A conversation about airline safety in the era of DOGE and Elon Musk:
Rolling Stone: FAA Officials Ordered Staff to Find Funding for Elon Musk’s Starlink
James Fallows, longtime private pilot: Corrupt? Sure.
But also directly dangerous? And how!
FAA has done careful, long testing /study of new tower-communication system. Now a rush to switch to system that *just happens* to be owned by Mr. Efficiency himself, Elon. (Has he even been to an ATC facility? Probably like Vance re Ukraine)
Regan Wilks: In boardrooms around the world, airline executives are discussing what will be more harmful to their share prices: sounding the alarm on this, or the inevitable plane crashes
Fallows: I think this is correct.
Everyone involved in aviation KNOWS FOR SURE that reckless/ rampant changes of past six weeks will, *for sure,* make airplane crashes more likely. But no airline exec wants to be the first to say this in public.
Here's a change: For years I'd say that the more people knew about aviation, the more they'd reassure you about the safety of airline flights.
Now, the more people know about aviation, the more concerned they are about Doge FAA/ATC/NOAA/NWS assault.
Do you feel safer now?
It's going to take a retired insider like Sully Sullenberger to blow the whistle on all this before planes start.
And whomever it is will have to make sure his finances are secure and prepare to called a pedo by Phony Stark.
No. It’s going to take planes falling out of the sky in high numbers or with billionaires/Congresspeople on board before anyone cares to do anything about it.
But it's all Biden's fault!!!!
Not Carter's or Obama's?
Benghazi!!!
I suppose expectations get reset over time, but plenty of us were willing to fly in the 1960s, with airline fatalities at 1960s rates. And my parents were quite willing to take me on an airplane then.
So it may have to be high numbers indeed.
Perhaps case in point: a plane already fell out of the sky, and nobody seems to care.
I still need to fly to CA next month and perhaps to DeathSantis Land for a cruise departure, and sure hope my number isn't up (or members of my family). Apparently, a bunch of FAA folks involved in the "non critical" job of producing air traffic navigation maps were fired (folks who make sure that runway approaches are unlikely to result in hitting something on the ground like a building, tower, hill, etc.).
Mango Mussolini and Heinrich Musk are absolutely going get people killed.
This society is wading into the shallows of an Idiocracy. Lives have to be sacrificed before (a) people find the courage to step up, (b) people understand what's happening, and (c) SCOTUS will allow lawsuits to go forth.
We could have a very beautiful nationwide general strike and force these goons out, but people aren't yet convinced of the tsunami of shit about to crash down on us. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This. All the federal employees should refuse to do their jobs until the craziness and criming ends. Surely some of them are doing things that even Republicans use, like post offices or air traffic control or issuing tax refund checks or whatever. Make it clear that “if you fire one of us for unjust cause, you will get no service from any of us.” You know, exactly what unions are supposed to do.
Yes I realize it’s illegal for federal workers to strike. It was also illegal for millions of teachers to strike in WV, OK and other states and yet they did and they got pay raises. But no, the Feds don’t have enough personnel or jail space to arrest all 2m federal workers… and blue states can refuse to help them do so. And arresting all of them still doesn’t get the federal services running again.
But Elon said we weren't supposed to do any work...
Why do I think the Starlink system will be like the Cybertruck: years late, overpriced, and basically a piece of crap? Elon’s motto is move fast and crash things. Fasten your seat belts, dead passengers are just a bit of necessary collateral damage in Elon’s scheme of product development
Because that's not true.
First off, Starlink is a system that already works. It's plug and play at this point. But not at the reliability that the ATC systems are used to.
And no, the Cybertruck isn't bad at what it does; it ended up being the third to market, but the best it could've been was second anyhow. No, it doesn't have more recalls than the other trucks or whatever.
Even if these were good choices - it would sill be gross to be paying off a CEO skipping work at his companies to issue illegal orders in the Administration.
Good grief
It is kind of sort of useful in very rural areas, but it is not "plug and play"
Much less reliable than fiber broadband
It faces interruptions during heavy rain or snow
There is little if anything "techie" at least touched by Musk with which Chrissa isn't enamored. Or at least deferential to.
Facts are facts, whether or not some asshole is attached to them.
Just because Buzz Aldrin is an addled Trumper doesn't change the Apollo program's stats.
Facts are indeed facts.
When you respond with facts, people listen.
When you respond with ad hominem attacks and profanity, people tend to hear that and ignore the facts. Because most of the time, people who insult others don’t have facts. You may be the exception, but most people don’t bother reading past “asshole”.
Which is more important to you, conveying facts or insulting people?
And insulting me provides the answer to that question.
Ahh, yes, please diagram the ad hominem.
...also...
...Are you arguing that Elon (or Buzz Aldrin) aren't currently assholes?
Like...
Are you such a fainting child? Kevin has always allowed us to use the work 'fuck'; 'asshole' is allowed in prime-time broadcasts.
Kevin allows links in comments, so by all means post a couple or three independent measures of Starlink reliability and aggregate performance.
Weird, are you arguing it's reliable?
'Good grief' the asshole replies, ignoring my fucking sentence "But not at the reliability that the ATC systems are used to." written ten minutes prior.
And do you fucking know what plug and play is?
Yeah, I don't know what Starlink adds to the system or what they think they're replacing. I said that. Don't fucking argue as if I didn't already say that.
Except for the RUD (Rapid Unplanned Disassembly) feature the CyberTrucks exhibit because at least some of them are having problems with the glue or glue prep that holds the trim and outer panels on.
