Elon Musk “has access to the best engineers, the best engineers in the world,” Sean Duffy said.
Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said on February 5 that the cost-cutting team at U.S. Doge Services Elon Musk will soon be focusing on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic control system.
Duffy did not explain how Musk would upgrade his Department of Transportation (DOT) aviation systems. The agency did not respond to requests for comment at each publication time.
Shortly before his post, Duffy spoke about the FAA plans at a meeting of state Department of Transport officials. He mentioned talking to Musk on February 4th, calling SpaceX and CEO Tesla “a pretty notable guy who has access to the best technicians, the best engineers in the world.”
“We’re going to rebuild the airspace,” Duffy said. “And we’re going to do it soon, and we have Congress support, I now, I’m like in the 1960s with many components of the universe, World War II We use technology. We will upgrade.”
Many of the equipment used in air traffic control are outdated, including the radar systems used to track planes. Efforts to implement satellite-based air traffic control systems known as NextGen across the United States have been running for years, but adoption has been delayed due to a variety of issues, including costs.
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Duffy also announced in his speech that the transportation department is planning to surge air traffic controllers in the “next few days.” The secretary noted that hiring and rolling out new controllers takes time. Because it’s not like “flip the switch” to train them.
Duffy did not provide details about his plans while speaking before a meeting of state DOT officials.
However, the Transport Secretary said that two controller positions at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which handled the helicopter and plane before last week’s fatal air collision between the Army helicopter and the local American Airlines jet, were one more than usual. It was noted that it was integrated early in the day. .
Army helicopters and commercial jets were transmitted at different frequencies, and one controller was handling both at the time of crash.
“We’re going to see the policies and procedures within the tower and why it happened,” Duffy said. He also questioned why the helicopter training missions operated in such busy airspace around Washington at 9pm, where they were frequently run rather than later in the evening.
“And if there’s a general flying helicopters through this airspace for convenience, that’s not acceptable,” Duffy said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegses said last week that the Black Hawk helicopters involved in the crash are running routine training missions. He also confirmed that night vision goggles were worn at some point during helicopter training.
