The Federal Aviation Administration has resorted to buying replacement parts on eBay and making new parts with 3D printers, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told lawmakers Thursday — as the air safety system draws scrutiny for decades-old technology and persistent staffing problems.
“We do try to buy replacement parts on eBay for this really old equipment,” Duffy told members of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee Thursday. “Sometimes, we can’t even buy it on eBay, so we’re trying to use 3D printing to craft replacement parts for the system that we use.”
Duffy made similar comments on “Meet The Press” last weekend, saying the FAA has turned to eBay because “we can’t buy parts for new” for some of the agency’s aging systems.
Duffy appeared at the Senate hearing as the Trump administration pushes for a sweeping overhaul of the country’s air traffic control system over the next three years, calling for the replacement of hundreds of radars, over a dozen new control towers and a new telecommunications system. The plan could cost “lots of billions,” Duffy said last week, likely requiring Congress to appropriate additional funds for the FAA.
Air safety has entered the fore after a series of jarring incidents. Dozens of people were killed in a January collision between a commercial jet and a military helicopter near Reagan Washington National Airport. And in recent weeks, the FAA facility that handles the airspace near Newark Liberty International Airport has been plagued by staffing shortages and equipment outages, leading to severe delays at the busy airport.
“We are facing a crisis,” said Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who chairs the appropriations panel.
Duffy told lawmakers Thursday air travel in the U.S. is still safe, citing “multiple redundancies” — but he acknowledged the air traffic control system needs an overhaul.
“The system we currently use, it truly is 25, 35, 40 years old in some places. We should’ve paid way more attention to it as a country,” Duffy said Thursday. “We’ve let it age, and now we’re seeing the cracks of that age play out in real time for us.”
Duffy also pushed back on criticism that job cuts at the FAA could end up impacting safety. The agency laid off several hundred probationary staff earlier this year, amid a wider effort by the Trump administration to shrink the federal workforce. A union representing some FAA workers told the Associated Press in February the cuts affected mechanics and other specialists who help support the work of air traffic controllers and safety inspectors.
“You can have all your air traffic controllers there, but if they don’t have the support staff, we can’t know that they’re doing the job,” said Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat.
Murray also cited reports that air traffic controllers were mistakenly sent an email earlier this year offering them buyouts to leave their jobs, which she said was “really callous.”
Duffy said the agency has not cut any air traffic controllers, and the layoffs and voluntary buyouts that hit the federal workforce earlier this year excluded safety positions. “We’ve been hiring air traffic controllers as quickly as we can,” Duffy told lawmakers.
Joe Walsh is a senior editor for digital politics at CBS News. Joe previously covered breaking news for Forbes and local news in Boston.
Kathryn Krupnik
contributed to this report.
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