A lone contractor with a corrupt software file is being blamed for the latest airline fiasco. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all domestic flights for several hours due to an outage in a critical safety system.
The outage on Wednesday morning affected the agency’s antiquated Notice to Air Missions system, known as NOTAM. The 30-year-old system provides advance warnings to pilots and flight crews about hazards such as inclement weather and runway closures.On Wednesday, the agency blamed the outage on “a damaged database file” and by Thursday evening said the file “was damaged by personnel who failed to follow procedures.” The agency has not said whether the incident happened due to human error or malice.“We need to make sure that there are enough safeguards built into the system that this level of disruption can’t happen because of an individual person’s decision or action or mistake,” Transportation Pete Buttigieg told NBC Nightly News, which reported that at least one of eight contractors with access to the NOTAM system edited the corrupt datafile.
This incident follows on the heels of the Southwest Airlines collapse that resulted in massive disruptions to holiday travel. Shareholders are now suing the airline, claiming that problems its software system were concealed by the company.
Shareholders filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines Co (LUV.N) on Thursday, accusing the carrier of fraudulently concealing problems that led last month to an operational meltdown and more than 15,000 flight cancellations.According to the proposed class action filed in federal court in Houston, Southwest publicly downplayed or failed to disclose serious shortcomings in its flight scheduling software technology.The lawsuit said Southwest also did not discuss how its “point-to-point” route structure, which differs from the “hub-and-spoke” structure at other large U.S. airlines, could leave it vulnerable to unexpected bad weather.
Given how reliant our transportation system is on functional software, these developments are chilling. However, it is perhaps also useful to look at how “diversity hires” may be adversely impacting the system.
Perhaps the most prominent of these diversity hires is Biden’s pick for Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. The last time we checked in on him, records indicated that has flown on taxpayer-funded private jets at least 18 times since 2021 after pushing for clean energy transportation options.
New reports also indicate that Buttigieg recently used a taxpayer-funded plane to fly between New York City and Washington D.C. only to return a few hours later.
According to a Freedom of Information Act request filed on behalf of Americans for Public Trust, Buttigieg flew in early April on a jet operated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that reportedly cost taxpayers only $228.However, according to figures from Energy Information Administration, a federal agency, cited by Americans for Public Trust, the fuel alone for such a flight is estimated to be $1,060.“As the self-described ‘second biggest fan of rail in the administration’ only behind the President, it’s laughable Secretary Buttigieg flew private to New York City to meet with the head of a liberal dark money group instead of taking Amtrak,” Caitlin Sutherland, the Executive Director of Americans for Public Trust, remarked in a statement.
As a result of these ill-considered decisions, South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R) filed a bill entitled Commercial Cabins for Cabinet Members that “would require the Secretary of Transportation to only fly commercial” until the chaos is resolved.
“If according to Sec. Buttigieg, on MSNBC earlier today, the FAA systems are constantly being updated, and if they’re so good, then why is he flying private all the time?” said Rep. Mace. “Until we see the Southwest Airlines debacle investigated; until the FAA software glitches are fixed; and until we complete the FAA reauthorization later this year, the Secretary of Transportation should be required to fly commercial just like everyone else.”
As a reminder, Buttigieg launched a new billion dollar program to address racial equity in roads. He proposed to resolve the airline employee shortage crisis by forcing airlines to hire more employees. He disappeared on paternity leave while a potentially economy-devastating rail strike threat loomed.
Buttigieg is a spectacular blend of hapless incompetence and destructive wokeness. It is good to see Congress attempting to rein-in some of his taxpayer-funded glamorous lifestyle. Too bad it can’t come up with a bill mandating he be effective, competent, and supportive to America’s transportation needs.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY