Tag: air traffic control

Government Waste That Should Really Piss You Off

Why have there been so many air traffic control issues lately? Is it because Trump has begun to trim a little fat from the bloated federal bureaucracy, as the media would have us believe? Or is it because for 4 years the secretary of transportation was a left-wing nitwit whose only job qualification was that he is ostentatiously homosexual?

The Air Traffic Control is being run off of diskettes, Musk found that out.

The New York Post reports:

Pete Buttigieg failed to replace outdated air traffic control systems while in office — with his agency instead shelling out tens of billions of dollars on a DEI agenda, according to federal spending records and airline industry insiders.

The effect of DEI on air safety is predictable.

In one meeting, Buttigieg — who is said to be eyeing a 2028 presidential run — told industry executives that air traffic control upgrades would just allow them to fly more planes, “and so why would that be in his interest?” sources said.

According to Democrat ideology, transportation makes it be too hot outside by requiring energy, so why would he want to facilitate Americans having more of it?

What his department was really interested in was handing out hundreds of diversity, equity and inclusion grants totaling more than $80 billion over four years — at least half of the DOT’s entire budget for a typical fiscal year, records show.

Again we see that the Biden Administration was not so much a government as a looting spree.

“He was definitely pushing an agenda,” an air industry official said, noting the transportation secretary had “little to no interest” and took “definitely zero action” toward air traffic control modernization.

Gobbling up our money on behalf of their malevolent agenda is the whole point for Democrats. That’s why their transportation secretary was not required to know anything about transportation.

As of last month, an Emerson College poll of registered voters found the former transportation secretary leading the 2028 Democratic presidential primary field with 16% support, followed by ex-Vice President Kamala Harris at 13%.

Among Democrats, this kooky and incompetent creep is a star.

H/t Moonbattery

Another Air Traffic Fail Exposes Biden Chaos- Oh I Want To Travel Now

In a revelation that has stirred alarm among national security circles and outrage among millions of Americans, it has been confirmed that the direct hotline between the Pentagon and the control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) has been out of service since March 2022 — for more than three consecutive years. The confirmation came from Franklin McIntosh, a senior official at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), during an oversight hearing led by Senator Ted Cruz, current chairman of the Senate committee on aviation and transportation.

The exchange was brief but damning. When Cruz asked:

“Is it true that the direct line between the Pentagon, air traffic control, and the DCA tower has been inoperative since March 2022?”
McIntosh’s response was clear:
“Yes, sir, that is correct.”

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Transportation Secretary Calls for Urgent Overhaul of Aging Air Traffic System – Because It’s Broken

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Tags: transportation | sean duffy | air traffic control | equipment | old | parts | elon musk

Transportation Secretary Calls for Urgent Overhaul of Aging Air Traffic System

By Nick Koutsobinas    |   Sunday, 11 May 2025 08:46 PM EDT

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AA

In a prerecorded Friday interview that was released on Sunday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on “Meet the Press” called for an overhaul of the nation’s air traffic control infrastructure, some of which includes parts that need to be purchased on “eBay.”

“I’m concerned about the whole airspace,” Duffy told NBC News’ Kristen Welker. “The equipment that we use, much of it we can’t buy parts for new. We have to go on eBay and buy parts if one part goes down. You’re dealing with old equipment.

“We’re dealing with copper wires, not fiber” optics, “not high-speed fiber” optics, Duffy added. “This is concerning. Is it safe? Yes. We have redundancies – multiple redundancies in place to keep you safe when you fly, but we should also recognize, we’re seeing stress on an old network, and it’s time to fix it.”

In late February, Elon Musk, while working in his capacity as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency commission, also called for an overhaul of the nation’s air traffic control grid.

Musk posted to X that “the ancient” air traffic control “system that is rapidly declining in capability was made [by] L3Harris.

“The FAA assessment is single digit months to catastrophic failure, putting air traveler safety at serious risk,” he added. “The Starlink terminals are being sent at NO COST to the taxpayer on an emergency basis to restore air traffic control connectivity. The situation is extremely dire.”

Musk went on to note that a $2.4 billion contract from Verizon to upgrade the Federal Aviation Administration’s equipment “is not yet operational.” Shortly after Musk’s post, The Washington Post, pulling from two anonymous sources, reported that the agency was on the cusp of canceling its Verizon contract and giving it to SpaceX.

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Air Traffic Controllers Face 1,000 Tech Failures a Week

In more good news that makes you want to travel, a system that Musk says is being run off of diskettes has 6 months of life left. It’s already breaking down

Air traffic controllers in the U.S. have experienced about 1,000 equipment failures a week due to ancient equipment, a former federal aviation official and several airline industry insiders told the New York Post.

