Do you think its going to be safe flying to the US during the next few months?

[Bubblyb00b]

Basically, that! I'm thinking about visiting in April - May but now completely freaking out as US air traffic control seem to be taken over by a nutcase Musk, with a lot of staff already sacked and I imagine many more getting sacked soon. Who TF is going to replace all the experienced staff - 19 year olds with play station controllers? This really is scary.

From my seat (airline pilot) there is no more talk at work of the US suddenly being any more dangerous since the Trump/Musk double act. US ATC has been a bit slapdash for decades. They have a lot of ways of doing things as part of the normal process that are not done in other parts of the world (eg clearance to land when there are still aircraft ahead of you, land and hold short, etc) None of this has changed. I think the recently reported incidents have been on the cards for years, and it is coincidental that it has happened now. There are several really big issues pilots are bothered about right now, but the state of the States is not one of them.

Do you take the same approach with Chinese goods? Have you made sure your mobile phone doesn’t contain metals mined in somewhere like the Congo?

I wasn't suggesting it was, or wasn't more dangerous now. I was suggesting making a comparison so OP could make an informed choice whether to fly to the US because that's what I'd do.

They have a lot of ways of doing things as part of the normal process that are not done in other parts of the world (eg clearance to land when there are still aircraft ahead of you, land and hold short, etc)

Agree with that comment by @backinthebox and for the sake of the OP and others point out a lot of UK/European airlines have or had a policy of declining to partake in some of the more interesting procedures US controllers sometimes..err…offered.

I do, thanks.

On a broader point, I can never tell whether absolutists are setting up a straw man argument with their insistence on perfection, or being obtuse.

In my mind, it is much like going plastic-free: better for system-wide change for a lot of people to do something imperfectly, than to aim for perfection and be discouraged because it is so difficult (resulting in very few people doing anything at all).

It’s more do you apply it generally (which it seems you do so fair enough) or whether it’s a reaction to Trump because he’s famous.

I’m not American but if I was I wouldn’t have voted for him but he was democratically elected whether we love or hate him and is doing exactly what a lot of the people who voted for him wanted him to do.

There are far worse regimes around the world doing far worse things that don’t get anywhere near as many headlines because they’re not as famous as Trump.

Also, although I see where you’re coming from, in todays world I think you’re really going to struggle to not buy anything that comes from a country that doesn’t do things we disagree with in the U.K.

I think you're out of the loop. You're assuming that this comes out of a dislike of Trump, but actually it comes out of a dislike of flying in an area where it is unsafe to try. US air traffic has had an extremely good safety record for a long time, hence the millions flying in without a second thought in the past. The problem is that the record has been destroyed in a few days, and it is not coincidental that that coincided with so many experienced air traffic staff being sacked.

Can you travel by boat and train?

@Convolvulus

The problem is that the record has been destroyed in a few days, and it is not coincidental that that coincided with so many experienced air traffic staff being sacked.

Given the reasons for the three most recent accidents in the US are far far from being established I think I’d caution a rush to judgement, I’d also have to ask when did all these sackings happen?

Edited to emphasize I mean sackings of experienced controllers.

Some of us can do more than one thing at once. I avoid buying Chinese goods, Nestlé, Israeli and now US products. I aim to buy ethically made, fair trade products when I can or second hand. It's not an exact science but better than nothing.

It's not about fame but about power and influence. Other regimes have much less impact on the world. For example just cutting USAid is hugely irresponsible. By all means phase it out but you can't just cut contracts where people's lives are reliant aid. People will die.

The other two high profile US accidents, whilst tragic, were not the sort of flights with the sorts of operators most people in the Uk are likely to use

Yeah until virgin or BA crash I'm not going to worry about it when I can't change it anyway

To me this is the biggest risk in travelling to the US now and going forward. Everything Trump is doing is likely to encourage radicalisation and terror attacks.

I'm going at the end of June. I booked the trip last year, I've never been before and I'm looking forward to it. I'm not cancelling, even if it was refundable.

I won't be going to the US on principle and because it's full of millions of idiots

I agree with you but 77 million people voted for Trump knowing what he was going to do. This is what they want.

And I think a lot of the reporting around Trump is because he’s famous. Lazy journalists love easy headlines and everything Trump says can be turned into a scandalised headline. I don’t think the way Trump is reported on is at all helpful.

I'm going for Easter, so yes

You’re being completely ridiculous.

I think the risk of an accident on a sightseeing plane or heli trip is greater than for a commercial passenger flight. Still flying to the US next month.

There will probably be a tariff on tourists, seriously though, Musk and his unofficial department do , from the outside, seem to be a genuine concern

I wouldn’t go to the US right now out of choice but I do think it’s as safe as it has ever been

Well needed to say that he's really an extraordinary president.🥴

I think you don’t know what you are talking about. As a professional pilot flying into, out of, over and around the US for nearly 3 decades I can tell you the US ATC way of doing things has always been questionable to European pilots. As NotImAgain says, many European airlines have long refused to take part in some practices that US carriers take part in as standard. Throughout my training, we have studied crashes that have taken part across the world, and the US has not been immune to its share of stupid and tragic accidents - the ones I remember from my trainee days both involved flights departing for Florida. (The Everglades crash and the Potomac River crash, both terrible incidents. Perhaps you should boycott flights to just Florida?) I’m not going to go into stuff in finer detail here, because it can rattle cages I don’t want to rattle, but there is nothing new about the woeful state of US ATC, it’s just bit them on the bum at last, and there is nothing especially more scary about the States to a pilot since Trump came back into power. And there are bigger things out there that pilots are worrying about which have also been predicted to cause a crash at some point and are merely a matter of time. But none of those concerns are US specific.

Basically speaking, Air traffic control stop planes crashing into each other. It doesn't either cause or prevent planes bursting into flames or falling out of the sky!

But they are supposed to be the western world's allies, their friends, in the case of Canada, this is even more shocking and very, very sad.