FAA. He’s been waging a regular assault on public employees since he came into office. He forced the entire Aviation Security [Advisory Committee] to step down.
– Chris Murphy, Democratic Senator from Connecticut
Politico: Trump’s disaster playbook: Blame Democrats and politicize tragedy
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