An American Airways airplane takes off as a salvage barge with a crane is positioned close to the crash web site alongside the Potomac River after a passenger jet collided with a helicopter whereas touchdown at Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia, US, on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy mentioned he spoke with Trump administration advisor and CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk about reforming the nation’s airspace and raised issues concerning the navy’s use of helicopters in Washington, D.C.’s crowded airspace after a lethal collision final week.
“I had a dialog with Elon Musk yesterday, fairly exceptional man. He thinks in a different way than I believe most likely plenty of us do, however he has entry to the perfect technological folks, the perfect engineers on this planet,” Duffy mentioned Wednesday at a roadway transportation occasion in Washington. “We will remake our airspace, and we’ll do it rapidly.”
Duffy’s feedback come per week after an Military Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airways regional jetliner that was moments away from touchdown at Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport. All 64 folks on the American flight and the three navy crew on the Black Hawk, which was on a coaching mission, have been killed. It was the deadliest airline accident in america since 2001.
Trump has tasked Musk with working the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity, which has acquired entry to such information because the Treasury Division’s cost techniques. Musk did not instantly reply to a request for remark.
SpaceX, together with different house corporations, shares airspace with business airplanes. The FAA, which oversees U.S. airspace, additionally oversees Musk’s SpaceX. Musk threatened to sue FAA over “regulatory overreach” final 12 months when the company didn’t approve launch licenses for SpaceX as quickly as he wished.
Final month, a Starship rocket suffered an inflight failure that resulted in a subject of particles raining down close to Caribbean islands and inflicting dozens of business flights to divert or delay to keep away from the realm.
U.S. airline executives have for years referred to as for added funding for the modernization of U.S. air visitors management techniques and extra hiring of air visitors controllers to stem a yearslong scarcity.
Duffy did not elaborate on the potential adjustments to U.S. airspace administration.
Duffy mentioned that one air visitors controller was dealing with each airplane and helicopter visitors on the time of the crash and that he’ll “take a look at the insurance policies and the procedures contained in the tower.”
“We will pull that authority again to be sure that we’ve the appropriate insurance policies in place inside our towers to verify once you fly, you are secure,” he mentioned.
Duffy mentioned officers want to take a look at the security of conducting navy coaching missions at night time.
“And if we’ve generals who’re flying in helicopters for comfort by means of this airspace, that is not acceptable,” he mentioned. “Get in a rattling Suburban and drive. You need not take a helicopter.”
The U.S. Military did not instantly remark. The Pentagon declined to remark.
The Nationwide Transportation Security Board, which is main the investigation into final week’s crash, remains to be probing the reason for the lethal collision.
— CNBC’s Michael Sheetz contributed to this report.
