{<■*°•¤£¤•°*■>}Jan 12, 2023
Dean Betz #🟦

Memo to @nationalreview:

1. The NOTAM system is separate from air traffic control.
2. The NOTAM system is *already* privatized. It's run by Leidos.
3. A significant portion of air traffic control is not run by the FAA. I talk to non-FAA flight controllers from the airplane every week.

Suggestion: Learn about a topic before shitposting about it.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/01/the-u-s-should-privatize-air-traffic-control/

The U.S. Should Privatize Air-Traffic Control

Failures like today’s system meltdown argue for removing government from the aspects of air travel that could be better handled by the private sector.

National Review
Jan 12, 2023 at 12:13amWeb
Show threadEd BottJan 12, 2023

@Deanbetz @nationalreview

National Review was founded by the alpha shitposter so there's that.

Show threadDarwin WoodkaJan 12, 2023
@Deanbetz @nationalreview Right, and when some asshat like Musk buys air traffic control and wrecks it, then what?
Show threadhanahelenaJan 12, 2023
@Deanbetz @nationalreview right bc def a private company like southwest would do a better job ...
Show threadDean Betz #🟦Jan 12, 2023
@hanahelena @nationalreview There's a lot we don't know yet about the specifics of the root cause. I would have expected more depth than what one might produce with a Google search and a cursory glance at Wikipedia.
Show threadMike GaruccioJan 16, 2023
@Deanbetz @hanahelena @nationalreview I feel like there’s been a lot of very rapid jumping to conclusions and suggestions for sweeping changes to a system that chugged along fine for decades before this issue happened. Maybe it is time for major changes, but it’s just as possible that the fix is some relatively obscure process change to make sure an intern can’t drop a table in the production database.
Show threadDean Betz #🟦Jan 16, 2023
@mgaruccio @hanahelena @nationalreview That’s definitely possible, and we don’t yet know the root cause. Still, the fact that a critical function was vulnerable to an outage is concerning.
Show threadMike GaruccioJan 16, 2023
@Deanbetz @hanahelena @nationalreview every critical function everywhere is vulnerable to an outage of some kind. In this case it at least seems to have failed safe and come back online in a safe and predictable manner. My inner reliability engineer hates the concept of a “root cause” but agreed that once we have more details it may be obvious that some major overhaul is needed. Mostly disappointing to see people pushing agendas instead of waiting for those details
Show threadRalf Lenz, BOFH Emeritus 🏴‍☠️Jan 12, 2023

@Deanbetz @nationalreview

Anyone arguing in favor of privatizing any critical infrastructure needs be booked a seat on the next solar probe launch.

Show threadDean Betz #🟦Jan 12, 2023
@ralf @nationalreview My intention was to broaden knowledge of the significant degree that services formerly delivered by the FAA are now privatized. Half of airport control towers, flight planning services (like NOTAM), pilot examiners, aircraft inspectors, among many other functions, all privatized.
Show threadTony “Abolish ICE” Arcieri🌹🦀Jan 12, 2023
@Deanbetz does the National Review function in any other capacity than a mouthpiece for fossil fuel and other alt-right edgelord interests?
Show threadBillStewart415Jan 15, 2023
@bascule @Deanbetz National Review supports other kinds of fossils as well, such as the Republican Party.
Show threadThe Richie RichJan 12, 2023
@Deanbetz @nationalreview @profcarroll It’s easier to elicit outrage if you seem to know what you’re saying and you have an audience that doesn’t care about facts.
Show threadstandevJan 12, 2023
@nationalreview @Deanbetz well actually it’s not shitposting if i learn about it first
Show threadBrian WooleyJan 12, 2023

@Deanbetz @nationalreview

I would not assume facts were of any importance to the National Review. Not sure why you do.

Show threadDean Betz #🟦Jan 12, 2023
@brian_wooley @nationalreview I'm a wild-eyed optimist.
Show threadBrian WooleyJan 12, 2023

@Deanbetz @nationalreview

More power to you. Though in this instance there seems to be a fine line between optimism and masochism.

Show threadHavyhh2Jan 12, 2023
@Deanbetz @nationalreview I can't love this 🔥🔥 toot too much......!
Show threadGen X-WingJan 12, 2023
@Deanbetz @nationalreview Privatizing means maximum profit and shittiest service…
Show threadDireWolf_JimJan 12, 2023
@Deanbetz
Thanks for sharing. It's incredible how folks conflate issues with such obvious bias and without reason.
Show threadCurtAdamsJan 12, 2023
@Deanbetz @nationalreview Privatization, as usual, produces lousy results at excessive prices.
Show threadRicardusJan 12, 2023

@Deanbetz @nationalreview Those idiots want to privatize everything. It's just their deranged capitalist cult's normal "solution" for things.

It's also not surprising they got half of their facts wrong.

