- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
Summary
The Trump administration emailed air traffic controllers urging them to quit and accept buyouts 24 hours after a fatal Reagan plane crash.
At 8:30 p.m. Thursday, the email urged federal employees to pursue private-sector jobs, offering pay incentives and vacation benefits while on government payroll.
This program contradicts established rules by allowing second employment, sparking union concerns about losing experienced personnel amid an air traffic controller shortage.
Trump blamed previous administrations for safety issues and misrepresented FAA standards, intensifying culture wars as officials remain uncertain about the buyout program’s future.
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Pretty brave for someone who flies so much.
Every one of these plane crashzs is trunps fault
Maybe with the lack of air traffic controllers some helicopter will crash into his plane with fElon in it. Two birds with one stone.
Two birds with one
stonecesna.
Speedrunning crashing a country any%
Honestly?
Do it, bitches.
I’m ready for the cleansing light of nuclear fire.
Uhh your advocating for a nuclear holocaust? Not trying to judge, just curious.
I’ll judge, that is a dumb as fuck.
Embrace the Holy Light of Atom, brother.
How long until people stop booking flights because they’ve lost confidence in the FAA’s ability to manage its air traffic? There are already plenty who wouldn’t fly on a Boeing
I just flew from Kansas to Florida. My first flight yesterday was delayed until this morning. They got me on a new flight. I flew to Minnesota. And then connected to a flight to Florida. Both of those flights were also delayed.
It’s already happening. I’m worried about the delays when I try to get home on Wednesday.
This one doesn’t look like it’s on the FAA or the controller.
The controller was aware of the possible conflict, informed the helicopter pilot - twice. And twice, the helicopter pilot informed the ATC that they had the conflicting traffic in sight, and requested permission to maintain their own, visual separation from that conflicting traffic.
What seems to have happened is that the helicopter pilots saw a second jet in the distance, landing on another runway. They probably thought that second jet was the conflicting traffic, and they never actually saw the first.
Additionally, the helicopter pilots were supposed to be in an established track on the east side of the river, no higher than 200 feet. Aircraft on final approach descend from east to west as they cross the river; there is more vertical clearance on the east side, but the helicopter was closer to the west side of the river. Further, the helicopter was flying at 300 feet, rather than 200.
I don’t want to disparage the helicopter pilot(s), but from what I see right now, this seems to be primarily on them. They requested permission to (and responsibility for) maintaining separation - twice. This collision is primarily their responsibility.
I take extreme issue with you claiming primarily. It is ALL on the military pilots. As you stated. They didn’t respond properly. Were in an area that was not allowed. And lied twice to air traffic control because of their lack of knowledge.
We do not have the full evidence available. I am comfortable at this time assigning primary responsibility to the helicopter pilot only because they specifically accepted that responsibility by requesting (and accepting) permission to maintain visual separation.
I cannot rule out contributing factors. For example, the jet might have been below the glideslope; they might have both been in the wrong place. I don’t have the information one way or another to confirm that.
There could be regulatory factors: it might have been improper for the FAA to establish that area as a helicopter route. It might have been improper for the ATC to grant permission for the helicopter to maintain visual separation under these conditions. There might have been electronic failures, preventing the aircraft from being aware of eachother. There could have been mechanical failures at a critical moment. The TCAS system might have recognized the conflict, but it is automatically inhibited below 1000 feet. The decision to inhibit TCAS RAs at 1000 feet instead of, say, 600 feet might have contributed.
With all the possible contributory factors, I cannot agree with your conclusion that it is “ALL on the military pilots.”
This is a fair and valid assessment. Sorry for my callousness.
Not a problem. FWIW, I’m not trying to excuse the pilots. The purpose of an FAA/NTSB investigation shouldn’t be to assign blame, but to prevent future incidents. Preventing the type of error the helicopter pilots made is probably not possible, which means it’s either going to happen again the next time such an error is made, or we make it so that making such an error doesn’t result in a collision.
Safety and prevention are matters for the FAA and NTSB. Blame and liability are matters for the courts.
There’s still an NTSB?
(Not sure if serious.)
This guy controls lol
VASAviation. They put out youtube videos of all kinds of interesting ATC comms and flight tracks.
Technically, I’m a pilot as well, but balloon pilots don’t typically talk to ATC very often.
Replacing them will take months at a minimum. The FAA website says it takes 1-3yrs on the job to be certified after months of training. Who will direct air traffic if a large number take the deal? Especially with current shortage. How will this improve air safety? How is this “good” in any way, shape or form?
It’s not good, he’s intentionally breaking things for some reason. A lot of things. A distressing number of things.
This was the Nazi playbook in the 1930s … cause widespread chaos and disruption throughout the country. Everything breaks down and becomes lawless and disorganized, so government is forced to step in and impose a heavy handed authoritarian control of everything to save the nation.
They set the fire, blame someone (anyone), then put out the fire themselves and push the message that they saved everyone from the fire. Blast the message over and over again and drown out any dissent or opposition and gain complete control of everything.
Then every professional, logical thinking individual, academic, politician, highly trained person in the land turns a blind eye and writes a book about it all 50 years from now with criticisms as to how everyone could be so deluded as to fall for the trap a second time.
