Pentagon, Air Traffic Controller Hotline Disconnected in 2022 During Biden’s Term
So many problems when Buttigieg “served” as transportation secretary. Gee, maybe using DEI to pick someone for a high level job is not ideal.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has tried to deflect all the FAA problems (and other transportation problems) to President Donald Trump’s administration.
It all started when an Army helicopter and an American Airlines plane collided and crashed into the Potomac River on January 29.
On May 1, another Army helicopter “approached the approach path of civilian aircraft, forcing two commercial airliners to abort their landing approaches.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been outing Buttigieg:
- Transportation Sec. Duffy Launches Investigation into Possible ‘DEI-Linked’ Cheating In Air Traffic Control Tests
- Duffy: Biden, Buttigieg ‘Did Nothing’ to Fix Failing Air Traffic Control System
The Washington Post, of all places, added another strike against Buttigieg and the Biden administration: National Airport, Pentagon hotline had been disconnected for three years.
Yup, an FAA official confirmed the hotline connecting the Reagan National Airport air traffic controllers and the Pentagon ones went out in 2022:
The line is maintained by the Defense Department, and the aviation agency was not aware of the outage during the three years it was down, Franklin McIntosh, the FAA’s deputy head of air traffic control, testified at a Senate hearing Wednesday. Aviation officials discovered the hotline wasn’t working after May 1, when controllers at National ordered two passenger jets to abandon landings because an Army helicopter was circling nearby at the Pentagon.
“We’re insisting on that line to be fixed before we resume any operations out of the Pentagon,” McIntosh said.
Ongoing disputes over how to ensure safety have led to unusual finger-pointing among Cabinet departments. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy has accused the military of violating safety protocols, while military officials have insisted they have followed the FAA’s restrictions.
How…how did they discover the hotline didn’t work after the May 1 incident? You mean to tell me that no one else noticed it in three years?
The Washington Post called McIntosh’s revelation that the “responsibility in National’s tower for guiding helicopters and other local traffic was combined under one person” a “fresh disclosure.”
Except…it’s not fresh or new.
The FAA already admitted that the airport had one controller “responsible for coordinating helicopter traffic and arriving and departing planes.”
Another report revealed numerous factors in the January crash.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) went off on the Trump administration on Wednesday: “The administration’s lack of a more aggressive, proactive mitigation approach is simply inexcusable.”
It looks like Duckworth needs to focus her criticism on Biden and Buttigieg.
Buttigieg did nothing during his term as secretary. He was a DEI pick, a checkmark for the Biden administration to boast about diversity.
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Comments
the line probably had to run through cnn anyways
Wait … you mean Buttgig is corrupt AND incompetent? Can’t beat a twofer.
.
Corrupt, stupid, incompetent and vindictive — the Dhimmi-crat apparatchik’s quartet of intrinsic traits.
If he pays as much attention to his kid as he did to his job, we’ll be reading his name in the paper soon, too.
“Corrupt, stupid, incompetent and vindictive is no way to go through life.” –Dean Wormer, probably.
It’s not his fault. It happened while he was breast feeding.
the breast wouldnt be where petey was feeding at
The infrastructure of the US was not on Biden’s agenda. No new bridges, except the one that got knocked down, no new airports, no new power plants, no new air traffic control system, no new ports, no new highways, no new reservoirs, and no new military weapon system to counter drone warfare. What we got was more climate change crap and DEI, LGBT+, reparations, and white men bad for four years.
And the bridges that got knocked down… that was a GOOD thing, because they were racist bridges anyway.
But he was able to drain the strategic petroleum reserve strategically to lower gas prices two cents for a couple of months.
They passed the $715B Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that apparently included ZERO earmarked money to modernize our air traffic control system. That Bill is 1,039 pages long. The words ‘air traffic control’ are only found a handful of times. Once when discussing the ‘Transportation Workforce Outreach Program,’ and another time when earmarking $20M for ‘contract towers & equipment.’ The money it does set aside ($1,000,000,000) for ‘improvements to the ‘air traffic control facilities’ doesn’t look like it was available until 2024 and 2025…and most of what is specified seems to be for things having little to do with actually controlling aircraft.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-117publ58/pdf/PLAW-117publ58.pdf
The Trump Administration is cleaning up one of many piles of stinking excrement left behind by the vile and incompetent “Biden-Harris” Administration toddlers, and, stupid Dhimmi-crat apparatchiks such as Duckworth possess the t=dishonest temerity to blame #47’s Administration.