The report comes less than a week after a 90-second equipment failure at Newark Liberty International Airport caused air traffic controllers’ communications to go dark, sparking hundreds of flight delays and disrupting travel for thousands for days.

The cause was a single unsheathed copper wire at the air traffic control center in Philadelphia.

“This is a copper wire system, and frankly the FAA is experiencing almost 1,000 outages a week,” one airline industry official told the Post, referring to the Federal Aviation Administration.

“Some outages are worse than others — but the bad thing about them is you can’t predict them.”

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All of this makes me really want to jump on a plane

We Still Don’t Know The Details About The Helicopter/Plane Crash At Reagan Airport – Other Than DEI

As I said earlier, if it were a white man, we’d know every aspect of his meal the night before the next day.

As it is, there has been nothing about the crash, the FAA involvement, the pilot herself, or what was in the black box.

This stinks to high heaven. There is DEI written all over it as well as incompetence

WATCH: Planes Nearly Collide On Major Airport’s Runway In Shocking Clip

A dramatic near-miss at Chicago’s Midway Airport forced a Southwest Airlines plane to abort its landing after a small jet unexpectedly crossed the runway.

A video of the shocking incident has surfaced, showing the Southwest aircraft performing a last-second “touch and go” maneuver to avoid disaster.

The close call is reminiscent of a similar situation at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in December, when a Delta jet nearly collided with a plane carrying the Gonzaga men’s basketball team.

The Midway incident adds to a growing list of aviation scares in 2025. While data shows air travel remains statistically safe, a series of crashes and near-misses have raised public concern.

WATCH:

This year’s aviation chaos started January 29, when a mid-air collision over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., killed all 67 people aboard an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter.

The crash, which occurred during the plane’s final approach to Reagan National Airport, is under investigation by the NTSB, with early findings pointing to possible air traffic control failures, miscommunication, and the helicopter flying at an incorrect altitude.

The tragedy deeply impacted the figure skating community, as several young skaters and their families were among the victims. Meanwhile, a victim’s family has filed a $250 million lawsuit against the FAA and the U.S. Army, citing negligence. The incident, along with recent aviation safety concerns, has led to a decline in public confidence in air travel.

More recently, a Delta Connection flight from Minneapolis flipped upside down while landing at Toronto Pearson Airport on February 17, with 80 people on board. While all passengers survived, 21 were injured, including a child and two adults who were initially in critical condition.

Delta offered each passenger $30,000 as compensation, though at least one survivor has since filed a lawsuit against the airline. Investigators are looking into weather conditions and crew experience as possible factors in the crash.

Here are some of the most notable aviation incidents this year:

  • January 29 – The devastating crash in Washington, D.C., resulted in 67 fatalities.
  • January 31 – A medevac jet crashed in Philadelphia, killing seven people.
  • February 6 – A regional airline flight in Nome, Alaska, went down, claiming 10 lives.
  • February 14 – A fatal crash in Pierson, Florida, took the life of the pilot.

In total, 88 people have died in seven aviation incidents in the U.S. in 2025, according to Fox4.

click to watch as I couldn’t download the clip off the site, but it’s close enough to say the pilot saved this one.

Tucker Carlson Uncovered Devastating FAA Emails in 2018, Proved Obama Team Knew They Were Playing with Fire

In June 2018, then-Fox News host Carlson covered the topic, saying, “The Obama administration pressured the FAA to meet abstract diversity goals. Now nobody bothered to explain why diversity is a relevant criterion for air traffic controllers. No one will explain it now.”

Carlson explained that the FAA added a biographical questionnaire to the air traffic controller application process, which he said gave more points to would-be controllers who lacked a scientific background or who had been unemployed for the previous three years than they did to licensed pilots.

“In other words, the FAA actively searched for unqualified air traffic controllers. That is insane, and they knew it was insane when they did it, but they did it anyway,” he said.

In an email Carlson said he obtained, the executive who created the biographical questionnaire “admits that the test he devised has nothing to do with finding the best air traffic controllers. If you want good air traffic controllers, find people with experience. That was his advice. The FAA ignored this, and used the biographical screen anyway. … Compared to diversity, your safety meant nothing to them.”

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No wonder I hate to fly

FAA’s Obama-Era “Biographical Questionnaire” for DIE Faces New Scrutiny After the D.C. Crash

As The Daily Signal previously reported, under President Barack Obama’s administration, the FAA scrapped a skills-based test and a certification program, and replaced it with a biographical questionnaire to attract more diverse applicants to become air traffic controllers. The FAA previously drew most candidates from the military and a group of 36 colleges that offer air traffic control programs.

“The Obama administration implemented a biographical questionnaire at the FAA to shift the hiring focus away from objective aptitude. During my first term, my administration raised standards to achieve the highest standards of safety and excellence,” the Trump memorandum says. “But the Biden administration egregiously rejected merit-based hiring, requiring all executive departments and agencies to implement dangerous ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ tactics, and specifically recruiting individuals with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities in the FAA.”

