As awful as all this seems, I am reassured that Duffy told him to eff off. ATC are a rare breed, which it why it is hard to hire. You can train them, but you need a certain balance of natural skills which is why the high wash-out rate (not 'DEI hires', but you need to kiss a lot of frogs to find some good ATC so you bring a lot in. White dudes wash out a lot, too).

The real factor is when the pilots refuse to fly. US airline pilots, while under the same corporate pressures as everyone else, have very broad latitude to refuse to fly if they think it's unsafe. (same goes for most European pilots -- other parts of the world it can be more questionable).

I am flying out this afternoon. Not concerned.

For me the question is if flying from DCA is less safe than IAD or BWI. I understand that DCA has shorter runways and flight diversions. But, seems like the ATC issues would impact the other airports equally. And, DCA is a much closer drive. What are you all doing?

Anonymous wrote:My friend’s DH is a retired commercial pilot and the things he is hearing have made him very concerned about aviation safety. It’s not a made up concern.

This is what concerns me. Not the safety of flying in general. But the firings and general chaos. At other agencies, fired employees were asked to return because DOGE didn’t realize their positions are critical. In the context of air safety, that same scenario is frightening.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/20/faa-firings-aviation-safety-experts-00205160

When ATCs start calling in sick, reducing staff and rusty managers start controlling again. When TSA lines are an hour long even with expedited status. Everything will be coming apart.

My friend’s DH is a retired commercial pilot and the things he is hearing have made him very concerned about aviation safety. It’s not a made up concern.

If you drove to work this week it would take you years of flying to equal the same level of danger you exposed yourself to.

Anonymous wrote:I mean I'm not flying out of DCA again if I have an alternative. Which is sad because I loved DCA. But I don't travel by plane often - and less often now that there's a travel hold on non-essential government travel, and super duper less often if I lose my job - so not a big deal for me to switch to IAD or BWI.

Didn't all of the attention just make DCA safer though?

I can’t get over the fact that there is already an air traffic controller shortage and Duffy is saying DOGE is trying to fire ones on the job.

Meanwhile, Musk is trying to get retired air traffic controllers out of retirement:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/musk-begs-retired-air-traffic-controllers-to-return-after-doge-cuts/

And he is tweeting:

The Verizon communication system to air traffic control is breaking down very rapidly,” he said in a post on his social media platform X. “The FAA assessment is single digit months to catastrophic failure, putting air traveler safety at serious risk.”

I can’t concentrate with everything going on with DOGE - I can’t imagine how the air traffic controllers feel, constantly being threatened with layoffs. Seeing how chaotic DOGE has been across the federal government, isnt it likely the chaos is going to impact safety?

Anonymous wrote:I mean I'm not flying out of DCA again if I have an alternative. Which is sad because I loved DCA. But I don't travel by plane often - and less often now that there's a travel hold on non-essential government travel, and super duper less often if I lose my job - so not a big deal for me to switch to IAD or BWI.

I was already trying to avoid DCA after having talked to some flight crews about how often they had issues with finding a landing spot and had to either circle or divert. They’ve totally screwed up what was once a nice little airport for short flights.

Anonymous wrote:It's when you see Big Balls in the control tower. That's the moment.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/10/musk-doge-state-department-surrogate/

Yeah, friend of a friend with 20 years in the field and two masters was surprised to find he was suddenly reporting to that dude at State.

I mean I'm not flying out of DCA again if I have an alternative. Which is sad because I loved DCA. But I don't travel by plane often - and less often now that there's a travel hold on non-essential government travel, and super duper less often if I lose my job - so not a big deal for me to switch to IAD or BWI.

Anonymous wrote:Seriously considering canceling our spring break trip out of DCA.

You shouldn’t do this for safety reasons, but if you’re flying on a Friday or Sunday it might be good to switch because Trump going to his weekend houses causes a lot of delays until they figure out how to do it without holding all the flights.

This is not a universal decision. You think it’s too risky? Don’t fly.

It will never be too risky for me. If I go out in a plane crash so be it. I’m not going to stop traveling. Life is too short even if it ends in a plane crash.

Seriously considering canceling our spring break trip out of DCA.