Phil Washington, who runs the Denver airport, was nominated by President Biden to head the FAA and confirmation hearings were held today in the Senate. Among other roles, the FAA has a huge responsibility in aviation safety as well as directly providing air traffic control service.
However Washington is in the midst of a corruption investigation from his time in Los Angeles over no bid contracts he was responsible for that delivered a sexual harassment hotline that cost over $8,000 per call to a politically-connected charity. Meanwhile he’s also involved in a lawsuit involving workplace discrimination in his current role.
The major question he faces, though, involves his experience. Democrats have argued that he lacks significant aviation experience (a statutory requirement for the job) but he is a good manager, though it’s precisely his management that’s been called into question.
In light of a number of near-miss incidents over the past three months – potentially catastrophic accidents involving Delta, American, United and Southwest – how to best lead and reform the FAA is crucial.
In questioning during today’s hearing, Senator Ted Cruz sought to highlight how little Washington knows about the details of safety issues. Here he is talking about issues with the Boeing 737 MAX, in particular angle of attack sensor disagreement.
- Changes to the MAX since the Lion Air and Ethiopian crashes mean that the aircraft now compares data from both angle of attack sensors (rather than using one at a time) and if there’s a material difference between the sensors then the MCAS system will be inhibited throughout the flight.
The system only activates once per incident, eliminating repetitive nose-down pitch. And pilots maintain elevator authority for the aircraft.
Runaway stab trim is inhibited automatically, no longer requiring use of a non-normal checklist. And pilot receiving explicit training on the issues that occurred with the MAX previously nonetheless.
Here’s Cruz:
Sen. Cruz peppered Biden's FAA pick with technical questions today to sow doubts about his readiness for the job.
He ended his statements by saying fliers don't care if the pilot is a “transgendered witch” so long as that person knows how to land a plane. https://t.co/dHhtsiaIvf pic.twitter.com/QqwcOXeCZw
— POLITICO (@politico) March 1, 2023
The problem here is that everyone is picking up on “transgendered witch” pilots, meant to be clever about diversity hiring issues I think? But it serves to undermine the real attention that should be given to a discussion of what qualifications an FAA administrator ought to have in terms of the context and background they have to understand safety details, and whether the current nominee is match for that.
I was personally surprised to see the Biden administration move forward with the nomination. And since I have no inside knowledge of the investigations beyond that which has been publicly reported, I assumed that they must have been confident accusations against Washington are without merit.
But questions both about the man’s strengths as a manager and ability to understand complex issues of aviation safety are paramount. We’ll never get there getting sidetracked by whether or not a 2010-era Christine O’Donnell is qualified to operate a commercial aircraft. Instead we need a real conversation around whether the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization needs to be split out of the FAA so that the nation’s air traffic control doesn’t regulate itself.
A separate issue is whether Washington, retired after 24 years in the military, is a “civilian” – a requirement in law for heading the FAA – or whether he’d need a waiver which would have to involve the House of Representatives, currently controlled by Republicans. Senate Democrats today signaled that, in their view, he qualifies as a civilian and no waiver is required – despite Washington’s maintaining his retired status.
(HT: @crucker)
Nothing Biden’s handlers do should be confirmed…by anyone…ever
OMG. I have to work with the FAA at a high level on a regular basis. I can assure you that this appointment does nothing more than check the box of “as long as it’s not a straight white male, they’re hired”. He’s a lifelong government employee & administrator and a bad one at that. Absolutely unqualified to head the FAA. It would be in better hands with my teenage son.
This is an Administration for which competence counts for absolutely nothing.
There are other respectable, knowledgable Aviation options for the US FAA role. Why muddy the waters w/ P. Washington? He comes w/ baggage and he’s not a civilian as per required. ✈️
We, the citizens of the United States of America need expertise and integrity (a more perfect union) to keep airspaces safe and ready. What is/was the Biden administration thinking? ✈️
✈️
DIA (as locals call it) has been on an upward trend since 2021. I don’t envy Washington’s initial situation when he inherited a bungled renovation. On the other hand, very disappointed they’re planning a 2028 renovation completion date… in any other country it would be done in a year or two.
Scrolled down to comments expecting to see some absurd viewpoints and was not disappointed.
Apparently Keith & Mak were hibernating from 2017-2021 when Betsy DeVos was secretary of Education, Mitch McConnell’s wife was secretary of Transportation, Ben Carson ran HUD and Steve Mnuchin ran the Treasury.
I know nothing about this nominee and he may be awful, but in no way is Biden stacking the deck with as much unqualified stupid as the last guy.
That is a factually false and nonsensical statement unless the commenter is a confused MAGAT who thinks that “the former guy” won the last election by a landslide and is still prez…
Hey. Maybe let’s confirm someone nominated by Donald Trump or hey why not … Tucker Carlson.
To those commenting about McConnell’s wife… you do realize that she was Deputy Secretary of Transportation before she even met McConnell, right? And that she was Commissioner of the Federal Maritime Commission (roughly the maritime equivalent of the FAA) before that? Or are we just conveniently ignoring her actual extensive experience and pretending that she had absolutely no relevant experience like Buttigieg or Washington?
Washington’s experience is in local transit and in being the Army. There might be positions for which he is qualified in Transportation, but Administrator of the FAA is definitely not one of them. We are at a time where we crucially need someone qualified to lead the FAA. Someone with extensive aviation safety experience who can make the changes that need to be made to fix the problems the FAA has been facing in order to maintain the high level of aviation safety that the U.S. aviation industry has reached over the last 20 years. It’s been slipping lately and that’s not acceptable. Someone with no actual aviation experience should never lead the FAA, but especially not right now.
And complaining about Mnuchin as if that’s in any way comparable? He spent his entire career in banking and investing, including as an Executive Vice President of Goldman Sachs. Whatever you may think of Mnuchin or his views, there’s no reasonable way to deny that he had decades of extensive relevant experience, as does Yellen now. Appointing Mnuchin or Yellen to Treasury is in no way remotely comparable to appointing Buttigieg to Transportation or Washington to FAA Administrator.
Never sure why people get so surprised “friends” are appointed as Cabinet & agency heads as this has been happening pretty much since the Adams became President.
Lots of pretty incompetent people over the years
I live in Denver and fly DIA multiple times a month. It is becoming a nightmare to navigate and it is NOT getting any better. When the airport has its (increasingly regular) meltdown moments, Mr. Washington is MIA at DIA. He hides in his office and lets his proxies take the heat in front of the cameras.
Rewarding him with the FAA position, for which he is uniquely UNqualified, is absolute lunacy. Competence and aviation expertise must be the standard. Anything else puts public safety at risk.
Mr. Washington is not qualified to be appointed FAA Administrator! He lacks requisite skills to lead a major Federal organization. Also, Mr. Washington comes with added baggage from employment at DEN and LAX. This appointment underscores solid evidence the Biden Administration continues to pursue a discredited WOKE policy of NOT hiring the MOST qualified candidates for government positions! When I travel by air or even rail, I want the MOST qualified persons to be selected for positions to ensure passenger safety! This decidedly includes the FAA Administrator!
If you’ve gone through security at DEN you’ll quickly realize that Washington obviously has no management skills to resolve a horrendous problem.