Tesla CEO and DOGE boss Elon Musk took to X on Thursday to call for retired air traffic controllers to return to their posts.
“There is a shortage of top-notch air traffic controllers,” Musk wrote on X. “If you have retired, but are open to returning to work, please consider doing so.”
The billionaire and SpaceX boss made the plea just weeks after he and Donald Trump offered air traffic controllers a buyout offer to leave their positions. That offer was later rescinded, as air traffic controllers were deemed exempt from the “fork in the road” buyout program. Hundreds of other FAA employees, many of them probationary workers, were fired earlier this month as part of DOGE’s paring down of the federal government.
Staffing shortages have plagued the FAA for years. But an uptick in aviation incidents in the past month, including a handful of plane crashes and close calls, has reignited concerns about employee workloads. A 2023 FAA workforce plan found that Ronald Reagan Washington National Airportwas short more than a third of the necessary number of air traffic control staffers, far from the only airport missing key controllers.
Last month, a passenger plane and a helicopter collided in the air above Washington, D.C. A report found that a single air traffic controller was tasked with managing both airplane and helicopter traffic around at the time.
Air traffic controllers are required to retire at age 56 by the Federal Aviation Administration. It’s unclear whether they would be able to return to the job, which also requires passing annual medical examinations and vision tests.
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