Show threadRicardusJan 12, 2023
@Deanbetz The real thing we need to be talking about are the attacks on infrastructure we've been seeing lately (electrical grid substations) by (likely American) terrorists, and whether or not this was more of that. And even if it wasn't, what parts of the ATC infrastructure are they likely to attack in the future to sow chaos.
Show threadDean Betz #🟦Jan 12, 2023
@Ricardus Great points.
Show threadRicardusJan 12, 2023
@Deanbetz thanks.
Show threadPeat BogJan 15, 2023
@Ricardus @Deanbetz
Good point. Currently the political right roll their eyes at the "T" word but as a nation we have to recognize the existence of antidemocratic groups. Most members of these groups are useful idiots suckered by a libertarian ideology: government is the oppressor. But the ultra-wealthy Koch network funding this horseshit aren't idiots.
Show threadPeat BogJan 15, 2023

@Ricardus @Deanbetz
I've never seen an example of a libertarian paradise. The places where the ideology took over tend to be shitholes, e.g. Sealand which now pimps fake Lord and Lady titles and Gorham NH, now run by bears:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230103031316/https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/libertarian-walks-into-bear-book-review-free-town-project

The Town That Went Feral

When a group of libertarians set about scrapping their local government, chaos descended. And then the bears moved in.

The New Republic
Show threadRicardusJan 15, 2023
@peatbog You don't need to convince me! Libertarianism is more a cult than anything else.
Show threadRicardusJan 15, 2023
@peatbog They're out and out fascists. FULL STOP.
Show threadPeat BogJan 15, 2023

@Ricardus
I'm with you, comrade. Unfortunately I don't have a de-nazification army up my sleeve. I have to fight using ideological subversion.

I need language and arguments capable of reaching Joe Smallbiz and his Republican buddies. "Fascism" is a problem with that crowd.

Show threadfuzzfaceJan 12, 2023
@Deanbetz @nationalreview @dave I think there is a bit of an Apples and Oranges problem here. NOTAMs is a separate system but it is run by the FAA using equipment provided by contractors. EDS was the lead contractor on NOTAMs. Flight Service (leidos) and DUATS (CSC) provide valuable flight briefing information, including NOTAMs, to General Aviation. They are privately run services under contract to the FAA, but they aren’t directing air traffic. 🧵
Show threadfuzzfaceJan 12, 2023
@Deanbetz @nationalreview @dave Almost all controllers directing air traffic are Federal Employees in Federal owned and operated facilities. The primary exception are Federal Contract Towers, which are staffed by contractors. 🧵
Show threadfuzzfaceJan 12, 2023
@Deanbetz @nationalreview @dave As for privatization, several countries have had success with this. However, those countries while physically large do not have huge ATC needs. An example would be Canada, Navcanada is a fine organization and Canada has a lot of land mass, but their air traffic load is a lot less than the US. My point being is we can privatize, but “smaller” countries have demonstrated this is a complex transition. 🧵
Show threadfuzzfaceJan 12, 2023
@Deanbetz @nationalreview @dave So, does it make sense? I honestly don’t know. But we have to assume that privatization of the NAS would be a very long and complex process. Finally, a disclaimer… I was a contractor for the FAA for about a decade (NAS Information Security). Things change, and this isn’t an official statement. Great discussion! Thanks!
Show threadDean Betz #🟦Jan 12, 2023
@fuzzface @nationalreview @dave Half of the control towers in the U.S. are contract.
Show threadTaco DaveJan 12, 2023
@Deanbetz @fuzzface @nationalreview 50% by weight or volume?
Show threadfuzzfaceJan 12, 2023
@dave @Deanbetz @nationalreview You are correct, half of the towers are contract. I'm using this as a reference: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/by_the_numbers/media/Air_Traffic_by_the_Numbers_2020.pdf . Not sure about the weight versus volume question, ATCTs (Towers) aren't uniform in shape, size, or presumably weight 😉
Show threadfuzzfaceJan 12, 2023
@dave @Deanbetz @nationalreview To be honest, in my time and job with the FAA, we didn't need to worry if a tower was Contract or Federal. In terms of connectivity and network security, they were treated the same.
Show threadJames CarlsonJan 12, 2023
@Deanbetz @nationalreview I think it might be more complex than that. My understanding is that Leidos has the contract for Flight Service, but that’s mostly a customer-facing bit. Underneath is SCDS which is an AWS cloud for data distribution (including NOTAMs), and an internal network (NESG?) that has the official data run in part by another obscure contractor. It’s not at all clear to me from the news reports which part of all this went down or who actually manages it.
Show threadDean Betz #🟦Jan 12, 2023
@carlsonj @nationalreview The details have been a bit elusive. I’m eager to learn more as the facts come out.
Show threadJames CarlsonJan 20, 2023
@Deanbetz @nationalreview So now they're saying it's the fault of some obscure contractor. This sounds true to me, given all the outsourcing the FAA already does, and I don't think they're referring to Leidos.
https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-notam-statement
FAA NOTAM Statement | Federal Aviation Administration

A preliminary FAA review of last week’s outage of the NOTAM system determined that contract personnel unintentionally deleted files while working to correct synchronization between the live primary database and a backup database.

Show threadFrank Bennett 🇯🇵Jan 15, 2023
@Deanbetz @nationalreview Well, okay. But for sure Southwest Airways should be privatized.