Amid Federal Aviation Administration staffing shortages as a result of ongoing authorities shutdown, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has claimed that Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth supplied to provide him with air site visitors controllers — regardless of them missing certification.
“The secretary of war texted me yesterday and said, ‘I might have some air traffic controllers. If you could use them, I’m gonna offer them to you,’” Duffy advised CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday on “State of the Union.”
Noting that he’s undecided if he can use them “because they’re not certified in the airspaces that we need them,” Duffy mentioned he would possibly use them anyway.
“But if I can, I’m going to use them.”
“Everyone in this administration — at the direction of President Trump – has said ‘minimize the pain on Americans.’ So this is not political, this is strictly safety,” he continued.
The Pentagon didn’t instantly reply to HuffPost’s request for remark.
Duffy went on to take a shot on the Left wing, telling Tapper he’s making the perfect of “a mess that Democrats have put in my lap” and is working to “keep the American people safe and keep airplanes flying.”
Earlier this month, the FAA ordered for flights to be scaled again in response to shortages of air site visitors controllers — who haven’t acquired their paychecks for weeks — as the federal government shutdown continues to loom.
Elsewhere within the interview, Tapper requested Duffy if he had any “numerical idea of how many Americans will not be able to be with their families” for Thanksgiving as a result of rising shortages, to which, Duffy mentioned he anticipates the quantity being “substantial.”
“I’m trying to get more air traffic controllers into the towers and be certified, but I’m about 1,000 to 2,000 controllers short,” he continued.
Duffy then declared that the widespread airport shortages will proceed even as soon as the shutdown ends as a result of air site visitors controllers are retiring extra quickly than up to now.
“So I paid experienced controllers to stay on the job and not retire. I used to have about 4 controllers retire a day before the shutdown. I’m now up to 15 to 20 a day [that] are retiring,” he defined.
Duffy added, “So it’s going to be harder for me to come back after the shutdown and have more controllers controlling the airspace. So this is going to live on in air travel well beyond the time frame that this government opens back up.”
