Recent plane crashes, landing mishaps and a shortage of air traffic controllers may have you gripping the armrests on your next flight a little tighter.

The collision of an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight near Washington in January left 67 people dead, marking the first death in a U.S. commercial plane crash since 2009.

RELATED STORY | Remains of all 67 victims of the deadly plane-helicopter crash recovered

A few weeks later, a Delta plane slammed into a runway in Toronto, catching fire and flipping passengers upside down before they all managed to escape.

And the federal government has been highlighting a lack of air traffic controllers, using Uncle Sam and social media to urgently try to recruit more eyes to watch the increasingly congested skies.

Uncle Sam WANTS YOU to apply for this exciting, high-tech career manning our nations airport towers! pic.twitter.com/lKv0bDsSZP

Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) March 10, 2025

Although the aviation system may seem riskier these days, flying remains incredibly safe.

"It is literally safer than walking out of your own front door," said Nicholas Calio, president and CEO of Airlines For America, who was addressing lawmakers on Capitol Hill earlier this month.

The number of air crashes did increase slightly last year by 9%, according to the International Air Transport Association. That still equals just one accident out of every 881,554 flights.

The chances are many times greater of dying in a car crash or as a pedestrian.

In the first two months of this year, there were fewer not more aviation accidents compared to the same period last year, according to data compiled by the National Transportation Safety Board.

One reason it may feel like there are more crashes is the number of cameras now monitoring airports and in the pockets of virtually every passenger. Hobbyists train their lenses on runways all over the world to capture takeoffs and landings to post on social media for aviation enthusiasts.

"There's a whole cottage industry of folks that are called plane spotters," said veteran pilot Whiz Buckley. "They sit at the end of the runway in their spare time or whatever. Before all of that stuff, if something happened, you didn't get to see it."

If anything, the high-profile incidents have likely made flying safer, he said.

"This would be the best time to be flying because everyone's hyper vigilant and they don't want anything bad to happen," he said.

The U.S. House Transportation Committee held a hearing Tuesday on aviation safety following a series of concerning incidents, including a fatal collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines flight.

The hearing addressed longstanding issues within the aviation industry, such as a significant shortage of air traffic controllers and outdated Federal Aviation Administration systems. Currently, there are 11,000 air traffic controllers employed, but experts suggest that an additional 2,000 to 3,000 are needed to ensure safety and efficiency.

"Just like it's not acceptable for controllers and technicians to have to work with paper strips and floppy disks to operate the national airspace system of the United States," said Nicholas Calio, CEO of Airlines for America. "I showed these to some people in my office that can tell me what they were because they're under 30."

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Lawmakers expressed a desire to improve aviation safety but acknowledged the challenges posed by budget constraints and the potential for a government shutdown. These financial issues complicate efforts to modernize the FAA's systems and address staffing shortages.

The hearing also touched on the impact of previous FAA layoffs during the Trump administration, which, although not affecting air traffic controllers directly, have raised concerns among lawmakers about the overall strain on the system.

The hearing underscored the urgent need for modernization and increased staffing within the FAA to prevent further incidents and ensure the safety of the national airspace system.

This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

Billionaire Elon Musk has quickly become one of the most powerful people in the Trump Administration. Yet, he has no official government title and no authorization from Congress to do anything.

That has led to lawsuits from critics who say Musk is overstepping the boundaries for top government leaders set by the U.S. Constitution.

Musk is the main driver of the new Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, the group responsible for firing thousands of federal workers, dismantling entire agencies and canceling billions of dollars worth of federal contracts.

In a court filing, the Trump Administration calls musk a "non-career Special Government Employee," a classification allowed under federal law for those who work up to 130 days in a year, essentially part-time. The document also refers to Musk a senior adviser to the president.

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"Elon can't do and won't do anything without our approval," Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office on Feb. 3. "We'll give him the approval where appropriate, and where not appropriate, we won't."

A lawsuit challenging Musk says he "exercises an extraordinary amount of power. Indeed, the scope and reach of his executive authority appears unprecedented in U.S. history."

The appointments clause of the Constitution requires the U.S. Senate to approve "officers" of the government. Musk has not been nominated or confirmed for any position.

