Summary
Two planes collided while taxiing at Reagan National Airport, one carrying lawmakers including Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who blamed the incident on Trump-era FAA staffing cuts.
The White House denied cuts occurred, despite confirmed reductions of 400 FAA positions in February.
Rep. Adriano Espaillat described feeling the impact and accused the administration of misleading the public about aviation safety.
The crash follows a series of safety failures at Reagan, including a fatal January collision and an air traffic control tower fight last week that led to arrests and firings.
Just to put the icing on the cake, an aircraft just went down in Boca Raton
And a tourist chopper in NYC 6 dead.
Is flying just not a good idea within the next 3.8 years? Or is it wise to boycott until they reinstate all the air traffic controllers?
Simply don’t live in the usa and flying is fine
Flying is never gonna be fine, as it burns away our future. Keep living in the usa, if you can endure it.
Some quick napkin math tells me a Boeing 767 gets about 7.8 miles per gallon. This is for longer flights thay can spend more time at cruising speed and altitude, short flights are way worse. Travel over 1500 miles (2500km) is a big efficiency jump. Compares favorably to a cross-country road trip.
It’s still far worse than ground-based mass transit but the time factor is hard to ignore. The world needs more high-speed rail.
7.8 miles per gallon, while carrying around 300 people. That’s not really all that bad.
It’s my personal belief that the cultural exchange flying allows is beneficial enough to justify the waste, though I hate private jets.
Sidenote, did you know some planes get 60mpg? Hobby ones though. I’m ever against gas usage in most cases, and hope they can bring back an alternative
I wish our society was slow enough we could take air/sea ships and trains over planes.
Trains can be faster than planes once you include the time needed to go to a airport and the check in process. Bullet trains in Japan are much faster than taking the plane and are more expensive sometimes as a result for certain routes.
Bullet trains in Japan are much faster than taking the plane
Ehhhhhhhhhhhh. Depends on your destination, where you’re coming from. The routes I saw were pretty comparable
Wait, they’re now denying the FAA and air traffic controller cuts even took place?! Holy shit hellooo media, hound them on this obvious bullshit already jfc.
The media will contine to attempt to cover up the coup being committed by the oligarchy it serves.
Wait, they’re now denying the FAA and air traffic controller cuts even took place?!
If you look at the cuts on a 10 year time horizon and consider the money that actually went out on day one of the President’s promise to Make America Great Again and then you invert the graph of plane crashes you will clearly see that you are a woke stupid idiot and flying has never been better everyone is saying it I love America USA! USA! USA! Love it or leave it I will never get tired of winning Trump 2028 centipede Trust The Plan.
Love it or leave it
But don’t leave it by airplane.
Bah Gawd, how did I not see it this way? Must be those woke college professors teaching me critical thinking and data analysis for LIBS! Knew they should never have been trusted.
I mean, the joke of modern conservatism is often pairing the “Critical Thinking is just liberal brainwashing” with “We’ve done numerology on the latest Q-brief to divine the hidden meaning of the 2018 primary debacle”.
Folks are clearly not above spinning their wheels until smoke comes out their ears. You can rocket into deep space chasing why tariffs are good for the economy and only Israelis deserve foreign aid. Just so long as the priors remain undisturbed.
The best the media can do is agree that no cuts were made and then post an article about how checks and balances keep aircraft safe.
But the White House outright rejected Gottheimer’s explanation, insisting without evidence that the New Jersey representative was “wrong.”
“There have been no cuts to air traffic controllers, safety personnel, or safety-critical positions at the FAA,” the White House official X account posted.
That is, however, not exactly honest—even according to Trump’s own officials.
Shit, it’s just like trying to have a conversation with a conservative on Lemmy.
Yup. This is a Republican caused crash. At least this is on the ground, next Republican-caused crash may not be so lucky.
In great news for maga, oil prices are dropping, making gaslighting more economical.
“That is, however, not exactly honest…”
Stop with the fucking doublespeak and have some god damned integrity. The word is “lie” the administration “lied.”
I think there might be a legal issue where if they say “lie” they need to be able to prove intent to deceive or get sued. It’s dumb but that could be the reason behind the wording.
It’s not, but they’re cowards
Ok, I’ve been hearing about this for years and I’m tired of the argument so I propose we create a new word that means: its an obvious lie but I can’t say that because I don’t want to do court stuff.
That word = Fonked
“The trump administration fonked again today…”
spleunge
Never happened. If it did, it’s not a big deal.
If it is, it’s not my fault.
If it was, I didn’t mean it.
If I did… You deserved it.
“There have been no cuts to air traffic controllers, safety personnel, or safety-critical positions at the FAA,” the White House official X account posted.
That is, however, not exactly honest—even according to Trump’s own officials. In February, the administration erased 400 FAA roles, including positions that supported air safety. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the cuts that time, though he attempted to minimize them by highlighting the overall staffing of the agency, which Duffy claimed employs some 45,000 workers.
The usual MAGA approach: lie and tell people the problem doesn’t exist, while making the problem worse. Deny all responsibility for the consequences of your actions while lecturing people about responsibility.
this is also the truth about mussolini making the trains run on time. he said it was happening, but the problem was getting worse.
I like truths about Mussolini
Congratulations! You’ve signed up for Mussolini facts!
My favorite truth is how he hung from his feet at a gas station
David Blaine for President?
Nice.
The usual MAGA approach: lie and tell people the problem doesn’t exist, while making the problem worse.
More like:
Lie and insist there’s a problem that in reality doesn’t exist, then implement a solution to the “problem”, which causes a real problem that didn’t exist before, but does now. Then you get to lie and tell people the problem you created doesn’t exist, while making the problem worse.
We didn’t have all these problems when a gay man was in charge. ☕
Ergo, the problem with US federal agencies is that they’re not woke enough.
The White House is now asking people in power to forget the evidence of their eyes and ears.
Two planes bumped wings while taxiing on the runway at Reagan National Airport Thursday, marking yet another critical safety failure at one of the nation’s major airports. One of the planes carried several U.S. lawmakers, including Representative Josh Gottheimer, who blamed the incident on the Trump administration’s recent cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration, claiming that slashes to the agency “weaken our skies and public safety.”
