Buttigieg Slammed After FAA Outage Grounds All Flights

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was harshly criticized after all flights in the United States were grounded Wednesday morning due to an outage in the Federal Aviation Administration's Notice to Air Missions system, Newsweek reported.

The system, which provides critical flight safety operational information, was fully restored before 9 a.m., according to Buttigieg.

The disruption in air travel came after Southwest Airlines canceled thousands of flights during Christmas weekend.

During that crisis, Buttigieg slammed Southwest Airlines, calling the cancellations by the airline a "system failure" in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Now, with the FAA's Notice to Air Missions system faltering, Buttigieg was widely condemned on social media.

Political commentator John Burnett tweeted, "Where is Mayor Pete? Just a few weeks after @Pete Buttigieg got on his soap box about #Southwest not upgrading its system, #FAA has a bigger technology problem impacting national air travel." 

Others who also criticized Buttigieg's job performance included Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who tweeted: "Pete Buttigieg couldn't organize a one-car funeral. He was never remotely qualified for this role."

Republican activist Milton Wolf, a former Senate candidate, also slammed Buttigieg, writing on Twitter that "there are few people in this world as spectacularly bad at their jobs as @SecretaryPete. It's impressive, really."

Kellyanne Conway, who served as campaign manager for former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, wrote on Twitter that "also indefinitely grounded: @PeteButtigieg presidential ambition." 

Buttigieg, who ran in the Democrat primary for the 2020 presidential race, has not announced a run for next year's presidential election, but many expect it. Some polls have favorably pitted him against Biden.

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