The child who was taken to Sick Kids is in good condition. Apparently there’s one person left in critical condition but I haven’t seen a recent update. Juan Browne of the Blancolirio YouTube channel is up with his first take. He didn’t see anything obviously bad about the approach. He’s got the latest video which was shot from the cockpit of another aircraft waiting to take off. Everything we’ve seen so far points to a problem with the plane or the flight crew, not Toronto Pearson airport, and the plane and crew are US (Endeavor flying as Delta Express) so this crash is squarely on the shoulders of Endeavor, Delta and the FAA.
(The flight attendants and the firefighters here did a great job. Don’t take your luggage with you when you evacuate, and wear some decent shoes.)
This is a huge political opportunity with two prongs:
First, Musk’s cuts to the FAA, which are making it less safe. The original Rolling Stone piece is paywalled, but Democratic Underground has some excerpts:
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Rolling Stone spoke with a fired FAA employee who was among a handful of employees working on an obstacle impact team at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City. The team evaluates many tens of thousands of potential new hazards — such as new buildings, windmills, and especially cranes — to inform flight procedures each year.
The obstacle impact team was already understaffed before it was gutted. “There are currently four people remaining over there to do the work of 15 people,” they say, adding: “The danger to the national airspace can’t be understated. This is a very real threat to the American flying public.”
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Though Musk and the White House claim their job cuts relate in no way to anyone involved with airline safety, Rolling Stone separately spoke with a second terminated FAA employee whose job was ensuring that pilots are medically able and certified to fly. It’s a vital role, especially given the ongoing airline pilot shortage.
“We were already behind,” says the terminated FAA employee. “The pilots already complained that there’s a shortage in getting their medical certification [approved]. It’s just going to be put further behind now.”
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Second, the nonsensical idea that SpaceX is going to somehow “fix” the Air Traffic Control system.
A team from Elon Musk’s SpaceX is visiting the Air Traffic Control Command Center in Virginia Monday to help overhaul [ed. note: vomit] the system in the wake of last month’s deadly air disaster in Washington, DC, US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced. The news comes after CNN reported that the Federal Aviation Administration fired hundreds of probationary employees who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure.
The exact number of workers losing their jobs is unknown, but the union representing them said it was in the “hundreds.” The Trump administration is in the process of trying to eliminate thousands of federal employees as it works with Congressional Republicans on a massive tax cutting bill that is said to favor mostly corporations and the wealthy.
If I’m in SpaceX management and King Elon calls up to have me send some people to “fix” the air traffic control system, I’m sending the most annoying, incompetent assholes that I can find, so let’s start there. Continue with the fact that the FAA has gone through a 20 year cycle with a lack of radar system replacement (according to their own document). This means that the systems are old, and the people who repair them have years of experience on how to maintain old radars. ATC radar and whatever radar SpaceX uses to track launches are completely different animals.
The FAA is understaffed, removing more staff will just lessen safety, and a lot of people are nervous flyers. I think the natural inclination of the responsible party is to not scare people unnecessarily. I’m telling you that I’m scared of flying, and scaring people right now is necessary.
