A SpaceX team is provided to revision of the FAA air traffic control system

A team of Elon Musk’s SpaceX visits the air traffic control controller in Virginia on Monday to help revise the system following the fatal air disaster of last month in Washington, DC, US Secretary of Transport, Sean Duffy . The news comes After Cnn reported That the Federal Aviation Administration has dismissed hundreds of probationary employees who maintain a critical infrastructure for controlling air traffic.

In an article on X, Duffy said that the SpaceX team had gone to Virginia to “have a first -hand look at the current system, learn what air controllers like and do not like their current tools and consider how We can make a new, better, modern and safer system. Previously, Duffy said This Musk DOGE team “would connect” to the FAA to help “upgrade our aviation system”.

Duffy has also rejected criticism of the door opening to a team led by muscles in another sensitive field of federal government. “Because I know that the media (and Hillary Clinton) will say that the Elon team will have special access, let me specify that @faanews regularly give visits to the media and businesses command center”, said Duffy. (Clinton has previously criticized The lack of experience of the DOGE team.)

The FAA is under a more in -depth examination three weeks after an outdoor collision on the Potomac river resulted in the death of 67 people. The tragedy has highlighted the shortages of air controllers as well as congestion in the main hubs such as Ronald Reagan National Airport. The FAA brought hundreds of complaints Air traffic workers describing the dangerous conditions of staff shortages with dilapidated buildings. And the agency itself had no permanent head at the time of the accident – mainly because Musk helped oust the last administrator After the FAA, a fine spacex for not having submitted security data.

Duffy’s post does not mention the role of Musk in ouster, nor the hundreds of workers who had just been dismissed. CNN says that probationary employees have probably been targeted because they have been employed for less than a year and are not allowed to appeal.

“This draconian action will increase the workload and will place new responsibilities on a workforce which is already extended,” said David Spero, national president of professional specialists in air security, AFL-CIO, said in a press release. “This decision has not taken into account the personnel needs of the FAA, which is already disputed by the lack of staff.”