'Is That A Commentary On The Safety Of The System?': Reporter Presses Sean Duffy On Aviation Safety Risks

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy was asked about pilots' concerns over communication systems failures, and overall air traffic control safety.

Transcript

00:00protesting. Yeah. I've spoken to pilots who now are sort of having these lost communication issues

00:10top of mind and they're sort of going back and dusting off the books on the procedures and

00:15the redundancies. How troubling is it to you that they're having to sort of go back to these old

00:21ways because of a peer traffic control system that's frail? Well, I'll take the first crack at

00:27that. But again, I think they should dust up on all policies and procedures that keep their

00:33passengers and themselves safe in the air. And outages have happened, right? It's getting more

00:40attention right now. But the Philly TRACON for Newark had multiple outages last year. It's gotten more

00:48attention now. But again, I think it's appropriate that they do dust up. If there are outages, they

00:55need to know how to handle it. What are the procedures? What are the redundancies that they

00:59need to follow to make sure they stay safe? And again, this is a safe system and there's

01:04redundancies. But again, I'm concerned that we could have more of Newark's. And again, why

01:13it's so important that we actually begin this build with the money that Congress is going

01:18to send us. But again, pilots, they should be aware of all the policies and procedures

01:24while in the air to keep themselves and their passengers safe.

01:27Is that a commentary on the safety of the system?

01:29What's that?

01:29Is that a commentary on the safety of the system?

01:31Well, I think it's a reality, right? We're dealing with the reality of Newark, the reality

01:38that the last administration moved the Newark airspace from N90 down to the Philly TRACON.

01:46And these lines were not built. They didn't use fiber. And now we're dealing with that

01:52today in real time. And so, yeah, we have to look at the real world around us and some

01:57of the issues that come up and make sure we are brushed up and ready to go should there

02:03be a brief outage. And again, there's a lot of redundancy and a lot of procedures that keep

02:08people safe should this happen, which is what happened the two times that the system went

02:13down for 30 seconds in Newark, on the telecom front at least.