Summary
Elon Musk called on retired air traffic controllers to return to work, citing a shortage amid heightened scrutiny of the FAA under Trump’s second term.
With DOT Secretary Sean Duffy’s support, Musk’s DOGE attempts to “upgrade” aviation systems despite recent FAA job cuts.
The AP reports fired employees included radar and navigational aid maintenance personnel, though Duffy insisted no “critical safety personnel” were terminated.
Musk’s appeal comes amid increased public concern over recent aviation incidents, though experts consider the uptick an anomaly.
Honestly, this one’s not even completely his own fault. Standard bureaucratic ossification has been fucking up ATC staffing for years now. The pay is low, the qualifications are steep, and the responsibility and stress is insane. Why would someone do that? And so, people don’t. And, on top of them, management from both the business and political sides simply doesn’t give a fuck about safety or morale.
The levels of traffic were just recently increased in that DC airspace where the plane hit the helicopter, and at the time, a bunch of qualified people were trying to raise the alarm that some bad shit was going to happen if they stuffed more aircraft into an already overcrowded area. No one in a position to make any of the decisions cared, and they did it anyway. That all happened before Trump and Elmo came into the picture.
Of course, it is true that their own actions have produced some additional consequences now. They’ve fired a bunch more people and demotivated all the existing or prospective ones pretty much as much as it is possible to do. And, as much as the existing systems are aging and in need of some modernization, it’s absolutely guaranteed that whatever Musk does to “improve” them will make them even worse. All I’m saying is that he didn’t entirely create the bad situation he is now about to amplify tenfold.
100%. There was a shortage of traffic controllers before the firings even began, this only exacerbated a bad situation.
Someone at all familiar with the status of ATC staffing who isn’t a complete idiot would clearly not have exacerbated this situation.
I’m a developer - I’d even classify myself as pretty far to the “move fast and break things” end of the spectrum. But I’m a senior developer because I ask questions and understand things and write tests to confirm that understanding and prove a new system correct before fucking breaking them. Once that’s done I’ve totally got a sledgehammer in hand and am wildly swinging it around to rebuild it cleaner but, critically, we do this in a development environment.
This fucker is hot fixing production without a fucking clue how anything works. He’s in a little fucking bubble where the only opinions allowed in are “Elon is a genius” and he’s drinking the fucking Kool-aid. I’ve seen executives like that and the only correct response is to jump fucking ship.