Glue isn't a problem if you do it right - but it does have to be done right. Tesla seems to be having a problem with that.
As in a handful have had this issue.
But all new models have issues - Ford's Lightning had some burn down at the factory, and the Mach-E burned out the main breaker going down mountain passes.
🤷♀️
And just what does a cybertruck do beyond look like Elon’s version of the future? It’s really more of a personal image vehicle than a truck, one that really doesn’t directly compete with the Ford, Chevy, or even Rivian etrucks.
It represents the very apex of Tweener Minecraft design.
Why doesn't it directly compete?
Because you wish it doesn't?
Not a good hauler, smallish bed with high sides that make it hard to load. Not great off road, suspension is a bit fragile and lacks articulation. The steer by wire seems to be a break through, one that also makes Elon’s obsession with replacing steering wheels with yokes make sense. Other than that it is a triumph of styling over practicality, form over function.
Ahh, yea, I was right, 'because you say so'.
Don't buy one because their errant CEO is a Nazi, not because of ignorance.
'Articulation' - other trucks don't 'articulate' they're damaging their frame by torquing it. The Lightning, Silverado, and Rivian also don't articulate like older trucks because of the latters' unit frame and the former's aluminum frame.
Cargo? Lightning has a payload of 1800-2000 lbs (remember these numbers include passengers); the Silverado EV is 1440; the Rivian is 1764 to 2172. Cybertruck is 2500.
And the exposed bed of the Cybertruck is 6', the Silverado is just shy of that (but some models have the cab back seat fold in) the Lightning is 5.5' and the Rivian is 4.5'.
Lastly... No, the bed's sides are not high and hard to load - it is deeper than the others; but the Lightning and Silverado have the same height sides as the Cybertruck's highest point of the sides when they have the optional raised clearance of the Cybertruck or the Rivian (because these two change height as needed)
Ugh. At least be informed.
Crissa really does have an alert set to “if cybertruck or tesla is mentioned online, I must respond in 60 min or less” doesn’t she? (Gender inferred from the handle, but she might be he or it or any other pronoun.)
I guess Crissa’s paychecks depend on such rapid responsiveness. Also, $20 down on whether Crissa responds in a hostile manner to my comment because Crissa simply cannot allow any allegations that she is a Cybertruck/Tesla fan to go unchallenged. (Last time she got real pissed that I wrote something similar about her defenses of Tesla/Cybertruck.)
"Crissa really does have an alert set to “if cybertruck or tesla ..."
They also defend Xitter sometimes.
Really needs to be flatly ignored and that's it.
When did I ever defend Xitter?
Why do you have to be fucking rude?
Why lie about someone, tho?
I've been posting about the same things in Kevin's comments for twenty four years.
Is Amtrak still ok???
Look, I'm sure StarLink will be just as good as Tesla's full self-driving mode. They'll only be a few accidents per year.
In boardrooms around the world, airline executives are discussing what will be more harmful to their share prices: sounding the alarm on this, or the inevitable plane crashes
Really? I would say -- and throw me a little line here -- that a series of crashes or serious runway collisions that result in multiple fatalities may be a *wee* bit more serious than having Trump say you suck.
Whoops. Accidentally made this a reply to golack. In any case, yeah, I'm sure there's plans afoot to dismantle Amtrak as we speak.
The issue isn't about Trump saying they suck.
The issue is that if airlines say that what Trump is doing is making flying unsafe, then people will think that what Trump is doing is making flying unsafe, and if people think that flying is becoming unsafe they'll avoid flying. People avoiding flying is bad for airlines' share prices.
Amtrak and the Post Office are at least not directly touched by the OMB.
But no, Teslas don't have more accidents compared to other vehicles: The report more accidents because all of them since 2018 have the hardware to record accidents and dial home. Most other brands barely support that technology today.
So at least, they aren't more dangerous. Yet.
I fear he'll treat Air Traffic Control like full self driving mode (AI) or like his SpaceX tests.
Not sure what this specific contract entails--full NextGen ATC or just internet access. The full system means integrated legacy system information with newer and updated system information. Any one doing that will have to take the time to understand what is going on. The later is just running fiber--unless you're in rural areas. Not sure how far along Verizon has gotten on this, but I don't see how a few base stations will help much in urban areas unless they're still building out more capacity.
I'd guess Musk will try to make mountains out of mole hills to divert problems caused by air traffic controller shortage and to take over a contract.
The FAA leases dedicated fiber to handle data communications; for example, all the digitized data from all the surveillance radars continuously scanning US airspace, plus ADS-B updates; equipment status; weather info; flight plans, and more. Requires lots of bandwidth and extremely high reliability. That's the telecommunications infrastructure.
Yeah, they could have upgraded network priority to the satellites, and Starlink can rent fiber links like anyone... but it makes no sense to skip the contract process other than corruption.
Hunting for the optimum point of airlines safety v. Musk's net worth. /s
But no airline exec wants to be the first to say this in public.
So why not get together, call a press conference, and call out this bullshit in public? I imagine if the CEOs of Delta, United, American and Southwest all spoke up, that might get the public's attention.
Deep STATE!!!
Why? Because all of them contributed $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund and supported him through the election because of "Biden overreach."
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/southwests-ceo-says-trump-years-155700120.html
It's hard to criticize someone when your lips are clamped to their asshole.
Verizon won the FENS contract nearly two years ago. On what basis could it be abrogated by the corrupt Trump administration? Verizon would take them to court, for certain.
I won't be flying for the foreseeable future.