The memorandum continues: “On my second day in office, I ordered an immediate return to merit-based recruitment, hiring, and promotion, elevating safety and ability as the paramount standard. [Wednesday’s] devastating accident tragically underscores the need to elevate safety and competence as the priority of the FAA.”

Critics have said the policy that originated under Obama and was revived by former President Joe Biden gives more points to applicants who have not been employed for the past three years than to an applicant who has been a pilot or a veteran with an air traffic control-related military background. During his first term, Trump discarded the policy in 2018, but Biden reinstated it.

“When you are flying on an airplane with your loved ones—which everyone of us in this room has—do you pray that your plane lands safely and gets you to your destination?” Leavitt asked reporters rhetorically on Friday. “Or do you pray that the pilot has a certain skin color? I think we all know the answer to that question. As President Trump said yesterday, it’s common sense.”

The spokeswoman said the Trump administration still believes it is safe to fly in the United States. Still, she said, the memorandum is intended to “deliver accountability.”

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Woke and DEI ruin everything they touch, every damn time

More On DEI Air Traffic Controllers At The FAA

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Why I Don’t Want To Fly Anymore – 2024 Deadly Year For Aviation

Recent Rash Of Crashes Turns 2024 Into Deadliest Year For Aviation Since 2018

The commercial aviation industry faced a turbulent week with four plane crashes, making this one of the deadliest years since 2018. The most shocking mid-air aviation disaster occurred on Sunday when a Jeju Air 737-800 jet crashed at Muan International Airport in South Korea. 

Amid the latest mid-air mishaps and several others, onboard passenger fatalities on commercial flights have risen to 318 this year, according to Bloomberg, citing data from Cirium.

This marks the highest death toll since 2018, when 500 lives were lost—a year defined by the first of two fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes.

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Sure, it’s a cheap out for me who hates airports, lines, TSA, people, germs, hotels and flying, but hey it works for me.

Let’s not forget all the DEI in the FAA, air traffic control, Boeing, and the Airlines. They could have hired quality instead of quota

More DEI In Air Traffic Control, Another Near Miss Because Of The Incompetent – Screams From The Tower

These days, the US aviation industry is like watching a disaster movie, but this is no film—it’s real life, and it’s unfolding right above us.
The latest “movie disaster” unfolded on the runway in the DC Swamp. Two planes, one from Jet Blue and the other from Southwest, nearly collided. You could hear the panic crackling through the air traffic control tower as they scrambled to handle yet another near-miss moment.

Sadly, the situation in the control tower reflects this diversity emphasis, but not in the way we’d hope. The chaos up there sounds like it comes from a diverse group, alright—at least their panic is inclusive. The real trouble seems to circle right back to the left’s DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) agenda, which prioritizes charity over excellence. This shift in focus is hitting us where it hurts, turning our air traffic control towers into scenes from the movie “Airplane!” And that’s no joke for anyone who’s up in the air. This should scare the heck out of every single American traveler.

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As Always, get woke, go broke only broke in this case could be death

My Authentic Experience Last Night With DEI in Air Traffic Control

On our way into Portland, our pilot was on final approach. A few hundred feet off of the ground, he pulled up and hit the power and I knew we were going around.

Later, he said over the intercom that even though we were cleared to land, there was another plane on the runway.

Having flown for parts of 8 decades, that has never happened before, but I knew it was incompetence in the tower to clear 2 planes for the same runway, like this.

FML

Remember When Boeing Said It Promoted Diversity?

An American Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing in
California on Wednesday evening after the pilot reported a potential
mechanical issue with the Boeing 777 aircraft, the airline said.

Flight345, which had taken off from Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, landed at Los
Angeles International Airport at around 8:45 p.m. without any incident,
according to American Airlines. The plane was able to taxi to the gate
under its own power, and passengers disembarked as usual.

There have been at least six reported incidents involving Boeing planes in the past week. It was reported that a blown tire might have caused the emergency landing, but American Airlines did not confirm this.

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Just like the air traffic controllers, they want people to die instead of hiring competent employees

DEI In The Air Is Going To Kill Us

A group of almost a dozen attorneys general across the United States have sent a letter to the Biden administration warning that DEI hiring practices within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are putting airline passengers in danger.

“We are troubled by some recent reports regarding your agency’s hiring practices and priorities,” Kansas Republican AG Kris Kobach and 10 other attorneys general wrote to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker. “It seems that the FAA has placed ‘diversity’ bean counting over safety and expertise, and we worry that such misordered priorities could be catastrophic for American travelers.”

DEI in the air causes safety issues

According to the letter, the FAA under the Biden administration “appears to prioritize virtue-signaling ‘diversity’ efforts over aviation expertise” and “this calls into question the agency’s commitment to safety.”

