Elon Musk said Thursday he would send Starlink satellite internet terminals to the Federal Aviation Administration and said current technology poses a risk to air travel safety, but did not provide evidence.

The billionaire and senior adviser to President Donald Trump, who is charged with cutting costs across the federal government, made the comments on his social media platform X.

Executives from major airlines told CNBC on Thursday that they do not believe the FAA’s technology poses a risk to air travel safety.

The FAA, which oversees Musk’s company SpaceX, did not immediately comment but said earlier this week that the company has been testing Starlink technology in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Alaska. The White House referred a request for comment to the FAA.

The FAA said Monday that it has been considering using Starlink to improve reliability in remote areas, including Alaska, “since the last administration.” “This week, the FAA is testing one terminal at its Atlantic City facility and two terminals at non-safety-critical locations in Alaska.”

The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the FAA is about to cancel its contract with Verizon for new communications technology for air traffic control and transfer it to Musk’s Starlink.

“Verizon’s air traffic control communications system is rapidly failing,” Musk said Thursday on X. Verizon said in a statement that “the FAA system currently in use is operated by L3Harris, not Verizon.” He later corrected himself to say that L3Harris was responsible for the “rapidly failing” system.

L3Harris did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Verizon said it is working on replacing old air traffic control technology.

“Our company is building next-generation systems for the FAA to support the agency’s mission of enabling safe and reliable air travel,” Verizon said in a statement. “We are embarking on a multi-year contract to replace an outdated legacy system. Our team has been working with the FAA’s technical team and our solution is ready to deploy. We will continue to work with the FAA to achieve its modernization goals.”

Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some Democratic lawmakers have expressed concerns about Musk’s role in the Trump administration and the possibility that he could provide technology to one of Trump’s regulators.

“While I support efforts to modernize our air traffic control system and improve aviation safety, this decision raises concerns about conflicts of interest given Elon Musk’s dual role as CEO of SpaceX and his extensive role in the Trump administration,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said in a letter to FAA Acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau on Wednesday.

Others have also sounded the alarm after the Trump administration fired hundreds of FAA employees, which did not include air traffic controllers.

“At a minimum, we need to know why the sudden layoffs were necessary, what types of work these employees were doing, and what analysis, if any, the FAA conducted to ensure this would not adversely affect safety, increase flight delays, or harm FAA operations,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., wrote to Rocheleau on Feb. 19.

The FAA said it has retained “individuals who perform safety-critical functions. The FAA does not comment on ongoing certification work.”

For years, airlines have been pushing to modernize air traffic. Airlines have long complained that old systems could not meet industry needs, causing flight delays and losses for both passengers and airlines. After the pandemic, demand for air travel hit a record high.

“Airlines have made significant changes and investments in technology, operations, products and people. Government needs to do the same in an organized and timely manner,” Airlines for America, which represents major U.S. airlines, said Thursday.

Musk’s comments about aviation safety failures, which he did not provide any evidence of, come just last month when an American Airlines regional jet collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter, killing all 67 passengers and crew on board. The accident ended an unprecedented period of air travel safety in the United States, the first fatal passenger plane crash in the United States since 2009 and the deadliest accident since 2001.

Last week, more than a dozen aviation industry groups and unions urged lawmakers to approve “emergency funds” for air traffic control modernization and staffing.
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