In a recent episode of the ongoing saga of blame-shifting, NBC News senior correspondent Tom Costello, during a special report on the Delta Airliner crash in Toronto, made an audacious attempt to link President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to the unfortunate incident.
The crash, which thankfully saw all 76 passengers and four crew members survive, was a regular flight from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Costello, a seasoned aviation reporter, made a swift and unsubstantiated pivot from the crash to insinuate that the incident will yet again, raise the concern about FAA staffing air traffic control staffing. This assertion, however, begs the question: who exactly is this concern being raised among?
According to RedState, Costello, after acknowledging that the flight was under Canadian authority once it crossed the border, quickly dismissed this crucial fact. He then proceeded to launch an attack on Trump, Musk, and DOGE, telling NBC News anchor Tom Llamas:"This is Minneapolis into Toronto, you know, kind of a regular hourly flight, if you will, that goes back and forth into from the United States, right into Toronto on a regular basis. I did want to, you know, underscore to pick up on the conversation you were just having, though, in terms of the recent string of aviation incidents, Tom, this is gonna yet again raise the concern about FAA staffing air traffic control staffing.""Now, this is a Canadian air traffic control tower and this is under Canadian authority once it crosses the border. And yet, as you know, there has been this talk about maybe staff cuts at the FAA as a part of President Trumps effort to trim down the federal workforce. And yet, as you also know, the FAA has been complaining for years that they are understaffed in critical job positions, especially air traffic control.""I was having a conversation with somebody today about whether air traffic control in Americans being affected by the staff cuts. So far, not to their knowledge and yet other positions related to maintaining critical equipment appeared to have been cut, so this is going to feed into all of these recent incidents and the safety of of the total air traffic system is going to be very much a part of the conversation as we go forward, at least on the side of the country of [this side of] the border."This narrative, however, raises a significant question. If the FAA has been voicing concerns about understaffing in critical positions for years, why did the Biden-Harris administration not address these concerns during their four-year tenure? In contrast, Donald Trump has been back in the White House for less than a month, and as Costello himself admitted, no critical FAA jobs have been cut by his administration.Costello continued his narrative, stating:"I should say. Let me just underscore again, this is a Delta regional flight. And as a result, youre talking about maybe 75 to 85 or so passengers on board, part of that normal routine. By the way, the RJ the regional jet this is a bump a Bombardier, so it is made in Canada and these jets have a history of being a very robust plane able to handle colder conditions."Costello's coverage of the crash was inconsistent, with him attributing blame to various parties without concrete evidence. It seemed as though he was fully aware of the absurdity of blaming Trump and Musk, yet he couldn't resist taking a few cheap shots at the administration and DOGE.However, a recent report from the Toronto City News contradicts Costello's narrative. The report states that an audio recording from the tower at Pearson Airport shows Delta Air Lines Flight 4819 was cleared to land at about 2:10 p.m. local time on Monday. As the plane came to land, the tower warned the pilots of a possible air flow bump in the glide path due to a preceding aircraft in front of it.
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