Buttigieg’s Blunders Show the Danger in Putting Politicians in Charge of Key Infrastructure
As a "patronage appointee," it should come as little surprise that Buttigieg is out of his depth as transportation secretary.
For the first time since 9/11, all U.S. flights were grounded early Wednesday.
Public officials said the failure stemmed from the Federal Aviation Administration's NOTAM system, which pilots use to access flight plans. The outage caused at least 5,400 U.S. flight delays and tens of thousands of early-rising passengers to miss connecting flights.
While there was initial speculation that the system outage stemmed from a cyberattack, it turns out the explanation was much simpler: there was a computer "glitch."
The episode left the Federal Aviation Administration—the largest U.S. transportation agency in terms of staff—with egg on its face.
"The FAA...has fallen off the trolley in terms of keeping up their systems," Michael Boyd, chairman of aviation research company the Boyd Group, told CNBC's Squawk Box.
The FAA falls under the purview of the Department of Transportation, headed by Pete Buttigieg, who ordered an "after-action process" in the wake of the debacle.
The timing could not be worse for Buttigieg. The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor's tenure has been plagued by transportation woes and labor headaches. These include a meltdown over the holidays that saw 15,000 flights canceled in the space of a week, as well as a contract dispute with railroad workers that nearly led to a strike (while Buttigieg vacationed in Europe).
