An American Airlines plane takes off as a salvage barge with a crane is positioned near the crash site along the Potomac River after a passenger jet collided with a helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia, US, on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesU.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he spoke with Trump administration advisor and CEO of SpaceX Elon Musk about reforming the country’s airspace and raised concerns about the military’s use of helicopters in Washington, D.C.’s crowded airspace after a deadly collision last week.”I had a conversation with Elon Musk yesterday, pretty remarkable guy. He thinks differently than I think probably a lot of us do, but he has access to the best technological people, the best engineers in the world,” Duffy said Wednesday at a roadway transportation event in Washington. “We’re going to remake our airspace, and we’re going to do it quickly.”Duffy’s comments come a week after an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines regional jetliner that was moments away from landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. All 64 people on the American flight and the three military crew on the Black Hawk, which was on a training mission, were killed. It was the deadliest airline accident in the United States since 2001.Trump has tasked Musk with running the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has received access to such data as the Treasury Department’s payment systems. Musk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.SpaceX, along with other space companies, shares airspace with commercial airplanes. The FAA, which oversees U.S. airspace, also oversees Musk’s SpaceX. Musk threatened to sue FAA over “regulatory overreach” last year when the agency did not approve launch licenses for SpaceX as rapidly as he wished.Last month, a Starship rocket suffered an inflight failure that resulted in a field of debris raining down near Caribbean islands and causing dozens of commercial flights to divert or delay to avoid the area.U.S. airline executives have for years called for additional funding for the modernization of U.S. air traffic control systems and additional hiring of air traffic controllers to stem a yearslong shortage.Duffy didn’t elaborate on the potential changes to U.S. airspace management.Duffy said that one air traffic controller was handling both airplane and helicopter traffic at the time of …
