Days after the deadliest U.S. aviation accident in more than two decades, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Feb. 2 that many Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) systems are outdated and need to be updated amid a lingering shortage of air traffic controllers.
Speaking with Shannon Bream of “Fox News Sunday,” Duffy said that while America’s skies are still the world’s safest, the FAA’s systems are in need of major improvements.
“We have the safest skies in the whole world. Traveling by air is the safest mode of transportation,” Duffy said. “It’s not just air traffic controllers, but we do have technologies on airplanes to keep them separated. … This is the safest system.”
Duffy said that the FAA systems “need to be upgraded” and commented on the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) outage that delayed hundreds of flights throughout the United States on Sunday morning. NOTAM, which Duffy called “antiquated,” is a pilot warning system that notifies of weather or airspace changes before landing.
Due to the FAA imposing a mandatory retirement age of 56 for air traffic controllers, as well as a mandatory maximum age of 31 for hiring new air traffic controllers, large turnover makes it difficult to prevent worker shortages. Duffy acknowledged that the FAA’s training academy was hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic when class sizes shrank, delaying certification of new controllers as trainees could not receive in-person experience in control towers.
Duffy said his goal is to train a new generation of recruits in air traffic control.
“You can’t focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion when you try to hire air traffic controllers, you focus on the best and brightest,” the Transportation Secretary said.
“Some people may like to have this conversation around equity, but if it’s your pilots or if it’s your air traffic controllers, you want the best. You want the brightest protecting yourself and your family. That’s what we’re going to do with the department.”
On Jan. 30, Duffy wrote a post on the social platform X vowing to reform the FAA, one day after an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines flight heading into Ronald Reagan National Airport. All 67 people aboard both aircraft died in the disaster, which happened on his first day on the job.
By Jacob Burg