Except now they have nuclear weapons. The world is done for. Thanks
obamaamerican citizens.How is Obama responsible for some asshole’s behavior?
“Thanks Obama” was a meme used by people to bring attention to the fact that Obama was regularly blamed for things he had nothing to do with. Some really stupid people went so far as to talk about Obama’s poor response to 9/11. So people started to just satirically say “Thanks Obama” basically indicating that blaming Obama lacked all meaning and credibility.
I understand the meme. It was a bit obtuse on the execution end for me.
That wasn’t being suggested
Then why is it struck through?
Because “thanks Obama” is an Obama era presidency meme that the man himself even used satirically.
For more information, google “thanks Obama”.
“…for some reason…”
The reason is the same as all fascist takeovers. The coup works slowly, then suddenly. We are in the acceleration phase, it’s ramping up, just as they said it would in the Project 2025 documents.
I REPEAT: THIS WAS ALL ANNOUNCED BEFOREHAND. Plus, history explains.
The script is to combine a shock and awe campaign of massive change on so many fronts that no one could possibly resist them all, and to demoralize and deflate opposition.
Once this phase is complete, the power thieves will have sufficiently infiltrated the monopoly on violence (military and policing management) and the bureaucratic and technocratic key elements will be gutted or loyalized, so that a full coup can occur. Full control of media, a massive apparatus of repression and surveillance, and a hot mess of mistrust throughout society.
Interpersonal and community relations will be broken and replaced by dependency on authority for guidance and morality and information. Rights will be crushed and perverted. Power and money will only flow to the top, and poverty will become the norm.
US international influence will contract and enemies will be constructed. Blame Canada.
Just a warning though, when you folks are finally conscripted to invade northwards, we have a lot of methods and welcoming gifts to make it regrettable, and people here are getting prepared. I’d dodge the draft, when it comes, if I were you.
Just a warning though, when you folks are finally conscripted to invade northwards, we have a lot of methods and welcoming gifts to make it regrettable, and people here are getting prepared. I’d dodge the draft, when it comes, if I were you.
Many of us would rather fight for y’all. Especially those at the coasts
I really don’t like people pointing to things like the fall of the Roman, Spanish, and Weimar Republics because it not only plays a defeatist narrative, it’s just myopic.
America is not any of those states, and we aren’t in those times. Yes there are similarities, especially because the fascists are deliberately playing from their playbooks, but if you get trapped into thinking only about what happened then and there you miss some of what is happening here and now.
Trump is wildly unpopular amongst half the country. A genuine resistance has all the gas it will ever need, when he crosses the line we need to be ready to fight.
I get what you’re saying, but personally, as a queer Hispanic transwoman, I’ve spent over 2 decades of my life fighting for my right to exist only to be rewarded with this. I’m done fighting for the US, no one actually gives a shit about us. I’m catching the next metaphorical train out of here.
Perfectly valid. At least send some socks to the resistance though.
Just a warning though, when you folks are finally conscripted to invade northwards, we have a lot of methods and welcoming gifts to make it regrettable, and people here are getting prepared. I’d dodge the draft, when it comes, if I were you.
Canada should do what Ukraine did and setup a surrender hotline.
Can we preemptively surrender?
Because Trump drinks his own kool aid. He really, actually thinks these controllers are useless because of DEI, and he trusts fox over his own presidential information feed.
This is a peculiar thing to me. Many autocratic regimes are seem more self aware.
Intentional, or just an idiot. I mean the man is not smart at all. Look at what he has said and done in the past. He also sucked as a businessman, contrary to popular belief.
I’m not worried there is some masterplan here, just worried those 4 years will go by too slowly.
I fully believe Trump to be an idiot, unfortunately his handlers are not.
There is a master plan, it’s just that trump isn’t the one that thought it up. He’s not doing this alone, there’s a lot of people in on it.
They later came out and said they aren’t eligible for this deal. It was a mass email to every gov employee.
So re-send of the last one?
Gosh, what a fantastic “leader” this donvict is.
This is to close the exit points. We need to stop focusing on the hand waving, and start looking at the hand with the knife.
This is to close the exit points.
I’m not sure what you mean by this. Are you saying this is to limit FAA personnel from being able to quit?
This is to disable the airports
So people can’t leave? Or they can’t come?
Well, both I suppose. When we don’t have the freedom to move around, it’s easier to control us. It’s also easier to close off immediately when you only employ people of like mind. They won’t go rogue and let planes full of refugees leave.
It’s all about control. Media, medicine, transportation, etc.
It’s Nazi playbook shit.
Ah, I see what you’re getting at. Thanks for the clarification.
There were a couple of mass emails sent. One before the crash and another after the crash. From another source:
The email, sent from President Trump’s Office of Personnel Management to employees across the sprawling federal government, arrived just before 8:30 p.m. Thursday — almost exactly 24 hours after an air crash in Washington that killed 67 people. The message reiterated an offer earlier this week from the administration encouraging federal employees to seek new jobs in the private sector — and did so in terms that appeared to denigrate their contributions, if not cast them as lazy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/31/us/politics/federal-workers-opm.html
