Summary

Elon Musk called on retired air traffic controllers to return to work, citing a shortage amid heightened scrutiny of the FAA under Trump's second term.

With DOT Secretary Sean Duffy's support, Musk's DOGE attempts to "upgrade" aviation systems despite recent FAA job cuts.

The AP reports fired employees included radar and navigational aid maintenance personnel, though Duffy insisted no "critical safety personnel" were terminated.

Musk's appeal comes amid increased public concern over recent aviation incidents, though experts consider the uptick an anomaly.

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[–] 76 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Not really, tbh. He's pretty clearly just doing as much damage as he possibly can. This whole "Oooh whoopsie, we did a bad, does anyone want their job back?" shit is pure show to give himself some plausible deniability to keep the guillotines at bay.

If you look at what's happening through the lens of his goal being malice, and ignore the "ooooops!" pony show, what you see is a man who's hamstrung an entire nation with literally zero consequences.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    I wonder if he regrets this one though. If it becomes dangerous to fly he’d have to travel on the ground like a peasant

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  • [–] 27 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    He'd sooner take the oligarch route and privatize the FAA, fill it with his own loyalists, then give his flights priority wherever he goes, including whatever private aviation business (e.g. FedEx clone) he wants to push.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    In less than a month too.

    Feels like we need no confidence/snap elections or some shot to deal with this.

    But really we needed better protections from dictators and better under-represented vote counting long ago and now we have to fix shit the hard way.

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