The feud between Elon Musk and former FAA -Chef Mike Whitaker

EFriend before emergency workers have finished regaining the bodies of the 67 people who died in Wednesday’s collision of an American Airlines flight and an American army black hawk helicopter, all eyes turn to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Office of Accident Investigation & Prevention. The office is responsible for examining the cause of the crash – which took place across the Potomac River near Washington, DC, as the aircraft prepared to land – and what can be done to improve security in the future.

However, there is a problem. Although this office may be ready to go to work, few themselves are not fully on the job. It’s because it’s without an administrator. Michael Whitaker, who had led the administration since October 2023, stepped out earlier this month and announced in one 12 December E -Mail To his staff that he would leave the position of January 20, the day President Donald Trump took office. The Leadership page Of the FAA Web site shows both the administrator’s and the Deputy Administrator’s job as “unemployed”.

“Serving as an administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration – with this incredible team – has been the honor of my lifetime,” Whitaker wrote. “This has been the best and most challenging job in my career.”

FAA staff will have to take Whitaker’s words that it has actually been the best job he has ever held. But it is a matter of public record that it has been an extremely challenging when a staggering last September with SpaceX chief and presidential pale Elon Musk led Musk to go to X and called for Whitaker to quit his position. “He has to resign,” Musk Posted Flat on September 25, 2024 over a picture of Whitaker.

The position came just over a week after musk accused few of nothing less than to strangle dreams of the human race as a whole. “The basic problem,” He posted On September 17, “is that humanity will forever be limited to Earth unless there is a radical reform at FAA!”

It is a major accusation of what comes from a relatively small kerfuffle.

The Musk-Whitaker feud goes back to two SpaceX launches in the summer of 2023-lead Whitaker had even taken over at few. In a September 17, 2024, post on its website, Said FAA That in June 2023, SpaceX used a new launch management room for an unpublished satellite mission that had not been approved by few. It also failed to carry out a required and routine security survey of flight controllers before launching, according to FAA. Faa proposed fines of $ 175,000 for each of these violations. The next month used the administration, SpaceX used rocket fuel from a “rocket driveway” that had not been approved. This violation resulted in a penalty of $ 283,009. The company was given 30 days to appeal the fines, which amounted to $ 633,009.

“Security drives everything we do at FAA, including a legal responsibility for security supervision of companies with commercial space transport licenses,” said FAA Head Attorney Marc Nichols in a statement At that time. “A company’s non -compliance with the security requirements will result in consequences.”

Musk hit back with his couple X -positions and with another On September 17, 2024, warns that “SpaceX will file a case against few regulatory overreaction.”

Two days later, SpaceX sent and publicly submitted A letter to Congress that objects to the fines, adding: “For almost two years, SpaceX has expressed its concerns with the FAA’s inability to keep up with the commercial aerospace industry. It is clear that the agency lacks resources for timely review of license material, but also focuses its limited resources in areas not related to public security. These distractions continue to threaten direct national priorities and undercut the ability of American industries to innovate. “

Whitaker got his chance to answer five days later, on September 24, when he testified to the representative saying: “They have (SpaceX) been about 20 years old and I think they have to operate at the highest level of security, and that includes the adoption of (a security management) program that includes having a whistleblower program. They launched without permission. (Fines are) The only tool we have to comply with security issues. “

During the same hearing, whitaker approached faa’s plans To delay the fifth launch of SpaceX’s massive Starship Rocket at least until November 2024, the decision on SpaceX ‘did not accuse a proper Sonic Boom Impact study, and it allegedly uses unclean water to cool the launch plate in its “violation” system. In one Blog postsSpaceX wrote: “Environmental regulations and mitigation serve a noble purpose that stems from security measures for common sense to enable progress while preventing unnecessary influence on the environment. But with the licensing process drawn out to Fly 5, we find ourselves delayed for unreasonable and annoying reasons. “

SpaceX added and sent A more pointed letter to the friendly member of the house committee Kevin Kiley, (R-Calif.), Who had questioned Whitaker about the treatment room that got in the hands of the few, compared to Boeing, whose defective star class sprition has left two NASA- Astronauts Effective Stranded aboard the International Space Station since their launch in June 2024 on a mission that was supposed to last only eight days. Said Kiley That Faa’s reaction to Starship’s problems “put sharply relief a question that many have raised about, perhaps the unnecessary control that (it) agency gives to SpaceX.”

SpaceX agreed, sayingIn his letter to Kiley: “Spacex writes to thank you for taking the opportunity to seek answers from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) -Administrator Mike Whitaker on FAA’s License challenges relating to commercial space launch… Spacex rejects any accusation from FAA that SpaceX violated any laws. “

The fifth starship -launch in the end were cleared to fly On October 13, 2024, in front of the November Projection.

Whitaker has not made any public statements as to whether the banks of Musk who have been staying close to Trump – Despite Latest reports This musk is denied an office in West Wing that he had an eye on – had any influence on his decision to resign. And Musk and his newly created Department of Government Efficiency Performed no public touchdown dancing after Whitaker stopped. Either way, the absence of a few administrator, as several families provide for loved ones, is not a good look for the new administration.