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.

  • Rivalarrival
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    6 hours ago

    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.”

      • Rivalarrival
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        4 hours ago

        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.