Phil Washington, once the CEO of Denver International Airport, is President Joe Biden’s choice to lead the Federal Aviation Administration.
According to Fox News, Washington had initially failed to advance last year after concerns about his limited experience in the aviation industry were put forth. We found out why some had misgivings during his recent Senate confirmation hearings.
Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC), a licensed pilot, had seven questions for Washington that one would expect an FAA administrator to know. Instead, Washington managed to go 0-for-7. (The clip of his ubiquitous ignorance has gone viral.)
The first of these queries concerned what airspace requires the use of an ADS-B transponder. These devices are typically combined with a GPS, in order to transmit highly accurate positional information to ground controllers and other aircraft. These “ADS-B Out” transmissions are more accurate than conventional radar surveillance, thereby affording air traffic controllers the potential to reduce the required separation distance between aircraft that are so equipped.
Washington was unfamiliar with this important device — or the use thereof.
Sen. Budd then asked: “What are the six types of special use airspace that protect… national security that appear on FAA charts?”
Washington replied: “Sorry, Senator, I cannot answer that question.”
Sen. Budd: “What are the operational limitations of a pilot flying under BasicMed?”
Washington: “Senator, I’m not a pilot, so…”
(BasicMed is a program that allows pilots to fly without a medical certificate, provided they only fly certain kinds of planes with limited weight, size, and passengers, etc.)
Budd then noted that Washington would be overseeing the Federal Aviation Administration, and re-queried him: “So any idea what those restrictions are under BasicMed?”
Washington responded, “Well, some of the restrictions, I think, would be high blood pressure, some of them would be –”
At which point Budd cut him off, saying, “It’s more like how many passengers per airplane, how many pounds in different categories and what altitude you can fly under. It doesn’t have anything to do with blood pressure.”
Budd proceeded to ask Washington if he had any idea what causes a plane to spin or stall.
Washington did not.
He was then asked if he knew the three types of certifications the FAA requires as part of aircraft manufacturing.
Unsurprisingly at this point, he answered “No.”
(They are type certificate, production certificate, and airworthiness certificate, if you’re playing along at home.)
Senator Budd — in a seemingly unwarranted fit of optimism — then stated, “Let’s just keep going and see if we can get lucky here,” before asking the final two questions.
They didn’t get lucky, as Washington couldn’t answer either of those queries, either. As you probably guessed.
We cannot be sure if Washington would have been able to successfully answer other, simpler aviation-related questions, such as “Where is the cockpit placed on a typical airplane?” or “What does an air traffic controller do?” Perhaps Washington would have fared better if the questions were, “Can you name two major American airlines?” or “What do we call the person who flies a plane?” Or perhaps not.
George Washington would have had better answers, and the airplane wasn’t invented until 104 years after he passed away.
Kamala Harris as vice-president, Pete Buttigieg as Transportation Secretary? And now Biden nominates Phil Washington to head the FAA? How will he top this, if, God forbid, he wins re-election in 2024? Will he nominate Joy Behar to be Secretary of State, Rob Reiner to head Housing and Urban Development, Lori Lightfoot to be Ambassador to Ukraine, and the Pillsbury Doughboy to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services?
Due to the Brandon Biden administration’s policies, air travel is sadly becoming ever more fraught with danger. Moreover, one could accurately characterize the entire administration’s reign to this point as a virtual — and literal — train wreck.
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Just another Biden nominee, just like himself who cannot even manage the great empty air space within their own heads, let alone above an airport incoming runway, which soon has many passenger aircraft landing on dark Aircraft taxiways instead of well-lit safe landing runways, and ungreased trains spinning off the rails in the friction of woke politics where greasing the correct colored/gendered palms become more important than lubricating the moving mechanical parts. Biden’s entire cabinet needs not just a tune up, but a complete oil change, and engine overhaul, starting with Joe himself, as the unclean particles he allowed into the clean oil that used to lubricate the government machines is causing more internal friction than the Founding Fathers designed it to withstand when the only thing on the Democrats radar is the color of one’s skin, and the color of the kickback money, not the lights within the leaders brains, or the integrity of the human spirits. When Joe asked Bush just how he handled Katrina,,,, when George answered “With Brownie of course, he is doing a great job”,,,again our Dim-witted President totally misunderstood what he said. Now Brown over brawn and brain is all we get these days when our American problems arise.
He’s BLACK. TO ibtards that is the ONLY qualification he needs to meet.
In all fairness I Can’t say that Trump would have done much better when it comes to air transportation. I remember when in 1989, Trump raised $365 million to purchase the Eastern Shuttle, which provided business travelers with quick flights between New York, Boston, and Washington. He installed gold faucets and toilets and over loaded the aircraft with so much frills in weight it became un profitable even when sold out with a full passenger load, with lots of revenue producing empty space in the bellies of the aircraft left go to waste. Within 18 months, the airline lost over $125 million, and by 1992, Trump decided it was time to walk away. At least he learned a good lesson to stay within his own wheelhouse of expertise, unlike the Democrats who just keep fulfilling Einstein’s definition of insanity, by doing the same mistakes over and over and expecting to get a different result, never learning by their own mistakes when the costs of failure are paid for and covered with other taxpayer people’s money.