"He is in fact much more powerful than many people who have been appointed and confirmed by the Senate," said Daniel Farber, constitutional law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "And if that kind of position doesn't require Senate confirmation, then it seems to me that whole process becomes kind of a joke."

Whether Musk can wield so much power without the Senate's blessing may ultimately become a question for the U.S. Supreme Court to answer.

It's a stunning claim about government waste, but one that is not true.

President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk say the Social Security Administration is sending out fraudulent payments in the names of millions of people listed as 100 years or older who've been dead for years.

"They're obviously fraudulent or incompetent," Trump said during a news conference Feb. 18. "If you take all of those millions of people off Social Security, all of a sudden we have a very powerful Social Security."

Trump echoed Musk who posted online, "Having tens of millions of people marked in Social Security as 'ALIVE' when they are definitely dead is a HUGE problem."

Musk is correct that many people are erroneously classified as among the living by the Social Security Administration.

Nearly 19 million people aged 100 or older were still listed as alive, including about 11 million born in 1899 or earlier who had not been removed from the books, according to a 2023 report by the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General.

The report discovered just 44,000 centenarians actually got money from the agency. It's unclear how many of those checks went to living recipients, but the number is about half of all Americans alive who've reached triple digits. The report said "almost none" of the people likely dead but still on the Social Security rolls actually had payments sent out in their names.

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Multiple audits over the years have faulted the Social Security Administration for not doing a better job updating records to reflect the deaths of millions of Americans. Databases with outdated information about Social Security beneficiaries invite fraud, auditors have found.

Musk has also said payments were going out to people in the system aged 150 years old, but that is likely also false. Social Security systems automatically cut off benefits for anyone recorded as 115 or older.

President Trump says the disaster relief agency FEMA is a disaster itself.

Trump took aim at the Federal Emergency Management Agency this week in a post online saying the federal office focuses aid on Democratic areas and is "slow and totally ineffective."

Truth be told, disaster victims often face long waits while trying to get FEMA relief they desperately need. A Scripps News investigation over the summer found delays were a problem going back at least 20 years. Families in Florida spent many months after Hurricane Ian living in campers and other temporary housing while waiting for FEMA to pay out their legitimate claims so they could afford the cost of rebuilding.

FEMA, then under President Biden, said it was working to streamline anti-fraud security checks that could slow getting money out the door.

As a candidate, Trump hammered a message that FEMA was purposely ignoring victims of hurricane Helene in Republican parts of North Carolina.

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It's true one FEMA employee was fired for telling her team to avoid homes with pro-Trump signs, but former FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said that was not part of FEMA policy.

"The evidence I have seen so far shows that this was an isolated incident and has not gone beyond what this one employee did," Criswell testified at a congressional hearing in November.

FEMA also initially struggled to reach certain washed out areas in western North Carolina after Helene, and had to briefly scale back operations because of a threat to staff amid a deluge of misinformation, including some from Trump himself.

In the end, FEMA helped more than 154,000 families in North Carolina with aid, with assistance also going to other southeastern states. The response won praise from Democrats and even some big-name Republicans including South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster who called the federal government's Helene response "superb."

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The U.S. State Department says there is not a plan to purchase electric armored vehicles from Tesla, the company owned by Elon Musk who plays a major role in the Trump Administration.

Scripps News obtained a State Department document through the internet archive Wayback Machine that showed the agency was seeking to spend $400 million in 2025 for armored electric vehicles, specifically mentioning Tesla. The line item for the $400 million was added to the document on Dec. 13 during the Biden Administration.

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After the record became public Wednesday, the department removed any reference to Tesla. A State Department spokesman said the record never should have specified Tesla in its original procurement plans, part of the agency's annual wishlist of purchases for the upcoming fiscal year.

The State Department official told Scripps News that the project was part of a request for information to see which vehicle manufacturers would be interested in building armored electric vehicles. The department only heard back form one company: Tesla.

Nonetheless, the entire project is now on hold. The State Department said it currently has no plan to buy any armored vehicles from Tesla or any other company.

Since President Donald Trump took office for the second time, federal immigration authorities began carrying out a blitz of high-profile arrests and deportations.