Kobach and the other attorneys general allege that the FAA is no longer focusing on merit when hiring employees and has instead put its focus on diversity and pointed to statements made by the FAA related to a “five year strategic plan” to “diversify its workforce by rethinking its hiring practices and capitalize on opportunities to hire people who will bring new and diverse skills to the agency and reflect the demographics of the U.S. labor force.”

“These efforts follow on work that reportedly started under the Obama Administration when the agency shockingly sought out applicants with ‘severe intellectual’ and ‘psychiatric’ disabilities to staff the agency responsible for air traffic control, aviation safety, major airports, commercial space regulation, and security and hazardous materials safety,” the letter states.

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And I hate it because my ass has to fly soon.

Update: Boeing nightmare continues (VIDEO)… 757 emergency landing after wing rips apart midair…

Four bolts were missing from a door panel that blew out of an Alaska Airlines flight last month while the Boeing 737 Max 9 plane was flying over Oregon, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.

The bolts are there to prevent the non-operational panel, known as a door plug, from moving upward, the NTSB said. But last year, before the plane was delivered to Alaska Airlines, the door panel had to be opened and four bolts removed at Boeing’s Renton, Wash., factory to replace damaged rivets nearby, the report says.

As part of the investigation, the agency found that the “absence of contact damage or deformation” around holes associated with vertical movement bolts indicates that four bolts of the door panel were missing before the panel moved up off the stop pads, according to the report.

It’s unclear why the bolts were missing. Records show that the rivets were replaced, but photos obtained from Boeing Co. by the NTSB show that the door panel was put back without bolts in three visible locations. The fourth location is obscured in the photo by insulation, the NTSB said.

LA Times

Aircraft mechanic shortage reaches ‘critical’ point

I don’t even want to get on an airplane right now. Between DEI in the Air Traffic Control and woke pilots, not to mention sudden deaths from the Covid Jab the pilots were forced to take, it’s a gamble now to fly.

A new report from AAR Corp., a company that provides aviation services to commercial and government operators, MROs, and OEMs, warns that the aircraft mechanic shortage has reached a critical point.

The company’s 2023 Mid Skills Gap report urges employers to “break down silos” and collaborate with high schools, colleges, non-profit organzations, and elected officials to expand early access to aviation maintenance curriculum and training.

“Mid skills” describes careers that require industry certifications but not a college degree, including aviation mechanics, according to officials with AAR, which has been putting together the report since 2011.

The 2023 report includes several suggestions to increase the number of aviation mechanics, including:

  • Work with lawmakers and state agencies, nonprofits and educators to launch a national campaign to raise awareness of aviation careers.
  • Encourage training programs to teach people with industry experience how to instruct others to build the faculty population.
  • Ask lawmakers to pass common sense immigration policies that allow aviation companies to recruit talent from abroad to meet demand and keep airplanes flying safely.
  • Make it easier for veterans to quickly transition their skills to appropriate industry jobs.
  • Push to eliminate restrictions on AMTs taking the FAA general exam as pilots can do with their written exams. Getting these exams completed early will lead to increased certifications for the industry, officials noted.
  • Increase training capacity by creating programs to make experienced retirees instructors in education programs.

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Diversity In Air Traffic Control Is Going To Cost Lives

So far, no airliner passengers have died from air traffic control DIE. But The New York Times has been running a long series of hair-rising articles about recent near misses due to bad air traffic control, such as:

How a Series of Air Traffic Control Lapses Nearly Killed 131 People

Two planes were moments from colliding in Texas, a harrowing example of the country’s fraying air safety system, a New York Times investigation found.

Why? There’s a shortage of air traffic controllers who make it through training, so the ones who do are overworked. The Times reports:

Yet training is difficult; many aspiring controllers fail…. From 2011 to 2022, the number of fully certified controllers declined more than 9 percent, even though traffic increased. Based on targets set by the F.A.A. and the union representing controllers, 99 percent of the nation’s air traffic control sites are understaffed.

A lot of industries were getting by before Covid by keeping competent baby boomers employed into their dotage. But air traffic controllers have a mandatory retirement age of 56, so the oldest controllers are now Gen-Xers born in 1967. The coming Competence Crisis is on track to hit air traffic control earlier than many other professions.

But of course there’s no mention in the Times of how the Obama administration sabotaged the old test for selecting the most promising candidates for training in order to hire more blacks. That’s just too off-narrative for Times subscribers. They don’t pay good money to have their worldview about who are the Good Guys and who are the Bad Guys in any and all situations undermined.

Many naive people assume, after all these generations, that affirmative action doesn’t mean lowering standards, it just means what it was originally sold as in the mid-’60s: expanding recruitment to find nontraditional diamonds in the rough.

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