Donald Trump’s top NASA goon flew his vintage fighter jet at the president’s Fourth of July air show at the capital despite safety concerns from federal officials.
Jared Isaacman, Trump’s NASA administrator, flew a Northrop F-5 Tiger II jet, which was introduced in 1972, as part of the president’s Independence Day air show on Saturday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
However, when the billionaire aviator tried to get approval from the Federal Aviation Administration last month for NASA and Air Force pilots to fly four of the jets, his request was denied.
In a June 30 decision signed by Hugh Thomas, the acting director of the agency’s flight standards service, the FAA deemed the aircraft “very high risk” due to issues with the jets’ flight controls and previous crashes, the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper reported.
Issacman, 43, defended the F-5s in an interview with the Journal, noting their decades of service and the number of jets currently in operation.
He also claimed that using the jets for the flyover was separate from the rules civilian aviators have to abide by, exempting government aircraft from the FAA’s jurisdiction.
“It never should have been a civil operation from the get go,” he told the Journal.
The Daily Beast has reached out to NASA and the FAA for comment.
When reached for comment, a Freedom250 spokesperson referred the Daily Beast to NASA.
Transporation Secretary Sean Duffy, who oversees the FAA, approved the agency’s safety decision and didn’t intervene, the newspaper reported. Isaacman said that the agency’s administrator, Bryan Bedford, sent him a text wishing him well before the flyover.
The NASA leader initially sought to have passengers on his Independence Day flight, and had invited Trump administration officials such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, and senior Trump advisor Chris LaCivita on board, according to the Journal.
However, people familiar with the matter told the outlet that their rides were canceled.
Trump’s July Fourth festivities as part of his 16-day Great American State Fair faced a major setback on Saturday as attendees were forced to evacuate the National Mall due to severe weather.
The president’s hyped up speech ahead of what he touted as the “world’s largest fireworks show in history” was postponed from its initial 9 p.m. start time to past 11 p.m., and Trump’s speech drew only a fraction of the crowd he had boasted he would have.
