When US President Donald Trump nominates a new head for the Federal Aviation Administration, they will inherit an agency in turmoil over plane-maker Boeing’s safety record, a fatal collision over Washington, and Elon Musk’s government job cuts.

According to aviation industry journal The Air Current, the front-runner for the high-pressure role is Bryan Bedford, head since 1999 of expanding Indiana-based regional carrier Republic Airways.

Republic says with Bedford at the helm the airline has grown from an annual revenue of US$85 million ($148m) from 36 aircraft to US$1.3 billion a year and 200 planes, serving routes between 80 US and Canadian cities.

If chosen for the FAA, he will take over from 63-year-old lawyer Mike Whitaker, the federal aviation regulator’s fourth administrator since 2019, who announced in December that he would resign on January 20, Trump’s inauguration day.

Whoever the new chief is will face several immediate challenges.

The FAA is keeping a close watch on US giant Boeing, which has suffered a series of recent incidents calling into question the manufacturer’s safety culture.

Quality-control questions

Already in 2018 and 2019, the firm’s airliners were involved in two deadly crashes that killed a total of 346 people, adding to previous questions about quality control.

On January 5 last year, a door-plug section of a newly delivered Boeing 737 Max 9 blew out during an Alaska Airlines flight between Portland, Oregon, and Ontario, California.

The 171 passengers and six crew members survived the rapid decompression, but the incident focused minds on the FAA, which grounded many Boeing 737-9 aircraft operated by US airlines.

“FAA’s oversight processes for identifying and resolving Boeing production issues are not effective,” the Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General concluded in a report in October as the agency monitored the firm’s response.

“Aviation safety is FAA’s primary mission,” the report said. “However, since 2018, Boeing has experienced multiple manufacturing issues.”

“FAA has not adequately ensured that Boeing and its suppliers can produce parts that conform to the approved design,” it said, warning of “potential repetitive non-compliances”.

Without enough inspectors of its own, the FAA had been relying on vetted members of Boeing’s own staff to monitor improvements to manufacturing standards and practices.

In February last year, the US Senate approved a record five-year funding envelope for the FAA to help overcome its shortcomings, but the return of Trump and the arrival of his billionaire adviser Elon Musk to the White House has brought the agency back into the crosshairs.

As Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) seeks massive cost savings across the federal government, the FAA has reportedly not been spared, with several hundred jobs on the line.

Trump has also ordered an end to recruitment programmes based on criteria of diversity, equity and inclusion, which the president has blamed for shortages in “qualified” staff.

From May 2023, the FAA has been reduced to urging airlines to cut flight numbers from certain airports because of a shortage of control tower staff.

Concerns were again raised nine days after Trump was sworn in when, a short distance from the White House, a military helicopter and a civilian airliner collided mid-air and plunged into the Potomac River, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft.

Within hours of the accident and before there had been any inquiry into causes, Trump again blamed the recruitment of diversity hires.

According to a report in the New York Times, at Trump’s first Cabinet meeting, Musk clashed with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who had accused DOGE of seeking to sack controllers.

Trump downplayed the report, but after the meeting said federal job cuts would proceed with a “scalpel” rather than a “hatchet”.

- Agence France-Presse