Elon Musk’s team will now dig into the nation’s aviation system, the Trump administration announced on Wednesday.
Mr. Musk, on the social media platform X, said that President Trump’s cost-cutting group, the Department of Government Efficiency, will work to “make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system.”
“Just a few days ago, the F.A.A.’s primary aircraft safety notification system failed for several hours!” Mr. Musk wrote, referring to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Mr. Musk’s comments came after a system used by the F.A.A. to send out real-time critical safety alerts to pilots experienced an outage last weekend, just days after a midair collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines jet at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington.
It also comes as Mr. Musk has disrupted vast parts of the federal government, shocking the work force and sparking protests.
The aviation system, known as NOTAM, short for Notice to Air Missions, is an alert system that the F.A.A. uses to share information about hazards in the air or on the ground with airlines, such as runway closures and airspace restrictions. However, a back-up system kicked in and operated without disruption.
This weekend’s outage was the second time the system went down in recent years. In January 2023, a system outage grounded thousands of departing flights across the country for about 90 minutes, leading to widespread delays.
It is unclear what the group’s plans are for improving the nation’s aviation infrastructure and safety system.
Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, confirmed on the social media platform X that he had spoken to the Department of Government Efficiency team about this new effort but didn’t provide any insights into the discussion.
Neither the White House nor the Transportation Department immediately responded to a request for comment.
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