Musk sends SpaceX team to visit key U.S. air traffic command center

by Sarah TITTERTON

A team from Elon Musk's SpaceX was set to visit the command center of the U.S. federal aviation regulator on Monday with a brief for suggesting safety improvements in the wake of a deadly crash in Washington last month.

The visit, announced on Sunday by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, has raised some eyebrows given the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has investigated and fined SpaceX on numerous occasions -– sometimes over safety issues.

US President Donald Trump, who has tapped top ally and donor Musk to slash the size of the federal government, has taken particular aim at the FAA over its hiring policies.

"America deserves safe, state-of-the-art air travel, and President Trump has ordered that I deliver a new, world-class air traffic control system that will be the envy of the world," Duffy said.

He added that SpaceX staff will take a "firsthand look" around when they visit the Air Traffic Control System Command Center, which works to balance demand for flights in the United States with the capacity to handle them.

It is also home to a team that tracks data about commercial space launches and re-entries and the status of various space missions, according to its website.

"The safety of air travel is a non-partisan matter," said Musk, whose federal cost-cutting drive has raised concerns about conflicts of interest with his companies, several of which -- such as SpaceX -- hold major government contracts.

"SpaceX engineers will help make air travel safer," he wrote on social platform X, which he also owns.

An aviation safety specialists union said that the Trump administration had begun firing "hundreds" of FAA employees over the long holiday weekend.

- 'Draconian' -

Trump has tapped billionaire Musk to wage a scorched earth campaign on the federal government, slashing workers and cutting programs -- such as aid to the world's poorest countries -- that he says do not align with his America First policies.

The president has accused the FAA of prioritizing "diversity, equity and inclusion" hiring policies -- meant to combat racism and other forms of discrimination -- over safety and efficiency.

"Several hundred" FAA employees began receiving notices that they had been fired late Friday, according to David Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union.

"This draconian action will increase the workload and place new responsibilities on a workforce that is already stretched thin," Spero warned in a statement.

"Staffing decisions should be based on an individual agency's mission-critical needs. To do otherwise is dangerous when it comes to public safety."

He said the "hastily made" decision was "especially unconscionable" in the aftermath of the deadly crash last month.

The accident at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport saw 67 people killed as an army helicopter collided with a passenger jet coming in for landing.

It was the deadliest air disaster in the United States in two decades.

Trump has also, repeatedly and without evidence, blamed the Washington crash on DEI programs.

Flight safety experts investigating the crash have said that faulty instruments and communication problems may have been behind the disaster.

© Agence France-Presse