President Donald Trump

What a difference a day makes

David Learmount Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Yesterday (see previous article) we were talking about Conflict Zone Information Bulletins and the advisibility of observing the warnings in them. Today the Gulf region is overshadowed by actual war, a conflict between US military forces and Iran officially announced by Presiden Donald Trump of the USA.

President Trump was characteristically imprecise about America’s objective in conducting a war. Timescales were absent.

Yesterday, airline traffic was active over Iran, Iraq and all the states with shores on the Gulf. Today the skies are empty there.

There are streams of diverted traffic to the north and the south of the Gulf, wanting to fly between the Indian subcontinent/South East Asia and Europe. They have been forced to travel over the southern half of Saudi Arabia and through Egypt, or through the Afghanistan/Turkmenistan/Azerbaijan/Turkey bottleneck between southern Ukraine/southern Russia and northern Iran.

This war cannot be said to be a surprise following the steady build-up of massive American military capability in the area, both at sea and at land bases. But the first actual hostile moves in all wars are always a surprise when launched.

No-one knows where this is going. European states that normally ally with America through NATO are silent.

Trump, Musk and the FAA

David Learmount Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Just as President Donald Trump rushed to claim that the 29 January mid-air collision over the Potomac River was the result of air traffic control incompetence resulting from the Federal Aviation Administration’s application of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) policies in controller recruitment, so others have lined up to point out that there has been an unusual cluster of serious US fatal air accidents since his appointment as POTUS.

Anyone with a brain knows that neither claim has any causal connection with reality.

But I am serving notice today that this blog will examine any proposals that emerge from the Trump-appointed DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) regarding the funding or reorganization of the FAA, and I invite senior executives and employees of the FAA, the airlines and general aviation bodies to report on substantive changes ordered by DOGE by responding to this blog.

Like others who care about maintaining and advancing aviation safety, I am wary of politically-inspired tinkering with an important oversight agency by leaders who have no expertise in the management of aviation safety. Trump’s first lieutenant Elon Musk, a man of many talents, has been entrusted with heading DOGE. He has a businessman’s appetite for risk-taking.

As Boeing acknowledges, business skills wielded by those for whom safety and quality control is an important concern, but whose primary objective has become shareholder returns, can get the balance wrong and damage both.

The USA has led the post-war world in advancing civil aviation safety, with the FAA being its general and the Flight Safety Foundation its standard-bearer. If the FAA’s ability to oversee industry safety performance and to manage the USA’s airspace is diminished in the name of “efficiency”, it affects global aviation, so the world will be watching with its own interests at heart. The FAA is an agency, a public service, it is not a business.

This appeal for reader feedback will have to be carefully managed, because at this stage the proposed Trump/Musk policies inspire apprehension without advancing any substance worthy of appraisal.

But soon actions will loom, and appraisal must begin.