Mike Pompeo Quotes

I fly an aeroplane, and I think a lot about how much I do not want ever to run into an optimistic air traffic controller. I just don't. I want a guy down there who's just waiting for the worst crash possible and petrified that it's going to happen on his watch. And then I feel safe flying into his territory.

The 'modern' air-traffic-control system, and the FAA itself, was created in the aftermath of one of the most dramatic commercial midair bashes, way back in 1956.

Creating a new air traffic control regulator outside of the FAA would be a risky and expensive undertaking, the consequences and costs of which would be borne by American taxpayers and the traveling public.

Pushing Tin,' I went to air traffic control school in Toronto for that. Passed with flying colors, by the way. If I ever become an air traffic controller and I'm the guy in charge of your plane, you're in good hands.

Civilian law around aviation is much looser than those governing military. Civilian planes can basically fly wherever they want in the world.

There's simply no substitute for experience in terms of aviation safety.

Of course, you always have to be concerned about hijacking. But with the measures that are in place right now, I'd say that probably the airways are as safe as they've been in a good number of years.

I feel very confident that Americans flying in the air are safe and that only under the most dire of circumstances would our pilots ever even request permission to do that.

Science never solves a problem without creating ten more.

I read, studied, and learned everything I could find about aviation. It was my greatest desire to become a pilot. I could already picture myself in the cockpit of an airliner or in a military fighter plane. I felt deep in my heart this was my thing!

If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?

My effectiveness is best placed in solving problems through federal solutions.

As policymakers, we need to foster an environment that allows U.S.-based innovators and entrepreneurs to compete and to flourish. Excessive regulations and bureaucratic red tape dramatically increase the cost of doing business and create uncertainty for companies.

Thought is constantly creating problems that way and then trying to solve them. But as it tries to solve them it makes it worse because it doesn't notice that it's creating them, and the more it thinks, the more problems it creates.

Despite living in this post-9/11 age of transnational terrorism, the risk of death during air travel has plummeted to the point where we now measure it in the 'per billions' of passengers.

Science has not solved problems, only shifted the points of problems.

I think a lot of times there is a tendency in Washington to make rules because of something that was adverse or fraud or something like that. And we make a lot of rules and end up hurting a lot of innocent people that are trying to start up their companies.

Organizational changes to fix the problems usually create new vulnerabilities in the process of fixing the old ones.

Any study of a society shows that every solution creates a new situation which breeds its own new needs and problems, new demands.

The air transportation system consists of three components: Airports, Air Traffic Control, and airlines. The three work together like a dysfunctional family.

I have never been a believer that serious government problems are solved by reorganization or shifting around bureaucracy.

Rational as distinguished from vindictive regulation by public authority turns out to be an extremely delicate problem which not every government agency, particularly when in full cry against big business, can be trusted to solve.

Are our problems moving faster than our ability to solve them?

When you pass legislation, it is not tied to a particular problem. It can have unintended consequences.