Pete Buttigieg Relentlessly Mocked After FAA Outage Grounds All Flights

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg came under fire after an outage in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Notice to Air Missions system grounded flights in the United States on Wednesday morning

Early Wednesday morning, the FAA issued a ground stop of all U.S. flights after an outage caused the NOTAM system to fail. The system provides critical flight safety operational information. The massive failure comes only weeks after another air travel snafu when Southwest Airlines canceled thousands of flights over Christmas weekend.

Just before 9 a.m. Wednesday, Buttigieg tweeted that the system had been fully restored.

Above, a United Airlines plane taxis at Newark International Airport, in Newark, New Jersey, on January 11, 2023. U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (inset) is being mocked online over the latest air travel snafu. Getty

Buttigieg was critical of Southwest Airlines during the cancelations, calling the airline’s issues a “system failure” during an appearance on Good Morning America last month. Buttigieg, who was appointed secretary to the U.S. Department of Transportation in February 2021 by President Joe Biden, is now being mocked on Twitter for the department’s failure.

Political commentator John Burnett criticized Buttigieg for his comments on Southwest Airlines’ challenges.

“All U.S. flights grounded after an FAA computer outage. 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,” Burnett tweeted.

Others commented on Buttigieg’s job performance.

“Pete Buttigieg couldn’t organize a one-car funeral. He was never remotely qualified for this role,” Republican Senator Tom Cotton tweeted.

“There are few people in this world as spectacularly bad at their jobs as @SecretaryPete,” Republican activist and former Senate candidate Milton Wolf wrote on Twitter. “It’s impressive, really.”

Wolf went on to ask his followers to make a prediction of which “European beach” Buttigieg would be “faking in Zoom calls,” alluding to a Buttigieg traveling in Portugal in September as rail labor negotiations grew tense.

Breitbart reported that during his vacation, Buttigieg uploaded a video of himself speaking at a U.S. airport, which the outlet said alluded to him traveling within the U.S. while being in Portugal.

Wolf wasn’t the only one to go after Buttigieg’s vacation history. Republican Representative Troy Nehls also tweeted about it.

Kellyanne Conway, who served as campaign manager for Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, joked about Buttigieg’s future ambitions while sharing a Newsweek article about the grounded flights on Twitter on Wednesday morning.

“Also indefinitely grounded: @PeteButtigieg presidential ambition,” she tweeted.

Buttigieg ran in the Democrat primary for the 2020 presidential race. He hasn’t announced a 2024 presidential run, but some polls have pitted the transportation secretary against Biden for 2024. A New York Post poll from July found Buttigieg had a higher rating than Biden for presidential preference in New Hampshire.

Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Department of Transportation for comment.