MUSK HAD FAA HEAD QUIT
FAA previously fined Elon Musk $600,000+. Musk got his chance to get even.
Elon Musk pushed out the FAA chief who resigned 1 year into a 5 year term last week. Why? Because last year the FAA fined SpaceX $600,000+ for safety violations. Now the FAA has no chief and we just had the first commercial airline crash in 16 years.
The FAA said on Sept. 17, 2024, that SpaceX should be fined $633,009 in civil penalties. Days later, during a hearing at the House of Representatives, Whitaker explained the rationale for the fine
Whitaker said during the hearing:
Safety is in the public interest, and that's our primary focus with the proposed civil penalty. It involved a failure to comply with the launch requirements before launching. They launched without a permit. The allegations are that they moved a fuel farm closer to the population and did not do a risk analysis before launching. It's the only tool we have to get compliance on safety matters.
SpaceX immediately rebutted some of Whitaker's claims letter to Rep. Kevin Kiley, the California Republican who questioned Whitaker in the hearing. The company shared the letter on X (archived):
Trump fired the heads of the Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration, and that he also disbanded the Aviation Security Advisory Committee at the Department of Homeland Security
President Donald Trump named Chris Rocheleau, chief of operations at the lobby group National Business Aviation Association, as interim FAA administrator on Thursday, one day after a midair collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter near Washington D.C., left 67 dead.