Transportation secretary blames Biden as crisis unfolds in aviation system
Newark air traffic controller, “It is not safe. It is not a safe situation right now for the flying public. Don't fly into Newark. Avoid Newark at all costs.”
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Where Is Secretary Duffy?” That’s the question circulating on social media as the nation’s air transportation system unravels—plagued by mounting failures under the Trump administration and its Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy.
“There have been 37 deadly aviation crashes in the United States in 2025,” a report from a Fox affiliate in Texas,
KDFW, found last month. “Before 2025, the most recent deadly plane crash involving a U.S. airliner was in 2009. At least 143 people have died in the 2025 aviation crashes.”
An NCRM review of the
National Transportation Safety Board database found that from January 20, 2025—the start of the Trump administration—through May 6, there were at least 146 aviation fatalities in the U.S., nearly double the 74 fatalities recorded by the NTSB during the same period under the first months of the Biden administration.
Add to that the current disaster at Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the U.S., serving New York City and New Jersey. Travelers have been experiencing massive delays for well over a week, while the Transportation Secretary has appeared on Fox News, posted a photo celebrating Cinco de Mayo, and attacks his predecessor for—he claims—doing nothing to improve the nation’s aging air traffic computer systems.
Author and activist Shannon Watts was one of many who responded to Secretary Duffy’s Cinco de Mayo celebration:
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board on Monday evening decried “
America’s Air Traffic Fiasco.”
“President Trump wants to reorder the global trading system, but how about fixing America’s air traffic mess?” the WSJ asked.
All this comes as the Trump administration has cut Federal Administration Agency employees.
The Guardian in February reported that the Trump administration had “begun firing hundreds of employees at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), including some who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure, despite four deadly crashes since inauguration day.”
“The firings at the FAA do not include air traffic controllers, but did appear to include engineers and technicians.
And an
Associated Press report headline at US News & World Report at the end of January read:
“Air Traffic Controllers Were Initially Offered Buyouts and Told to Consider Leaving Government”
“Just a day before a deadly midair collision at Reagan National Airport”
The union for the air traffic controllers advised its members to not take the buyout, and it is unclear that air traffic controllers were eligible, even if they did receive the offer.
But Secretary Duffy is blaming the Biden administration.
“It’s no secret our air traffic control system is antiquated,” Secretary Duffy
claimed on Monday night. “The last administration didn’t lift a finger to fix it. We’re working day and night to overhaul it.”
Secretary Duffy “said Thursday the FAA is on track to hire 2,000 new air traffic controllers this year,”
Business Insider reported. “His plan also includes monetary incentives of up to $10,000 for academy graduates who are assigned to ‘hard-to-staff’ air traffic facilities. The proposal would also provide financial incentives to staff, reward academy graduates, and expand the number of instructors.”
Tom Bonier, a veteran Democratic political strategist, on Monday
asked: “Remember when Sean Duffy tried to convince us that DEI was the problem? Yet, here we are, >100 days in… explain to me how DEI resulted in air traffic in one of the country’s busiest airspaces going without monitoring for some undisclosed amount of time.”
Christina Henderson, a Member of the Council of the District of Columbia,
wrote, “I’m trying to understand why Sean Duffy isn’t getting more smoke from Congress. If Buttigieg was still Secretary there would’ve been endless hearings and calls for his resignation. Yes, FAA has always had staffing shortages, but it feels like the wheels are falling off now.”
Political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen, responding to a CBS Evening News report,
asked, “Where is @SecDuffy and how is this level of incompetence possible in such a short amount of time?”
CBS News on Monday reported that “For the eighth straight day, massive disruptions at Newark Liberty Airport, there have been thousands of delays, some hitting nearly five hours. More than 800 flights have been canceled in the last week at the nation’s 12th busiest airport.”
“Monday’s bad weather complicated an air traffic control staffing nightmare that started last Monday after a number of system outages controller screens essentially went dark for up to 90 seconds, losing the ability to track aircraft at a key facility handling traffic in and out of Newark. It was a breaking point for about a half dozen controllers who requested trauma leave due to the working conditions, allowing them to essentially be off the job for up to 45 days.”
Secretary Duffy is under fire even at Fox News, where he appeared on Monday above a chyron that read: “Accidents and Close-Calls Unnerve Public.”
Telling Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, “we are going to radically transform air traffic control,” Duffy focused on the aging computer technology.
“We have really old infrastructure in America,” Duffy said. “It hasn’t been updated in the last 30, 40 years. This should have been dealt with in the last administration—they did nothing.”
But Duffy’s claim doesn’t hold up: Under President Joe Biden, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
invested tens of millions of dollars annually to repair aging airport infrastructure nationwide. Additionally, Donald Trump was President for four of the years Duffy cited, making his attempt to shift blame even more questionable.
And in October 2024, Secretary Buttigieg
wrote: “The FAA has worked to reverse decades of reduced air traffic control staffing levels—and set an aggressive goal to hire 1,800 controllers this year. I’m proud that they have exceeded their hiring goal, and we have opened another hiring window.”
Duffy also told Ingraham, “when you have an incident like this, you want to make sure that people are safe, and so you just have less departures out of the airport until we feel comfortable and safe that the system isn’t gonna go down again.”
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