Mark Home would be the Federal Aviation Administration’s senior appearing official throughout the transition to the second Trump administration.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Mike Whitaker introduced on Dec. 12 that he would resign from the company on President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration day.
Whitaker’s resignation, which can supply Trump an opportunity to decide on the following head of the FAA, was detailed in a letter to the company’s workforce on Thursday. The administrator known as his management function an “honor of a lifetime.”
“America is the most secure and most advanced airspace on the planet, and that’s due to your dedication to the protection of the flying public,” Whitaker wrote. “This has been the most effective and most difficult job of my profession, and I needed you to listen to instantly from me that my tenure will come to a detailed on January 20, 2025.”
Whitaker added that FAA Deputy Administrator Katie Thomson will go away her submit on Jan. 10, 2025, at which level Mark Home, the FAA’s assistant administrator for finance and administration, will substitute her. Home has been with the FAA for 20 years and has served on the administration board since 2018. He would be the company’s senior appearing official throughout the transition to the second Trump administration.
Whitaker started helming the FAA in October 2023 as U.S. aviation obtained elevated scrutiny over a flurry of near-collisions on airport runways, in addition to staffing shortages for air visitors controllers. Each components contributed to the passing of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, which obtained bipartisan help.
As Boeing’s security practices took heart stage once more this 12 months following the Jan. 5 Alaskan Airways incident, by which a door panel ripped off mid-flight on a Boeing 737 MAX, Whitaker was key to the company’s oversight of the aerospace firm. In February, Whitaker gave Boeing 90 days to develop a complete security plan to deal with the problems with its 737 MAX jets.
“It has not been enterprise as traditional for Boeing. We’ve dramatically elevated oversight, together with extra inspectors and nearer scrutiny over manufacturing,” Whitaker wrote in his letter. “We’re additionally ensuring the corporate implements a strong security administration system, which might be essential to a permanent security tradition.”
Whitaker was beforehand an FAA deputy administrator and trade government for corporations akin to United Airways and the air taxi firm Supernal. He noticed little opposition throughout his 2023 affirmation in Washington and largely has bipartisan help.
Earlier than Whitaker’s management, the FAA went 18 months with out an administrator as a result of scrutiny and opposition from Senate Republicans over President Joe Biden’s first selection, Denver airport government Phil Washington, for his restricted aviation expertise. The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously superior Whitaker’s nomination a number of weeks after his October 2023 affirmation listening to.