All I see here is more Trump HATE. Trump is not nor would he take this office of Washington. He would APPOINT a better choice than Biden, you can bet on that. He sure improved the economy the Dems were pushing for so many years, gas was at it’s lowest, unemployment was at it’s lowest, housing was affordable again but it took less than 2 years for all this to die because of HATE for him. You people don’t know a good thing when it slaps you in face, assuming you are not sitting down.
And all I see from Trump Hooting owls are a pathological obsession to cling only to Trump triumphs, which were many, and ignore all the failures which were not legion, but enough to take himself down, stick us with a withered shadow of a Biden man who beat him from his basement, and will take Republicans down again if they ignore a better candidate if one comes along. If one does not, I too will bite my tongue and pull the lever for Trump, but I would prefer my cake WITH the icing, not the snowflakes who come along with another Democrat stolen election from the same Democrat True believers who are as obsessed with their secular socialism as Trump loving Hoot owls are in playing with the mice and swamp rats they catch at night, but cannot seem to permanently swallow them hole for a meal, or remove enough from the prairie so citizens can walk down the streets or take an innocent walk by the river during the day without getting snake bitten, sniped at or covered with train wrecking toxins.
Why is there any expectation of qualifications here? Look at Pothole Pete—look at any position that Biden has filled and what do you see in the way of qualifications??
The only “qualification” this guy needs is that he is probably the first Black to hold the position if nominated. Biden isn’t even qualified for his own job—the fickle “standards” he employs won’t eliminate very many people.
In all fairness I Can’t say that Trump would have done much better when it comes to air transportation. I remember when in 1989,
In 1989 Trump wasn’t president, inluminatuo. He wasn’t using taxpayer money to buy whatever he bought and he wasn’t choosing whoever he bought it from by skin color. In other words, there is NO comparison between what Trump bought in 1989 and picking someone to run the FAA for the entire country. A president isn’t supposed to know how to run the FAA. He’s supposed to have enough common sense to pick someone who does know how.
Whatever gold he may have installed in airplanes was done with his own money, his own gold and his own airplanes and NOT taxpayer money.
One more thing, I don’t remember all the airline screwups and FAA screwups that have gone on in the last year ever happening during the Trump presidency but since you seem to think Trump was as dumb as Biden maybe you can remind me.
ADD to that, it matters not if TRUMP WOULD have been able to answer those questions or not. IT ONLY MATTERS if the person he nominated could.
You decide who is racist and perverted.
In this woke, corrupt, puppet No Joe Biden administration the only qualification anyone needs for any position is that they are Black. One gets extra considerations if they are a Black female and more points for begin a Black LGBTQ.
Martin Luther King said “Judge not by the color of one’s skin, but by the contents of their character”‘
Obama/Biden say “judge/hire not by one’s qualifications, but by the color of their skin”.
Just another chapter in the Leftist woke radical takeover and destruction of our Land of Opportunity and freedom.
I have a sibling who is a general aviation pilot who would have no problem answering those and many other questions. A teenager studying to become a pilot would be able to answer them as well once they started down the licensing process. That this man is ignorant of such basics is frightening.
He KNOWS the position he is being considered for and yet he appears to have done zero learning or studying for what is critical to pilots, air safety, and basic aviation knowledge. Running an airport is NOT the same as running an agency concerned with aviation safety…even though they both deal with airplanes.
A retired General or Admiral that served as a aviator would be able to answer all of these questions that Mr. Washington flubbed. And you could probably easily find one that also happened to be female/minority, checking off the DEI checkbox that Slow Joe seems to revel in.
Here’s a better idea – just nominate someone that has actually worked in aviation, a pilot, not someone whose sole qualification is running an airport.
Now, now, now, the new non-common sense way in this nation is to pick candidates on skin and trans gender alone! We are told the old way of picking people for their jobs using merit is not the way to our future utopia! Just ask any highly indoctrinated snowflakes they will set you straight, and if you don’t believe them they will run to a safe space!
There is no point in asking why he was nominated for the job, it obviously has nothing to do with his expertise and familiarity with aviation. Is there anyone in this administration from the very top to the bottom who was qualified the position they now hold? I tend to think not!
An equity nominee should not be asked content oriented questions. Questions such as, Where is an aisle seat located? should be asked and not open ended, but with multiple choices like A) by the window, B) in the rest room, C) in first class, D) next to the aisle. Then the answer would be, “Please repeat the question.”
Blacks only need apply.