Elon Musk made flying even worse so Palantir could profit
The article alleges that the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, has caused significant instability in the US air traffic control system through staff cuts and failed modernization efforts. It claims these disruptions have compromised flight safety while benefiting private contractors like Palantir.
Why it matters
The report raises serious concerns about the intersection of political appointments, government efficiency initiatives, and the safety of critical national infrastructure.
On August 6th, the Minneapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center lost radar and communications for around two hours. The outage disrupted more than 1,100 flights across the center’s 330,000 square mile, nine-state airspace sector.
Two days earlier, on August 4th, President Donald Trump departed the White House inside his Marine One military helicopter. As Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) protocol requires, the pilots tried to contact Reagan National Airport to tell them to halt commercial traffic during the flight. But the air traffic controllers never heard the transmission and cleared a different airplane for takeoff — which came closer than the minimum safe distance allowed. (When this story first broke in The Wall Street Journal, the White House dismissed it, noting that Trump was never in “harm’s way.”)
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