FAA Chief Quit on Jan. 20 After Elon Musk Told Him to Resign
www.thedailybeast.com
Michael Whitaker had only been in the role for a year but the SpaceX chief accused him of “harassment.”

Summary

FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker resigned on Jan. 20, leaving the agency leaderless amid a major aviation crisis.

His departure followed months of clashes with Elon Musk, who criticized the FAA for imposing $600,000 in fines on SpaceX and called for Whitaker’s resignation.

Musk accused the FAA of obstructing space exploration.

Whitaker’s exit comes as the FAA faces air traffic controller shortages and a major runway collision investigation.

  • teamevil
    1403·
    2 months ago

    Why the fuck is this racist apartheid loving non elected fuck have any say‽

    • Zer0_F0x
      61·
      2 months ago

      Because the elected racist, apartheid loving fuck gave him the power. Money buys politicians, politicians make the rich even more so.

      It’s a big party and we’re not invited

    • Signtist@lemm.eeEnglish
      21·
      2 months ago

      We elected a CEO to be president, essentially adding the country itself to his business portfolio. He’s obviously going to trade a part of that power to other CEOs in exchange for favors and loyalty to benefit himself. It’s nothing more than a business deal to exploit the country and its people for profits, something all wealthy business owners are familiar with, and something Trump didn’t even try to hide his plans to do if he was elected.

    • Deacon
      121·
      2 months ago

      I dunno but nice interrobang

    • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
      174·
      2 months ago

      Most likely. Like you ask a guy to resign and everything doesn’t instantly crumble. Like I’m sure it can’t help with ATC shortages, but to assume this is related to that is just a massive reach.

      Trump is a horrible person and Elon is a cunt, but this seemed like it would happen at some point given DC has a lot of low flying choppers.

      • jballs@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        6·
        2 months ago

        Exactly. With that being said, ATC shortages are a serious, serious problem. I’m honestly surprised it hasn’t made more headlines, but maybe that will be a silver lining to this crash. Most major ATC facilities are dangerously understaffed with controllers working mandatory overtime. They are not hiring and training people nearly fast enough to account for the amount of controllers that are set to retire.

          • jballs@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            2·
            2 months ago

            Yeah FAA management is really shitting the bed. The controllers that I know also feel like they are unable to seek professional help for stress and health issues out of fear that they would lose their jobs. It’s amazing that there aren’t more disasters.

    • BoofStroke@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      241·
      2 months ago

      I’m good with the TSA being destroyed. That was just pork barrel politics and security theater from the start.

      • phdepressed@sh.itjust.works
        171·
        2 months ago

        It’s also one of the largest federal work programs since the civilian conservation Corp. Getting rid of it without a replacement in line =bad for economy and jobs.

        • reddig33
          10·
          2 months ago

          I wonder how many TSA agents voted for Trump?

          • Nollij@sopuli.xyzEnglish
            24·
            2 months ago

            The TSA is the second largest employer of high school dropouts in the country, after Walmart. Education level is highly correlated with voting patterns.

          • mipadaituEnglish
            51·
            2 months ago

            Probably all of them.

            Edit: Well, all of them that can legally vote. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them had criminal records that prevented them from voting.

    • mattw3496@fedia.io
      131·
      2 months ago

      Trump’s decisions are bad and wrong, but let’s leave ableist slurs out of it.