The FAA will be forced to oversee the investigation of a fatal plane crash without a chief administrator.
The Federal Aviation Administration is facing the first major airline in 16 years without a captain because Elon Musk helped him out.
Michael Whitaker Relax as a FAA official On January 20, the day of the inauguration of Donald Trump, after the clash with Elon Musk, whose company is organized by the agency. Al -Maskul publicly called and eclipate the resignation After fining the FAA Spacex To fail to obtain approval of the changes. Now the power vacuum in the agency is focusing sharply after the army’s helicopter collided with an American airline plane on Wednesday evening in Washington, DC, killing everyone on the plane.
At a press conference on Thursday with rescue officials, the newly confirmed Minister of Transport Sean Duffy ignored the questions of the journalists about whether the Federal Aviation Administration has a deputy director of the Acting to help manage the crisis.
Whitker was only a year at work when he announced his intention to step down. He had several years during his term. His resignation shows the way for President Donald Trump to nominate his alternative to the agency’s administration. Later on Thursday morning, Trump said he was taking advantage of Chris Roshilo, a senior executive director of the Aviation Business Association, as an official in the Federal Aviation Administration, but he did not provide any details about a permanent alternative.
But Musk’s efforts to get Whitaker were well known even before Trump’s victory in November. He complained several times from the Federal Aviation Administration, which was criticized in September after the agency imposed a fine of $ 633,000 to launch missions with non -approved changes. (The value of musk is more than $ 400 billion, making it the richest man in the world.)
FAA also fined Starlink, after Spacex failed to send safety data before the launch of satellites in 2022. A house listening sessionWhitaker explained that the civilian sanctions in the Federal Aviation Administration were “the only tool that we have to obtain compliance with safety actresses.”
On X, Musk complained that FAA was “spacex harassment about nonsense that did not affect safety while giving a free pass to Boeing even after NASA concluded that their spacecraft were not safe enough to return astronauts.” He also claimed Humans will never land on Mars without “radical reform in FAA”. In September, books “Needs to be resigned” for Witkera.
In addition to Musk attacks, FAA has long suffered from the traditional technology and outdated technology. In 2023, a The Experts Committee issued a report This was found that the increasing dependence on the additional work of employee air traffic control facilities was endangering the air. The agency submitted hundreds of complaints One of the air traffic workers describes the dangerous conditions from the lack of employees to the deterrent buildings.
Update, January 30: After publishing this story, Trump announced that he was calling Chris Roshilo as an official of FAA. This story was updated to reflect this fact.
