Airport chaos at Newark rests on the shoulders of Biden and Buttigieg
Every new administration spends the first year blaming the previous administration for any problems. They can be true – or just political bovine poop.
President Obama blamed the previous George Bush administration so often that it became a running joke. In fact, when Washington was hit with a mild earthquake produced by an unnamed faultline, it was said that Obama wanted to name it “Bush’s Fault.”
In terms of the chaos in the skies over New Jersey, the fault clearly rests on the Biden administration – and specifically at the desk of then-Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
Nothing is ever calm in the airspace over New Jersey. First, we had all those UFOs fill the night sky. Now we have delays and cancellations at Newark’s largest airport. It has the public angry or scared – or both. At least that portion of the public is trying to get in or out of Newark’s Liberty International Airport.
The first problem is the lack of staff – especially air traffic controllers. According to the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), there are more than 3000 air controller slots left unfilled.
Recently, more than 20 percent of controllers in Newark walked off the job, citing YEARS of mismanagement and chronic understaffing. During Biden’s four years in office, he never recognized Newark’s staffing as a problem — never mentioned it. More importantly, neither did Buttigieg.
Within the first 100 days, the new Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy has taken major steps to address the staff shortage.
- Accelerated Hiring. Under Duffy’s leadership the FAA has streamlined the hiring process by reducing the steps from eight to five – which reduces the time from recruitment to positioning by five months.
- Increased pay and bonuses. New hires will receive a 30 percent salary increase along with a $5000 bonus upon completion of training. Controllers assigned to hard-to-staff locations will get an additional $10,000.
- Retention Incentives. Some controllers reaching the mandatory retirement age of 56 will get a bonus equal to 20 percent of the current salary to stay on for a few more years.
- Expanded Training Resources. To facilitate increased recruitment, more instructors are being hired — and a new learning center has been established at the Air Traffic Controller Academy in Oklahoma.
In addition to the staffing problem, the technology has been allowed to deteriorate. The Biden administration utterly failed in attending to new technology. Instead, the old equipment – which could not keep up with the increases in air traffic — was never upgraded. Some of the computer systems are still using floppy disks – a technology that home computers have not used for more than 30 years.
As a graphic example of the quality of those air control systems, the controllers at the Philadelphia TRACON facility – which oversees Newark – temporarily lost all communication with aircraft. Twice. It was attributed to “equipment malfunction”.
In addition to the TRACON breakdown, there has been an ongoing series of technical failures throughout the system – including radar and radio outages that left controllers several seconds without contact.
Duffy has ordered a complete overhaul of the national air traffic control systems – starting with Newark. He has authorized a $3.2 billion infrastructure investment – and has already approved 180 grants to fund airport technology improvements, including new telecom networks and radar systems.
Exacerbating all the aforementioned problems, takeoffs and landings at Newark have been limited by a $121 million runway reconstruction project. It leaves only one runway for landings and takeoffs.
Even with all these new programs, it will take two to three years to bring staffing up to the optimum level and have the new technologies up and running. In the meantime, airlines will have to reduce their schedules for technical and safety reasons.
The chaos at Newark – and elsewhere in the air traffic control system – rests on the shoulders of Biden and Buttigieg. What were they thinking? In short, Duffy has done in a matter of days what Biden and Buttigieg failed to do in four years.
So, there ‘tis.
I agree with the author: Joe and Mayor Pete’s watch. Yet, Trump caught the bullet, the disaster is on his watch and Americans are already dying, so he owns it. It’s been over 100 days, the honeymoon is over. Sort of how the Afghan pullout was on Trump’s watch, but Biden caught the bullet.
Thirteen Americans died at Abbey Gate. Today, 150 Americans have died in the air, under Trump, in 2025. There have been 44 deadly aviation crashes in the United States in 2025. It was only April….
Before 2025, the most recent deadly plane crash involving a U.S. airliner was in 2009.
There were 179 fatal aviation crashes in the United States with 306 dead in 2024. There were 197 fatal aviation crashes and 310 people dead in 2023. Trump is on track to double the US air deaths per year.
Remember, there was no issue UNTIL Trump took office and Trump’s air travel issues abound. Perhaps Joe/Pete set him up like he set them up in Afghanistan. Or perhaps, like Joe/Pete, he is the straw that broke the camel’s back after catching the deal, just like they caught Afghanistan. You know, like it was a shaky system, tenuously held together with bailing wire, and suddenly TruMusk fired everyone and then the shit hit the fan and planes began to fall. Just like Trump signed the Afghan deal without the Afghans, gave the enemy over a year to recruit soldiers and plan Abbey Gate, reduced US troop strength beneath bare bones, and handed the ball to Joe/Pete saying “run with it.” Perhaps Joe/Pete returned the favor and now, literally, the sky is falling for Trump.
Need a thorough investigation before the stones are tossed. As to Duffy fixing it, time will tell, many great words, let’s see if action speaks louder. What took him so long? Seven planes went down in January, the next month seven more. In March, 13, and another 13 in April. I would think Duffy would have started taking actions after the DC crash in January. No, he waited unitl Newark ATC’s issued the: “it’s not safe” to the press since Duffy was not listening apparently, nor reading the stats. Now he’s removing steps from hiring process, deploying junior level workers, all sounds great, but…..could be a risk we should not have taken, time will tell. Perhaps he’s just making it even worse by jumping to conclusions.
