The FAA will be forced to supervise the investigation into a fatal plane accident without chief administrator.

The Federal Aviation Administration faces its first major aviation disaster in 16 years without a leader because Elon Musk has helped to get him out.

Michael Whitaker resigned from his post as administrator of the FAA on January 20, the day of the inauguration of Donald Trump, after having faced Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX is regulated by the agency. Musk publicly called Whitaker to resign after the FAA sentenced a fine to SpaceX for having failed to approve the launch changes. And now, the agency’s power vacuum cleaner focuses on the point of view after an army helicopter collided with an American Airlines aircraft Wednesday evening in Washington, DC, killing everyone on board.

During a press conference Thursday with rescue officials, Sean Duffy, the newly confirmed transport secretary, ignored the questions of journalists on the issue of whether the FAA had an acting director to help manage the crisis.

Whitaker was only a year in work when he announced his intention to resign. He had several years in his mandate. His resignation opens the way to President Donald Trump to appoint his own replacement to lead the agency. Later Thursday morning, Trump said that he was hitting Chris Rocheleau, a senior manager for an aeronautical business association, as an acting administrator from the FAA, but provided no details on a permanent replacement.

But Musk’s efforts to get Whitaker were well known even before Trump’s victory in November. He complained several times from the FAA, rushing in September after the agency planned a fine of $ 633,000 for the launch of missions with unprepared changes. (Musk is worth more than $ 400 billion, which makes him the richest man in the world.)

The FAA also condemned a fine of Starlink, after the SpaceX subsidiary did not submit security data before launching satellites in 2022. During a house audience, Whitaker explained that the sanctions CIVILS DE LA FAA was “the only tool we have for compliance on security issues”.

On X, Musk complained that the FAA “Haid SpaceX about nonsense that does not affect security while giving a free pass to Boeing even after NASA concluded that their spacecraft n ‘ was not sure enough to bring the astronauts back. ” He also said that humans would never spot Mars without “radical reform at the FAA”. In September, he wrote “He needs to resign” about Whitaker.

In addition to Musk’s attacks, the FAA has long suffered from underfinished and obsolete technology. In 2023, a panel of experts published a report which revealed that the growing dependence on overtime to air traffic control facilities endangering air security. The agency has filed hundreds of complaints from air traffic workers describing dangerous conditions for the shortage of personnel with dilapidated buildings.

Update, January 30: After the publication of this story, Trump announced that he called Chris Rocheleau as an acting administrator of the FAA. This story has been updated to reflect this fact.