DOGE team to 'plug in' to make 'rapid safety upgrades' to air traffic safety under Transit Sec Sean Duffy

On Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk said that DOGE’s team would "plug in" to "make rapid safety upgrades" to the air traffic control system after a string of aviation disasters and failures last week.

"Big News - Talked to the DOGE team. They are going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system," wrote Duffy, to which Musk replied, "With the support of President Donald Trump, the DOGE team will aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system. Just a few days ago, the FAA’s primary aircraft safety notification system failed for several hours!" The DOGE team is comprised of several young men with tech backgrounds who have in no short time been culling through government agencies to find waste.

The string of disasters began on the evening of Wednesday, January 29, when a Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines flight mid-air as the airliner was approaching a runway at Ronald Reagan National Airport for landing. 67 people in total between the two aircraft were killed. It was revealed that staffing at the tower was "not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic," and the supervisor had let one controller go home early. Recordings from the air traffic control reveal that the controller spoke to the helicopter about moving out of the way of the plane but did not tell the plane to try to pull up. The plane did try to get out of the way in the last minute before impact.

Two nights later, a small plane that had taken off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport crashed, resulting in a fireball seen in the sky. The Jet Rescue Air Ambulance aircraft was headed to Tijuana, Mexico with a stop in Missouri and was carrying a girl who had just undergone life-saving medical treatment in the United States. On Wednesday, a Japan Air flight clipped a Delta flight while on the ground.

On Saturday, February 1, the primary NOTAM system experienced a temporary outage, requiring the use of a backup system so no impact would be had on the National Airspace System, Duffy said. 

"NOTAMs provide updates about anything that may effect the safety of a flight. All active NOTAMs were available until the time of the outage. The agency activated its contingency system to supplement and support preflight briefings and continue flight operations." The FAA said on February 2 that the system was back online.