SpaceX to the Rescue: FAA Calls in Musk’s Team to Fix Air Traffic Control

It’s about time!

In a plot twist no one saw coming, the FAA has decided that the best way to address deadly air traffic control problems is to invite the SpaceX team.

Critics are scratching their heads, wondering if the FAA’s new strategy is to replace air traffic controllers with SpaceX’s Starship pilots.

Are they worried that the staff won’t be as diverse? That’s all that seems to matter to the liberals these days.

Bold move, FAA. We commend you for it.

Sean Duffy welcomes SpaceX employees to Air Traffic Control System Command Center as hundreds of FAA workers fired https://t.co/oNW7GBKXrx pic.twitter.com/hFGYhnMYj7

— New York Post (@nypost) February 17, 2025

Politico reports:

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced late Sunday that employees of Elon Musk’s SpaceX will head to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Virginia on Monday as part of the Trump administration’s promise to make “rapid safety upgrades” to the nation’s aviation systems.

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In a post on X — another of Musk’s companies — Duffy said a team from SpaceX will “get a firsthand look at the current system, learn what air traffic controllers like and dislike about their current tools, and envision how we can make a new, better, modern and safer system.”

Scrutiny of air traffic control has escalated after last month’s crash of a passenger jet and Army helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which killed 67 people and represented the United States’ worst aviation disaster in more than two decades. But the FAA is also among the many agencies that are under strain because of Musk’s separate effort to find hundreds of billions of dollars in cost-savings across the federal government, including through resignations and layoffs of employees.

The Warrenton, Virginia, facility is considered a “nerve center” for the FAA, dictating plans for air traffic, space launches and monitoring for weather, among other crucial roles. Monday’s visit comes despite a history of friction between the agency and the private space company, including fines that the FAA has levied against SpaceX as well as Musk’s call last year for then-FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker to resign (Whitaker subsequently stepped down, effective Inauguration Day).

Finally air travel will be safe again.

(Until then: Me eyeing my passport, as a bead of sweat runs down my face)

The safety of air travel is a non-partisan matter. SpaceX engineers will help make air travel safer.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2025