"Here in New York City this morning we are getting the dirtbags off these streets," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in New York while overseeing the apprehension of immigrants accused of crimes.

Arrests of undocumented immigrants have been happening for years across administrations, usually off camera.

Scripps News compiled data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and found that over 10 years, ICE took into custody an average of 350 migrants a day.

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During President Trump's first days in office, the pace has picked up to more than 791 arrests each day with many more to come according to Tom Homan, the president's border czar.

"I think success is removing every criminal gang member out of this country, every public safety, threat, illegal alien," Homan said.

Aside from arrests, deportations were also common before Trump took office.

ICE removed 271,484 noncitizens in 2024, including 3,706 known or suspected gang members and 237 known or suspected terrorists.

Under Trump, the federal government has started using military planes for deportations.

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The Department of Homeland Security has not shared detailed information about who has been deported in recent days, but it is not just those with criminal rap sheets.

None of the 200 unauthorized immigrants sent to Colombia were criminals, a Colombian official said.

In another break from previous administrations, the Trump team is using images and videos of enforcement to send a message encouraging immigrants to leave voluntarily.

"One thing to keep in mind is that fear and anxiety and chaos are also tools of the mass deportation agenda," said Jennifer Koh, associate law professor at Pepperdine University's Caruso School of Law.

In previous years, ICE had prioritized deporting migrants with criminal convictions and charges. However, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said anyone in the country without documentation would now be considered a criminal and could face deportation.

The Trump Administration has been highlighting immigration enforcement efforts that have been occurring since the new president was sworn in. That includes deportation flights.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted two photos online Friday of what appear to be handcuffed undocumented immigrants entering U.S. military aircraft.

The flights left Biggs Army Air Field in El Paso, Texas, sending 80 Guatemalans back to their home country.

Leavitt said in a message with the photos is that "if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face consequences."

While using military planes for the flights is new, the federal government has been flying deported people back to their home country for years.

Usually these are flights flown by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE. Sometimes these are charter flights, while other times ICE will use commercial airlines.

Last year, ICE flew more than 860 flights and helped DHS remove roughly 700,000 people. That's an average of about 1,900 people a day.

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These deportation efforts have been widely supported. Scripps News heard from Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, who said using federal assets is OK, especially if it's to remove dangerous criminals.

"If President Trump focuses on deporting dangerous criminals, those who have committed additional crimes in the United States against Americans, I think there will be broad and bipartisan support for their deportation," Sen. Coons said.

Earlier this week Acting Defense Secretary Robert Salesses said the military would be providing airlift support to deport more than 5,000 immigrants from California and Texas.

The U.S. military is beefing up its presence at the southwest border as part of President Donald Trump's crackdown on unauthorized immigration.

The Defense Department announced Wednesday it is assigning 1,500 active duty troops to the border with Mexico. It is the first wave of military deployments to come, Defense Department officials have said, as they carry out Trump's executive orders aimed at stopping illegal immigration.

"As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do," Trump said during his inaugural speech.

The troops will serve in a variety of support roles including by helping build more physical barriers and carrying out deportation flights for more than 5,000 undocumented immigrants.

Sending the military to the border in limited support roles isn't new. There were already 2,500 troops at the border when Trump took office, according to Defense Department officials.

Presidents George W, Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden all called up troops to assist immigration authorities.

Governors have also sent state national guard members.

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But Trump's executive orders have made clear he is considering using the military to enforce

immigration laws, which would go further than the military's previous support missions at the border.

One executive order gives U.S. Northern Command, which assigns military missions in the U.S., 10 days to draw up a "campaign" to seal the border and stop unlawful mass migration.

"It would be an attempt to transform immigration enforcement into a military operation," said Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security Program. "Something like this I think would generate tremendous opposition and resistance."

The Posse Comitatus Act, passed in 1878, prohibits U.S. troops from engaging in civilian law enforcement. Trump is weighing whether to invoke the Insurrection Act at the border, a law that gives the commander in chief the power to use military forces on U.S. soil in extreme cases.

While Trump has declared a national emergency at the border, the number of unauthorized crossings from Mexico to the U.S. has plummeted in the past year to levels similar to when Trump left office at the end of his first term if office.