Not to mention utterly corrupt.
There’s no reason why “corrupt” should also mean “incompetent” or “neglectful.” Nobody would care much if they were corrupt so long as they did their jobs. The people of Providence, RI loved Buddy Cianci. He was known to be a corrupt thug, but he cared about his city and did good work as its mayor.
people GOOD PEOPLE care about corruption
the others vote for marion berry and guys like
buddy:
Department of Attorney General. Cianci was forced to resign from office during both mayoral tenures due to felony convictions. His first administration ended in 1984 when he pleaded no contest to charges brought against him involving kidnapping and torturing a man Cianci believed was romantically involved with his ex-wife. His second stint as mayor ended when he was forced to resign following his conviction for one count of racketeering conspiracy, and he served four years in federal prison.[1]
I know all about Buddy. I spoke with him of a few occasions. You seemed to have missed my point. The people of Providence didn’t care that Buddy made bank for himself. They cared that he did good things for the city, that other (probably just as corrupt) mayors did not or could not do. They preferred corrupt competence to corrupt incompetence. Buddy was no do-nothing, crackhead Marion Barry.
I reiterate, there’s no reason for “corruption” to mean “incompetent.”
Sometimes the people don’t care. I made no judgement of the people of Providence. “Caring” would not necessarily have done anything for the city.
dave
well yeah
you can be a corrupt competent pos
but good people DO CARE and should not elect a “mussolini” who is a murderer but gets the trains to run on time
No question that Buttigieg was incompetent, and DEI hire and promoted DEI programs through out the transportation department.
Total F up on part of FAA to only have one controller at time of crash
That being said, the crash occurred because the military helicopter pilot ignored instructions from the control tower.
What it really shows is the military has become infested with DEI
There’s also the intrinsic stupidity of having helicopter flight paths coming in close proximity to commercial airplanes on final approach. The FAA had a database for submission of pilot complaints/warnings. Numerous pilots used the system in the years prior to the collision, to warn of their experiencing close calls with helicopter traffic, and, the FAA seems to have totally ignored the database submissions and failed to act proactively. FAA totally dropped the ball, here.
Considering that helos can fly vertically, it’s especially stupid. Why not just follow a flight plan that allows for the necessary vertical separation of the helo flight corridor and the commercial landing/takeoff corridor? It might not be convenient, but it would be safer than what they’ve been doing.
Even better, why take the chance with issues of vertical separation between helicopters and airplanes, at all? The helicopter routes need to be re-routed to avoid the DCA landing approach headings and immediate vicinity, entirely. Which is what the NTSB has now recommended.
Of course. But that wasn’t done. Separation to meet safety standards is safe by definition. Why did they seek an exemption (and get it)? The accident helo wasn’t in its corridor, but the corridor established for helos was narrow and too close to a commercial air traffic lane. Why not follow the rules for separation? If that’s not possible, then by all means, change the flight path completely.
To Dave, below — agreed, but, if you look at a map of the helicopter paths, and, read the NTSB report, it’s apparent that even if a helicopter and airplane at issue precisely follow the stipulated vertical separation rules, their geographical proximity still creates intolerable and imprudent risks to aviation safety, because the vertical separation that exists simply isn’t substantial. That’s precisely why the NTSB is recommending a halting of airplane operations on one of DCA’s three runways, when helicopters are in the vicinity (military brass/government VIP, or emergency medical). And, it seems that re-routing heli operations around the airport will be a recommendation in the NTSB’s final report.
There’s talk about Buttigieg being a presidential candidate in 2028, I find it amazing they keep throwing these losers against the wall and checking which one doesn’t stick.
They’re “looking forward,” not backward.
Another round of amnesties for the house!
I never got the memo,
And the Media talks about Butt-Gig like he is Presidential timber, or something. He would be just another puppet, just like Sloe Joe.
This are the kinds of things that make good ol’ Mayor Pete one of the top names in the Democrats 2028 POTUS race.
These sorts of failures of what we consider to be basics of modern life are becoming routine. The d/prog don’t really care to make hard choices of governance or the boring things like maintaining systems. See pretty much every blue jurisdiction. They don’t care about substance even on important issues that ain’t partisan like air traffic safety. If they can’t get big headline out of it for partisan advantage they seem to ignore the basics.