The leader of the Federal Aviation Administration stepped down on January 20, just months after Elon Musk demanded he step down.
Michael Whittaker’s move means the FAA has no Senate-confirmed leader to deal with one of the biggest crises in its history, as he left before Donald Trump took office.
Whittaker ran the FAA for just over a year, but announced in December that he would step down on January 20 as the new president is sworn in.
No one has replaced him. Last week, specialist aviation site The Air Current reported that industry veteran Chris Rocheleau had been sworn in as deputy FAA administrator, putting him in acting charge of the agency. The Wall Street Journal was first to report that he would become deputy.
Whittaker’s stepping down came after a confrontation with Musk, who is now in charge not only of SpaceX but also of the government efficiency department.
In September, Whittaker proposed a fine of more than $600,000 for SpaceX, prompting Musk to demand his resignation and vow to sue.
Space.com reported in September that Whittaker told a congressional committee that fines were “the only tool we have to ensure compliance on safety matters.”
But Musk continued to attack SpaceX even while he was campaigning for Trump. On Sept. 17, he accused Whittaker’s agency of harassment, posting, “The FAA Space Department is harassing SpaceX about nonsense that does not impact safety, while giving Boeing a free pass even after NASA concluded their spacecraft was not safe enough to return astronauts to space.” And in response to a tweet from an Australian YouTuber who posts videos about space and who has said the FAA “shouldn’t exist,” Musk accused Whittaker of standing in the way of his vision of putting human life on Mars.
“The fundamental problem is that unless the FAA is radically reformed, humanity will be confined to Earth forever!” he tweeted at Marcus House.
Whittaker did not provide any details about why he decided to step down before the end of his five-year term in 2028.
“The United States is the safest and most complex airspace in the world, and that’s because of your commitment to the safety of the people who fly,” Whittaker wrote in an email sent to FAA employees when he stepped down in December. He called his time at the federal agency “the best and most challenging job of my career.”
FAA administrators typically serve a five-year term, but it’s not uncommon for an administrator to step down before the end of that term. Whitaker’s Trump-appointed predecessor Stephen Dickson resigned in 2022, just three years after taking office in 2019.
The troubled agency has long struggled to find proper leadership. Whitaker, Joe Biden’s first choice, was confirmed 98-0 by senators in October 2023 after a standoff between Republicans and the White House over Washington.
Acting boss Rocheleau now faces a major crisis for the FAA. Its air traffic controllers are responsible for the safe movement of civilian aircraft and will be investigated to understand how a UH-60 Army Black Hawk could collide with an American Airlines regional jet that was about to land on one of the country’s busiest runways.
The FAA was already struggling with a persistent shortage of air traffic controllers. And this week, air traffic controllers were included in the Trump administration’s proposal to buy out all federal workers.
The crash will be investigated by the independent National Transportation Safety Board, which is chaired by Jennifer Homendy. He has also clashed with Musk over the safety of self-driving software in Tesla cars.
