Pressure is enormous on the Department of Transportation (DoT) of the United states of America, which is visible now, owing to series of aviation incidents and accidents happening in the country.
The current regime under Secretary Sean Duffy wished to do better than the previous under the former Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who was sworn in as Secretary of Transportation by Vice President Kamala Harris on February 3, 2021, but the fatal crash over Potomac River, where an American Eagle flight and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter collided midair near DCA, killing all 67 on board, drew widespread criticism of the state of aviation safety in American Airspace.
Amid investigation and various other measures taken, the crash into the Potomac River prompted an FAA ban on non-essential helicopter traffic around Washington, closing Route 4 due to safety risks.
On Friday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy spoke at the Federal Aviation Administration Technical Center in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. Duffy addressed recent domestic aircraft collisions and incidents including the fatal helicopter crash in the Hudson River on Thursday and the small plane crash in Boca Raton, Florida on Friday.
The recent accident involving a Bell 206L-4 helicopter that disintegrated over the Hudson River, killing a Spanish family of five and their pilot, had a known transmission problem months before the crash.
Many believe and argue that the recent crashes are due to the DEI hiring by previous Biden regime, but no concrete evidence links DEI hiring to air crashes.
Even, the Boca Raton crash was due to mechanical issues, not pilot qualifications or any other factors involving the staffing isuue. Aviation safety standards are rigorous, enforced by the FAA and NTSB, ensuring all pilots meet strict requirements.
There have been more notable plane crashes in 2025, including the American Eagle crash on January 29, with 24 deadly incidents causing at least 111 deaths.
There were talks about Trump’s FAA cuts, around 400 jobs in 2025, many raised safety concerns, as staffing shortages could further increase risks in the airspace.
However, it’s too early to directly blame these staff cuts for crashes, as investigations are ongoing and may take months to bring forward the contributing causes to the incidents and accidents. Aviation safety is complex, involving many factors like pilot error or mechanical issues, so pinpointing fault needs more evidence.
However, Duffy spoke about the actions of federal government at large and how he sees the FAA fitting into the Trump administration’s efficiency mandate.
The Secretary said:
“I want to talk about DOGE for a second. I know there’s been some freak out, there’s been some concern, there’s been a lot of emotion, and I would just tell you, do I want to make our government more efficient? Do I want to be able to do a little more with a little less? Because then I put money in the great work that we do? Yeah, I wanna do that. But you can’t do that without great people.”
According to reporting by the New York Times , “nearly 800 U.S. Department of Transportation workers were terminated, placed on leave or sent home as a result of the DOGE cuts, although most have been reinstated and returned to work.”
Many in the aviation industry and outsidek, quote the incident and accident count from the NTSB over the years, and say that numbers are under control comparatively. However, much to be done to bring the fatal consequences under control.
Duffy added:
“And so though I want us to be more efficient, I also look and think of DOGE cutting things, I don’t know about elsewhere but we actually build things here, right? You can’t cut your way to a new road, you can’t cut your way to a new bridge, you can’t cut your way to a new air traffic control system, so we’re actually going to build in this department.”
So, there is a fear factor for sure, as he said,
“And if I don’t and you don’t all build with me, um, the President’s gonna come back in four months and go ‘where are the roads, where are the bridges, where’s the air space revamp?’ and he’s going to give us a very hard time.”
