In the late evening hours of Jan. 29, a U.S. Army helicopter collided with a descending American Airlines passenger plane over the Potomac River en route to the Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. There were no survivors.

Mike Whitaker, the previous FAA administrator, stepped down on Inauguration Day after just over a year on the job. He’d repeatedly clashed with Elon Musk — now in charge of a group tasked with slashing the government’s headcount by President Donald Trump — over safety issues at his space company,