The Federal Aviation Administration’s interim administrator Billy Nolen is leaving this summer, and President Joe Biden will have to act quickly to replace the key position. Biden’s first choice withdrew last month when it became clear that he was not going to get through confirmation.
Denver International Airport CEO Phillip Washington’s nomination stalled in the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, because Republicans said he lacked aviation experience.
The Senate Commerce Committee is chaired by Washington State Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat. Ranking minority member is Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan also serves on the committee and was instrumental in sealing the fate of the nominee Washington.
Sen. Sullivan, during the confirmation hearing for Washington, told the nominee that his resume didn’t hold up to scrutiny for someone who is to be in charge of the safety of the nation’s airways.
Nolen made his announcement Friday in a memo to staff: “But now it is time for a new captain to guide the FAA. I told [Sec. of Transportation] Buttigieg and notified the White House that I will depart as a new nominee is named this summer.”
The FAA has faced a number of problems, including having its NOTAM computers shut down inexplicably in January, prompting the sudden halt of all flights. The computer system was damaged after a contractor deleted essential files, the FAA explained. More than 1,100 flights were canceled and 7,700 were delayed as a result.
Also of concern are the number of near-misses occurring at airports, where two or more aircraft are cleared for the same runway or taxiway at the same time. By March of 2023, there had been 613 runway incursion incidents in the six prior months according to the FAA.
The agency has been without a permanent leader since March of 2022, when Trump-appointed Administrator Steve Dickson left after serving less than half of his five-year term.
Sorry. But I’m an airplane guy and I’d rather see a CEO type in that position. He can get the airplane info from his staff but he needs to be able to run WAY more than just letting airplanes fly. He needs to emplace a deeply experienced IT team as everything from tracking commercial flights to disseminating memos is done by computer now. And as shown earlier, having a computer crash in a busy transportation entity can, at best, slow down/ground flights and at worst, get people killed. He also needs a commo team in the D.C. swamp, both to send out info quickly and to give back intel as to what crap may be coming from congress/senate and to get info to the public quickly to avoid or smooth over operational glitches. These teams need to be in place just to get to the operation of all aircraft in U.S. controlled airspace. Those operations start with making sure that the aircraft are safe to fly. Then on to making sure the pilots are qualified to operate those aircraft. Only THEN does it move on to actually coordinating the takeoff, flight, and landing of each aircraft. No one guy can possibly have a handle on all that, so give me a strong CEO type that knows how to surround himself with a strong staff that, in turn run their individual divisions.
Government doesn’t pay enough. Furthermore it states: “Denver International Airport CEO Phillip Washington’s nomination stalled in the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, because Republicans said he lacked aviation experience.” The administrator can still be a CEO, FROM the aviation industry, not necessarily a pilot.
“Rolen w/ Nolen” …. Moving onto bigger pastures and ventures! Personally working within the FAA organization in AK907, I welcome that departure and wish him the best of luck.
The FAA is incompetent as an organization and is largely staffed by incompetents as well. It doesn’t really matter who is in-charge because nothing gets done anyway.
With over qualified Pothole Pete in charge of transportation I wouldnt be surprised to see one of Osama bin Ladens followers being nominated for the position. I think I will stick to walking or driving until this woke crowd gets the boot unless the 80 million people thinks Biden is like whiskey and gets better with age.
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