While that office may be ready to go to work, the FAA itself is not fully on the job. That’s because it’s without an administrator. Michael Whitaker, who had led the administration since Oct., 2023, stepped down earlier this month,

Mike Whitaker, the previous FAA administrator, stepped down on Inauguration Day after just over a year on the job. He’d repeatedly clashed with Elon Musk — now in charge of a group tasked with slashing the government’s headcount by President Donald Trump — over safety issues at his space company,

The Federal Aviation Administration’s leader stepped down on Jan. 20, months after Elon Musk demanded that he quit. The move by Michael Whitaker means the FAA has no Senate-confirmed leader for one of the biggest crises in its history because he quit before Donald Trump took office.

One air traffic controller was doing work normally assigned to two people in the tower at Reagan National when the collision happened, according to a report by the Federal Aviation Administration obtained by The Associated Press.

NBC News' Tom Costello reports on how the air traffic control staffing at Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) was "allowed, but not ideal," under the FAA’s safety standards.