SpaceX engineers brought on at FAA after probationary employees were fired

[ruet]

Source: Ars Technica

Engineers who work for Elon Musk’s SpaceX have been brought on as senior advisers to the acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), sources tell WIRED.

On Sunday, Sean Duffy, secretary of the Department of Transportation, which oversees the FAA, announced in a post on X that SpaceX engineers would be visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Virginia to take what he positioned as a tour. “The safety of air travel is a nonpartisan matter,” Musk replied. “SpaceX engineers will help make air travel safer.”

By the time these posts were made, though, according to sources who were granted anonymity because they fear retaliation, SpaceX engineers were already being onboarded at the agency under Schedule A, a special authority that allows government managers to “hire persons with disabilities without requiring them to compete for the job,” according to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

These new hires come after the terminations of hundreds of FAA probationary employees, and the most deadly month of US aviation disasters in more than a decade.

Read more: https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/02/spacex-engineers-brought-on-at-faa-after-probationary-employees-were-fired/

[PJMcK]

1. 'Cuz nothin' says fascism like government hiring corporate employees (n/t)

[Gore1FL]

2. I am glad I have no reason to fly. nt

[Miguelito Loveless]

3. So they used a DEI initiative

to hire on Musk spies?

[Bayard]

4. The safety of air travel is a nonpartisan matter,"

So, fire all of the long-term, knowledgeable and experienced employees, and replace with Muskrat's people (no doubt at a much higher salary.) Efficiency at work.

That's about as blatantly partisan as it gets.

[stillcool]

5. hostile take-over?

I wonder how much he really ponied up? It's like he's the sole owner of the government.

[Diraven]

6. This is the plan

They're slowly going to transfer the entire government to be under the control of Musk and his companies. Eventually we'll be paying our taxes directly to him.

[stillcool]

8. he can't be alone

wonder if we'll ever find out all of who is at the table...don't know why I find it so important to know.

[UpInArms]

7. F Eloon with a chainsaw

He is a fukking nazi

[Skittles]

9. only Musk ass kissers need apply

[Initech]

10. Can we please shoot Elon into space already?

And make it a one way trip.

[slightlv]

11. So, musk has made Space X AND plane travel

equally dangerous. How endearing of him. And wouldn't the turnover of all these positions to Space X employees... already under the employment by musk... be counted as nepotism? How is this NOT a conflict of interest?

[Bengus81]

12. Musk replied. "SpaceX engineers will help make air travel safer."

You just had a load of your space shit crash in Poland. If that would have hit a populated city there would be deaths right now.