One thing is certain, it was safe to fly under Joe, less safe under Don. That’s just the numbers. As to the actions, time will tell. So, what are we waiting for, less talk, more action.
Dunger please don’t wave your penis at nuns. People would think that you are weird.
Sorry, didn’t see that Larry banned free speech for his “Government should not be in the news broadcasting business … period” story and wrote this online. I really like how PBP brings issues of the day to the table; too bad the meal is often sour.
SO here it is:
Larry is an advocate of win-lose strategies aligning with simplistic banners, brands, and black or white binary decisions. He boldly states: “Government should not be in the news broadcasting business … period,” but he offers no solution except to stop the federal funding. These guys are really good with simple yes/no answers, taking things apart with chainsaws, but really weak on providing any solutions in lieu of just burning it all down. He says he liked PBS/NPR but now he doesn’t so burn it down. And while you are doing it, burn down any government news broadcasting because now it’s all bad.
Without funding, PBS is hurting, NPR does not care. And if these stations fail due to funding, it will be the rural station outlets that go first; the Red Zone, so I guess Trump will kill PBS/NPR to his base first; the ones that they supposedly don’t watch. Apparently, like public schools, colleges, they don’t work there either. But wait, there’s more. How about the following government sponsored news stations, and their services, that Larry wants to get out of the business of supporting:
Voice of America
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Current Time TV
Radio Free Asia
Middle East Broadcasting Networks
Alhurra
Radio Sawa
Office of Cuba Broadcasting
Radio y Televisión Martí)
The government board overseeing this includes mostly Republicans now, including Rubio nad we have no idea who is working there, politically wise. But Rubio is in charge, so who’s on first? So Larry wants to shut down America’s voice to the world because it’s liberal… Yeah, sure.
FYI: some of the government’s first entries into print broadcasting were a few revolutionary newspapers and pamphlets during revolutionary times. Fuck that, eh Larry.
One last news outlet for the government funds includes the Emergency Alert System that I just can’t believe even Larry wants to defund. There are other flavors of this for weather, State Department and more government departments. Point is that Larry’s blanket statement saying: ““Government should not be in the news broadcasting business … period” seems off, and more so without providing a grace-period, alternative solutions, etc. Just take out the chainsaw and end it all.
NPR/PBS were created in the late 60’s to educate and illuminate America outside of corporate sponsorship with a strong focus on providing media where corporate sponsored media refused to go. While the world is smaller, communications wise, there is still a need for unbiased media not sponsored by corporate America. Larry throws that baby out with his bathwater.
For proof of bias, he uses the now famous: “One survey showed that 87 percent of the editorial staff of NPR are registered Democrats and there are no – as in zero — registered Republicans.” This is a bald-faced lie. There is no survey. There is no 87%. Larry is totally wrong on the source and the number.
There is the Republican’s poster child for defunding PBS/NPR and the rest. He is an ex-NPR journalist, very accomplished, downright renown, that after 20+ years there tired of what he saw as the increasing bias taking effect over the past decade. IMO, I say that dog hunts on both sides of the fence and bias or just attitude is throttled up everywhere.
The NPR journalist said he fact-checked voter registration for the entire central newsroom, not all the reporters, just headquarters, and came up with 87 Democrats and 0 Republicans. Not 87%, just 87 reporters. NPR responded they don’t ask, don’t know, as it should be. There is no support for these numbers and the very fact he did not mention any Independents being in the group really looks bogus. I am sorry, but I am pretty sure if you pulled 87 people aside at the Democratic convention, you would crop up with a few Independents, if not a handful. This guy found none. Amazingly though, they were all registered to vote. But that’s how it goes in Larry land. Guy comes up with a number, Comer and Jordan bandy it about FOX and friends, and by the time it gets to Larry, it’s a survey from an unknown source, as is Larry’s way to pontificate facts without substantiation. Surprised he didn’t go for the 100%. Even Jorden didn’t try that one.
Larry says: “I enjoy a lot of the programming on PBS. My children grew up with “Sesame Street” and “Mr. Rogers.” And later, “In many ways, I see PBS and NPR in the same vein as the state-controlled Russia 1 and China Central Television (CCTV). American public broadcasting operates essentially as part of the bureaucracy — and since the bureaucracy is naturally a progressive institution, PBS and NPR spin the news accordingly.” Ask yourself: would Larry have his kids grow up with Russia 1 or CCT teaching them? Is he bloviating hyperbole braggadocio for effect again? Does he honestly equate Mr Rodgers or New Hour with Channel One?
Whatever. I am sure if government does not want to fund PBS, NPR, and the rest, good people will step up. Or advertising if need be and what a sad day that would be. IF Larry truly found value in these stations why recommend that we throw the baby out with the bathwater and not try to find the win-win that lets him defund it from a Federal level without killing it by jerking the rug out overnight. And why ban all government sponsored news like VOA, RFE or RFA?