Flying is still safe for now — but the FAA isn’t

is editor-in-chief of The Verge, host of the Decoder podcast , and co-host of The Vergecast I was on a flight back to New York the other day, and something really odd happened when we landed: the passengers burst into applause. I’ve only ever seen that happen after a flight with really bad turbulence or a big delay. But this was a totally boring flight that took off and landed on time with no drama whatsoever. So why the clapping? Well, you know why: there have been a lot of plane crashes, or near crashes lately — and it’s all against the backdrop of the Trump administration and Elon Musk firing Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees and talking about upgrading everything with Starlink, or whatever they’re posting about on social media today. Just this week, news reports have detailed exactly how Musk has wedged his way into the agency to force SpaceX into the conversation — including a move to take over an existing Verizon contract and even threatening FAA employees with t ... Read full article.