For the Federal Aviation Administration, Jan. 29 was the beginning of one of the most challenging stretches it has faced in decades.
That night, an American Airlines regional jet collided with an Army helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, resulting in 67 deaths. In a news conference the next day, President Trump pointed his finger at the F.A.A., even though the crash investigation was just beginning.
On Jan. 31, a medical jet crashed in a Philadelphia neighborhood shortly after takeoff, killing all six on board and one person on the ground. While it remains unclear whether the F.A.A.’s lack of oversight contributed to the episode, the timing has raised concerns.
Adding to the agency’s woes, on Feb. 1, an aviation alert system had an outage, its first in two years.
The 10-day period of crises was capped by another deadly crash on Feb. 6 involving Bering Air Flight 445 near Nome, Alaska, resulting in the deaths of 10 people.
As the incidents unfolded, confusion in the F.A.A. grew regarding the future of its air traffic controllers, particularly about whether they were exempt from federal job cuts.
Less than a month into Mr. Trump’s new administration, the convergence of crashes, equipment malfunctions and fatalities is raising profound concern about the safety of U.S. airspace. Though the crashes may ultimately be attributed at least in part to pilot error, treacherous conditions or both, their quick succession and the recent system outage nonetheless point to a troubling question: Is the F.A.A. still able to keep air travel safe?
“It has been a tough stretch for the F.A.A.,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a former accident investigator for the agency and the National Transportation Safety Board. “Whether it’s fair or not, they are under the white-hot spotlight because of these events. There is no doubt about that.”
Current and former F.A.A. and N.T.S.B. officials say the spate of aviation incidents highlight the agency’s slowness in addressing safety concerns and its complacency. Each of the recent episodes occurred despite demands from Congress to tackle a pattern of near-misses, modernize critical systems and improve safety in Alaska, where planes are the main mode of travel for many communities.
Safety experts contend that despite a reputation as the premier global aviation regulator, the F.A.A. failed to act on known issues because it had an extended period without any crashes that led to many deaths. The midair collision over the Potomac River last month became the deadliest crash since a Colgan Air flight went down near Buffalo in 2009, killing 50 people. The F.A.A. has earned the nickname “the tombstone agency” among aviation safety advocates for not addressing potential problems until disaster struck.
“I’ve been preaching for a while that complacency has been creeping into all areas of the F.A.A. because of how great our safety record has been,” said John Goglia, an independent safety consultant and former N.T.S.B. board member.
Aviation episodes have increased in recent years, he said, citing the death of an airline worker who was struck by an aircraft tug on the tarmac at Charlotte Douglas International Airport on Jan. 27. Mr. Goglia also pointed to recent instances involving aircraft clipping each other on runways.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy did not respond to an interview request from The New York Times. Appearing on Fox Business last week, Mr. Duffy said it had been a “hard week in aviation” given the three incidents and added that he was committed to updating the F.A.A.’s technology, some of which dates back to World War II.
“We have to take another hard look at what does aviation safety look like, how do we use our airspace, and I think there were mistakes made in the past,” Mr. Duffy said on Fox Business. “We’re going to review that moving forward and make sure we have a system in place that keeps our travelers safe.”
The most pointed discussions about needed change have concerned air traffic controller systems, which monitor and track flights to ensure their safe traverse from takeoff to landing.
Mr. Trump said last week that he would speak with Congress about legislation aimed at overhauling the nation’s aging aviation safety infrastructure, which air traffic controllers rely on. He said the American Airlines crash could have been avoided with updated technology.
Elon Musk’s cost-cutting initiative, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, will also take part in the effort to improve the F.A.A.’s technology, at the request of Mr. Duffy. It is possible that Mr. Musk’s involvement could lead to the modernization that the agency has needed for years, but neither he nor Mr. Trump has outlined a clear timeline or plan.
A report issued in September by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, an oversight agency, said 58 F.A.A. systems that are critical to the safety and efficiency of the nation’s airspace are in unsustainable or potentially unsustainable condition.
Making matters worse for the beleaguered F.A.A., Mr. Trump appeared to place at least some blame on the agency just hours after the American Airlines crash, saying that standards for air traffic controllers had been too lax because of diversity efforts pushed by his Democratic predecessors.
“Incompetence might have played a role,” Mr. Trump said on Jan. 30 to reporters. “We’ll let you know that, but we want the most competent people. We don’t care what race they are, we want the most competent people, especially in those positions.”
The same day, all F.A.A. employees, including air traffic controllers, were sent an email from Mr. Trump’s Office of Personnel Management reiterating a message from earlier in the week. The message urged them to resign and said they were in “lower-productivity jobs.” A few days later, Mr. Duffy said controllers were exempt from the offer.
The Times previously reported that more than 90 percent of the 313 air traffic control facilities in the United States operate below the F.A.A.’s recommended staffing levels. Current efforts to hire and train new controllers are expected to fall short of demand, according to the agency’s projections.
The crashes, the whiplash about job status and Mr. Trump’s criticisms proved to be a huge blow to the agency, said Joe Jacobsen, an aerospace engineer and former F.A.A. employee.
“When there’s a crash, that’s always tough on morale,” he said. “Any type of commentary about people at the F.A.A. and their qualifications is a huge blow to morale.”
The N.T.S.B. and the F.A.A. are investigating the three recent crashes, and no official cause has been made public. The safety of air travel in Alaska, where 82 percent of communities are not accessible by road, has long been a concern, particularly because extreme weather is so common in the state.
In February 2020, the N.T.S.B. issued a report calling for a more comprehensive approach to aviation safety in the state. A few months later, the F.A.A. hosted an Alaska Aviation Safety Summit. When Congress passed a bill last year to reauthorize the F.A.A., it included $25 million in annual funding through 2028 to continue the initiative and specified additional safety actions for the agency to enact in Alaska by 2030.
Safety concerns extend beyond just those in the state.
While the F.A.A. has been engaged in a yearslong effort to modernize its aviation alert system and other technology, progress has been slow and the outdated equipment has ramifications for current travel. A system outage in 2023 led to the first nationwide grounding of flights since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Billy Nolen, the acting head of the F.A.A. at the time, became convinced in 2023 that the agency needed a wake-up call after several instances of commercial jets nearly colliding. He commissioned an independent review team to make recommendations on improving safety.
In a 52-page report issued in November 2023, the group blamed the F.A.A.’s deficiencies for letting risks in the nation’s airspace grow “to unsustainable levels.” Many of their recommendations were not new. They echoed unfulfilled safety proposals that the N.T.S.B., along with the G.A.O. and Congress, had previously called for but that the F.A.A. had never carried out.
Some of the report’s recommendations included increasing training capacity at the F.A.A. academy to help with the shortage of air traffic controllers, modernizing technology and changing the culture at the agency to one where concerns are tackled before they worsen and lead to disaster.
“We as an entity, and that’s all the stakeholders, can never rest on our record,” Mr. Nolen said in an interview.
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