Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Sunday vowed to boost the number of air traffic controllers and again blamed DEI less than a week after the DC air disaster for distracting his agency from its core mission.
Duffy, 53, acknowledged that it will take a few years before the new air traffic controllers get fully trained,while underscoring some of the key outstanding questions regarding the deadly crash between an army Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines commuter jet at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport that killed 67 people around 8:48 p.m. Wedneday.
He said one major question is why the chopper didn’t conduct its training later in the night.
As for additional air-control personnel, “We’re going to surge air traffic controllers; we’re going to bring in the best and the brightest,” the nation’s new transportation chief told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“I can’t flip a switch and make that happen overnight. …This plan we’re developing right now — that’s going to [be] a year to three years from now [to] show real results,” he said.
To become an air traffic controller, one must undergo training at the Federal Aviation Administration for several years and then about two to three yeras of on-the-job training before getting certified, according to the FAA.
About 90% of airport towers across the country are currently understaffed, according to an analysis from CBS News.
Duffy stressed that he would likely need cooperation from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress to marshall the resources needed to dramatically ramp up the hiring of air traffic controllers.
There was only one air traffic controller overseeing helicopters and planes around Reagan National Airport during the time of the collision, CBS News reported. Typically, there is at least one overseeing helicopters and one managing planes.
The crash over the Potomac River killed the 64 passenters and crew on the American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kan., and three Army personnel aboard the Black Hawk, which was on a military training mission.
Early data suggests that the helicopter was flying at about 325 feet around the time of the crash, which is much higher than the 200-foot limit for choppers on that route above the Potomac.
“Why are they flying at 9 at night, when DCA is so busy?” Duffy asked about the accident. “They should be flying at 1 in the morning. That’s information we don’t have yet.”
The National Transportation Safety Board is conducting a review of what went wrong, and its findings will likely trigger significant reforms.
Duffy, a former congressman from Wisconsin and Fox News host, blamed the Obama administration for causing the staffing shortages with air traffic controllers.
“If you look back to the Obama years, there were some [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] principles that were brought into air traffic control,” Duffy claimed. “They were new. We brought in more people into the academy, but less people passed through the academy and became trained.”
President Trump has similarly faulted DEI policies, specifically with recruitment efforts of the disabled, for causing problems at the FAA.
CNN host Jake Tapper grilled Duffy over whether there is evidence that directly links DEI practices to last week’s fatal crash.
“Our mission since the start has been safety,” Duffy replied. “And [some federal officials] have lost that mission. And we see, when you don’t focus on safety and you focus on social justice or the environment, bad things happen.
“We’re going to have a fuller assessment of what happens in regard to DEI in FAA and DOT, and we will report that out,” Duffy said, noting that the FAA was the only agency in the Department of Transportation that had DEI.
Despite rising public fears over air travel because of the crash at Reagan — and the Med Jets Flight 056 crash in Philadelphia on Friday that killed six — Duffy stressed that planes remain safe.
“Of course, it’s safe to fly,” Duffy said. “If you look at the American airspace, we have the safest airspace in the world. And air travel is the safest form of travel that you can undertake in the country.
“We have seen some cracks, and it rattles people when they see these disasters, but air travel is safe.”
Duffy also noted that if there is an issue with air traffic controllers or staffing, “they’re going to shut down the airspace instead of letting people fly in an environment that isn’t safe.”
The transportation secretary assumed office Tuesday just before the collision at Reagan Airport took place.
