By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee said she is asking U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to bar President Donald Trump’s adviser Elon Musk from involvement in efforts to reform air traffic control.
Senator Maria Cantwell cited conflicts of interest and noted that Musk-led SpaceX was fined by the Federal Aviation Administration, had safety issues with flights and worked to force out the prior head of the FAA Mike Whitaker.
“It is a clear conflict of interest,” Cantwell said ahead a briefing with investigators on a fatal helicopter plane collision near Washington Reagan National Airport last week that killed 67 people.
“You need the FAA to call the shots and say don’t launch there could be a conflict in the airspace,” Cantwell said. “The last thing I want is (Elon Musk) trying to control the airspace.”
Senate Commerce Committee chair Ted Cruz, a Republican, praised the decision to include Musk. He noted the FAA is using ground-based radar technology that is a half century old. “It is a particular advantage to have a world class technology CEO,” Cruz said.
The U.S. Transportation Department and SpaceX did not immediately comment.
Duffy said he spoke to Musk on Tuesday about airspace reform issues and to Musk’s government reform team.
“They are going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system,” Duffy said on X.
Musk said on X on Wednesday that his team “will aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system.” Musk cited Saturday’s temporary failure of the FAA’s pilot alerting system.
Duffy noted the FAA is using antiquated technology to oversee flights.
“We’re going to upgrade it and make sure that America has the most innovative, technologically advanced air traffic control system that’s going to make it safer,” Duffy said.
Duffy also plans to announce in the coming days steps to surge more air traffic control training and applicants. The FAA is about 3,000 controllers short of staffing levels and nearly all control towers have staffing issues.
Republican Senator Dan Sullivan said he would welcome ideas from Musk on “upgrading the computer systems, which we all know have been needed.”
(Reporting by David Shepardson, editing by Nick Zieminski)
