Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was facing criticism and growing calls to resign on Monday after two pilots were killed and dozens of people were injured during a collision involving an Air Canada plane and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport.
This was the second fatal crash under Duffy's leadership and in President Donald Trump's second administration, The Daily Beast noted. Duffy has been accused of putting safety at risk by not addressing the low staffing among air traffic controllers in the United States.
The Federal Aviation Administration told The Beast that the low staffing concerns were part of the investigation.
Duffy posted on X that he was headed to LaGuardia Airport following the incident, which drew a number of responses and critiques of the Trump administration official.
"Sean Duffy, Elon Musk, Trump cut FAA staff. Now we have three airline disasters in 14 months. None in the previous 16 years. Is there anything Trump touches that doesn't turn to s---?" Doug Dillman, former biochemist, wrote on X.
"You should be doing your job, not running around the country to make Trump praise content for this page," Russell Foster, former Democratic congressional candidate in Texas, wrote on X. "Spend more time working and less time sucking up."
"Ok great. And then what?? How about you all stop fighting with each other so these airports can be fully staffed for the safety of the employees and the traveling public. But who gives a s---right? Keep spreading everyone so thin till they break or something tragic happens," sports reporter Nikki Gist wrote on X.
"You need more controllers. You need to pay them more. And you need to stop the practice of 6-day duty periods with mandatory overtime. The regulations that govern pilot rest should be applied to controllers, too. Outside of that, let's see what the NTSB says about contributing factors, especially those related to the firetruck crossing an active runway," Thomas Larsen, data expert, wrote on X.