3w ago

The FAA is facing a major crisis without a leader because Elon Musk pushed him out

www.theverge.com The FAA is facing a major crisis without a leader because Elon Musk pushed him out

FAA chief Michael Whitaker resigned earlier this month after facing criticism from Musk.

Summary

The FAA is facing a leadership vacuum amid a major aviation disaster after former administrator Michael Whitaker resigned on January 20th, following clashes with Elon Musk.

Musk, angered by FAA fines against SpaceX, publicly called for Whitaker’s resignation.

The crisis intensified after an Army helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet in Washington, D.C., killing all on board.

Trump has appointed Chris Rocheleau as acting FAA administrator, with Musk reportedly influencing government staffing decisions.

The FAA also struggles with underfunding and air traffic control staffing shortages.

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3w ago

The FAA is facing a major crisis without a leader because Elon Musk pushed him out

www.theverge.com /news/603113/faa-chief-musk-dc-plane-crash-crisis

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One ATC working two positions.
Cant imagine why this happened.
- Very common, I doubt it's contributing. Positions are made to combine up when it's less busy and to split off when it's more busy. You only rarely see all positions completely split off at most facilities.
  BIG question is why the military helicopter, with onboard radar and proximity alerts that had to be going off in the cockpit, continue to fly into a commercial aircraft.
  
  Being common doesn't make it okay. ATC has been understaffed since Reagan killed the union.
  
  Pilots were flying under NVG (limited field of view) and appear to have been watching the wrong plane when they said they had the traffic in sight. Were probably flying too low for TCAS, if a black hawk even has it.
  
  The flight aware or whatever and atc audio is already out there and such for YouTubers and whatever. Your take sounds like mine as well; the helicopter pilots were cautioned by ATC, confirmed visual on the plane, hit the plane. I think it’s at least likely that they were observing that other plane seen on radar and the crash footage.
  Helicopter had a 200ft. ceiling and broke it. Plane ~~was assumed on ILS but~~ appears was VFR and got a runway change. It seems to have been below its intended 500ft during the maneuver with the crash at 400ft.
  This is probably better than my paraphrasing and probably screwing shit up:
  https://youtu.be/_3gD_lnBNu0
  And yeah, TCAS is 1000 ft. and above I think for resolution advisories.
  More edit: also appears night vision was in use so yeah. I look forward to hearing further from Elon and Don how this was DEI and how they spin the military part of the blame.
  
  It still seems kind of insane to have a helicopter at 200 ft. and a plane in the same place at 500 ft. - since the helicopter and plane only need to be at slightly different altitudes from that to crash, which of course is exactly what happened.
  
  I'd be very surprised if a Blackhawk doesn't have much better radar than TCAS
  
  When you're flying in close proximity like that at a low altitude, I'd assume they're all VFR and not relying on radar.
  TCAS is good because it's an instantaneous "YOU WILL HIT THIS. GO UP NOW". There's no having to look at it and think about what to do, that's why its so successful. Can't really compare radar to that.
  
  .... But at the same time may not operate a transponder, as a war vehicle.
  
  Yes, based on what I've read the communication with the tower was all timely and accurate, it sounds like the pilot of the helicopter made an error

57 comments