Elon Musk is pleading with retired air traffic controllers to return to work—despite his DOGE project to slash the number of federal workers. The billionaire admitted there is a “shortage” of the vital workers in an intervention certain to fuel concerns about air safety after a string of incidents including last month’s D.

The decades-long shortage of air traffic controllers in the U.S. won’t be solved anytime soon, even with a hiring blitz.