DOGE took control of the FAA, fired hundreds of air traffic employees--and then our air traffic control system mysterious

[applegrove]

DOGE took control of the FAA, fired hundreds of air traffic employees—and then our air traffic control system mysteriously started shitting itself.

Probably just a coincidence!

— Max Berger (@maxberger.bsky.social) 2025-05-15T22:04:29.839Z

Denver Post

"Pilots flying into Denver International Airport on Monday couldn’t communicate with air traffic controllers for about six minutes after multiple radio transmitters failed, according to reporting from Denver7".

Max Berger:

"DOGE took control of the FAA, fired hundreds of air traffic employees—and then our air traffic control system mysteriously started shitting itself.

Probably just a coincidence!"

[Ocelot II]

1. ATC has been understaffed and stuck with outdated equipment for decades, ever since

Reagan fired PATCO, and since then Congress has continued to underfund the FAA. But DOGE and Trump apparently seem to think cutting back even further will fix things. FAA's MAGA administrator talks about upgrading the technology, which should be done, but it seems like the intent is to give the contract to Melon Husk - and he'll slap together something that works about as well as a Cybertruck - with pieces falling off and intermittent explosions and fires. What could possibly go wrong?

[Jacoby365]

2. Probably intentional sabotage so Musk can get paid

billions to "fix" it.

[dchill]

3. AND privatize it.

[BidenRocks]

7. Pay to land?

I think they pay use fees.

[Bread and Circuses]

4. Our aviation system is under control of ? Russia? Musk is making billions

[erodriguez]

5. It's pretty obvious they want to use Musk's AI technology for Air Traffic Control

It's pretty simple. Break the system so much that humans would not want to ever do the job. Declare an national emergency and say only I have the tech to fix it.

[not fooled]

6. And remember red don's idol is not averse to having planes fall out of the sky

what's a few hundred lives here or there?

[spanone]

8. K&R

[MadameButterfly]

9. I wonder if this is also about controlling the ability of people

to travel freely. What if they are several steps ahead of us in the authoritarian playbook?
What if people can't flee the country? What if certain Congresspeople can't show up for an emergency vote? What if travel is restricted for some groups and not others?

I don't mean to be paranoid but there are many reasons I don't want Elon controlling air traffic.

[Attilatheblond]

11. BINGO!

By george, I do believe you've got it!

[markodochartaigh]

12. Anyone who thinks that you are paranoid

should ask themselves if they thought that the supreme court would ever stop an election to pick the president. Whether the Senate leader would ever refuse to hold a hearing for a supreme court justice because the president was from the opposite party. Whether a president would ever single-handedly form a new government agency and then appoint an unelected billionaire to head it.
If they predicted all of that then maybe they are wise enough to say who is paranoid.

[raccoon]

16. Great post.

[BidenRocks]

10. Musk wanted to do new SS system.

Screw that!

Regardless who builds it, the old system needs to function until after a successful hand off.
Many years from now.
When they see the price tag, we'll see why it hasn't been fixed for many years.
It doesn't get funded.

[FoxNewsSucks]

13. I haven't been on an airplane since 2014.

This just convinces me more that driving everywhere was the right decision.

As sucky as flying became back then, it's gotten even worse. And that's not even taking the other things posted here into consideration.

[Melon]

14. They run off of 1970's and 1980's technology

Please update the systems and implement quickly. There is no reason not to modernize here.

[BoRaGard]

15. G.O.P. has really screwed up air travel

[NNadir]

17. I've taken hundreds if not thousands of flights in my career.

I had a few events that were close calls, one in which I was momentarily sure I was going to die.

That said I've never been as concerned with flying as I will be on Monday, when I fly out of Newark.

[dalton99a]

18. Efficiency the likes of which the world has never seen before