Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Pentagon is not returning his calls as he intensifies his war of words with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Duffy was at a loss to explain why a U.S. Army helicopter grounded two flights at Reagan National Airport in D.C. last week while en route to the Pentagon, potentially putting lives at risk.
When pressed by Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Monday to reveal who the VIP on board the helicopter was, Duffy said he didn’t know—and in an interview with Martha MacCallum on Tuesday afternoon said he is still waiting for a response from the Defense Department.
“So there are way too many ‘VIPs,’ as we call them, at the Pentagon,” said Duffy. “I look around the White House and there are a lot of important people there. Take the Suburban. Why is the Pentagon that much more sophisticated that they have to take helicopters in a busy airspace? I’m hoping we will get the answers.”
Duffy said he still had no idea who the VIP was or why they took a scenic route through commercial airspace to get to the Pentagon, just months after 67 people died when an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet that was landing at the airport.
When MacCallum told Duffy she had heard from Pentagon sources that the helicopter involved in the incident last week was on a training mission, the transportation secretary replied: “Here’s the thing. Training missions oftentimes—if you ever go to a football game and have a flyover with F-16s, guess what that is called? A training mission.
“So are we moving VIPs and calling it training missions? How many training missions are you doing in the middle of the day? If you have to train, do it at a time when you have no busy airspace. I thought that lesson was learned back on the 29th of January.”
Duffy said he looked forward to working with Hegseth to find a path forward and learning precisely who qualifies as a VIP.
He added: “As Americans, we have a civilian military. They are supposed to work for all of us and we should know who qualifies for that VIP mission, and if you are going to train, why are you training in the middle of the day? Maybe you should train at 2 or 3 in the morning instead.”
During a previous interview with Ingraham, Duffy called on his former Fox News colleague Hegseth to explain “with radical transparency” who could charter a military helicopter out of the airport and disrupt plane traffic.
“Who do these generals think they are that they have to take helicopters to go to meetings?” he said.
The news comes amid a staff exodus from the Federal Aviation Administration, where thousands of employees have been terminated or offered voluntary buyout packages as part of an effort to slash the federal budget.
Air traffic control has been particularly hard hit by the resignations, resulting in staffing issues and chaotic delays at Newark International Airport. Duffy previously said the department was working to get at least 2,000 air traffic controllers hired this year and get to full staffing in “three to four years.”
Following news of the job cuts, the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, which represents FAA and Defense Department workers who install, inspect, and maintain air traffic control systems, said 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.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Pentagon and Department of Transportation for comment.
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